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Attention Bias In High Obsessive-Compulsive Tendency Individuals: An ERP Study 2015, (6): 1282-1289.  Abstract ( )   PDF (578KB) ( )   Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder(OCD) is characterized by persistent and unwanted obsessions mostly accompanied by ritualistic compulsions. According to the World Health Organization, OCD is one of the top 10 causes of disability, manifesting its severe impact on quality of life. But the mechanism of OCD is still unclear. Some researchers suggested that the attention bias to threat-related stimuli may be the cause and maintenance of OCD. In the past few decades, many studies have investigated attention bias in OCD by using the emotional Stroop task, mostly relying on reaction time. However, those behavioral studies provide little information about the relative involvement of sensory versus cognitive processes in attention bias. Therefore, we use ERPs(Event Related Potentials), which can exquisite temporal resolution and sensitivity to emotional processing, to explore the time course of attention bias in high obsessive-compulsive tendency individuals (HOC). Meanwhile, there was an evidence that the component of attention bias in HOC is difficulty in disengaging attention away from threat. So, which ERPs component will be represented to reflect this information processing. In order to fulfill our curiosity in this two questions, we carried out this research. Accordingly, we obtained the behavioral and electroencephalogram (EEG) data from HOC using the emotional Stroop task. Brain electrical activity was recorded from 64 scalp sites using tin electrodes mounted in an elastic map(Brain Products GmbH, Gilchiing, Germany), with the reference electrodes placed on the left and right mastoids. The experiment was designed to discover the component of attention bias in HOC by manipulating stimulus types(OCD related negative words, generate negative words, neutral words) and different groups (HOC and LOC). Generate negative words and neural words were selected from previous studies(Moritz, et al., 2004; Thomas, Johnstone, & Gonsalvez, 2007), OCD related negative words were chosen by clinical psychologies or psychiatrists. Subjects were divided into two groups by PI (Padua Inventory) scores. The mean amplitude of nine electrodes were selected to analyzed, which was F3, Fz, F4, C3, Cz, C4, P3, Pz, P4. We analyzed the results using repeated-measures analyses of variance (rANOVA) with group as between-subjects variables, stimuli type as within-subjects variables. We observed that HOC shared the same reaction time with LOC. However, interaction effect is observed between group and stimulus type (F(2,29)=5.43, p=.007, ?p2=.15). Specifically, HOC displayed enhanced P2 amplitude, when processing OCD related negative words compared with neutral words(p=.046), while LOC showed enhanced P2 amplitude to general negative words competing with neural words. Moreover,compared with general negative words and neutral words, HOC manifested larger LPPs towards OCD related words. The results of the study support that HOC manifested attention bias to OCD related negative stimulus, and the component of attention bias is difficulty in disengagement away from threat, which occurs not only at sensory processing stage but also at strategic processing stage. Related Articles | Metrics

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An Eye Movement Study on the Effects of Background Noise on Chinese Passage Reading 2015, (6): 1290-1295.  Abstract ( )   PDF (490KB) ( )   Reading is an important way to obtain information, and also a complicated cognitive activity. Most readers have to read in quiet environment, while background noises are unavoidable. what the influences of these noises on our reading, and what is the underlying cause? A lot of researchers have dedicated to this issue, and found that the irrelevant speech seriously interfere with the process of reading. Some of them suggested that the semantic information in ISE disrupts our reading (Tremblay, Nicholls, Alford, & Jones 2000; Oswald, 2000), while the role of acoustical variation in sound on reading has been ignored. Moreover, the previous researches only concerned the overall influence on reading, tell us little about the way the semantic processes involved in the reading task are disrupted by background speech. So the present study was to investigate the effects of background noise on passage reading and word recognition, then conform what is the actual mechanism of ISE on reading. The experiment design was a single factor 3 levels (background noise: irrelevant speech, white noise and silence) within-subjects design. For the passage materials, there are 9 Chinese expositions, 3 passages for practicing and 6 for experiment. For the background noise, irrelevant speech was the dialogue chosen from the TV plays in the past 3 years. For the target words, 144 two character words were chosen for further analysis. During the experiment, 27 participants were asked to read passages under three background noises (irrelevant speech, white noise, silence) which were displayed according to the order of Latin square. The audio materials were played by Window Media Player on Acer 5750G computer, and participants listened to the sound with SONY MDR-E9LP stereo headphone. The eye movements were recorded with a SR Research EyeLink 2000 eye tracker. The sampling rate was 1000Hz. The distance between the subject and the screen was 65 cm and each Chinese character was 28×28 pixels and subtended 0.96°. The results were as follows: (1) The reading process were disturbed by irrelevant speech. Compared with the performances under the background of white noise and silence, there were longer reading time, slower reading rate, more fixations and shorter mean saccade length under the irrelevant speech.（2）The poor reading performances under the irrelevant speech lies in the post-lexical integration difficulties. Target words analysis showed that there was no significant difference among the performances under the three kinds of background noises on first fixation duration or gaze duration, while the go-past time and total reading time were longer under the irrelevant speech than that of under white noise. However, we found an interesting phenomenon: there were shorter reading time, less fixations and higher speed under the white noise than that of reading in silence, though the differences weren't significant. It is indicated that appropriate white noise may facilitate people’s reading to some extent. More studies are needed to confirm this. In conclusion，the present study provides further evidence that irrelevant speech have serious damage on reading, and this damage is resulting from the semantics and acoustical variation in sound. The interference is mostly to do with the disturbing on semantic integration of word processing. