Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T08:57:34.295Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Ethnic differences in sensory perception*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2011

Hans Kalmus
Affiliation:
The Galton Laboratory, University College, London

Summary

It is possible to summarize our survey under the following four headings:

1. Members of different ethnic groups may react differently to comparable natural (usually complex) situations.

2. Laboratory measurements of various sensory functions of ethnic groups have often been contradictory; and even though some peripheral differences in perception are a priori probable, others may still be caused by cultural differences in cognition, memory content or motivation; these cognitive and memory differences may be best interpreted as differences in individually acquired but group characteristic reafference systems.

Type
Physiological and psychological aspects
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1969

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Cherry, C. & Bowles, J.A. (1960) Contribution to a study of the ‘cocktail party problem’. J. acoust. Soc. Am. 32, 884.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Densmore, F. (1910) Chippewa Music. Smithsonian Inst. Wash. (Bur. Amer. Ethnol. Bull. No. 45).Google Scholar
Galton, F. (1907) Inquiries into Human Faculty and its Development. Dent, London.Google Scholar
Harris, H. & Kalmus, H. (1949) The measurement of taste sensitivity to Phenylthiorea (PTC). Ann. Eugen., Lond. 15, 24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Von, Holst E. & Mittelstaedt, H. (1950) Das Reafferenz. Prinzip. Naturwissenschaften, 37, 464.Google Scholar
Hopkins, L.A. & Guilder, R.P. (1949) Clarke School Studies. Monograph I. Northampton, Mass.Google Scholar
Hrdlička, A. (1908) Physiological and Medical Observation among the Indians of Southwestern U.S. and Northern Mexico. Smithsonian Inst. Wash. (Bur. Am. Ethnol.).Google Scholar
Ishak, J.B.H. (1940) A study of colour vision characteristics of Egyptian trichromats. Thesis, University of London.Google Scholar
Kalmus, H. (1961) Genetical taste polymorphism and thyroid disease. Proc. 2nd int. Congr. hum. Genet., Rome, p. 1956.Google Scholar
Kalmus, H. (1965) Diagnosis and Genetics of Defective Colour Vision. Pergamon Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Kalow, W. (1962) Pharmacogenetics. Saunders, LondonGoogle Scholar
Myers, Ch.S. (1903) Hearing, smell, taste, cutaneous sensations, muscular sense, variation of blood pressure, reaction times. Rep. Camb. Anthrop. Exp. Torres Straits II, pt 2. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Neel, J.V., Salzano, F.M. & Maybury Lewis, D. (1964) Studies on the Xavante Indians of the Brasilian Matto Grosso. Am. J. hum. Genet. 16, 52.Google Scholar
Von, Neumann J. (1929) Probabilistic logics and the synthesis of reliable organisms from unreliable components. In: Automata Studies. Eds. Shannon, C.E. & McCartly, N.. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Post, R.H. (1962) Population differences in red and green colour vision deficiency: a review, and a query on selection relaxation. Eugen. Quart. 9, 131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ray, V.F. (1953) Human color perception and behavioral responses. Trans. N. Y. Acad. Sci. Ser. II, 16, 98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rivers, W.H.R. (1901) Vision: physical characteristics, disease, vision acuity, colour vision, spatial perception. Rep. Camb. Anthrop. Exp. Torres Straits, I, 1. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sorsby, A., Benjamin, B., Davey, J.B., Sheridan, M. & Tanner, J.M. (1957) Emmetropia and its aberrations. Spec. Rep. Ser. med. Res. Coun. 293.Google Scholar
Sorsby, A., Sheridan, M. & Leary, G.A. (1962) Refraction and its components in twins. Spec. Rep. Ser. med. Res. Coun. 303.Google Scholar
von Uexküll, J. (1921) Umwelt und Innenwelt der Tiere. Springer, Berlin.CrossRefGoogle Scholar