The Cultural Iceberg 

The concept of the cultural iceberg suggests that only 10% of culture is determined by what is visible, while 90% of culture is determined by hidden factors which shape human behaviour and cognition. This aligns with Vygotsky's sociocultural theory which has shown that an individual's development is heavily influenced by social interactions and the culture around them. An example of this is language acquisition: the visible parts include learning the vocabulary and the language itself, while the hidden parts include nuances such as context, cultural norms and idioms, as well as tone and region specific accents. The cultural iceberg complements Vygotsky's theory by showing that much of what an individual learns and thinks is influenced by less visible, deeper aspects of culture and social interactions.