Archive

20 May 2015, Volume Issue 3 Previous Issue    Next Issue

---

For Selected:

Download Citations EndNote Ris BibTeX

Toggle Thumbnails

Select

The Load Effect on Short-term Memory Directed Forgetting: Evidence from an ERP Study 2015, (3): 514-520.  Abstract ( )   PDF (1115KB) ( )   Differential rehearsal account and the inhibition account were proposed to explain the directed forgetting effect. The differential-rehearsal account claims that to-be-remembered items receive more rehearsal than to-be-forgotten items. However, the inhibition account argues that the inhibition system prevents to-be-forgotten items from receiving further processing. Both accounts were supported by some electrophysiological evidences. But few study directly investigated the mechanism when the remembering/forget cue presented, and the brain potential features of the load effect on forgetting remains unclear. Therefore, we hypothesized that if forgetting is merely a passive process, then there would be no active effort required to process the to-be-forgotten information. Accordingly, there would be no load effect on the ERPs elicited by forgetting cues. On the contrary, if forgetting is an active process involving cognitive inhibition, then forgetting different amounts of information would require different levels of cognitive resource. Accordingly, the high load of forgetting was expected to be different from the low load of forgetting, reflected by the ERP amplitudes. Specifically, we predicted that the N2-P3 complexes might be sensitive to memory loads, because the N2 component has been related to forgetting attempts, while P3 has been associated with inhibition process and was sensitive to memory load. A novel short-term memory test was used in this study with Arabic digits (1-9) and letters (A-Z) as stimuli. Within each trial, two memory items were presented sequentially, followed by a cue indicating either the presented items should be remembered or not. The amount of memory information was much (high load condition) or less (low load condition). After an interval (a calculation operation), subjects were asked to make a response to the probe stimuli. The event related potentials (ERP) locked to the cues. Fourteen undergraduate students (8 male and 6 female, with a mean age of 21.4 years, SD = 1.6) were recruited for the present study. Repeated measures ANOVA with cue (remember vs. forget), load (high vs. low), caudality and electrode site as the within subject factors were performed on the mean amplitudes of the ERPs evoked by the cues. The ERP results revealed that: (1) remembering cues evoked more positive ERPs than forgetting cues during the 280-430 ms time window, with a maximum difference at frontal scalp sites; (2) the load effects were observed for both the remembering cues and the forgetting cues. Cues in the high load condition evoke more positive ERPs than that of the low load condition. The ERP results suggested that different cognitive resource was relocated to different cues, as well as to different amount of memory. The to-be-remembered items receive more cognitive resources than the to-be-forgotten items which reflected by the more positive ERPs. The marked load effect on forgetting might correlate to the active manipulation of working memory such as removing or inhibiting the abundant to-be-forgotten information. Different cognitive resource was recruited in the process of inhibiting different amount of irrelevant information. More cognitive resources were recruited in inhibiting more irrelevant information. These results indicated that the inhibition plays an important role in directed forgetting. Related Articles | Metrics

Select

The Semantic Access of Proficient Teochew-Mandarin Bilinguals: Evidences from Comparison of Sensory Channels Wen-Chun WU 2015, (3): 521-528.  Abstract ( )   PDF (723KB) ( )   The research of bilingual is a hot topic in the cognitive and psycholinguistic fields. It mainly focused on the representation of two languages. Three theories have been proposed to explain the mechanism of two languages’ lexical and semantic representations. Potter et al. (1984) put forth the Word Association Hypothesis and the Concept Mediation Hypothesis. The former suggests that the L1 and the L2 are connected at the lexical level and that only the L1 has access to conceptual representation. The later suggests that both L1 and L2 have independent access to a common conceptual representation, but there are no direct inter-connections between their lexical representations. Kroll and Stewart (1994) proposed the Revised Hierarchical Model which suggests that lexical connections are formed between the two languages, and their lexical representations are both directly connected with a shared conceptual representation. But the strength of links was not equal. The link of lexical representation from L2 to L1 is stronger than that from L1 to L2, and stronger direct links are established between the L2 and the conceptual store as a bilingual becomes more fluent in the L2. Though many data of bilingual researches supported the Revised Hierarchical Model, it’s not concluded how the lexical representation of L2 accesses its conceptual representation. Furthermore most of the evidences were collected from national bilinguals but not diglossia speakers. So we aimed to study the accessing process of two languages of proficient Teochew-Mandarin bilinguals with semantic decision task, and also to test which hypothesis of above are more reasonable. Using cross-language priming paradigm and semantic category judgment tasks, two experiments were designed to examine how the lexical representations of two languages access its conceptual representation under the conditions of inner-auditory and auditory-visual channel. All participants who came from Chaozhou were proficient Teochew-Mandarin bilinguals and their native language(L1) was Teochew. Participants were required to judge whether the target words were food-word or not. Stimuli included 48 Teochew words and 48 Putonghua words, half of which were Teochew- Putonghua pair words of high semantic correlation and the others were of low semantic correlation. Reaction times for correct responses and correct rates were analyzed with repeated ANOVA by subject and by item. In experiment 1, there were significant priming effects from L1 to L2 under the presentation conditions of auditory-auditory channel(43ms) and auditory-visual channel(24ms). In experiment 2, there were also significant priming effects from L2 to L1 under the two conditions(39ms and 79ms). In the presentation condition of auditory-auditory channel, there was no difference between the amounts of cross-language priming effect. Yet in the condition of auditory-visual channel, the amount of priming effect from L2 to L1 was significantly more than that from L1 to L2. The results suggested that proficient Teochew -Mandarin bilinguals shared a same conceptual representation while each had independent lexical representation with correlation. The lexical representation of L1 and L2 both could access to semantic representation directly, but the link strength between lexical representation and semantic representation of the two languages were still asymmetric in different sensory channels. All the findings supported the Revised Hierarchical Model. Related Articles | Metrics

Select

ERP Studies on the Role of Animacy in Sentence Processing Li-Ling JIN 2015, (3): 529-537.  Abstract ( )   PDF (318KB) ( )   Objects in the world can be divided into animate and inanimate ones, according to their animacy. Different objects have different animacy hierarchy. From the evolutionary view, recognize living things quickly is important to us, thus, evolutionary pressure make our neural system to form different neural mechanism to animate and inanimate things. Evidence from brain-damaged patients and functional neuroimaging studies also indicates that human brain processing living things and non-living objects differently. Animacy category also reflect in our language system, express itself in most of world’s languages. Our language processing system not only use syntax and semantics but also use prominence information, such as animacy to construct sentence representation. In this paper, we will discuss the neural dynamic of animacy processing in sentence comprehension. In previous studies, many research use ERP techniques to investigate the role of animacy in sentence processing. Animacy affects argument and thematic processing. Generally, verb has selectional restrictions on its animacy of argument. According to previous research, animacy violation evoked P600 effects in some cases, but evoked N400 effects in other cases, in a few cases evoked biphasic N400/P600 effects. Animacy evoked P600 effects in most of thematic reversible sentences and evoked N400 effects in most of thematic irreversible sentences, animacy influence construction of thematic relationships. When the thematic role assigned by syntax conflict with the thematic role assigned by animacy information, it may lead to P600 effects. The role of animacy in sentence processing has been shown to be modulated by many other factors, such as sentence context, thematic reversibility, semantic relateness between arguments, verb types and its inherent thematic structure, among others. Animacy also influence prominence of argument to increase the degree of difficulty in thematic explanation, when the arguments in sentence have different animacy hierarchy, thematic role identification is facilitated. As a special semantic features, animacy may different from other semantic information. The paper also discuss animacy effects in complex sentences, animacy influence processing object relative clauses, the semantic relatedness of two NP in relative clause interact with animacy information. In the end, we make brief summary and give prospect of future study. Firstly, we proposed whether or not involve construction of verb-argument thematic relationship may determine neural dynamics of animacy processing. So, in the future, we can do some further studies to illuminate this problem. Secondly, we should consider how the individual difference of working memory span influence the processing of animacy and how these factors influence the mechanism of animacy processing in L1 and L2 language. In addition, according to previous research there is debate about the time course of the use of animacy information and how the animacy exerts an effect in sentence processing, we need to do further research with different language and other sentence structure to discuss this problem. The research on the mechanism of animacy in sentence processing may enrich and perfect the existing sentence processing model and make better understanding of cognitive neural mechanism in language processing. Related Articles | Metrics

Select

The impact of Simulation Degree and Concreteness on the representation of Word Valence zhang yuzhi 2015, (3): 538-542.  Abstract ( )   PDF (409KB) ( )   The development of Embodied Philosophy and Embodied Cognition has evoked a new conception which emphasizes the importance of individual experience in language comprehension. This conception, named Views of Embodied Language Comprehension argues that language is built upon perception and action and the process of language comprehension is a simulation of the scenario described by language. Word is the basic unit of language, and emotional words are different from neutral words for they have different emotional valences. Emotions are closely related to the evolution of mankind. Negative emotions remind people stay away from stimulus while positive emotions can push people toward stimulus. Can the perceptive experience which approach advantages and avoid disadvantages be reflected in cognitive process of word valence? Research shows that word valence and pull-push reaction have congruent effect. For positive word, pull reaction time is significantly shorter than push reaction time; however, for negative word, push reaction time is significantly shorter than pull reaction time. Therefore, the “approach-advantage and avoid-disadvantage” has a psychological reality. On the basis of previous studies, this research continues to investigate the impact of simulation degree and concreteness on emotional words ’embodied representation. Experiment 1 adopted valence decision task to explore the emotional words ’ space representation and the impact of concreteness on this characterization. The result showed that there was an interaction between valence and body-respond button distance, but congruent effect was just found in sensitive negative words, and the concreteness had no impact of this interaction. Experiment 2 used prime processing task to explore the emotional words’ approach-avoid action representation and the impact of concreteness of this characterization. It was found that there was some interaction between word’s valence and pull-push action speed. Words concreteness affected the congruent effect and concrete words’ congruent effect was greater than abstract words. In conclusion, the result of the experiment results shows that both simulation degree and concreteness could affect the embodied representation of word’s valence. Related Articles | Metrics

Select

Negative Priming Based on Low Related Proportion in Single Prime and Only Target Paradigm 2015, (3): 543-549.  Abstract ( )   PDF (506KB) ( )   The low proportion of repeated trials in priming studies can trigger negative priming, but most of these studies used a single prime and conflicted probe paradigm which was thought to play a key role in triggering negative priming effect. Thus, those negative priming effects cannot be attributed only to the low proportion of repeated trials, for the conflicted probe can also play an important role on it. Moreover, the negative priming found in some studies using a single prime and only target paradigm have challenged the view that conflicted probe plays a key role in causing negative priming. However, these studies manipulated either ignore instruction or proportion and other factors simultaneously which cannot dissociate the real effects of the low proportion. In addition, Frings and Wentura (2006) speculated that repeatability of stimuli affected awareness of participants about correlation between prime and target, and it was harder to perceive this correlation by using a larger quantity of semantic-associated words than a limited number of repetitive words. Therefore, the size of stimulus set composed by semantically related words might also be a key factor in triggering negative priming effect, but they employed dual-prime and single-probe paradigm. The present study explores the characteristic of inhibitory control by manipulating the proportion of related trials and varying the size of the stimuli set in single prime and only target paradigm . In Experiment 1, the proportion of related trials was set to 20% or 80%, and Experiment 2 introduced two different sizes of stimuli set (i.e., 8 and 48) and tested their effects on inhibition. In Experiment 1, a total of 22 participants participated in the two-proportion blocks. And in Experiment 2, two different sizes of stimuli set were manipulated in between-subjects. Other two factors, including the prime condition and the proportion, were manipulated in within-subjects. Semantic negative priming was observed in 20% condition, in contrast, the positive priming effect was observed in 80% proportion condition in Experiment 1. Moreover，by analyzing the data from four blocks according to the experimental sequence, the pattern of negative priming was observed in four blocks in 20% condition, whereas the positive pattern was observed in four blocks in the 80% condition. In Experiment 2, for 20% condition, a reliable negative priming effect was observed when the quantity of stimuli set was 8; whereas a non-significant negative priming occurred when it was for 48. Regardless of small or large stimulus sets, the significantly positive priming effect was observed when the related proportion was high. The current study demonstrated that manipulation alone on the low proportion of related trials in a single prime and only target paradigm could trigger the inhibitory control, which was caused by the ignored strategies. In addition, when the proportion of related trials was low, the implementation of inhibition was subject to the size of stimuli set. Smaller stimulus set could trigger a greater inhibition, whereas the larger stimulus set could induce lower, or even could not induce inhibition. The current results supported the viewpoint that the more salient distractor could trigger stronger inhibition. Related Articles | Metrics

