This paper aims to make a causal analysis of the pragmatic features in the use of high-frequency cognitive attitude verbs by Chinese college English learners in their written discourses in reference to American college students based on the WECCL and LOCNESS/ NESSIE (LONE for short) corpora from the cultural model-based approach in intercultural pragmatics. The results reveal that the most frequently used cognitive attitude verbs in the WECCL and LONE corpora differ significantly in that the overuse and underuse of these verbs and their commonly used quasi-formulaic expressions are found to be the most prominent pragmatic features manifested in the WECCL corpus in contrast to the LONE corpora. The findings suggest that the salient differences underlying the pragmatic features are largely attributed to the different Chinese and English cultural models. More importantly, the cognitive frame or template in the Chinese cultural model is the primary cause which affects the language performances of Chinese English learners.