ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the questions: What have recent neuroscience findings revealed about the connection of culture and cognition? Why might people from different cultures approach reasoning in different ways? What are some of the cultural patterns for communicating? How might language and thought play a role in what and how we communicate? The chapter looks at the processes of cognition (thought) and reasoning (logic) in non-Western communication practices. The Cultural Orientations Approach, developed by TMC in the 1980s and now owned by Berlitz, focuses on three dimensions of culture: interaction style, thinking style, and sense of self. Social neuroscience, a relatively new science with an integrative perspective of the social and the biological, has generated innovative insights and applications that change the very nature of established knowledge on the notions of culture, adaptation, globalization, and leadership. The chapter presents some specific examples of culture’s influence on thought processes, reasoning, and language.