Select

The Neural Mechanisms of The Form of Gender Stereotype Representation 2015, (3): 550-558.  Abstract ( )   PDF (1444KB) ( )   Some studies have revealed that there can be similar category hierarchy between stereotype representation and entity category. However, existing research to the manipulation of the stereotype activating has not distinguished from superior category, subcategory to typical exemplar. Besides, more research remains in the behavior level. But the response reflects only information processing to the comprehensive results, not the specific process. The objective of current research is to explore possible category hierarchy by manipulating different activation of sex stereotype. In this study, participants were primed with these words respectively corresponding superior category, subcategory, typical exemplar and counter-stereotypical exemplar, followed by a word which was either consistent with gender stereotypes or inconsistent. Their task was to indicate whether the words matched or did not match, according to gender stereotypes. Both response times and event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded during performance of the task. Results showed that: (1) stereotype incongruent word pairs were associated with larger N400 ERP amplitudes and slower response times, relative to congruent word pairs. (2) response times of activating superior category representation was shortest than subcategory than typical exemplar. (3) the largest N400 ERP amplitudes induced by mismatch in stereotype representation from priming superior category than subcategory than typical exemplar. These results suggest that there is a hierarchical structure for stereotype representation, which is from abstract category, subcategory to the typical sample. For gender stereotype, the stereotype representation is trend to preferentially activate abstract category. Furthermore, under the condition of the semantic activating, the violation of the gender stereotype induces N400 effect. Gender stereotype representation is top-down semantic classification processing by frontal lobe. Related Articles | Metrics

Select

The Effects of Working Memory on Color-based Inhibition of Return Inhibition of Return 2015, (3): 559-563.  Abstract ( )   Inhibition of return (IOR) refers to an orientation mechanism that the detection speed and accuracy is impaired when an object is detected after the object is attended. Previous studies indicated that the phenomenon of inhibition of return was related to working memory (Bartolameo et al., 2001; Castel, Pratt & Craik, Chou & Yeh, 2008; 2003; Gilchrist & Harvey, 2000; Klein, 1988, 2000; Vaughan, 1984; Zhang et al., 2007). A secondary working memory task reduced the effect of return inhibition. For example, Chou and Yeh (2008) found that spatial working memory task influenced spatial inhibition of return, but not object inhibition of return, whereas object working memory task influenced object inhibition of return, but not spatial inhibition of return. These studies, however, only focused on the location-based and item-based inhibition of return. Thus, although a specific kind of inhibition of return is implied to rely on that kind of working memory, the generality of this finding is unclear. Forasmuch, in order to provide more evidences for the specific relations between inhibition of return and working memory, we tested the relation between color-based inhibition of return and working memory. A 3 working memory task (without working memory task, with color working memory task vs. with shape working memory task) X 2 color congruency of cue and target (congruent vs. incongruent) within subjects design was adopted. If color-based inhibition of return is related to color working memory, inhibition of return effects would be reduced when participants were required to complete a color working memory task at the same time. If color-based inhibition of return is related to shape working memory, inhibition of return effects would be reduced when participants were required to complete a shape working memory task at the same time. It was revealed that: 1)color-based inhibition of return effects reduced in color working memory condition (p < .01, Table 1, Figure 2); 2) color-based inhibition of return effects were not affected by the shape working memory task (p > .05, Table 1, Figure 2). In sum, the current study indicates that color-based inhibition of return relies on color working memory, which further confirms the generality of the specific relation between inhibition of return and working memory. Given the working memory span is limited, the interference between the color working memory task and the color inhibition of return task might be due to they occupy the same kind of working memory. In other words, visuo-spatial sketch pad of working memory (Baddeley, 1981, 1986) might be divided into several small units, each dealing with one aspect of visual information, such as location, color or shape. Resources competing might only arise within, but not between these small units. Related Articles | Metrics

Select

The Memory Monitoring and Control on the Part-list Cuing Effect 2015, (3): 564-568.  Abstract ( )   PDF (680KB) ( )   When people are asked to recall words they have studied earlier from a list, those given a subset of these words as cues recall fewer words than people who do not receive any cues. This phenomenon is the so called part-list effect. Part-list cuing effect has proven robust in free recall, having been replicated under a wide variety of laboratory manipulations, including: episodic and semantic memory, categorized and uncategorized lists, nonlinguistic stimuli, intra- and extra-list cuing, and varying numbers of cues. Two hypothesis received more attention——the retrieval inhibition hypothesis and the strategy disruption hypothesis. Retrieval inhibition hypothesis suggests that the long-term change in activation level of target items is the basis of part-list cuing effect; while strategy disruption hypothesis explains the part-list cuing effect as the retrieval strategy disruption by part-list cues. Adopting 3 experiments, we studied the effect of learners' memory monitoring and control on part-list cuing effect. Experiment 1 examined whether participants could tell the difference of the two recall mode and allocate their study time differently after study once. Experiment 2 examined the same thing, except that the participants had several times to experience the recall mode. In experiment 3, we inserted a retrospective ease-of-task judgement before self-paced study, which was to explore whether the memory monitoring could affect the memory control and the study time allocation. The findings show that: (1) The amount of study time had no differences between the free recall and part-list cuing recall group after their first self-paced study; (2) After practice, people could realize the detrimental effect of the part-list cues; (3) After their first self-paced study, participants cannot monitor the negative effect of the part-list cues, and the ease-of-task judgement value between the part-list cuing recall group and free recall group are of no difference. But the participants can control the learning time in their next self-paced study. The learning time of part-list cuing recall group was much higher than free recall group, and the part-list cuing recall group's recall performance was enhanced. The present findings revealed that people couldn’t realize the detrimental effect of the part-list cues, and then couldn’t predict that the part-list cuing recall was more difficult compared to free recall in their first self-paced study, and after practice they allocated more study time to part-list cuing recall compared to free recall, which indicate that the realization of the detrimental effect of part-list cues is a process of gradual understanding. Ease-of-task judgement itself is a restricting factor of study time allocating, and it is an effective means to speed up the realization processing of the detrimental effect of part-list cues. Related Articles | Metrics

Select

The knowledge of velocity and representational momentum 2015, (3): 569-573.  Abstract ( )   PDF (322KB) ( )   The present research aimed to explore the relationship between the knowledge of velocity and representational moment by 3 experiments. Representational momentum referred to the tendency of observers to “remember” the stopping point of an event as being farther along in the direction of motion than it was in reality. When reviewing the papers using familiar objects in the real world as targets, we found that there was a typical motion effect on representational momentum, that was, the natural objects’ displacement in moving forward condition was larger than moving backward condition. However, the causes of the typical-motion effect are still in debates. One argument was that the pointless was the only source of typical motion effect. Reed and Vinson’s result (2002) was not consistent with Nagai and Yagi’s (2001). The other argument was that velocity maybe one of the sources of typical motion effect. The effect of the knowledge of velocity on representational momentum is still an open question. Halpern and Kelly (1993) thought that representational momentum was not affected by the knowledge of velocity, because there were no difference in displacement between rhinos and fox (slow characteristic) and motorcycles and trucks (fast characteristic). However, Reed and Vinson (1996) found that the stimulus named steeple produced smaller representational momentum effects than the stimulus named rocket. They thought that conceptual knowledge about an object’s typical motion affects the magnitude of representational momentum. We assumed that one’s knowledge of velocity about natural objects influenced the displacement of representational momentum. The present research included three experiments to explore the relationship between the knowledge of velocity and representational momentum. We used a 2(knowledge of velocity: fast, slow) ×2(direction of motion: leftward, rightward) within-subjects design and used implied motion paradigms in all three experiments. The dependent variable was the weighted measure (WM). In experiment 1, we used the picture of car and bike as materials. In experiment 2, we used the picture of body’s gestures of running and standing as materials. Experiment 3 was a control experiment of experiment 2. The aim of experiment 3 was to exclude a possible explanation of experiment 2. The horizontal viewing angle may impact representational momentum. We used the picture of rectangle of different horizontal viewing angles as materials. The results of experiment 1 suggested that there was no difference between the weighted mean for car and bike. The results of experiment 2 suggested that a significant main effect for gestures was found. Multiple comparisons (Bonferroni-Dunn) revealed that the weighted mean for running was significantly larger than the weighted mean for standing. The results of experiment 3 suggested that there was no difference between the weighted mean for horizontal viewing angle. In conclusion, under the condition of the effective priming of the concept of velocity knowledge, the knowledge of velocity about familiar objects influenced the displacement of representational momentum, but its impact may be relatively weak. Related Articles | Metrics

Select

The neural substrate underlying the aesthetic processing of facial beauty and individual differences 2015, (3): 574-579.  Abstract ( )   PDF (301KB) ( )   Physical attractiveness is an important characteristic in human social interactions. The experimental literature found that physically attractive people were perceived as more sociable, dominant, sexually warm, mentally healthy, intelligent, and socially skilled than physically unattractive people. Recently, some researchers have begun to explore the neural basis of facial beauty with the help of brain imaging techniques. The existing studies explored the neural basis of facial beauty in two ways. One was compared the brain activity of different aesthetic judgments tasks, the other was compare the brain activity of attractive faces with nonattractive faces. Neuroimaging studies found several brain areas to be differentially responsive to attractive as opposed to nonattractive faces. The studies of explicit aesthetic judgment of faces have found that attractive faces produced the activation of many brain regions, such as medial orbit-frontal cortex, nucleus accumbens, anterior cingulate cortex. When subjects judged facial beauty implicitly, neural activity in a widely distributed network involving the orbito-frontal cortex, nucleus accumbens and ventral occipital cortices correlated with the degree of facial attractiveness. The event-related potential studies suggested that attractive faces elicited an early posterior negativity (EPN) and a late positive potential (LPP). The ERN is related to facilitated selection of emotional information. The LPC might reflecting task-related evaluative processes. There are individual variations in facial beauty assessments. Some factors may influence the disagreement, such as gender, physiological cycle, and emotional state. There were some shortcomings with those studies, such as inconsistent judgment methods of facial beauty, inadequacy of ecological validity. Several domains could be pursued profitably in the studies of the neural substrate underlying facial beauty. Firstly, how the physical and social information of face are integrated to produce a global impression? Secondly, the neural mechanism of facial beauty is same or different with other rewards (e.g. food, drug)? Thirdly, facial beauty judgment may consist of many different processes; the different components of facial beauty judgment should be further decomposed. Fourthly, the time course of aesthetic processing of facial beauty should be further study. Lastly, as the perception of facial beauty is one process of face perception, we should construct a sound neural model about the processing of facial beauty in the future. Related Articles | Metrics