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Integrated Influences of Repetition Priming on Temporal Order Perception and Duration Estimation 2015, (6): 1296-1302.  Abstract ( )   PDF (427KB) ( )   Our experience of time includes two main concepts: succession and duration. The existing research results have shown that there is a repetition priming effect on temporal order judgment and duration estimation respectively. According to the range-synthetic model of temporal cognition, temporal order and duration are inextricably linked as a whole. However, the existing studies have not test the effects of repetition priming on the two important temporal concepts during the same temporal experience. To explore the influences of repetition priming on temporal order perception and interval estimation, the tasks of temporal order judgment and time reproduction were adopted in the present study. Visual targets were composed of pairs of figure stimuli: a square and a diamond. The side length of the targets was 4 cm, and the distance between the stimuli was 9 cm. one of the two stimuli was preceded by a smaller version of itself (a prime) in half of the trials in the primed condition; the side length of the prime was 2 cm. The two visual targets were presented horizontally above or below the center of the screen, and the temporal intervals between the two targets were ±112ms, ±84ms, ±56ms, ±28ms, and 0ms (positive numbers indicated the primed figure preceded the unprimed figure, whereas negative numbers indicated that the unprimed figure appeared first and 0 ms meant the primed figure and unprimed figure appeared simultaneously). If primed, one of the targets was preceded by a repetition prime. The positions of the primed targets were balanced, and each of the two shapes was primed equally often. Eighteen participants were instructed to make the judgments of which target appearing first, and then make estimation of the interval between two targets. All participants had normal or corrected-to-normal visual ability, and the data of one participant was deleted due to the random level of temporal order judgments. With 10 repetitions of each of the 72 conditions, the experiment consisted of 720 trials and lasted about 50 min. The results were analyzed by repeated measures ANOVA. During the task of temporal order judgment, the frequency of the judgments of the primed target appearing first was calculated for each SOA and priming condition, and the results showed that there was a significant priming effect that the primed target stimulus was perceived appearing earlier when the non-primed target stimulus appeared first, and there was a reversal of priming effect that the primed target stimulus was perceived appearing later when the primed target stimulus appeared first. During the task of time interval estimation, the lengths between two targets were perceived in the primed condition longer significantly than those between two targets in the non-primed condition. Since the estimated time length was affected by the SOA, the ratio of interval estimation (estimated duration/actual duration) was analyzed and the results showed that the ratio of the primed condition was significantly higher than that of the unprimed condition. In conclusion, there were significant effects of repetition priming on both temporal order perception and interval estimation during the common experience of time, the dual processes of representation activation and response repression induced by the initiation of the primed stimulus was based on the representation matching mechanism in temporal order perception and was based on the arousal mechanism in time interval duration perception, which provided supporting evidence for the theoretical conception of the range-synthetic model of temporal cognition. Related Articles | Metrics

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Aging of word frequency, syllable frequency and phonological facilitation effects in Chinese speech production 2015, (6): 1303-1310.  Abstract ( )   PDF (513KB) ( )   Effects of word frequency (WF) and syllable frequency (SF) have been investigated systematically in the speech production domain, and the facilitation of WF and SF effects have been observed in young Chinese adults. The old people experience more failures than the young people in speech production, such as the tip-of-the-tongue (TOT), which means that speakers know target word's meaning but can’t retrieve its word form successfully. There are different types of hypothesis to explain the failure of word retrieval in speech production: Insufficient Activation Hypothesis assumes that the activation of the target word is too weak to retrieve it. The Interference Theory assumes that the words related to the target words inhibit the process of speech production. The Transmission Deficit Hypothesis assumes that normal aging reduce the activation transmission between meaning and word form of target words which results in more failures. The present study aims to investigate the developmental patterns and the cognitive mechanism of aging in spoken production with young and old native Chinese speakers. 25 young (range: 19-30, male: 8, M = 22.6) and 22 old adults (range: 60-77, male: 15, M = 68.5) sharing the same level of education background participate in the experiment. Sixty target pictures with monosyllabic names were selected. A Chinese character's pronunciation (pinyin) corresponds to one syllable, and thus SF was calculated by accumulating the word frequencies of one syllable (not counting tone). For 60 monosyllabic words, half were high frequency (all ≥130/per million), half were low frequency (≤47/permillion). Among high and low frequency words, half had high SF (≥2558/per million), half had low SF (≤1479/per million). In addition, distractor words that phonologically related or unrelated were chosen for each target picture name in picture-word interference task. During experiment, participants were asked to name pictures as quickly and accurately while ignoring distractor words. The experiment was performed using E-Prime Professional Software on a 21 inch CRT computer screen with a refresh rate of 100HZ. Naming latencies were measured from