Visual Memory in Village Eskimo and Urban Caucasian Children

Abstract

The hypothesis that the ecological and cultural characteristics of Eskimo society lead to village Eskimo children having greater ability in visual memory than urban Caucasian children has been studied. A test of visual memory was given to 501 urban Caucasian and 125 village Eskimo children. Village Eskimo children demonstrated significantly higher levels of visual memory. Visual memory was also found to increase significantly with age. A follow-up questionnaire study indicated that about 65% of teachers in Eskimo villages noted the unusually high ability of Eskimo students in recalling visual detail or mentioned their high performance in tasks depending partly upon this ability.