Select

The Brain Mechanism of Intentional Forgetting 2015, (3): 580-585.  Abstract ( )   PDF (282KB) ( )   Intentional forgetting refers that individuals intentionally forgot useless or outdated information, which is important for human life and memory updating. In recent years, intentional forgetting research has become a hot topic, both domestic and abroad research findings about intentional forgetting become richer, but system introduction and conclusion about brain mechanism of intentional forgetting is lacked. Therefore, based on related findings, we respectively introduced the brain mechanism of directed forgetting and suppression forgetting. The brain mechanism of directed forgetting was mainly reflected in encoding and retrieval phase. In encoding phase, different instructions caused different brain activities, R (remembering) instruction caused activation of memory processing region, while F (forgetting) instruction caused activation of inhibitory region. These different brain activities supported attention inhibition theory of directed forgetting, which believed that directed forgetting was because participant actively inhibited rehearsing and processing of F item. In retrieval phase, different old/new effects existed between TBR-R (to be remembered-remembered) items and TBF-R (to be forgotten-remembered) items, the former were based on recollection, and the latter were based on familiarity. While TBF-F (to be forgotten-forgotten) items induced reversed old/new effects, which indicated that need to forget items was inhibited in retrieval phase, so retrieval inhibition is also an explanation of directed forgetting. In a word, the brain mechanism research of directed forgetting showed that directed forgetting is an active inhibition process, encoding inhibition and retrieval inhibition both play important role in directed forgetting. The brain mechanism of suppression forgetting mainly reflected in differences between think items and No think items. Think items and No think items respectively activated different brain areas, think items increased activation of hippocampus and other memory-related brain areas, while No think items increased activation of prefrontal cortex and reduced activation of hippocampus. The existing suppression forgetting explanation is prefrontal-hippocampus assumption, which considered that individuals will firstly induce activation of prefrontal cortex and subsequently inhibit activation of hippocampus so as to achieve the goal of inhibiting unwanted memory. Though the present review illustrated the brain mechanism of directed forgetting and suppression forgetting, there were still many problems to be solved. Future research should focus on：the brain mechanism differences of directed forgetting and suppression forgetting; the brain mechanism differences between memory inhibition and other psychological suppression; intentional forgetting of traumatic experience and mental illness individuals; plasticity research of memory control network. Related Articles | Metrics

Select

Study on Personality Development of Children Aged 3-6 Years Old with Cohort Sequential Longitudinal Design 2015, (3): 586-593.  Abstract ( )   PDF (876KB) ( )   At present, researchers in western countries explored the construction and development of children personality maturely, but studies’ foundation in our country is relatively weak. Many studies used the western ?paradigms as references, or used the revised personality questionnaires which were applied in the western culture to assess children in our country directly. Researchers consider that personality is the psychological properties with cultural traits. If the study is conducted to explore the construction and development of children’s personality systematically, we should carry out it in the context of the entire Chinese culture, which can ensure the study’s conclusion reflecting the characteristics of Chinese children’s personality exactly. Above all, this paper contributes to the local research of construction and development of children’s personality in our country, such as the development characteristics of age and gender. First, we carried out qualitative research combining the teachers’ free description and selected the proper personality traits adjectives which can describe the children from the Wang Dengfeng’ adults personality traits adjectives. And integrated the two ways and referred to the related literatures for the qualitative research. A precise and completed descriptive personality construction of children was obtained. Second, on the basis of qualitative research, we made the teachers’ rating questionnaires, which was used to investigate the children’s personality in the quantitative ?paradigm, and established the rating personality construction of Chinese children. Combining qualitative and quantitative research, we established personality construction of preschool children which was made up of five dimensions, including intellectual characteristics, conscientiousness, pro-sociality; emotional stability, extraversion. The personality questionnaire was named as “preschool children personality rated by teachers” with fine reliability and validity which is made independently as assessing tools. Third, we adopted the longitudinal study with the cohort sequential design to explore the age and gender characteristic of preschool children’s personality development. Recruited 608 preschool children and classified into three cohorts which were named 3-3.5, 3.5-4,4-4.5 years old as participants. Using new personality questionnaire, we measured once every six months, measured four times in all. Next, the BIC in multiple group analysis of latent growth curve model (LGM) was applied to decide whether the three cohorts have all the same developmental trend. In other words, a single coherent trajectory across the observed age range is appropriate. If a single coherent trajectory exists, we will apply hierarchical linear modeling(HLM) to master and deal with data to further explore the age and gender characteristics of children personality development. The result showed that: (1) As for the age difference, the five dimensions of preschool children’s personality developed rapidly between 3 and 6 years old. And the developmental trend was quadratic curve. The critical period is 3 to 4 years old, and personality continued to develop between 4 and 5 years old, but the speed become slow and stable from 5 to 6 years old. (2) Considering the gender differences of children personality, the outcomes suggested that scores of conscientiousness and pro-sociality dimensions of preschool girls were significantly higher than preschool boys at the age of 3 years, but the developing speed had no difference from 3 to 6 years. In other words, the development level of girls’ conscientiousness and pro-sociality was always higher than boys’ at the age of 3 years. In conclusion, the five dimensions of preschool children’s personality developed with the quadratic curve, and became stable when children were 5-6 years. The two dimensions which are named conscientiousness and pro-sociality have dramatically gender differences between boys and girls at the age of 3 years old. Related Articles | Metrics

Select

Up- and Down-Regulation from Early Adolescence to Early Adulthood: A V-Shape Developmental Trajectory 2015, (3): 594-599.  Abstract ( )   PDF (629KB) ( )   Adolescence is considered as a time full of “storm and stress”. Numerous studies suggested that emotion regulation improves with age. While previous studies typically examined the developmental change of negative emotion regulation within a specific period, few studies considered regulation effect of both positive and negative emotions in a transitional period. To address this issue, one hundred and seven participants (35 young adolescents, range=13-15 years old; 37 old adolescents, range=16-18 years old; 35 young adults, range=20-29 years old) were examined for their up- and down-regulation of positive, neutral, and negative emotional stimuli. Results showed that: (a) considering the differences of emotion regulation effect among three age groups, a drop-down phenomenon was found in the old adolescents group. Specifically, old adolescents’ emotion regulation effect was the worst, while young adults’ was the best; (b) the effect of down-regulation improved more from early adolescence to early adulthood than the effect of up-regulation. Related Articles | Metrics

Select

Young Children’s Scale Error 2015, (3): 600-604.  Abstract ( )   PDF (307KB) ( )   Scale error is the phenomenon where young children’s dramatic failures when they attempt to use objects in a way that is impossible due to the object in question being either significantly too large or too small for the child to use. The first research dealing with scale error was published in Science in 2004. Over the past 10 years the number of foreign studies on scale error has grown rapidly. There remains however a decided lack of Chinese domestic research published on the subject. This paper is intended as a survey study of the available foreign literature on the topic of scale error so that it then may be used as a reference point and foundation from which to drive domestically localized research. An extensive review and analysis of foreign-sourced academic literature since 2004 served as the primary methodology in conducting this study. The majority of the available published research on scale error focuses on the definition, types, characteristics, influence factors, and causes of scale error as well as the difference between scale error and pretending. Although some researchers say that it is easy to distinguish scale error from pretending, but this is still relatively one-sided view. Simultaneously, there are still disagreements in many fields among different researchers. At present, there is some variance in theories regarding the driving factors behind the scale error. Deloache et al. (2004a,b) considered that those views about failure of inhibitory control and the dual process theories of visual processing can provide ideas for understanding the mechanism of scale error; Glover et al.（2004b）established the Planning–Control model and the perception–action model to interpret scale error; Casler et al.（2011）noted that children’s scale errors appeared to be elicited by purpose, rather than by size; Deloache et al. (2013）and Brownell et al. (2007) pointed that the immature body self-awareness was one factor underlying scale errors. Current list of studies collected data mostly by observation method. Too simple method becomes a big bottleneck of the research in scale error. We expect that in future research, more effective means will be found which can distinguish scale error from pretending; studies about influencing factors of scale error will be conducted in full-scale and research methods will be diversified and integrated; the objects and contents of study will be extended to include different cultural backgrounds. This paper is the first detailed analysis and summarization of foreign research on scale error in nearly a decade and included feasible suggestions for future research in the area. Related Articles | Metrics

Select

Motivations of Obeying Norms Influence Children’s Over-imitation 2015, (3): 605-611.  Abstract ( )   Over-imitation refers to the phenomenon that people imitate the actions purposely done by the model but irrelevant to the objective of the task. The underlying mechanism of children’s engagement in over-imitation has always been a heated topic in the field. Automatic Causal Encoding (ACE) theory suggested that the reason why children copy irrelevant actions is that they automatically code them as causally relevant to the expected outcomes. That is, they think the irrelevant actions are necessary to finish the task. By contrast, the “norm learning” explanation of over-imitation goes against ACE. Evidences are that when researchers asked the children why they copied the irrelevant actions, the children’s answers showed that they didn’t treat them as outcome-relevant. Otherwise, children gave out normative protecting words when others didn’t copy irrelevant actions. This result revealed that children might copy irrelevant actions out of obeying norms. However, it remains unclear whether children would copy irrelevant actions in the condition where they do not want to obey norms. Thus, the present study aims to fill the gap by assessing the children’s reaction when the motivation of obeying norms is low. Ninety-four 4- to 6-year-old children participated in the current research. Simple materials and actions were used to assure that children can distinguish between relevant and irrelevant actions. At first, children were asked to watch the experimenter perform the irrelevant action (lock the box) followed by the relevant action (lift up the lip and take out the sticker). Then, they were allowed to get a sticker inside a box almost the same as the one the experimenter used. Children were randomly assigned into one of the two experimental conditions. In the high-motivation condition, coping irrelevant actions led to successful reaching for the sticker. Whereas in the low-motivation condition, copying irrelevant actions would get the box locked, thus children would fail in getting the stickers. Therefore, children would not want to obey the norm of copying all the actions in the low-motivation condition. A Chi-square test of independence revealed that children are significantly more likely to over-imitate irrelevant actions in the high-motivation condition than in low-motivation condition (χ^2(2, N = 94) = 26.38，p < 0.001, Cramer’s V = 0.53), with no age differences having been detached (High-motivation condition: χ^2(2, N = 45) = 4.89，p = 0.087，Cramer’s V = 0.33; low-motivation condition: χ^2(4, N = 49) = 5.60，p = 0.231, Cramer’s V = 0.24). Especially, in the low-motivation condition, only 28.60% children copied irrelevant actions (the “over-imitators”), whereas 44.90% omitted them (“selective imitators”), and 26.50% were “hesitators” who stopped copying in the halfway and got the sticker successfully. On the contrary, in the high-motivation condition, 77.80% children copied the irrelevant actions, and only 22.20% children omitted them. It is obvious that children in the high-motivation condition showed strong tendency of copying irrelevant actions, but when they confronted with the low-motivation condition, they turned out to omit irrelevant actions and get the stickers. The current study suggested that children in the experiment have a tendency of obeying norms, and that is why they copied irrelevant actions in high-motivation conditions. Children were able to identify the irrelevant actions and omit them in the low-motivation condition when copying irrelevant actions would keep the expected outcomes away, so were the children in the high-motivation condition. The reason why they still copied these redundant actions is that they hoped to behave normatively alike to the experimenter. There is a trade-off between norms and outcomes when children were going to imitate. Related Articles | Metrics