target onset using a voice-key, connected with the computer via a PST Serial Response Box. Errors were judged and marked by an experimenter during the experiment. We performed repeated measures ANOVAs, one with participants as a random effect (F1) and one with items (F2) as a random effect on responses latencies and error rates. For subject analysis, WF, SF and phonological relatedness were within-participants variables, and Age was between-participants variable. For item analysis, Age and phonological relatedness were within-item variables, and WF and SF were between-items variables. Results indicate that the old took longer time to name a picture than the young. The facilitation effects of WF and SF were observed in both young and old adults, and both WF and SF facilitation effects size were larger in the old than in the young. Critically, we found the interaction pattern of WF and SF in the old but independent pattern in the young. Meanwhile, the young produced a larger phonological facilitation effect than the old, reflecting that the young could benefit more than the old in phonologically related condition, and the old are interference by the phonologically related distractors. Our findings provide evidence for the Insufficient Activation Hypothesis or Transmission Deficit Hypothesis of aging in speech production. Related Articles | Metrics

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Effects of Visuospatial Working Memory Loads on Scene Gist Processing Yanju Ren Genyue FU 2015, (6): 1311-1318.  Abstract ( )   PDF (2041KB) ( )   Scene gist refers to the perceptual and conceptual representations about real-world scenes, and the processing of scene category is one form of scene gist recognition. Three theories have been proposed to account for scene gist recognition: local processing theory (LPT), global processing theory (GPT), and dual-processing theory (DPT). LPT held that the recognition of objects and the semantic relationships among the objects (object information) promotes scene gist recognition; but GPT held that scene gist is processed as a whole (spatial information) and there is no need to process the local information; however, according to DPT, LPT and GPT are not absolutely opposite, and the recognition of scene gist relies on simultaneous local and global processing. There has been increasing evidences supporting DPT. However, it is not clear how the two kinds of information are extracted during scene gist recognition. Here we combined the visuospatial working memory task and scene gist discrimination task to examine how visual and spatial working memory affected scene gist recognition. Two experiments were conducted to examine effects of visuospatial working memory loads on scene gist recognition. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to make a judgment as to whether the two scene pictures presented simultaneously on the screen at different time (27 ms, 107 ms or 500 ms) belonged to the same basic-level category or not, while keeping or not keeping four different geometric figures (object working memory load) in working memory. In Experiment 2, the only difference from Experiment 1 was that the participants were required to keep or not keep four different locations (spatial working memory load) while performing the category discrimination task. So in the two experiments, there were two kinds of memory load conditions (non-load vs. four-load), three different presentation times (27, 107, 500 ms) and three kinds of scene matching conditions (natural and natural, natural and manmade, manmade and manmade) crossed and the experiments were within-subject design of 2 (load conditions) by 3 (exposure times) by 3 (scene matching). The dependent factor was the nonparametric discrimination index (A’). The results from the two experiments showed that the main effect of object working memory load was significant, indicating recognition of four-load was lower than that of non-load. But the main effect of spatial working memory load was not significant. The two experiments revealed that the presentation time also affected scene gist recognition. The longer the present time was, the higher recognition was. The main effect of scene matching was also significant, indicating that recognition of natural and manmade was higher than that of “natural and natural” or “manmade and manmade”. These results suggest that scene gist recognition is sensitive to the change of object working memory load but not to the change of spatial working memory load. And the present research also supports the hierarchy of scene gist processing: the processing of superordinate level is prior to the processing of basic level. Related Articles | Metrics

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A study of virtual reality technology aided the blind constructing spatial representation 2015, (6): 1319-1325.  Abstract ( )   PDF (679KB) ( )   Abstract: Most of the information used by people for the cognitive mapping of spaces is gathered through the visual channel. In addition, before navigating an unknown space people often collect information using resources such as maps, pictures, or drawings. Due to the lack of visual ex- perience, there are some flaws exist in blind’s spatial cognition, especially in understanding the spatial layout of the real environment. The study explores the effectiveness of virtual reality technology in assisting the blind to construct the spatial representation of the real life environments. On the basis of that, it explores the effectiveness of blind’s mobility & orientation in the building. The study will be a field trial that it randomly assigns the subjects to three groups, including the human guide group, the virtual reality group, and the tactile maps group. Subjects in each group accept different trainings and tests, which not only investigate their representation of large-scale space, but also measures their efficiency of wayfinding in the reality environment. The results show that:( 1 ) In terms of characterizing spatial representation, virtual reality technol- ogy and tactile maps can assist blind in constructing spatial representation of unfamiliar environment, to help them to be familiar with the environment in advance and to make mobility orientation effective in the real environment ultimately. The subjects in virtual reality group are adept at using virtual envir- onments to optimize their path exploring strategy, i.e. While exploring path in virtual environment, the subjects would convert the self-referential strategy into the reference