Hokkaido Summer Institute 2024: Cognitive Science: Frontiers in Cultural Psychology 2024 held

Cognitive Science, Frontiers in Cultural Psychology 2024, one of the courses offered at the Hokkaido Summer Institute (HSI) 2024, was offered over five days from July 22 to July 26.

This is an intensive course on the latest advances in cultural psychology, and featured Professor Takahiko Masuda of the University of Alberta, Canada in collaboration with Professor Susumu Ohnuma of the Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Faculty of Humanities and Human Sciences. This year marks the 9th time that the course has been offered.

This year’s class consisted of 34 students, including 28 from Hokkaido University and 6 from other universities. The students and teaching assistants (TAs) came from a wide range of backgrounds, including Japanese, Filipino, British, Chinese, and American nationalities, creating an ideal classroom environment for studying cultural psychology.

Professor Takahiko Masuda, who had spent his undergraduate years at Hokkaido University and is now contributing to the university’s globalization as a Hokkaido University partner

Host Professor Susumu Ohnuma, who organized the course smoothly and efficiently

The class provided an up-to-date insight into how people in North America and Central Asia behave differently from people in East Asia, including the Japanese, the kinds of cultural differences and mental mechanisms that are at work behind such differences, and the necessary approach to overcome such differences and improve cross-cultural coexistence and communication skills through numerous case studies and practical group activities by the students.

In the class, Professor Masuda first gave a lecture on each unit, followed by group activities and presentation of the results. Through interactions among the students and between the students and staff members, the students gradually became more relaxed and able to speak up, and the discussions became livelier. Three students who were either following the Doctoral Program in the Laboratory of Behavioral Sciences or came from the University of Alberta served as teaching assistants (TAs) and facilitated smooth discussions among the students.

Mr. Hotaro Masuda from the University of Alberta, who served as a TA for the second time, following his role in 2022

Mr. Freeman, a doctoral student at Hokkaido University, who has been a TA for this course for three consecutive years

Mr. Zhu, a doctoral student, who has also served as a TA for three consecutive years, like Mr. Freeman

Through lively discussions over the five days of the course, the students deepened their mutual understanding of each other. On the last day of the course, they all formed a circle and took turns mentioning examples of international cultural differences they had experienced and their impressions of the class. Some were eager to apply what they learned in this class to further their studies in cultural psychology and English.