Select

Emergence and Development of Primary School Children's Leadership in Group Discussions 2015, (3): 612-617.  Abstract ( )   PDF (788KB) ( )   Abstract Emergent leadership was examined in 8 groups implementing Collaborative Reasoning (CR) discussions in 4 fourth-grade classrooms from a primary school in mainland China. Children’s leadership moves were coded from 63 free-flowing, open-format discussions transcripts, and each of the 8 groups have 8 discussions separately (one discussion transcript was missing). The transcripts encompassed 22 hours and 38 minutes with 6178 turns for speaking, which were evaluated to belong to one of 13 leadership functions: Turn Management, Voting Organization, Remind Ground Rules, Initiation Task, Spontaneous Responses and Encouraging/Acknowledgement, Remind, Asking for Clarification, Topic Control, Asking for Reasons, Thinking out-loud, Challenging, Summing up. Comparison of the number and kind of leadership moves made by the children showed that there were emergent leadership moves in each of the 8 collaborative reasoning discussion groups, but only two groups leaders emerged in 2 out of the 8 groups, while 1 primary leader emerged in one group and leadership responsibilities was shared among three children in another group. Compared with the previous research about the emergent leadership among the American primary students in CR discussion, the leadership patterns of Chinese children were similar with that of American children, but the frequency of leadership moves of Chinese fourth graders were much lower than that of their peers from American. To better understand how the different leaders grew in their groups, those group leaders of the two groups and their interaction with the teacher and other students were investigated in details. The result showed that the frequency and kind of leadership moves of the primary leader followed the patterns of her teacher, which increased with the progression of the discussions at the beginning and stabled at a low level at the end, suggesting that the emerging leaders were learning how to lead from her teacher. Encouraging and acknowledgement from the teacher played a big role in the growth of student leaders. Analyses of the three leaders sharing the leadership responsibilities indicated that these students who were descripted by their teacher as talkative and who were regard as having good ideas, exhibited more leadership than other children. This study confirmed our hypothesis that the Collaborative Reasoning discussions provided an environment conducive to the emergence of child leaders and the acquisition and refinement of leadership schemas. Features of Collaborative Reasoning discussions—specifically, the teacher providing social and intellectual space, open participation, and mastery orientation—enable children to have more control over group dynamics. As time proceeds, child leaders gradually take over aspects of leadership conventionally performed by teachers and organize the discussion in an effective way. The findings in the present study had important implications for classroom implementations to develop children’s leadership in China. Related Articles | Metrics

Select

The Impact Mechanism of College Students’ Emotional Intelligence and Class Network on Adaptability: A Multilevel Mediation Model 2015, (3): 618-624.  Abstract ( )   PDF (593KB) ( )   When enter university, students are confronted with opportunities on development, as well as some challenges, how to overcome these challenges to obtain good adaptation is a main task for college students. Also, the level of adaptability may directly affect present and future development of students. It was found that there are some internal and external factors influence college students’ adaptability, while emotional intelligence and interpersonal relationship are two important factors. The influence of emotional intelligence on adaptability has been confirmed by a growing number of studies, but little is known about the mechanism why emotional intelligence can affect adaptability. By reviewing the existed studies, we found that interpersonal relationship may play a mediating role between emotional intelligence and adaptability. As interpersonal relationship in class was mainly part comprising college students’ interpersonal network, in this study, we aimed at exploring whether interpersonal relationship in class could mediate the association between college students’ emotional intelligence and adaptability is in order. There were 646 college students (218 boys and 428 girls) from 20 classes in 7 universities were surveyed. Emotional Intelligence Scale and College Student Adaptability Inventory were used to provide measures of emotional intelligence and adaptability separately. As the traditional measuring method of interpersonal relationship in class, method of questionnaire and sociometric measurement ignore the difference between the subjective and objective choice or the biphasic principle of interpersonal relationship, Social Network Analysis could make up for the inadequacy of traditional methods, and was adopted in this study to take a unique look at students’ interpersonal relationship in class. A network questionnaire was used to measure class network, and the degree centrality of class network was used to describe student’s interpersonal relationship in class. In the process of data analysis, the Ucinet6.0 was used to analyze relation data from network questionnaire to obtain degree centrality of class network firstly. Then, for the clustered data (students nested in classes), a 1-1-1 multilevel mediation model was used to model impact mechanism of emotional intelligence and class network on adaptability in HLM6.02. The results indicated that: (1) emotional intelligence is significantly associated with degree centrality of class network and adaptability, emotional intelligence could positively predict one’s degree centrality of class network and adaptability; (2) degree centrality of class network mediated the relationship between emotional intelligence and adaptability. The present study revealed that, emotional intelligence not only directly influenced college students’ adaptability，but also indirectly influenced adaptability through class network．These findings had important theoretical and practical values and may contribute to increasing college students’ adaptability and health. Firstly, we should attach importance to the effect of emotional intelligence on adaptability, help college students to improve the level of emotional intelligence and self-monitoring ability. Secondly, improve interpersonal relationship in class, would be great useful for improving adaptability. Thirdly, constructing harmonious class environment to improve class network, can improve peer support and adequately reduce college students' stress, help to achieve adaptation. Related Articles | Metrics

Select

The effect of aging on everyday prospective memory 2015, (3): 625-629.  Abstract ( )   PDF (354KB) ( )   In the age-prospective memory-paradox, the superior performance of the elderly in the daily prospective memory tasks in natural context, contrast to the young subjects, has been particularly noticeable. Some researchers discussed the subjective factors of this phenomenon from the following aspects: (1) the level of motivation and sense of responsibility. Some results(Rendell & Thomson, 1999; Kvavilashvili & Fisher, 2007; Aberle, Rendell, Rose, McDaniel, & Kliegel, 2010) showed that the level of motivation of the old is higher than that of the young, another study (Cuttle & Graf, 2007) manifested that this advantage is related to the higher responsibility of the elderly; (2) lifestyle factors. Some researchers(Freeman & Ellis, 2003; Schnitzspahn, Ihle, Henry, Rendell, & Kliegel, 2011) considered that the daily prospective memory task advantage of the old in the natural environments is associated with the state of their lives，that is, most of the elderly have already retired with smaller tasks pressure, which enables them to accomplish the prospective memory task better; (3) external factors prompted. Previous researches (Phillips, Henry & Martin, 2008; Masumoto, Nishimura, Tabuchi & Fujita, 2011) indicated that the elderly using more of external cues might improve their prospective memory performance in the natural context. Prospective memory advantage of the elderly in the natural situation also can be reflected in the comparing of tasks in natural /laboratory situation. Based on previous researches, It can be concluded that the performance of the elderly in daily tasks is higher than that of the young in natural situation, while it is directly opposite in the cognitive tasks, the same as in cognitive tasks in laboratory situations. This suggests that the mechanism of the advantage of the elderly in prospective memory is related to the nature of the tasks rather than the scenarios. The mechanism of the advantage of the elderly in daily prospective memory might be further confirmed by meta-analysis and mediating effects testing in the future researches. Related Articles | Metrics

Select

Gender Differences in the Parent-child Triangulation 2015, (3): 630-635.  Abstract ( )   PDF (1138KB) ( )   Triangulation is a central construct in family systems theory, theorized first by Bowen (1966) as a common feature of dysfunctional families adversely affecting child well-being. Triangulation refers parent-child relationship processes in which children are passively or actively involved in conflicts within the parental dyad and which, in the immediate situation, lessen the tension and anxiety between adults, thereby stabilizing the family. Typically, it can be divided into three patterns: cross-generational coalitions, scapegoating, and parentification. The cross-generational coalition refers to the children alliance with one parent and against the other one when a conflict occurs between parents; scapegoating normally involves the child who is pushed out and distance as a way of parents revolving or avoiding the conflict, such as focusing together on a difficult child away from their own issues; parentification refers to an earlier commitment to considerate parents’ or other families’ need, and take care of family responsibilities and roles. Empirical evidence indicates that greater adolescent exposure to triangulation is associated with less mature ego development, poorer peer relationships and parent-adolescent relationships, as well as increased internalizing and externalizing problems. However, there exists divergence in the viewpoint of possibility and types of girls or boys being more likely to be involved in parental conflicts. As to the possibility, some scholars claim that girls are more inclined to be caught because they are relationship-oriented and take more care for the interpersonal relationships, but others point out that the boys could be more vulnerable to be involved in parental conflict because of parents usually placing higher expectation for boys to take family responsibility and exposing boys to more conflict than girls, and the boys having much more difficulties in controlling and coping with the stress. As to the types of children being caught by parental conflicts, some studies found that girls were more likely to be caught by parental conflict as a coalition partner with a parent, and however the boys were more likely triangulated as a scapegoating, but others’ findings indicated that boys were more likely than girls to be victims of scapegoating though no gender difference in the cross-generational coalition emerged. There were also studies failed to discover any gender difference in parent-adolescents triangulation. The present study systematically and for the first time reviewed previous reports about gender differences in the triangulation, and found that the causes of the inconsistence of the results may be as follows: demographic variables, which are consisted of participants’ grade, the differences in the number, birth order and gender make-up of children in the family, family structure; the research method such as the method of survey and the specific indicators of triangulation; the change of the participants’ attitudes towards gender role. Future research should focus on localization study, detail the demographic variables, use multiple methods of survey and indicators of parent-child triangulation, improve the analysis method, and adopt a longitudinal design at the same time collecting the data about participants’ interrelationship orientation and attitudes towards gender role to further clarify the gender differences in parent-child triangulation. Related Articles | Metrics

Select

The Effect of Perceived Interpersonal Control on Cooperation Behavior: An ERPs Investigation Using the Prisoner’s Dilemma Game Kai DOU 2015, (3): 643-650.  Abstract ( )   PDF (912KB) ( )   Cooperative behavior refers to a prosocial act that one makes to override his / her optimized interest to maximize the benefit of a group. One is required to sacrifice his / her benefit in order to behave cooperatively, thus leading to the occurrence of social dilemma (i.e., a situation where short-term / personal interest is conflict with long-term / group interest). Perceived interpersonal control (PIC) is defined as a subjective perception of controlling relationship in interpersonal processes. Previous studies have found that PIC is a factor that has influence on one’s cooperative behavior. To be more specific, it is demonstrated that high PIC promotes cooperative behavior, but the underlying neural mechanism receives little research. Hence, this study mainly focuses on the electrophysiological mechanisms of the effect of PIC on cooperative behavior. In line with the limited repetitive prisoner dilemma game, we designed a resource-sharing game task using sale task as script, a very common task in the organizational context, to investigate individuals’ cooperative behavior during social dilemma. Participants’ PIC was manipulated by setting the move order of participants and their counterparts during the experimental task. 18 part-time postgraduate students participated in the study, but 3 participants were eliminated due to enormous artifacts, thus leaving 15 valid participant included in statistical analyses. During stimulus presentation, the EEG was recorded using a amplifier (Brain Product) from a 64 electrodes of the international 10-20 system. First, we employed ANOVA to examine whether the manipulation of PIC was successful. Results indicated that compared to participants in middle and low PIC conditions, participants in high PIC condition perceived less self-control conflict, considered the “not to share” choice less tempting, used less willpower when chose the “to share” option, perceived higher interpersonal control, assumed the opponent was highly influenced by them, and more believed the opponent would follow their choices. These findings suggested that PIC was successfully manipulated. Second, results of behavioral outcomes found that participants with high PIC spent less time making a decision and had higher cooperation rate. These results were consistent with previous ones and suggest that compared to low and middle levels of PIC, participants with high PIC felt less self-control conflict, and believed their decisions would have more impact on the final decision, therefore promoting partners’ cooperation to achieve a “win-win” outcome. Last, the behavioral outcomes were supported by ERPs results. It was found that compared to low PIC condition, the amplitudes of P2 and N2 were lower for people who were performing Prisoner’s game with high PIC. Regression analysis further showed that proportion of cooperation was positively and negatively related N2 and P2, respectively. This suggested that the influence of high PIC on cooperative behavior on ERPs level was reflected in the decrease in the perception of uncertainty and the increase in conflict inhibition. Specifically, source analysis suggested that right prefrontal cortex and middle frontal gyrus were activated more greatly. In the situation of social dilemma, when individuals were faced with temptation (e.g., short-term rewards), the nucleus accumbens, a neural basis responsible for reward, was activated. If prefrontal cortex at this moment succeeded in regulating the activation of nucleus accumbens, then people were more likely to inhibit their impulse, thus promoting their cooperative behavior. The current findings suggested that people high in PIC were more willing to cooperate. More important, such effect was related with the amplitude of P2 and N2. Limitations and contributions were addressed. Related Articles | Metrics

