Culina said that while the team's veterans have a responsibility to impart their knowledge on the rest of the squad on and off the field the younger players should also make sure they listen and learn.
The Socceroos kick off their campaign to win a first Asian crown when they face Kuwait in the opening game at Melbourne Rectangular Stadium on Friday night.
Culina, who played for Australia in the 2006 and 2010 FIFA World Cups, also took part in the 2007 and 2011 Asian Cups.
He said the Socceroos should look forward to a strong tournament as long as all the players in the squad accept their responsibilities.
"Some of the players in today's squad, like us in 2007, have not played many times against Asian teams," he said.
"They have not got to know the Asian teams and have not experienced what we experienced four years go in Qatar.
"There is a very big possibility that we fall into the same trap that we fell into in 2007 when we went into the Asian Cup without proper preparation.
"Which is why it is always important that any ambitious team has a mixture of youth and experience.
"This is where guys like Mile Jedinak, Mark Bresciano and Tim Cahill come in.
"They will play a major role in terms of setting the standards at training, communicating with the younger players as to how to approach these games.
"The younger players have a massive role to play as well, mind you.
"They need to be mature and intelligent enough to take on this information from the veterans and follow their lead.
"They should grasp this opportunity and make the most of it because it is the only way they will move forward in their careers."
Culina said he expects the current Socceroos to be better prepared technically, tactically and mentally for the Asian Cup than their counterparts in 2007.
Backing up from a superb World Cup performance in Germany in 2006, Graham Arnold's side played poorly throughout.
After scrambling into the quarter-finals from a group comprising Oman, Iraq and Thailand it lost to Japan on penalties in a quarter-final in Hanoi.
In hindsight Culina thought the Socceroos were always going to be up against it.
"It is always important to go into any major tournament well prepared and that you do not under-estimate the opposition, especially when you go into its territory," he said.
"We did not know much about Asian teams and players in 2007 and after doing so well in Germany a year earlier we under-estimate them, I'm afraid.
"We not only were playing against good teams and quality players whom we were unfamiliar with but we were expected to perform in tough conditions and on poor pitches, which was a big challenge.
"We were not prepared for all this and coming off the 2006 World Cup we had a bit of arrogance as individuals and as a team.
"We thought we could go anywhere (in Asia) but just because we played well in one tournament does not mean we could go into any event over-confident and under-prepared and do well.
"We had a good side in 2007 and we all knew our roles in the team.
"Everything was right and we could very easily have reversed the situation had we been better prepared and taken the event a bit more seriously.
"It was a difficult period for us because Guus Hiddink was gone and we had a new coach in Graham Arnold who did a good job in trying to make the transition as easy and smooth as possible for us.
"You can say that we came unstuck tactically but that only happened because physically and mentally we were not ready.
"The tournament was a huge disappointment and a big learning curve for us."
The Socceroos' performance four years later when they reached the final against Japan showed that the side had learned its lessons from South-East Asia.
"Back then in 2011 we had already been in Asia for five years and we knew what to expect," Culina said.
"We had a match-hardened quality team with players playing week in week out in some of the best leagues of Europe."
