Multicultural minds - A dynamic constructivist approach to culture and cognition

The authors present a new approach to culture and cognition, which focuses on the dynamics through which specific pieces of cultural knowledge (implic it theories) become operative in guiding the construction of meaning from a stimulus. Whether a construct comes to the fore in a perceiver's mind depe nds on the extent to which the construct is highly accessible (because of r ecent exposure). In a series of cognitive priming experiments, the authors simulated the experience of bicultural individuals (people who have interna lized two cultures) of switching between different cultural frames in respo nse to culturally laden symbols. The authors discuss how this dynamic, cons tructivist approach illuminates (a) when cultural constructs are potent dri vers of behavior and (b) how bicultural individuals may control the cogniti ve effects of culture.