Select

The Over-compensation Effect under the Unintentional Transgression Xiao-fan Peng Da JunZHANG 2015, (3): 651-657.  Abstract ( )   PDF (523KB) ( )   Compensation and revenge are the most basic behavioral reaction people employed in the context of interpersonal transgression. In most cases, offenders compensate the victim out of guilt and restore their relationship; the victim, motivated by either the intrinsic of justice/equity or emotions such as anger, will also retaliate the offender to make up their lost. Previous studies in the two areas focus on compensation and revenge respectively, without addressing them in the same context. When the offender has an amount to compensate, the victim also has one to revenge (retaliate). The comparison of the two amounts may start a new perspective to analysis the interpersonal transgression, increasing our prediction about the following interactions. By setting the offender and victim in the same scenario or real unintentional transgression, the present study discovered an over-compensation effect that offenders usually offer more compensation than the amount victims want to revenge (retaliate). Experiment 1 was based on a scenario story where one person’s unintentional mistake cost his (no gender implication in Chinese) a partner a great lost in reward of money. At the end of the story, there was an distribution task by which the story character can compensate or retaliated their partners (the more one distribute to himself, the less to his partner, so does the opposite). Participants were randomly divided into 3 groups (Offender vs. Victim vs. Control). The offender group was instructed to think and behave on the behalf of the offender character, while victim group on the behalf of the victim. The control group read a story of no transgression. The score offender group left for the victim was recorded as the amount of compensation while the score victim group left for the victim character was the amount of revenge. Experiment 2 was also a scenario study similar to Experiment 1, except the story was replaced to an unintentional body harm and participants compensate/revenge with voucher. Experiment 3 applied the paradigm of dot estimation task developed by Nelissen and Zeelenberg (2009) to creat an unintentional transgression. To set offender and victim together, Experiment 2 replaced the fictitious victims with real ones. Participants were randomly divided into 3 groups (Offender vs. Victim vs. Control). Victims suffered a money lost due to offenders’ poor performance (previous manipulated). At the end of the experiment, participants were informed to distribute 20 points in total (concerned their final reward) without being known. The more they left for themselves, the less their partner. In this way, they could compensate or revenge on their partners. The points offender left to the victim was recorded as compensation, while the point victim left for themselves was recorded as revenge. Experiment 4 manipulated a transgression of unintentional body harm. Participants randomly assigned as the offender was require to answer 10 questions with 4 absurd options (5 false, 5 correct; previous manipulated) in 15sec. Victim participants were hit in palm for each wrong answer. In the control group, hitting palm was replace with origami. In the end, all the participants were asked to distribute 15 ￥. The money offender left to the victim was recorded as compensation, while money victim left for themselves was revenge. In Experiments 1-4, the points/vouchers/money of compensation and revenge were both higher than the control condition (control group distribute equally), indicating that offenders compensated the victims and victims revenge/retaliated the offenders. Moreover, the compensation is slightly but statistically significantly higher than the revenge. In Experiment 1, the points offender distributed to the victim (M=14.32, SD=2.00) was significantly higher than the amount victim left to themselves (M=13.14, SD=1.70), t(72)=2.75, p<0.05. In Experiment 2, the voucher offender compensated (M=12.77, SD=2.23) was significantly more than the amount victim retaliate (M=10.14, SD=1.36), t(65)=5.72, p<0.01. In Experiment 3, the points offender left to the victim (M=12.55, SD=1.76) exceed the amount victim wanted (M=11.82, SD=1.40), t(146)=2.79, p<0.01. In Experiment 4, the money offenders compensated the victim (M=10.92, SD=2.25) is significant higher than the amount victims left to themselves (M=9.03, SD=1.25), t(120)=5.71, p<0.01. Given Experiment 1-2 are based on participants’ judgments on scenario story, their result only proves that the over-compensation effect SHOULD exist, while Experiment 3-4 further answered that over-compensation TRULY exist. The gender difference observed in Experiment 4 was also discussed. Over-compensation effect offered a new insight about the extent difference between compensation and revenge. Although the result of Experiment 1-4 gave a robust phenomenal support for this effect in the context of unintentional transgression, further researches about its inner mechanism and influence on the relationship are still in need. The closeness of relationship and relational utility also have a great impact on social interaction. Factor related should be concerned. Related Articles | Metrics

Select

Confidence judgment in social belief: a test of the Self-Consistency Model 2015, (3): 658-665.  Abstract ( )   PDF (559KB) ( )   The Self-Consistency Model (SCM) was initially proposed for the confidence in two-alternative forced-choice general knowledge questions. Since then, several studies have suggested that the model may also apply to other fields, such as belief and attitude, but more researches were needed for the verification and the complement. The aim of this study was to test the SCM of subjective confidence in Chinese cultural context as it applied to social belief. The experiment was conducted individually on the computer. Forty-four paid undergraduate or postgraduate students (22 females and 22 males from 18 to 24 years old) participated in this study. The task, which repeated six times, was divided into two parts. Each part included three blocks in which the entire set of 60 propositions (Social Axioms Survey) depicting a social belief were presented. Participants pressed the key to decide whether the proposition was “True” or “False”, and indicated their confidence in their choices with a scale of 0 to 10. Their response latency was measured by computer. For each participant, the choices were classified as “frequent” when they were made more than 3 times, and as “rare” if they were made less than 3 times across the 6 blocks ; “item consensus” means the proportion of participates choose the majority, consensual response on a particular occasion. We found that, (1) The confidence was inversely related to the response latency (r=-.32, p<.001). It could reflect the likelihood that the same choice would be made in the same item (r=.94, p<.05). So could the choice latency (r=-1.0, p<.001). Moreover, males was lower than females in confidence (t=-5.48, p<.001), and higher than females in response latency (t=4.62, p<.001). (2) The confidence was higher for the frequent responses (6.22) than for the rare responses (5.19), t=8.67, p<.001. In addition, the confidence in the frequent responses tended to increase with item consistency, while the confidence in the rare responses decreased with item consistency. The confidence was higher for the consensual responses (7.35) than for the nonconsensual responses (6.21), t=11.58, p<.001. Besides, the confidence in the consensual responses tended to increase with item consensus whereas the nonconsensual responses tended to decrease with item consensus. A similar pattern was observed for the response latency. (3) The responses that were consistently chosen by the same person (high consistency) were also more likely to be chosen by others (high consensus), r=.31, p<.001. The result showed that a commonly shared population of representation associated with each proposition. Comparing with the cross-person consensus, the within-person consistency was a better diagnostic of the self-consistency. As expected, the within-person consistency and the cross-person consensus analysis showed that the decision to accept or refuse a social belief was based on the sampling of a pool of representations associated with the belief. The confidence depended on the consistency with which the belief was supported across the sampled representations, and reflected the likelihood that a new sample would yield the same decision. The choices that based on the representative samples were associated with relatively higher confidence and took relatively shorter time to form. The choices with high consistency were associated with the high consensus. The results verified the existence of the Self-Consistency Model in Chinese cultural context. Related Articles | Metrics

Select

The relationship between temperament and eye movement control 2015, (3): 666-671.  Abstract ( )   PDF (868KB) ( )   According to Pavlov, temperament is determined by strength of excitation and inhibition, balance and mobility of the central nervous system, which could be segregated into four types of choleric, sanguine, phlegmatic and melancholic (Ruch, 1992). All human behaviors are based on those types of central nervous system including how to control our behavior. When we make an anti-saccade, for example, our visual system needs to suppress (inhibit) the pro-saccade and make saccade in opposite direction. The anti-saccadic cost mainly embodies inhibition (Johannesson, Haraldsson, & Kristjánsson, 2013), and the switch cost reflects task reset (mobility) (Meiran, 1996; Rogers et al., 1995; Rubinstein, Meyer, & Evans, 2001; Schmitz & Voss, 2012). Both temperament and saccadic control result from some functions of central nervous system, i. e. excitation, inhibition, balance and mobility. We assume that temperament is correlated to saccadic control (cognitive control) in different patterns at different levels. To explore the relationship between the temperament and eye movement control, a combination of eye tracking and questionnaire survey were adopted, in which a 2 x 2 design within-group of saccadic eye movement experiment with the saccade direction (pro-saccade and anti-saccade) and task type (repeat and switch) and temperament test (Chen Huichang, 1982) were conducted. Fifty undergraduate students participated in the experiment. Participants’ eye movements were recorded by a SR Research EyeLink II eye tracker, followed by questionnaire test of their temperaments. Results showed that the choleric temperament scores significantly relate to the saccadic latency under the condition of pro-switch, and anti-saccade cost under the condition of switch, and closely significantly relate to switch cost under the condition of pro-saccade (r = 0.255, p = 0.074). Sanguine temperament scores significantly correlate to the saccadic latency under the condition of pro-switch and anti-switch，and significantly relate to switch cost under the condition of pro- and anti-saccade, and closely significantly correlate to the saccadic latency under the condition of pro-repeat (r=-0.245，p=0.086). Melancholic temperament score significantly correlates to the saccadic latency under the condition of pro-switch and to switch cost under the condition of anti-saccade, and closely significantly correlates to switch cost under the condition of pro saccade(r=0.256，p=0.073). Lymphatic temperament score aren’t significantly correlated to all saccadic parameters. The results indicate that temperament is closely correlated to eye movement control, and this correlation is mediated by the cognitive control. Temperament is determined by different neural activities, the relationship between the neural activity and the cognitive control function is much complicated. The strength of neural activity is a fundamental aspect in all dimensions, it is related with inhibition and transformation functions of cognitive control; while the mobility and balance of neural activity are important to transformation and inhibition functions. Related Articles | Metrics

Select

The Degree of Self-reference Effect of Introverted Individuals 2015, (3): 672-679.  Abstract ( )   PDF (425KB) ( )   The self-reference effect is the enhanced speed and quality of processing and memorization observed with respect to information that is related to the individual’s self-concept. According to the preceding research, self-reference effect have the different with degree, and different degree of intimacy with the core self. Then, the brain on the depth of its reference treatment is different, also. Highly self-relevant stimulus will get faster response compared with minimally self stimulate in the brain. This is called the degree of self-reference processing effect. On the basis of summarizing the preceding research, this study uses the event related potential technology, through ERPs experiments investigation the degree of special subjects of self-reference processing effect and neural mechanisms. Experiment adopted three kinds of classic oddball models, using an implicit way to investigate the extraversion individual self-reference processing degree effect. Used three-character non-name lexical phrases served as the standard stimulus, and a three-character non-lexical phrase served as target stimuli. Six categories of stimuli were used in a three-stimulus oddball paradigm. Three sets of self-relevant stimuli, the non-self-relevant stimulus, and two filler stimuli, served as distracters. The name of the participant was used as the highly self-relevant stimulus, the name of participant’s father as the moderately self-relevant stimulus, the name of China’s leaders the minimally self-relevant stimulus, and the name of the president of the United States, served as the non-self-relevant stimulus. All names are three Chinese characters long. Familiarity was equivalent (see below) across all sets of stimulus names. All name stimuli were made into images on a PC using Microsoft Office Picture Manager. Image size, word length, and complexity were matched across the name conditions. Experiment found that on the P2 amplitude, highly self-related stimuli of electrode at front and central and front -central position induced greater P2 amplitude than other stimulation. On the latent period of P2, the electrode in the front, central, and parietal position, highly self-related to stimulate induced the short incubation period than other stimulation. In N2 amplitude, highly self-related name induced larger P2 amplitude than other stimulus in the left brain; comparing introversive subjects, control group subjects of highly self-relevant names induced larger amplitude of N2 than other stimulation. On the latent period of N2, highly self-relevant stimuli in the whole brain induced the short latent period of N2, it is better than other stimulation, and the central-parietal position of the electrode is the shortest possible; Highly self-relevant name of two types of personality subjects induced shorter incubation period of N2 than other stimulation, but control group subjects is the shortest. On average amplitude of P3, highly self-relevant stimuli in whole brain induced the P3 amplitude is bigger than other stimulation. The effect of midline brain regions is largest. Research results show that self-reference processing with the degree of effect is actually existence, highly self-relevant stimuli will get deeper and exquisite processing than moderately and minimally self-relevant stimuli. Comparison control group individuals, introversion subject was weaker in the degree of self-reference processing effect. And in early stage, highly self-relevant stimuli of control group individuals will be faster being noticed than minimally self-related stimuli by the brain. In the late stage of cognitive, highly self-relevant stimuli will get deeper and elaborating processing. Related Articles | Metrics

