The Impact Of Self-construction On The Overall-analytic Cognitive Style

The priming effect of self-construal has been extensively studied. The definition of self-construal is how to look upon the relationships between self and others. Individuals of independent self-construal consider that self and others are separate, while individuals of interdependent self-construal consider that self and others are connected. The studies about the priming of self-construal have found that both types of self-construal may exist within the same cultural group or coexist within the same individual. Previous studies usually use Twenty-statement Test or its variants to verify the priming effect of self-construal, however, the current study use a novel experimental paradigm-Social Simon Task. Social Simon Effect is a spatial stimulus-response effect that occurs when two participants complete complementary components of a standard Simon task. The effect is considered a good index of self-other integration.It is well documented that cultures influence basic cognitive processes. The phenomenon is reflected in which Westerns are good at context-independent processing and East Asians are more inclined to context-dependent processing. Although both types of cognitive styles have been described using several different terms, we use the terms wholistic and analytic cognitive style most frequently. People with wholistic cognitive style tend to have an overall understanding of the context and focus on the relationship between objects and its environment, whereas people with analytic cognitive style tend to focus on salient object in the context and ignore the relationship between object and its background. We use E-CSA-WA test that was designed by Peterson et al. (2005) in order to better distinguish wholistic and analytic cognitive style. The current study combines the priming paradigm of self-construal and E-CSA-WA, respectively investigates how do circling pronouns task (self-construal priming) and cultural icon paradigm (culture priming) influence wholistic-analytic cognitive style.There are two parts in the study:firstly, the priming effect of circling pronouns task and how does it impact on wholistic-analytic cognitive style; secondly, the priming effect of cultural icon paradigm and how does it impact on wholistic-analytic cognitive style. Then, based on each of the research, the results are as follows:1. Both circling pronouns task and cultural icon paradigm can effectively two different types of self-construal. In circling pronouns task, the social Simon effect is more pronounced in the interdependence group than in the independence group. In cultural icon paradigm, the social Simon effect is more significant in the Chinese culture priming than in the Western culture priming.2. In circling pronouns task, contrary to the hypothesis, there is no association between the self-construal of independence or interdependence and differences in wholistic-analytic cognitive style.3. In cultural icon paradigm, contrary to the hypothesis, there is no association between the self-construal of independence or interdependence and differences in wholistic-analytic cognitive style.In summary, the study finds no statistically significant relationship between the self-construal of independence or interdependence and cognitive performances in the E-CSA-WA. Future work need to further explore hypothesis in theory and methodology.