IN SIMILARITY JUDGMENTS HUNTER-GATHERERS PREFER SHAPES OVER SPATIAL RELATIONS IN CONTRAST TO LITERATE GROUPS

Reverse strategies are used in judgments of similarity by hunter-gathe rers who prefer using shapes (attributes) in patterns, and literates w ho prefer judging relations among shapes. The Kohs Block Design Test w as given to healthy hunter-gatherers, 19 stone-age, preliterate, Amazo nian Auca Indians and 130 semi-literate Dani and Asmat of inland Indon esian Western New Guinea. Further, 196 literate Indonesian city dwelle rs served as controls. The Auca and the Dani and Asmat groups preferen tially constructed 20 specific, ''nonrandom'' modifications similar to the Kohs Block Design Test and preserved the salient component shapes but neglected relations among them. Hunter-gatherers' survival depend s on prompt assessment of the salient shapes of prey and attackers. By contrast, literacy skills require painstaking assessment of subtle in trapattern spatial relations among shapes.