Select

The Effects of Tolerance of Uncertainty on Intertemporal Choices and its Context-Dependency 2015, (3): 680-685.  Abstract ( )   Tolerance of uncertainty (TU) is defined as individual differences in the tendency to react emotionally, cognitively, or behaviorally to uncertain situations. Many studies had shown that individuals low in TU appeared to have information processing biases. Evidence is accumulating that TU contributes to the symptoms associated with multiple anxiety and depressive disorders, and thus may be better understood as a transdiagnostic construct. Though TU has been related to a variety of cognitive and emotional constructs, it is still not clearly for us about the behavioral consequences of TU. 　　Time discounting refers to the reduction in the present, subjective value of outcomes that are temporally distant in the future. The decrease in value of a delayed reward may be due to the risk inherent in waiting: with increases in delay, there is a decrease in the certainty that the reward will be obtained. Little research has been conducted to explore the influences of the individual differences in TU on the preference in intertemporal choices. So the current study investigates how TU, money amount and temporal distance interact to predict individual differences in delay discounting using the choice titration procedure. We first hypothesize that TU significantly influenced the preference in intertemporal choices, participants with low TU have the higher degree of discounting future than participants with high TU. Second, we hypothesize that the effect of TU may differ depending on task characteristics(i.e., money amount, temporal distance). 　　474 undergraduate were divided into two groups according to their scores from the intolerance of uncertainty scale, as groups with high and low TU levels in accordance with the high-low-27-percent group method. Hence, a total of 256 students were included in the study. The experiment employed 2 (tolerance of uncertainty: high vs. low )× 2 (reward magnitude: 200 yuan vs.1000 yuan) × 2(temporal distance: 14 days vs. 180 days) mixed experimental design with money amount as the within-participants variable and the other two as between-participants variables, the dependent variable is their discount factor. Repeated Measurement ANOVA were performed to analyze the data. The results showed that: the main effects of money amount were significant, the discount factor in the large money amount level was higher than that in the small level, indicating the presence of a magnitude effect. The main effects of temporal distance were significant, indicating that the degree of discounting decreased when extending the received times of the rewards. Compared to the participants with high TU, the participants with low TU had a lower discount factor only when the rewarded money was set at 200 yuan to receive 180 days later. That is say, individuals with low TU overestimation of time may lead to overestimation of the cost of revenue, which would result in his/her impulsive choices in intertemporal choices. There was no significant effect of TU on decision preference in intertemporal choice under the other task features. 　　In conclusion, the present study suggested that TU can influence the preference in intertemporal choices and the influence is context-dependent, in which factors like money amount and temporal distance play a role. Implications of these results and directions for future research was discussed. Related Articles | Metrics

Select

The Effect of Instrumental Ethical Climate on Employee’s Silence Behavior: The Effect of Cynicism and Traditionality 2015, (3): 686-692.  Abstract ( )   PDF (584KB) ( )   Abstract Given the severe environment with intense competition and unpredictable technology changes, increasing number of organizations realize that employees should be encouraged and cultivated to speak up. However, employee silence is pervasive in modern organizations and has become an issue critical to organization management. To address this question, we built a moderated mediation model on employees’ silence behavior based on the analysis of Social Control Theory. Specifically, our study examined the partial mediation effect of cynicism on the relationship between instrumental ethical climate and employee’s silence behavior. We also focused on the traditionality and predicted that it moderated the mediation effect of cynicism. We collected data from an eastern province of People’s Republic of China. 382 survey questionnaires were distributed to the 31 companies located in Yangtze River Delta, covering high technology, manufacturing, education, etc. In the end, 342 employees returned the questionnaires (response rate was 89.53%). After screening out the problematic cases, the final sample consists of 308 employees. 48.38% were male, 51.62% were female; the most age range from 25-30 years old (41.23%); the most had the diploma of junior college (38.96%) and undergraduate (31.17%). To examine the distinctiveness of the study variables, we conducted a confirmatory factor analysis by using AMOS 7.0. We also employed multiple regression analysis to test the mediated moderation model by using SPSS 13.0. Based on the social control theory, this study proposed and tested a moderated mediation model in which instrumental ethical climate influences silence behavior, with cynicism as a mediator and traditionality as a moderator. The results showed that 1) instrumental ethical climate was positively related to the employee’s silence behavior; 2) instrumental ethical climate was positively related to the cynicism; 3)the cynicism partially mediated the relationship between instrumental ethical climate and employee’s silence behavior; 4) the traditionality moderated the relationship between cynicism and employee’s silence behavior; 5) the traditionality moderated the mediated relationship through the cynicism, that is, the higher traditionality, the stronger the mediated relationship. Our findings contribute to employee’s silence behavior literature. By drawing on social control theory, our study revealed the mediating role of cynicism in the relationship between instrumental ethical climate and employee’s silence behavior. These two negative factors broke through the research status quo, which broaden the boundary of researches on employee’s silence behavior. In addition, we considered the interactive effects of situational factors (instrumental ethical climate), psychological factors (cynicism) and individual factor (traditionality) by integrated an individual factor (traditionality) into it as a moderator, so that we could explain the comprehensive mechanisms fully and systematically. In terms of practical implications, managers should make efforts to curb instrumentalism ethical climate by creating a fair and aggressive environment with team spirit and taking the initiative to care about employee’s well-being. In this way, organizations are likely to set an example about showing consideration for others, so that employees will express their ideas that are beneficial to others. Secondly, according to other scholars, organizations can monitor and prevent employee cynicism through cautious layoffs, perfect compensation management system and effective employment career system, and then avoid silence behavior. Finally, managers must identify the level of traditionality. For the employees with high level of traditionality, managers shouldn’t emphasize personal authority and in their interactions with them to decrease their concern about speaking up, and should ask their recommendations about decision-making in order to build their confidence. Further, managers also should promote the affections among workers and the relationships between employees and organizations, thus making the traditional employees speak up with less worry. Related Articles | Metrics

Select

Ethical Leadership and Employees’ Unethical Behavior and Altruistic Behavior: The Mediating Effect of Moral Disengagement 2015, (3): 693-699.  Abstract ( )   PDF (489KB) ( )   Ethical scandals in organizations are often cited when pointing to leaders as the culprits who foster corruption in their organization. However, little empirical work examines the individual processes through which ethical leadership may influence follower unethical behavior and altruistic behavior. Drawing from principles of social learning theory and social cognitive theory, moral disengagement is presented as a means by which ethical leadership may influence followers. Specifically, I hypothesize that ethical leadership influence on follower unethical behavior and altruistic behavior is mediated through follower moral disengagement. The present study examined the mediating processes in the relationship between ethical leadership and employee unethical behavior as well as altruistic behavior using a sample of 766 employees from the People's Republic of China. A structured questionnaire was employed as the research instrument for this study. It consisted of four scales designed to measure the variables of ethical leadership, moral disengagement, unethical behavior, and altruistic behavior. All the scales were well-established in the literature. SPSS16.0 and Lisrel8.70 were adopted to perform a series of statistical analyses. Structural Equation Model was used to test the hypotheses. Results revealed that ethical leadership was negatively related to follower unethical behavior (?=-.14, p<.001) and positively related to altruistic behavior (?=.37, p<.001), and moral disengagement was positively related to follower unethical behavior (?=.37, p<.001) and negatively related to altruistic behavior (?=-.41, p<.001). Consistent with predictions, we found that ethical leadership had a significant negative influence on unethical behavior (?=-.13, p<.001), and that moral disengagement fully mediated the negative influence of ethical leadership on unethical behavior. Meanwhile, we also found that ethical leadership had a significant positive influence on altruistic behavior (?=.38, p<.001), and that moral disengagement partially mediate the positive influence of ethical leadership on altruistic behavior. Finally, the inclusion of and moral disengagement as mediating variables adds to the growing body of research that demonstrates the importance of ethical leadership influence on both unethical behavior and altruistic behavior. Implications for theory and research are discussed. Related Articles | Metrics

Select

Creative Personality and Employee Creativity: A Moderated Mediation Model 2015, (3): 700-707.  Abstract ( )   PDF (814KB) ( )   Creativity-the generation of useful and novel ideas-produced by individuals in the workplace has been recognized as a primary source for innovation within the organization, and thus is important for sustainable development and competitive advantages. In terms of this, more attentions are paid for employee creativity. Among them, existing literature indicated that personality is a critical factor that explains the differences of individual creativity and some characteristics do influence creativity. But researchers found that individuals with creative personality may not produce creativity. Thus, to promote employee creativity, we intended to explore the mechanism of how creative personality leads to employee creativity. At first, we reviewed the preliminary literatures and identified relative theories about creative personality and creativity. Secondly，we developed a moderated mediation model to examine the mechanism between creative personality and employee creativity including the mediating effect of goal orientation and the moderating effect of intrinsic motivation based on motivated action and achievement motivation theory．Thirdly，we examined our hypotheses by using a sample of 251 subordinate-supervisor dyads from 13 companies in China. The results showed that: (1) Creativity personality can reliably predict employee creativity (β=.591，p<.01) while employee’ s learning goal orientation and performance approach orientation partially mediated the relationship between the two; (2) Intrinsic motivation not only enhanced the influence of employee’ s learning goal orientation(β=.37，p<.01) and performance approach orientation(β=.31，p<.01) on employee creativity, but also positively moderated the indirect relationships between creative personality and employee creativity via goal orientation. What’s more, this study also indicated that the indirect effect of creative personality on employee creativity through performance approach goal orientation was no longer significant(r=.032, p<0.05) while through learning goal orientation was still significant (r=.032, p<0.05) under low level of intrinsic creativity. This study not only extended existing literatures about personality and employee creativity by exploring the mechanism how creative personality lead to creativity, but also shed a light on management practices to improve employee creativity. Firstly, from the selection standpoint, companies should pay attention to personality when recruiting employees since individuals with creative personality may produce creativity. And specific job description helps organizations recruit more qualified applicants who are interested in the job. Secondly, organizations should focus on the goal orientation development of employees with creative personality. On the one hand, it’s important to develop a climate that felicitate learning and provide knowledge accesses through training for creative employees to enhance their learning goal orientation; on the other hand, organizations should advocate the importance of creativity and reward employees who obtain creative achievements. In this way, creative employees with performance approve orientation will focus on creative work in order to approve their ability. At last but not least, managers should be fully aware of the importance of intrinsic motivation. Only with intrinsic motivation and then focus on their tasks in the workplace can employees with creative personality show high level creativity. Thus, management practices such as optimizing job design and empowering leadership behaviors could be taken to promote their intrinsic motivation. The results showed that: (1) Creativity personality can reliably predict employee creativity in the work place(β=.591，p<.01) while employee’ s learning goal orientation and performance approach orientation partially mediated the relationship between the two; (2) Intrinsic motivation not only enhanced the influence of employee’ s learning goal orientation(β=.37，p<.01) and performance approach orientation(β=.31，p<.01) on creativity in the workplace, but also positively moderated the indirect relationships between creative personality and creativity in the workplace via goal orientation. What’s more, this study also indicated that the indirect effect of creative personality on creativity in the workplace through performance approach goal orientation was no longer significant(r=.032, p<0.05) while through learning goal orientation was still significant (r=.032, p<0.05) under low level of intrinsic creativity. This study not only extended existing literatures about personality and creativity in the workplace by exploring the mechanism how creative personality lead to creativity, but also shed a light on management practices to improve creativity in the workplace. Firstly, companies should pay attention to personality when recruiting employees since individuals with creative personality may produce creativity in the workplace. Secondly, organizations should focus on the goal orientation development of employees with creative personality. On the one hand, it’s important to build learning organization and provide knowledge accesses for creative employees to enhance their learning goal orientation; on the other hand, organizations should advocate the importance of creativity and reward employees who obtain creative achievements. In this way, creative employees with performance approve orientation will focus on creative work in order to approve their ability. At last but not least, managers should be fully aware of the importance of intrinsic motivation. Only with intrinsic motivation and then focus on their tasks in the workplace can employees with creative personality show high level creativity. Thus, management practices such as optimizing job design and meeting their needs could be taken to promote their intrinsic motivation. Related Articles | Metrics