strategy, which makes them mu- ch easier to construct an accurate spatial representation of the reality environm- ent-environments. ( 2 ) In terms of real walking, the virtual reality group and the tactile maps group can apply the spatial re- presentation obtained into real walking task, which contribute to their mobility & orientation. However，the performance of human guide group is the worst，they can not construct the spatial representation, and mobility & orientation in the environments is not well. ( 3 ) There is a significant relationship bet- ween the ability of construction of spatial representation and the effectiveness of path exploring, that with great ability of the spatial representation,the subjects would have great ability of mobility & ori- entation and they could find more objects. That is to say, the effectiveness of path exploring in reality environments can be predicted by the ability of construction of spatial representation. The study demonstrated that the subjects in virtual technology group could not only form a clear representation of the whole environment, but also apply the precise spatial representation of environm- ent to effective mobility orientation in the reality environment. Moreover, from the resluts, the virtual reality technology could be applied to improving the blind’s spatial representation system and the effi- ciency of mobility & orientation. The innovation of the study is that, adopting with field trial method and case phenomenon description, to explore the effectiveness of virtual reality technology for assisting blind’s construction of the spatial representation and mobility & orientation. The result has a great significance for exploring the education of blind’s mobility orientation. Related Articles | Metrics

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The influence of transfer chuck number and position on implicit sequence learning Jian-Ping HUANG Dian-Zhi LIU 2015, (6): 1326-1333.  Abstract ( )   PDF (625KB) ( )   Two theories account for when and how people realize the sequence rules in implicit learning: the continuous strengthening of the memory characterization and the unexpected-event hypothesis. The latter theory supposes that the generation of the explicit knowledge of an accidentally experienced rule is due to a controlled search as well as the regular task processing. This search is motivated by unexpected events that occur during task processing. For instance, while performing an accidental sequence learning task smoothly subjects may unexpectedly experience an unmatched feeling, and while examining causes of the unexpected experience they find more regular patterns in the task. Based on this theory, this study set transfer chunk to motivate the search for accidents. We adjusted the number and position of transfer chunks to investigate how to enhance efficiency in implicit sequence learning. We adopted the serial reaction time (SRT) tasks and increased the number of transfer chunks and changed their position, assuming that the more transfer chunks there are, the more amount of implicit knowledge and the higher level of consciousness subjects will get and that the earlier transfer chunks appear, the more amount of implicit knowledge and the higher level of consciousness they will get. A total of 86 undergraduates took part in the experiment of 10 training chunks with a four-choice SRT task. Each chunk consisted of 96 trials, and so 960 trials in total. On each trial, subjects responded to the location of the target as quickly and accurately as possible by pressing the corresponding key. In this study, subjects in every condition had to finish the training chunks with the SOC1 sequence and the transfer chunk with the SOC2 sequence. In addition, conditions 1 and 2 both had only one transfer chunk, with an earlier position of the transfer chunk in the sequence in condition 1 than condition 2. Conditions 3 and 4 both had two transfer chunks, with the first transfer chunk appearing earlier in condition 3 than condition 4. Subjects had to finish the learning phase first, then make a verbal report, and finally finish Include and Exclude tasks. According to the verbal reports, we selected the data which were not completely explicit, and then analyzed their amount of implicit learning and level of consciousness. The results show: (1) a significant effect of number, that is, two transfer chunks can better promote implicit sequence learning, which proves that novel stimuli can play a role of "accidents" only with a certain quality of the characterization; (2) as to the position effect, two transfer chunks with the earlier position of the first transfer chunk can generate more explicit consciousness, which means that the first novel stimulus has to appear in the phase of primary quality characterization, and that the comparison of the first novel stimulus with the original sequence and echo with the second novel stimulus can promote the level of consciousness of the original sequence. Related Articles | Metrics

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Abnormal Functional Integration of Brain in Depression Evidences from Effective Connectivity 2015, (6): 1334-1339.  Abstract ( )   PDF (307KB) ( )   Abnormal Functional Integration of Brain in Depression Evidences from Effective Connectivity Abstract: Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is currently the mainstay of neuroimaging in cognitive neuroscience, which could use to understand how different parts of the brain respond to external stimuli by measuring signal changes in the brain. It has a wide range of applications in clinical diagnosis, such as depression disorders. Although depression disorders place an enormous burden on society, and ranked as the fourth leading cause of burden among all diseases, until recently the pathogenesis of depression is not clear. On the one hand, depression is often accompanied with many brain regions or systems abnormality, rather than single region damage. On the other hand, as a nonlinear dynamic system, the human brain is affected by multi-factors, and there are interactions between brain regions, which mask it difficult to understand the complex cognitive process of the brain. So using the method of function integration to dynamic monitor the interaction of multiple brain regions might reveal the pathophysiological mechanism of depression. With the development of the function integration, it has become able to explore the functional brain integration of multiple brain regions, and deeply understand the dynamic mode of the human