Piaget’s Theory and Cultural Differences The Case for Value-Based Modes of Cognition

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Abstract
Tests in non-Western cultures often reveal either a slower acquisition of conservation skills or a general inability to conserve. While many research efforts correlate conservation with formal schooling, more fundamental social and cultural influences are at work. Success in performing conservation tasks depends on familiarity with methods of analyzing the physical world that are not pan-cultural. Piagetian tasks are rooted in current scientific paradigms. These paradigms constitute cultural conventions integral to Western world views, conventions to which a great many cultures do not yet adhere. The theory of genetic epistemology assumes that the view derived from adherence to such paradigms is correct, and therefore contains an inherent cultural bias. To clarify the cultural and epistemological factors which contribute to test performance, two broad modes of cognition, based on cultural differences in beliefs and values, are suggested: the mythicomagical and the empiricoscientific. While the cognitive skills involved in Piagetian conservation are derived from an empiricoscientific mode, they may undergo negative reinforcement in cognitive domains characterized by the mythicomagical mode. While one or the other mode may be found to be predominant within a given culture, these modes of cognition more aptly describe the kind of thinking in emically defined cognitive domains.

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