Select

Why I am becoming burned out? The role of changes in job demands and resources 2015, (3): 708-714.  Abstract ( )   PDF (704KB) ( )   Job burnout is a three-dimensional syndrome in response to chronic work-related stressors, including emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment. Over the past four decades, much effort has been devoted to understanding what job burnout is and why it happens. A host of studies have used the job demands-resources (JD-R) model as a theoretical framework to examine how different job characteristics influence job burnout. The main purpose of this three-wave longitudinal study is to investigate how changes in job demands (workload, emotional demands, work-family conflict) and resources (autonomy, social support, performance feedback, and opportunities to development) and burnout affect each other over time. Full-time employees working in three large Chinese companies were approached three times over a one-year period from June 2012 to June 2013. The final sample consists of 263 participants with an average age of 34.46 years and organizational tenure of 5.59 years, including 44% males and 56% females. The preliminary analysis shows that the attrition of participants is at random, thus it will not affect the validity of the results. Structural equation modeling analysis shows that the hypothesized model fits the data very well (=573.46，RMSEA=.043，CFI=.93，IFI=.93，TLI=.92). It can be concluded job demands positively affects and job resources negatively affects job burnout over time, which in turn leads to a further increase in job demands and decrease in job resources. In addition, Bootstrap analysis shows that all the specific mediation effects are significant as the confidence intervals do not contain zero. Our study has established a longitudinal link between changes in job-related characteristics and development of burnout. Burned out individuals are more likely to experience a “deteriorated work environment→increased burnout” cycle. This study enhances current knowledge about the development of burnout in several respects, and the findings have important implications for preventive interventions with regard to burnout. A comprehensive JD-R model based intervention strategy has been proposed. Related Articles | Metrics

Select

Moderation Effect Analysis Based Multiple Linear Regression 2015, (3): 715-720.  Abstract ( )   PDF (772KB) ( )   Moderation indicates that the strength and/or direction of the relation between an independent variable and a dependent variable is affected by a third variable, which is called moderator. Moderation models are frequently used in the research of psychology and other social science disciplines, but some issues are still need to be clarified. The purpose of the present study is to clarify two issues in moderation effect analysis. One is the role of the mean-centering; the other is the advantages and disadvantages of two existing methods for testing simple slope. Firstly, the product term in moderated regression might be collinear with its constituent parts, making it difficult to detect interaction effects. Some researchers presumed that mean-centering could reduce colinearity and improve the precision of estimates from collinear data, but this is not true. After reviewing the role of mean-centering in moderated multiple regression, we emphasize that mean-centering does not change the coefficient of the product term (moderation term) of the regression, but changes the coefficients of the first-order terms (main effect terms) and improves the interpretability of results. Secondly, when an interaction is found, the interactive effect need to be further probed to fully explicate the relationship among the three variables. The most common method for probing interactions is to test simple slopes. We discuss the merits and demerits of two methods for testing simple slope: Pick-a-point method and Johnson-Neyman’s method. Pick-a-point method is to test simple slopes at several specific levels of the predictors and report whether they are significant, whereas Johnson-Neyman’s method is to test simple slopes in the whole range of the predictor and report the regions in which the simple effect is significant. We suggest that Johnson-Neyman’s method be adopted to analyze simple slope test when the moderator is a continuous variable, whereas the pick-a-point method be adopted to analyze simple slope test when the moderator is a categorical variable or researchers are interested in the test at some special points of the moderator. An example is given to illustrate how to conduct moderation effect analysis by multiple linear regressions and test simple slope by using Johnson-Neyman’s method. Directions for future study on moderation effect analyses are discussed at the end of the paper. In fact, in addition to mean-centering, standardization is an alternative to analyze moderation effects, and the effect tests with mean-centering and standardization are equivalent. Furthermore, two methods for testing simple slopes can expend to more complicated moderation models, such as multilevel moderation models and moderation models in which the dependent variable is a binary variable. Related Articles | Metrics

Select

Adult Attachment and Pathological Internet Use: The Mediating Roles of Social Self-efficacy and Loneliness Xu LI Shi-Min Chen 2015, (3): 721-727.  Abstract ( )   PDF (4481KB) ( )   According to the literatures on PIU, a rather large body of researchers has provided empirical evidence to support the idea that the quality of interpersonal relationships may contribute to PIU. But until now, little is known about the mechanisms underlying attachment orientations on PIU. Davis (2001) presented a cognitive-behavioral model of PIU, and thought that the maladaptive cognitions of self and world play critical roles in PIU. Based on the cognitive-behavioral model of PIU, this study presents a unique perspective on the underlying mechanisms of attachment orientations on PIU by focusing on the possible mediating roles of social self-efficacy and loneliness. Using cluster random sampling method, total of 483 undergraduates (250 men, 233 women;) were recruited from three universities in Guangdong province, aged from 17 to 25 years (M = 19.82, SD = .97). Participants completed paper-and-pencil version of the questionnaires of adult attachment (attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance), social self-efficacy, loneliness and PIU (core symptoms and related problems). Participants were informed about the voluntary nature of the study, and obtained presents in exchange for participating. In this study, the hypothetical model was estimated using the maximum likelihood method (ML) and the bootstrap method in the Mplus program (version 7.0). In addition, as recommended by Matsunaga (2008), the current study adopted item parceling strategies (factorial algorithm and internal-consistency approach) to solve the problem that a single latent variable contains too many observation indexes. Because independent samples t tests of gender differences revealed that significant differences between women and men on study variables emerged, the variable gender was controlled in the subsequent mediation modeling analyses. Analyses of the mediation model showed a good fit to the data (χ2 = 382.99, df = 152, χ2 / df = 2.52, p ≤ .001; RMSEA = .056; CFI = .961; TLI = .951; SRMR = .043), and revealed that: (1) The relationship between attachment anxiety and PIU was mediated by loneliness, and the significant mediating roles were composed of: the mediating roles of loneliness for core symptoms (effect size = 25.10％) and for related problems (effect size = 26.27％); (2) Regarding to attachment avoidance dimension, the mediating role of loneliness and the serial mediating role of social self-efficacy via loneliness were found in this linkage, and the significant mediating roles were composed of: (a) the mediating roles of loneliness for core symptoms (effect size = 33.89％) and for related problems (effect size = 33.33％); the serial mediating roles of social self-efficacy via loneliness for core symptoms (effect size = 49.59％) and for related problems (effect size = 48.72％). These results basically supported our theoretical hypotheses that social self-efficacy and loneliness mediated the relationship between attachment orientations and PIU. To our knowledge, this is the first study of its kind, and it expands upon the growing corpus of research relating the relationship between attachment orientations and PIU by understanding the mechanisms leading to attachment anxious and avoidant individuals’ lower social self-efficacy and higher loneliness. These findings have theoretical and applicative value for the prevention and clinical treatments of PIU. Related Articles | Metrics

Select

Interference from Irrelevant Negative Material in Updating the Contents of Working Memory in Remitted Individuals with Recurrent Depression 2015, (3): 728-732.  Abstract ( )   PDF (393KB) ( )   Abstract Depression is associated with difficulties removing irrelevant negative material from working memory. Dysfunctions in updating the contents of working memory would lead to difficulties processing new information, and thereby make a depressive episode more likely. Cognitive deficit seems to be present in individuals suffering from unipolar disorder in the remitted state（Hasselbalch, Knorr & Kessing, 2011）. However, difficulty expelling negative material from WM in remitted depression is not well understood. This study was designed to assess whether the remitted individuals with recurrent depression are associated with a specific deficit in updating the contents of working memory that results in increased interference from irrelevant negative material. A modified Sternberg task was used to asses a person’s ability to update the contents of working memory in 21 remitted depression individuals and 21 normal controls. For each trial, participants were required to memorize 2 lists of emotional pictures and subsequently to ignore 1 of the lists. The impact of irrelevant emotional material on the ability to update the contents of working memory was indexed by response latencies on a recognition task in which the participants decided whether or not a probe was a member of the relevant list. Emotion material consists of 208 positive pictures and 208 negative pictures from the international affective picture system. The authors compared not only response latencies to probes from the irrelevant list to response latencies to the relevant probes of the same valence, but also response latencies to probes from the irrelevant list to response latencies to novel probes of the same valence (intrusion effect). An ANOVA on response times with group as the between-subjects factor and picture type (relevant, irrelevant) and picture valence (positive, negative) as within-subjects factors was conducted. The result showed that the analysis yielded significant main effect of condition (F (1, 40) = 12.18, p < .01), valence (F (1, 40) =12.04, p < .01) and an interaction effect of group, condition, and valence separately (F (1, 40) =9.79, p < .01). Interaction effect was further examined by analyzing response times of different valence. Compared to control participants, remitted individuals showed longer latencies to probes from the irrelevant list than from relevant probes when presented with negative pictures(t（20） = 3.33，p﹤.01). In contrast, normal participants exhibited longer latencies to probes from the irrelevant list than from relevant probes when presented with positive pictures(t（20）＝3.48, p﹤.001). In addition, another ANOVA on response times with group as the between-subjects factor and picture type (irrelevant, new) and picture valence (positive, negative) as within-subjects factors was conducted. The result yielded a significant interaction effect of group, condition, and valence (F (1, 40) =11.83, p < .01). Further analysis showed that remitted participants had longer latencies to probes from the irrelevant list than from novel probes when presented with negative pictures（t（20）＝4.88，p﹤.001）and had significantly greater intrusion effects ( t (40)=3.13，p﹤.01) compared with normal participants. However, the remitted participants show no intrusion effects when presented with positive pictures. These results indicate that remitted depression is associated with difficulties removing irrelevant negative material from working memory. Related Articles | Metrics

Select

Spatial representation of pitch in congenital amusia 2015, (3): 733-738.  Abstract ( )   PDF (648KB) ( )   Congenital amusia is a lifelong music deficiency that cannot be attributed to abnormal intelligence, hearing impairment, brain damage or lack of normal exposure. It has been reported that congenital amusia affected about 4% of the general population in Western culture，in contrast the rate was 3.4% in China. However, whether congenital amusia is a music-specific deficiency or a general cognitive ability deficiency remains a controversial issue. Using behavioral measures, both congenital amusics and matched controls completed the spatial representation of pitch task, spatial mental rotation task, and pitch discrimination task in the present study; the aim of present study was to explore whether deficiency of congenital amusia was limited to music domain or extended to other non-music domains. Thirty seven volunteers were initially tested with the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia (MBEA). Participants who achieved scores below 65 in the first three subtests (Scale, Contour and Interval) of the MBEA were considered as congenital amusics (N=14). Fourteen matched controls were also recruited. Thepitch spatial representation task, mental rotation task and pitch discrimination task were complete by both groups. In the pitch spatial representation task, the standard deviation of the X position was analyzed using mixed ANOVA, which was conducted with 2(group) × 6(pitch). A significant main effect of group was found, showing that congenital amusics performed worse than controls in pitch spatial representation. Mental rotation task revealed a significant main effect of group in error rate, showing worse performance in individuals with congenital amusia than controls. In the pitch discrimination task, the results showed that the error rates of congenital amusics were significantly worse than those of controls. In summary, the results of the present study demonstrated that the deficits in congenital amusia extended to spatial representation of pitch and even spatial mental rotation processing. The present findings supported the viewpoint that music processing and spatial processing might share common cognitive mechanisms, which suggested that congenital amusia was a general cognitive ability deficit rather than a music-specific deficit. Related Articles | Metrics

