NATURE, CULTURE, CHILD REARING
AND COGNITION
MAIN RESULTS
1: English children perform better on "Ravens Progressive Matrices" than Ghanaian children
2: Child rearing in Ghana is stricter than in Norway
3: Ghanian children remember
better digits read to them in English than their
local languages Twi and Ewe
4: The difference between
"Digit Forward" and "Digit Backwards" is bigger in
Ghanian children compared with
American and Norwegian children.
FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO THE DIFFERENCE ON RAVEN MAY BE:
a: Malnutrition and/or undernourishment.
b: Lack of attention and stimulation from one year old.
c: Strict and overprotective child rearing practices.
d: Poor educational facilities.
Different factors influencing short term memory
a: The digits in Twi
and Ewe
are longer and harder to pronounce and rehearse
than those in English
b: Digits belong to modern live, not tribal society
The stricter child rearing practice
in Ghana fits in with the notion that people there are more field dependent,
that in such society is it more important to comply with traditional norms
than to show independence and individuality
RAVENS PROGRESSIVE MATRICES AND
TWO DIFFERENT NORMS
English and Ghanaian norms compared.
Former professor Bulley of The Department of Psychology, University
of Ghana at Legon, Accra has done a standardization of Ravens Progressive
Matrices in 1973. A BA thesis from 1978 by Neal Boafo is referring
to The Progressive Matrices As an Instrument for Determining Educability
in Ghana (Bulley 1973) The Ghanaian means deviate a lot from those
based on English samples as can be seen in the table below.
Ghanaian and English norms
for Ravens Progressive Matrices
| Age | N Ghana | Mean
Ghana
IQ |
Mean
England
IQ |
Difference England-Ghana in SD IQ | SD Ghana |
| 8-10 | 355 | 13.28 | 24 | 1.3 | 8.12 |
| 11-12 | 660 | 16.55 81 | 37 97 | 2.5 16 | 8.24 |
| 13 | 520 | 22.14 81 | 43 100 | 2.1 19 | 10.11 |
| 14 | 702 | 28.36 84 | 44 102 | 1.5 18 | 10.14 |
| 15 | 657 | 29.46 87 | 12.12 | ||
| 16 | 773 | 30.52 87 | 11.68 | ||
| 17 | 662 | 32.69 88 | 11.63 | ||
| 18 | 662 | 32.85 81 | 12.01 | ||
| 19 | 429 | 35.66 86 | 11.50 | ||
| 20 | 359 | 35.81 83 | 44 94 | 0.8 11 | 10.55 |
| 21-24 | 714 | 38.62 86 | 44 94 | 0.5 8 | 10.76 |
| 25-29 | 380 | 36.59 86 | 42 92 | 0.5 6 | 11.35 |
| 30+ | 318 | 32.44 88 | 40 96 | 0.6 8 | 12.43 |
I have also collected some data in Ghana using Ravens Progressive
Matrices and have got means
close to those of professor Bulley.
What are the reasons for this discrepancies?
The discrepancy is particularly great in the 11-13 years
group, 2.1 to 2.5 SD using the SD of the Ghanian
groups.. Using IQ norms the difference is not that
dramatic, at most 19 IQ points or in the order
of one SD.
Raven's Progressive Matrices
Hong Kong and British children
Percentiles and raw scores for primary school 4 to 6 (9.5 to 11.5 years)
95 90
75 50
25 10
5
Hong Kong
52 51
48 43
38 29
23
England (1979)
50 47
43 39
32 26
20
From S.H. Irving & J.H. Berry (eds.1988) p.347
The Hong Kong children equals
british children 13 years old, and are better than any Ghanaian age group
After having read through articles
and books about related topics the following factors are suggested
as part of an explanation for
the Ghanaian score:
1. Malnourishment and/or undernourishment:
This can take various forms. It can be that the mother hasn't got
enough food when pregnant and this has affected the
child in a negative way, or the child may have suffered from
protein deficiency or have got too little food which
have made it passive and thereby less active that again have
effected learning in a negative way. Or it may not
have got certain vitamins.
2: Attention: When
the child is about one year old it can manage most things on its own and
the mother,
is devoting less time
to the child and the stimulation that this imply. The father seems to be
a rather
remote figure in most cases.
3: Lack of things to play
with: The child has few things to play with that stimulates it in
various ways.
4: Strict child rearing:
This may discourage interaction with the physical environment in the form
of play,
sport etc., independence and curiosity. This reason
has been mentioned in various publications.
5: Education: The kindergartens
and schools are poorly equipped. Mostly they have only a blackboard, few
books and no visual material such as pictures and
maps. There is also very much a one way communication from
teacher to the pupil. The teachers are poorly motivated
and often absent from school. Their pay is such that they
can't live by it and they have mostly extra activities
going to support their family. Farming is very common in
rural areas.
