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The paper describes a normative-descriptive strategy for cognitive research. In a set of illustrative experiments based on models from physics, subjects were asked to judge the positions and weights necessary to maintain equilibrium in mechanical displays of varying complexity. Whenever possible subjects' judgments were accounted for through the appropriate normative models; otherwise descriptive models were generated from the normative models and from the results of the other experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Part I of this paper is a review of the literature concerning the effects of culture on cognition. The relevance of these studies to interpersonal relations in international organizations is explored. A number of broad hypotheses are suggested. At a more specific level three hypotheses are presented. In the case of high-status visitors working in a low-status culture: (1), the visitor's stereotype of the hosts will be negative; (2) the visitor's stereotype of the host culture will be more negative than the stereotype of members of the visitor's culture who have not come into face-to-face relationships with the host culture; and (3) the stereotype of the hosts toward the visitors will be negative, but will also reflect the presumed higher competence of the visitors. Part II reports a study which supports these hypotheses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]