brain, which represents an important direction of the cognitive neuroscience in the current and future. Functional integration mainly include functional connectivity and effective connectivity. Functional connectivity describes the temporal correlations between spatially remote neurophysiological events, but this method couldn’t reveal the direction of the connection between brain regions; while, effective connectivity mainly reflects the influence one neural system exerts over another, meanwhile, it could reflect how the experimental conditions influence the interaction between the brain regions. That is to say, effective connectivity can describe the dynamic interaction between the brain regions. The main methods of effective connectivity include structural equation model, dynamic causal model, granger causality analysis, psychophysiological interaction and so on. Major depression is characterized by an attentional bias: disproportionately allocate their attention to threatening stimuli and negative memories. Attention bias is accompanied by abnormal connection between the cognitive control system (e.g., DLPFC) and the limbic system (e.g., amygdala). However, it is not yet clear whether this bias represents impaired top-down cognitive control over affective responses, potentially linked to deficits in DLPFC; or enhanced bottom-up responses to affectively laden stimuli that disturb cognitive control mechanisms, potentially linked to deficits in amygdala. By using the methods of effective connection, we can better understanding the dynamic change of these two systems, and provide an effective and specific treatment method for depression. Effective connectivity can be understood from following respects: 1) the concept of the effective connectivity and the necessity of effective connectivity studies; 2) introduction the methods of effective connectivity, including the principles, main contributors, their advantages and drawbacks; 3) the applications to depression; 4) the limitations of the previous studies and the direction for future studies. In the future, effective connectivity will be widely used in basic research and clinical applications, particularly in neural pathway of the diseases and would highly enrich our knowledge about the dynamic integration of the brain regions. Related Articles | Metrics

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Experience Advantage of Driver to percept Pedestrian’s Hazard Under Car-following Condition 2015, (6): 1340-1346.  Abstract ( )   PDF (649KB) ( )   Hazard perception refers to drivers’ cognitive process of identifying, predicting and reacting to the obvious and latent hazard. Previous studies have shown that both experienced and novice drivers were good at detecting pedestrian-related hazard. We doubted whether the experienced drivers can detect pedestrians well if the hazard were combined with a potential hazard(eg pedestrian and car braking together). We therefore, conducted two experiments to explore different drivers’reaction time and their eye movements by setting two traffic scenarios:single hazardous condition( only pedestrians) and multiple hazardous conditions(pedestrian combined with the vehicle in front of the driver). In the first study, we used Tobii T120 type eye tracker to examine the behavior and eye movements by combined the reaction method and eye movements technique. Experiments is a 2 (traffic scene: pedestrian scene, pedestrians - the front car scene) ×3 (group: no driver's license, novice, experienced driver) mixed design, with traffic scene being the the within subject variable and the groups being the between subject variable. Participants were asked to watch a video of traffic scenes, when they detected a hazard, they should press the key immediately. The results show that: In the case of pedestrian-car condition, the experienced group’s reaction time is faster than novice group (p = .039) and no driver's license group (p = .013), F (2,30) = 3.98, p = .029. No driver's license group’s average fixation duration on pedestrian was longer than the experience group (p = .043) and the novice group (p = .024), F (2,30) = 3.39, p = .047, η2 = .18. No driver's license group’s level of searching breadth was less than (p = .006) the experienced group and the novice group (p = .016), F (2,30) = 5.17, p = .012, η2 = .26. In the second study, we further examined the impact of double hazard scene on drivers’ hazard perception and information processing efficiency. Experiments is a 2 (AOI type: pedestrian, the vehicle in front) × 3 (group: no driver's license group, the novice group, experienced group) two-factor mixed design, with AOI type being the the within subject variable and the groups being the between subject variable. The results showed that: the experienced group’s total fixation time on the front car was significantly shorter than the novice group (p = .014) and no driver's license group (p = .003), F (2,30) = 5.99, p = .006 . The experienced group’s average search time of the front car was significantly shorter than the novice group (p = .014) and no driver's license group (p = .004), F (2,30) = 5.50, p = .009. In the case of the front car condition, the average search time is longer, the longer the time their reaction time to pedestrians by controlling of the sex and age (β = .393, p <0.05, R2 = .308). These results indicate that: the inexperienced and novice drivers’ bad behavior were not just due to the fact that operations of the car snatch cognitive resources or caused by emotional factors. Lower efficiency of information processing, the inflexible search mode will also leads to a higher accident rate, which is one of the reasons for the novice driver traffic collisions. In the future, driver training should be strengthened for the novice driver on their visual search skills, and continue to provide more educational opportunities for the drivers. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Role of Sensory and Motor Information in Conceptual Representation 2015, (6): 1347-1352.  Abstract ( )   PDF (285KB) ( )   The conceptual representation studies are very important for understanding the nature of the concepts. The disembodied cognition and embodied cognition both propose different opinions on the representation of concepts. On the disembodied cognition view, conceptual representations are abstract symbols. These symbols are extracted from the sensorimotor information. The conceptual representations don't contain sensorimotor information any more. On the embodied cognition opinion, the sensorimotor information underlies the conceptual representations. Cognition is essentially embodied and the body plays a essential role in the cognitive processes．