Comments: From the table
above it can be seen that the discrepancy between the English and the Ghanaian
norms
is getting less with an increasing age. This can be
interpreted as the Ghanaian is catching up, but the development
is slower for one reason or another. The remaining
0.5 SD is in line with discrepancies found by Benjamin Amponsah
on spatial tests where he has been comparing Ghanaian
and Norwegian teacher college students.
One important question is to know the particular samples
professor Bulley has based his norms on. The samples
in school age, up to around 16 years are a fairly
representative according to Professor Bully (personal communication
Jan. 98) while data from the older samples mostly
were taken from people seeking either technical jobs or education.
So the older age groups seem to be better educated
than the average population.
Some of the scores in my sample is so low that the
children would be classified as mentally retarded. What ought to
be done is to investigate such cases more thoroughly.
For instance after 2 or 3 years in school one could give a
standardized reading- and writing test to see how
many reached a certain level. Out from combined test results
one could try to diagnose each case and try to find
remedial measures.
Oral society and auditory short term memory: Ghana may be characterized as an oral society. There are normally no signs on buses telling where they are going, few road signs and few maps around. I had to search several weeks before I found a road map of Ghana. The driver and mate of the trotro, minibus, are shouting out their destination. The Ghanaian also seem to love music. Will this, that they attend so much to auditory information, also make them better in remembering auditory material? From my own data with congenitally blind it can be seen that they have a better short term auditor memory than comparable groups. This may be explained by that they attend more to auditory material than sighted people. But one don't find this among those that have become blind as grown up persons, which indicates that there may be a critical age when the brain is molded with respect to processing auditory information. An additional factor that apply to Ghana is that almost everybody is bilingual. Will there be a difference if digits is presented in English or the local language? Some of my data indicate that children and adolescents remember better what is read to them in English than in Twi or Ewe. Why? Maybe because the English digits are easier to say and rehearse. This may be supported by that people often use to say numbers in English while speaking their local language. So to measure short term auditory memory as in Digit Span, a sub test of WISC-R and WAIS, is not a straight forward matter.
My data from also indicate that among Ghanaian children
there is a bigger difference between remembering digits forwards and backwards
compared with American or Norwegian children.
What are the Ghanaian children
good at? They seem to develop their musical ability together with
a sense for rhythm and dance. Further, they seem to develop a good social
intelligence. Ghanaians are very friendly, polite and hospitable. They
have no major violent conflicts within their country which can be very
damaging to a country and which has ruined several African countries.
Some ideas for future research:
It would be of great interest to use some selected tests in various parts
of Ghana and characterize the areas with background variables related to
environmental, nutritional, social, health and educational factors. WISC-R
and
Ravens Progressive Matrices could be two relevant tests.
Problem: Why is
Ghana, together with almost every African country, doing so poorly as far
as income and living standard goes? Many will attribute it to that far
more emphasis is put on social relation, particularly loyalty to their
extended family, than on performing a good job, being efficient. The
employee is more concerned about pleasing his superior and not go
against him than showing initiative and independence.
This is related to both collectivism and a great power distance.
Gert Hofstede is showing a correlation
of 0.82 between individualism and Gross Natural Product in 1970, and a
correlation of 0.77 between
distance from equator and GNP.
Another factor is the ability to acquire knowledge
related to modern technology like mathematics and engineering subjects.
Many, Luria i.e., claim that there is a positive correlation between spatial
aptitude and mathematical ability. Thus, it may be postulated that the
Ghanaian culture is not giving a very good basis for acquiring knowledge
related to modern technology, and this again may be related to child rearing
and other factors mentioned above.
Child rearing and the Ghanaian personality.
How is this related to child rearing?
Discussion of this will come later.
DIGIT SPAN BACKWARD AND FORWARD
Class 6 & 9 in Aburi (Twi speaking) compared.
Data based on individual testing and read in English.
CLASS N Mean Std. Deviation
DIGITBW1
6
34 3,35
1,20
SET 1
9
34 3,21
1,34
DIGITBW2
6
34 3,21
1,20
SET 2
9
34 3,26
1,50
DIGITFW1
6
34 6,24
1,05
SET 1
9
34 6,56
1,35
DIGITFW2
6
34 6,21
1,27
SET 2
9
34 6,18
1,57
DIGSUM1
6
34 9,59
1,64
SET 1
9
34 9,76
2,22
DIGSUM2
6
34 9,41
1,92
SET 2
9
34 9,44
2,48
Comments: The children remember
digits far better forwards than backwards
and there is no difference between
class 6 and 9.
DIGSUM US
6
13 Score of American children
9
14 in the same age group
The boys remember better "Digits
Backwards" than girls, but
there is no significant difference
remembering "Digits Forwards".
Here is more similar results from Ghana which are supporting the results above
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Those speaking TWI (1) compared with those speakingEWE (2)
LANGUAGE
N
Mean S.D.