Select

A Comparison of Assimilation in Good- and Poor-Outcome Cases of Counseling：From the Perspective of Assimilation Model 2015, (3): 739-747.  Abstract ( )   PDF (1704KB) ( )   Abstract□□Objective: Assimilation model is a theoretical model concerning the change process of psychotherapy, which put forward by William B. Stiles and colleagues. The model suggested that, in successful psychotherapy, clients followed a regular developmental sequence of resolving the problematic experiences that they brought into treatment. The aim of this study was to verify the theoretical construct of Assimilation Model on the change process of successful psychotherapy, and to find the key point which might distinguish the cases of good and poor outcomes, by increasing the sample size to four cases with good outcome and four cases with poor outcome, and comparing the assimilation levels of these cases. Methods: Three research teams consisted of seven trained raters were engaged in the rating work, they used a qualitative research method of Assimilation Analysis to analysis the clients’ transcripts. Assimilation Analysis has been used to track the change process of clients’ problematic experiences in psychotherapy. Every investigator of the three research teams read and reread the transcripts of eight clients, tracked the major themes and described the voices, excerpted the relevant passages related the voices as the rating materials, then rated each passage according to the Assimilation of Problematic Experiences Scale (APES) and the Markers of Assimilation Manual. At last, every team reached consensus ratings of the excerpted passages. Results: The essential problems on those cases were discussed and reached a consensus. The internal coefficient consistency ICC (1,1) of the three teams ranged from 0.64 to 0.86; the ICC (1,K) ranged from 0.84 to 0.96. After the termination sessions, the mean score of the final assimilation (M = 5.50) and the mean score of the progress assimilation level (M = 4.25) for good outcome cases were higher than the poor outcome cases (with mean score of 2.13 and -0.13). The good outcome cases, along with the poor outcome cases, presented the process that therapeutic advances alternated with setbacks. However, the good outcome cases were able to maintain progress accompanying with setbacks, while the poor outcome cases failed to progress. All of the good outcome cases reached the Assimilation level 4 (understanding/insight), whereas the poor outcome cases failed to reach the level 4. Conclusions: Consistent with the former researches’ results, the findings supported the theoretical expectation that the reduction of symptom intensity were associated with higher levels of assimilation. All of the good outcome cases reached Assimilation Level 4, whereas none of the poor outcome cases did so. So the Assimilation Level 4 was the key point that distinguished the good and the poor outcome cases. However, in the view of all cases’ assimilation process, the therapeutic advances alternated with some setbacks，from these setbacks we could be made a conclusion that maybe some improvements on the model’s developmental sequence were needed. For example, the former linear developmental sequence could be revised as cycling up sequence. Related Articles | Metrics

Select

Controversy over Similarity Matching for Assortative Mating 2015, (3): 748-756.  Abstract ( )   PDF (355KB) ( )   What kind of person are you looking for? What kind of person is the one you ultimately married? How can a series of characteristics be matched between two people that will favor the fruitful development of the marital relationship? These are essential questions with regard to assortative mating, and it is clear that these issues have considerable practical significance. Assortative mating refers to the nonrandom coupling of individuals based on their resemblance to each other on one or more characteristics. Although hypotheses on assortative mating have typically been framed in terms of similarity (i.e., positive assortment ) and complementarity (i.e., negative assortment), numerous studies on mate choice have supported the similarity hypothesis. Homogamy has been reported for numerous characteristics, including facial appearance, relative stature, body mass index, physical attractiveness, education level, socioeconomic status, religion, mental ability, attitudes, attachment style, and some personality traits. Most people ultimately pair with partners who resemble themselves; however, there are some inconsistencies in the existing literature on the association between assortative mating and relationship quality. We have summarized the extant controversies with regard to three aspects, namely, the roles of perceived similarity and actual similarity, the association between similarity matching and relationship quality, and the link between dominant position and fitness of similarity matching. Specifically, the first controversy involves the question of whether actual similarity or perceived similarity is linked to attraction and relationship satisfaction. While some researchers maintain that actual similarity is critical for facilitates attraction, others argue that only perceived similarity is important. These researchers argue that satisfaction also leads to increased perceived similarity, and that perceived similarity further facilitates satisfaction. Second, although we expect that partners who are similar in terms of their psychological characteristics would get along better and be more satisfied with their relationships, the results of extensive research on this topic have been generally weak and contradictory. Several studies have found a positive relationship between similarity and marital quality for personality-related domains, but not for attitude-related domains. However, other studies have reported that personality similarity had only a negligible additional effect on relationship quality after controlling for the main effects of each individual’s personality. Third, the widespread of similarity matching phenomenon has established its dominant position in the field of assortative mating, but there is no consensus on whether this dominance means absolute fitness. Some researchers emphasize the positive effects of homogamy on marital relationship as well as on reproduction and nurture, so they believe in "what exists is reasonable". However, others find no substantial effect or even undesirable outcomes. In fact, several studies have supported the fitness of dissimilarity-matching under certain conditions, suggesting that similarity and complementarity are not necessarily opposing, but are affected by individual and situational factors. Several studies have supported dissimilarity-matching under limited conditions, suggesting that similarity and complementarity are not necessarily opposing, but are affected by individual and situational factors. The underlying causes behind these differences may be complex. Given that most studies have only explored the correlation between assortative mating and marital relationships while ignoring potential moderating or mediating variables, it seems likely that the use of exceedingly simple designs has lead to perceptions of the superiority of similarity matching. Furthermore, different studies have focused on divergent characteristics or sub-characteristics have employed various theories and different measurement scales, potentially leading to inconsistent results. Finally, some studies may not have been sufficiently precise in their calculations of similarity and the analytical methods employed. In conclusion, future studies should deepen their research focus in order to construct a complete theoretical model with regard to assortative mating, embrace diverse research methods and scientific measurements, ensure consistency in calculations and analytical methods, and conduct further research on the association between assortative mating and relationship quality in both China and in other cultures. Related Articles | Metrics

Select

Exploration on Cultural Perspective of Cognitive Psychology Paradigm Evolution mengweijie 2015, (3): 757-761.  Abstract ( )   PDF (309KB) ( )   Over the past 40 years，contemplating on the Kuhn’s paradigm theory，from the development of Cognitive science，that has undergone three major research paradigms：symbolic paradigm, Connectionist Paradigms and embodied cognition paradigm. Among them, symbolic paradigm and connection paradigm is known to be the first generation of science. In short, the human’s information processing is disembodied cognitive. Embodied cognition paradigm emerged in the last century in the late 1980s, and advocated the human mind embodied cognitive. The rise of embodied cognition has changed the traditional disembodied cognitive function or characterization of calculating the limitations of be unable to fully describe the human cognition, from the fundamental answered the world proposition of human cognition and interpretation from the relationship between the physical and mental interaction. Looking away cognitive development and cognitive research paradigm evolution path from the embodied cognition to the disembodied cognition, on Kuhn’s perspective, easy to see, in its nearly half a century of exploration process, Descartes 'dualism' shadow always marching orders persists, the spirit of the natural sciences is always respected its unaltered tone, humanities and cultural consciousness is declining. From disembodied cognitive to embodied cognitive, on the one hand cognitive psychology of human information processing of fine-experimental study, summarizing the basic characteristics of many psychological processes，and providing psychological process of understanding the scientific basis of individual differences. And the other also show shifting each paradigm from cognitive science，that in fact inherently contains profound changes of its research ideas, research methods and research techniques. by the depth of reflection of each paradigm evolution，not only which can inspire the paradigm review，deepen their understanding and application，but also make cognitive psychology from the first generation to the second generation revolution lead to more rationalization，context and culturalization, which enables one to obtain more solid and comprehensive understanding. This paradigm shift for cognitive science on the physical and mental binary relations make possible amendments, and make system, dynamic comprehensive exploration for machine production on cognitive brain, body, and environment to shape the psychological trinity. In addition, the paradigm shift also implies a change in such a psychological perspective: From natural to the integration of nature and phenomena. This change in perspective is actually implicit on cognitive science of their own efforts and try in overcoming the limitations of in the cultural context: emphasizing situational, embodied, power and other characteristics, beginning to emphasize the cognitive into real life be examined in the nature of cognition as a living body environment activities in real time. We can expect, with the development of cognitive neuroscience, cultural neuroscience, culture has a variety of different levels as a constituent power system exists, which is likely to be achieved from psychological research process theories, techniques and methods to provide better a scientific, basis and forward-looking support, and may usher in a new era of development psychology. Related Articles | Metrics

Select

Demarcation of scientific knowledge, chasing anxiety and the construction of Chinese indigenous psychological theories Xiao-Kang Lu 2015, (3): 762-766.  Abstract ( )   PDF (305KB) ( )   Scientific psychology, the dominant psychological paradigm, adopts a method-centered knowledge construction strategy that reveres accurate objective knowledge like the one provided by classic physics, one of the exemplary discipline of natural sciences that are irrelevant to any cultural values, personal feelings, and subjective consciousness. The self-segregation from subjective matters is one of the major costs of pursuing a scientific career for modern psychology that has incurred severe attacks. However, this giant vision of becoming a scientific branch succeeded only partially in the 20th century, since not all psychologists agree that psychology is a scientific discipline, and some psychologists even pose serious attack on shortcomings of scientific psychology and there do exists competing psychological theories that could be classified as scientific psychological theories. Psychology is an alien subject for modern China and the institutionalization of Chinese psychology occurred in a similar way as the one in western world, especially as the one in America, since most of the returned students, who later become the first generation of early Chinese psychologists, received their doctoral or mater degree in the psychological or educational departments in America. The internal tension between scientific psychology and humanistic psychology also exist in the developmental trajectory of modern Chinese psychology. Besides, as most psychologists in less developed academic areas, Chinese psychologists have long been facing the chasing anxiety that fears lagging behind the cutting-edge of modern psychology. Thus, they are not confident enough to speak their own voices and use their own languages to explain indigenous psychological phenomena; western theories are always their final resorts. This leads to an awkward situation that western theories that have little cultural backgrounds play the decisive role in academic studies, while people in everyday life continue to offer their own accounts that may fit their experiences better than the so-called scientific psychological theories. It is true that there is little, if not none, scientific methods for doing psychological studies among traditional Chinese psychological thoughts, but there are solid resources for humanistic psychology. It is not realistic for Chinese psychologists to develop a measureable scientific theory with traditional Chinese thoughts; however, this does not necessarily mean that Chinese could not develop psychological theories of their own. This does mean that Chinese psychologists should not see scientific psychology as the only possible theoretical pattern of psychology, but one of them. Humanistic Chinese psychology, which has deep roots in ancient Chinese philosophical thoughts, could become the breakthrough point that addresses the real psychological and behavioral problems of contemporary transitional China. The vitality and strength lie of a theory in its external validity as well as its cohesive power of social values and opinions, but not in the so called scientific procedure. This is the very power of traditional Chinese thoughts. Chinese psychologists could focus on the construction of comprehensive theoretical framework that encompasses the major issues covered in humanistic psychology and seek to provide an integrated outline that would lead to further fruitful theoretical perspectives. Related Articles | Metrics