The role of sensorimotor information in conceptual representation is the focus in dispute. The previous studies have provided a growing body of evidence for the role of sensorimotor information. The sensorimotor information is involved in concrete concepts and abstract concepts processing, and lots of neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies have found that the sensorimotor information are activated in concept processing. Furthermore, the phenomena of perceptual processing are found in concept processing, such as modality switching effect and haptic disadvantage effect. Previous studies have shown that switching from one modality to another during perceptual processing results in a processing cost. If sensorimotor information underlies conceptual processing, the processing of concepts should exhibit a switching cost. Most of the researchers agree that the sensorimotor information is involved in conceptual representation, and the perceptual and conceptual systems share the common representation resources. Although it reaches a consensus that the sensorimotor information are involved in conceptual representation, little is known about the mechanism of the information. In the future, researchers should pay attention to the following questions, such as that “in which cases sensory and motor information play a role?” and “how much impact it will have?” According to the embodied cognition, relevant theories are placed on a continuum. The continuum contains non-embodied cognition, secondary embodied cognition, weak cognition and strong embodied cognition. The accumulated evidence illustrate that both the non-embodied cognition and strong embodied cognition are problematic. In the future studies, researchers should survey available evidence and make the embodied more perfect. Researchers have gathered sufficient empirical evidence for the representation of concrete concepts. There is a big difference between the representation of concrete concepts and abstract concepts. For example, the concrete concepts have direct relationship with the sensorimotor information, but the relationship between abstract concepts and sensorimotor information is indirect. Abstract concepts are traditionally supposed to differ from concrete concepts by their lack of sensorimotor information, which causes them to have different processing modes. In order to provide evidence for the embodied cognition, some researchers propose several theories, such as conceptual metaphor theory, situated simulation theory, grounding by interaction assumption, representational pluralism assumption, etc. Furthermore, some researchers hold that the representations of concrete concepts are based on the sensorimotor information, and the representations of abstract concepts are based on the emotion information or the introspective state. In a word, many questions remain in the processing of concepts, and further research is needed to resolve conflicting results between different studies. What the future researches need to do is that researchers should supply more explanations for the available neuropsychological and neuroimaging evidence, and promote the integration of different representation approaches. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Cognitive and Neural Mechanisms of Orthographic Activation During Spoken Word Recognition 2015, (6): 1353-1358.  Abstract ( )   PDF (296KB) ( )   Spoken word recognition is the fundament of speech comprehension, including the activation from the acoustic information to the phonology and the semantics. Phonological information plays a critical role in spoken word recognition. Due to the sequential property of the acoustic information, people can access the phonology with the acoustic signal unfolding over time. Finally, the word semantics could be accessed. Ample evidence from behavioral, ERP and fMRI studies has found that the orthographic information is activated and influences the spoken word recognition in tasks without explicit orthographic manipulation. Seidenberg and Tanenhaus (1979) showed that rhyme judgments for spoken words were delayed when the rhyming stimuli were orthographically dissimilar, compared with when they were not (e.g., pie-rye vs. pie-pie). ERP research revealed that priming pairs sharing orthography (e.g., reef-beef) significantly reduced the N400 amplitude as compared with word pairs orthographically unrelated (e.g., sick-beef), and the topography of orthographical effect was more anterior than the phonological effect. Two different views were presented in the fMRI studies. Some researcher considered the fusiform activation as the orthographic automatic activation in spoken word processing. On the other hand, other researchers argued that during spoken language processing, the influence of orthography was resulted from orthographic restructuring of phonological representations located in the anterior perisylvian speech network. Chinese is a nontransparent language with deep orthography (i.e., there is no letter-phoneme mapping). The mapping between syllable and orthography is quite arbitrary, therefore, Chinese is replete with homophonic characters. For example, each syllable (e.g., /shi4/) is associated with a set of Chinese characters that share no orthographic components (e.g., /shi4/: 是, 市, 室, 事, 试, 示, 士, 视). This one to many mapping results in ambiguity during spoken language processing. One way to resolve the ambiguity inherent in spoken language is to write out the character. Therefore, orthographic information is important in lexical access among syllables in the auditory modality. Compared with alphabetic writing systems, in which similar pronunciations tend to have similar spellings, Chinese allows a clean dissociation between orthographic and phonological codes, allowing us to investigate orthographic effects in spoken word recognition, independent of phonology. For example, in Chinese, one syllable can be associated with two (or more) unique characters, which share no orthography (P+O-) (e.g., /shi4/ can be associated with ‘市’ or ‘事’). Similarly, one character can be associated with two pronunciations (P-O+) (e.g., ‘会’ can be pronounced as /hui4/ and /kuai4/). These homophonic and homographic dilemmas in Chinese are well resolved in disyllabic words. Within the word context (e.g. /cheng2/-/shi4/), a syllable (e.g. /shi4/) usually corresponds to a specific character (e.g. 