Digit Backward English
1
139
6,40 2,03
2
107
4,74 2,73
The Twi speaking children
remember better Digit Backwards" read in English than the Ewe speaking
children.
Dig. Back. Loc. Language 1
139
4,99 2,55
2
107
5,04 2,82
Digit Forward English
1
139
7,02 1,87
2
107
7,23 2,26
Dig.Fwd.Loc. Language 1
139
5,79
2,74
2
107
7,02
2,40
The Ewe speaking children
remember better "Digit Forwards" read in English than t
he Twi speaking children
Child Rearing Questionnaire
Likert-Scale 1-6:1=
not at all descriptive of me, 2= not descriptive of me, 3= rather not descriptive
of me,
4= to some extent descriptive of me, 5= descriptive
of me, 6= highly descriptive of me
The differences that are most pronounced is colored. Red means more than 2 points in difference, blue 1-2 points in difference. Most Standard Deviations are between 1 and 1.5, and the D-values would be close to the point differences and they are all highly significant. More values than those with color would be statistically significantly different. Only those variables showing great differences are shown here.
MEAN
MEAN
Ghana
Norway
CHILD04 Help
child when teased
3.79*
4.81
CHILD08 Wish
partner more interested in our children
5.33***
1.96
CHILD10 Keeping
child away from different families
3.99**
1.96
CHILD11 Keep
away from rough games
5.14*
4.09
CHILD12 Physical
punishment
2.58*
1.39
CHILD13 Seen
and not heard
3.54**1.39*
1.38
CHILD15 Express
affection, hugging.kissing
4.58*
5.75
CHILD18 Wish
child did not grow up so fast
2.11*
3.37
CHILD20 I
find it difficult to punish child
2.60*
4.22
CHILD23 I
do not allow child to get angry with me
4.11 **1.96*
2.07
CHILD24 My
child is a bit of disappointment to me
2.24*
1.08
CHILD25
I exspect a great deal of my
child
4.87*
3.60
CHILD26 Easygoing
and relaxed with my child
4.12*
5.13
CHILD28 I
am spoiling the child
1.48**
3.91
CHILD42 Teach
child to control his feelings
4.58 **2.66*
2.55
CHILD43 Keep
away from fighting
5.23*
3.99
CHILD47 Give
extra privileges if behaving well
4.94*
3.82
CHILD49 Too
much love harmful
4.30***
1.35
CHILD50 Scolding
make child improve
3.42*
1.83
CHILD51 Child
should be aware of my sacrifice for him
4.69** 2.44*
1.81
CHILD52
Worried about health of my child
5.11**
2.62
CHILD55 I
like to have some time for myself away from child
3,87*
4.99
CHILD56 Ashamed
if misbehaving
5,01* 3.18*
3.46
CHILD60 Instruct
child not get dirty when playing
4,57**2.06*
2.21
CHILD61 Jealousy
and quarrelling between siblings should be punished
4,30**
2.01
CHILD62 Learn
not to cry at an early age
3,61**
1.25
CHILD63 Control
by warning about bad things that
can happen to him
5,06**2.71*
2.59
*= Norwegian results from Renuka Sethis data
Interpretation: It looks as if the Ghanian
child get as much nurture as the Norwegian child, but are more readily
punished and required to control his feelings.
The control aspect seems much stronger in Ghana than Norway.
QUESTIONS
What are the educational and economical concequences of a culture with this child-rearing practice?
What are the political consequences? How does it affect the society?
What can be done to implement changes?
Who should decide what with respect to changes and on what grounds?
How can knowledge from this field be used together with other theories?
For further
discussions, see
this
in Norwegian or this
in English
This paper is a preliminary draft. Comments
are welcome. Contact me by e-mail, snail mail or in person
for discussion and/or comments
Bjarne Fjeldsenden
Dept. of Psychology, NTNU
7491 Trondheim
NORWAY
E-mail: Bjarne.Fjeldsenden@svt.ntnu.no
References:
Elliot, J.M. (1991) Is Language Important
in Mental Aritmetic? Singapore Journal of Education, 11, No
2, 35-44
Irvine, S.H. & Berry, J.H.(1988) (eds.)
Human Abilities in Cultural Context. New York. Cambridge University Press
Global Environmental
Change
SV
PSY 312 Krysskulturell psykologi v. 2000
Links in English and Norwegian
The Environmental Threat
to Human Intelligence
SV
PSY 312 Krysskulturell psykologi v. 2000 Links related
to the topic cross-cultural psychology
About
intelligence Interesting links about
intelligence in English.
NATURE,
CULTURE, CHILD REARING AND COGNITION
A more detailed rapport about the same topic.
CULTURES
CONSEQUENCES discusses Hofstedes
book and other dimensions of culture.