The Impact of Acculturation on Perception -- Evidence from Change Detection, Novelty Detection and Illusory Pattern Recognition

With the development of globalization, acculturation has become a growing social phenomenon that has received more attention in psychology. The present research focuses on the psychological process of acculturation and explores the question whether acculturation can impact perception and the underlying mechanism. I proposed that acculturation can impact perception through undermined sense of control. Four studies examined this hypothesis with paradigms focusing on environment scanning. Individuals who are less acculturated to host culture were slower in change detection (Study 1). Experimentally priming acculturation experience led to slower detection response in the novelty detection task (Study 2). Study 3 and study 4 found the acculturation's effect on perception in illusory pattern recognition and the underlying role of undermined sense of control was confirmed in a mediation analysis. Thus, current research provides direct evidences that acculturation can impact perception. The analyses also indicate that identification to the mainstream culture predicts performance differences and sense of control mediates the acculturation's effect on perception.;Keywords: acculturation, perception, sense of control.