市) therefore the correspondence between phonology, orthography and semantics is clear. When a disyllabic word is presented aurally, one may activate multiple candidate representations (or characters) during the first syllable; however, as the acoustic signal unfolds and the second syllable is perceived, contextual information is provided that allows the correct word (and character for the first syllable) to be identified. In this case, disyllabic words provide a unique way to investigate orthographic effects in Chinese spoken word recognition. Chinese can make a clear separation of the orthographic factor from the phonology factor. Therefore, it is important to understand the relation between language and reading by investigating the cognitive and neural mechanism of the orthographic processing during Chinese spoken word recognition. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Number of Varied Critical Aspects in Learning to Solve Equations from Comparing Examples 2015, (6): 1359-1367.  Abstract ( )   PDF (1394KB) ( )   There is a vast body of example-based literature consistently showing that studying multiple examples is more effective than one example to promote learning because the comparison evoked by comparing multiple examples is generally good for learning. Not all comparisons, however, may equally be effective. The effectiveness of comparing multiple examples depends on the variability of the examples being compared and the prior knowledge of students who compare the examples, which are still unsolved questions and need further research. The current study experimentally examined the effects of different comparisons on the learning of multistep linear equation solving and their interaction effects with students’ prior knowledge. According to previous studies, there are two critical aspects for learning how to solve linear equation: problem type and solution method. There are three types of multistep linear equation and each type of equation can be solved by two types of solution methods. Three comparison conditions were designed accordingly to teach equation solving. We employed a pretest-intervention-posttest design. During the 3-day intervention, 186 seventh-grade students were randomly assigned to learn equation solving by comparing variation of the two critical aspects of problem type and solution method (abbreviated as comparing type and method; n = 60), by comparing variation of problem type (abbreviated as comparing type; n = 65), or by comparing variation of solution method (abbreviated as comparing method; n = 61). To investigate the role of prior equation solving knowledge, we categorized students as using shortcut or not using shortcut to solve equations at pretest, and we tested for a Prior Knowledge × Condition interaction. Students’ procedural knowledge, flexibility knowledge, and conceptual knowledge were assessed at pretest and posttest to evaluate the effectiveness of different comparisons. Results showed that the effectiveness of different comparisons in learning to solve equations was moderated by students’ prior knowledge. Comparing the two critical aspects of problem type and solution method (comparing type and method) led to more flexibility knowledge and conceptual knowledge than comparing only one of the two critical aspects (comparing type and comparing method) for students who did not use shortcuts at pretest. The different effectiveness of conditions, however, was absent for students who used shortcuts at pretest; those students did not show any preference for any condition. Students who have different levels of prior knowledge may perceive different aspects as critical for their learning and thus benefit differently from the same instruction. Students with higher prior knowledge should perceive fewer critical aspects than those with lower prior knowledge and are more likely to benefit from any instruction. Multiple examples should focus on aspects and features that are critical for student learning, and should be designed with controlled variation to ensure that students discern their critical aspects first separately and then simultaneously. Separate variation of each critical aspect prepares students to compare examples that are different in all critical aspects; experiencing simultaneous variation of all critical aspects is important for completely understanding the concept. Related Articles | Metrics

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Latent Transition Analysis of the Self-Injury in Adolescents: a Longitudinal Study 2015, (6): 1368-1376.  Abstract ( )   PDF (807KB) ( )   In recent years, the incidence of self-injury in adolescents has shown an upward trend year by year. The high prevalence of self-injury and various accompanied adverse consequences (e.g., declined academic performance and damaged interpersonal relationships) are becoming serious public concerns. To provide insight on prevention and intervention program, this study examines the properties and development of self-injury behaviors in adolescents. It is of interest to study impulsive behaviors in a categorical and latent approach, so that the subgroups of adolescents based on different patterns of observed behavior can be found as well as a single strategy aimed at the underlying trait effective in preventing all forms of self-injury behaviors. Taking a longitudinal perspective enable researchers to understand which individuals are expected to transition to more risky groups in the future and vice versa. Latent transition model was used to examine 10 self-injury behaviors, i.e., self-cutting, burning, biting, punching, carving words or pictures on the skin, scratching skin, inserting objects to the nail or skin, pulling hair out, erasing skin, banging the head or other parts of the body against the wall over three waves in the present study. Questions of stability and change were examined with a model that accounts for possible transitions. Participants were 3,600 students (2,037 girls) from secondary schools (mean age = 14.63 ± 1.25) in Hong Kong, China. Gender was used as a grouping variable to explore the differences in latent structure. Nine covariates, i.e., age, family factors(depression, anxiety, stress), impulsivity, distress tolerance and emotional disorder(parental marital status, parental relationship, parent criticism) were examined as predictors of status of self-injury behaviors. Three distinct groups are found: Non-self-injurers, Experimenters, Repeaters. Non-self-injurers was the most prevalent status and they barely involve in any self-injury behavior; the