Issue 2
Vol. 42
2000

Cognitive abilities: A cross-cultural perspective
F. van de Vijver

The main paradigms of cross-cultural studies of cognition are briefly described: Piagetian studies, the psychometric tradition, cognitive style, and daily cognition. These provide the theoretical background to our work at Tilburg University, which is described in the second part. Three different types of project are discussed: first, a meta-analysis of the global patterning of observed cognitive test performance differences (main finding: mental test scores observed in a country are positively related to its Gross National Product); second, the context specificity of logical reasoning has been studied among Dutch and Zambian mothers (main finding: characteristics that moderate the difficulty of logical reasoning are identical in both countries); third, in a group of migrant and host national primary school children in the Netherlands score differences were stronger related to cultural linguistic aspects of the tasks than to cognitive complexity, thereby disconfirming Spearman’s hypothesis. 

Key words: cognition, testing, cross-cultural comparison.

Psychologische Beiträge, Band 42, 2000, S. 228-235

F. van de Vijver
Department of Psychology
Tilburg University
P.O. Box 90153
5000 LE Tilburg, The Netherlands