prevalence of Experimenters and Repeaters showed an decreasing trend across time. Experimenters reported two relative mild self-injury behaviors, i.e., pulling hair out and self-biting, while Repeaters reported a wide variety of self injury behaviors, i.e., self-cutting, biting, carving words or pictures on the skin, scratching skin, pulling hair out, banging the head or other parts of the body against the wall. In both transitions (from T1 to T2 and from T2 to T3), Non-self-injurers was highly stable, while Experimenters and Repeaters tend to move to a less problematic status (Experimenters to Non-self-injurers and Repeaters to Non-self-injurers or Experimenters). Results of multi-nominal logistic regression revealed that adolescents who reported high impulsivity, negative emotions (i.e., depression, anxiety, stress), negative family factors (parental divorce or poor relationship, parental criticism) and low distress tolerance were more likely to be in high-risk status (Experimenters or Repeaters). In addition, high impulsivity was associated with decreased transitions to low-risk status (Non-self-injurers) and increased transitions to high-risk status. Significant gender differences are found both in prevalence and transitions of self-injury behaviors. Compared with boys, girls were more likely to be Experimenters or Repeaters and tend to stay in the high-risk status. Findings of this study emphasizes the importance of intervention program for adolescents who are more vulnerable (adolescents report high impulsivity, negative emotions, negative family factors or low distress tolerance, especially girls). Related Articles | Metrics

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The impact of emotion expectancy on adolescents’ moral decision-making in different contexts Zhan-Xing LI 2015, (6): 1377-1383.  Abstract ( )   PDF (651KB) ( )   Some early cognitive development psychologists such as Kohlberg put much emphasis on the role of moral cognition in moral decision-making. But recent studies have turned over this opinion, and the relationship between moral emotion to moral decision-making have been paid much attention, with some studies having found that the anticipation of moral emotion could significantly predict individuals’ moral behavior. There were two explanations coexisting about the relationship between moral emotion and moral behavior. One deemed that moral emotion was followed by moral behavior, that is, one felt some moral emotion after they did moral behavior and moral emotion was produced after moral behavior. The other opinion insisted that moral emotion could be produced before some moral behavior, and this moral emotion could induce moral behavior. This study was mainly designed to examine the latter hypothesis. The experiment chose totally 123 thirteen-year-old and sixteen-year-old adolescents as subjects, and adopted a 2(age: 13 years old vs. 16 years old)×2(types of context: prosocial vs. antisocial)×2(emotion expectancy: morality-oriented vs. self-oriented) mixed experiment design, to inspect the impact of different oriented emotion expectancy on adolescents’ moral decision-making in two different contexts. The results revealed that there was a significant interaction of age and types of context, F(1, 121)=4.07, p<.05, η2=.033. Sixteen-year-old adolescents judged that they would be more likely to conduct moral behavior in the antisocial context than those thirteen-year-old adolescents, F(1, 121)=10.68, p<.01, η2=.081, while there was no significant difference between two groups in the likeliness judgment of moral behavior under prosocial context. The interaction of types of context and emotion expectancy was also significant, F(1, 121)=9.14, p<.01, η2=.071. In antisocial context, adolescents judged that they would more likely to display moral behavior in the condition of morality-oriented emotion expectancy than that in the condition of morality-oriented emotion expectancy, F(1, 121)=10.63, p<.01, η2=.080, whereas there was no significant difference between two conditions in prosocial context. This indicated that emotion expectancy could indeed influence adolescents’ moral decision-making, and the influence was different for different behavioral contexts. The results also revealed that adolescents’ score in moral cognition judgment was higher than that in guess probability condition, and they judged that the extent of prohibition for antisocial behavior was more serious than that of permission for prosocial behavior. This outcome indicated that adolescents could not only grasp moral rules properly, but also seemed to be more sensitive to antisocial context. This could offer some explanation for afore-mentioned significant interaction of types of context and emotion expectancy. Furthermore, different cultures and values might lead this different outcome with that in Krettenauer et al.(2011). As China is a collectivism country, and antisocial behavior was seen more serious and strictly prohibited in such culture. For the significant interaction of age and types of context, sixteen-year-old adolescents judged that they would be more likely to conduct moral behavior in the antisocial context than those thirteen-year-old adolescents. This indicated that the high school students’ moral behavior further developed in contrast with that in junior school stage. All in all, this study replicated previous research outcome that moral emotion could impact on adolescent’s moral decision-making, and this impact was different in different context, with some difference existing between Chinese youth and that in America. However, there were also some limitations in this study. For one hand, we asked adolescents to suppose that ‘what would you do in that condition’, thus this first-person questioning method might produce the social desirable effect to some extent. For another hand, though in the design we asked participants to answer the moral decision-making question immediately after presenting them moral emotion expectancy, but this way can not fully exclude the impact of moral cognition on adolescents’ moral decision-making. Future study should notice these problems and apply some better methods to examine our results. Related Articles | Metrics

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Order of acquisition of superordinate-, basic-, and subordinate-level categories on 9-26 month’s infant 2015, (6): 1384-1390.  Abstract ( )   PDF (1020KB) ( )   Categorizing is an essential and important cognitive achievement. Object categories refer to shared representations of like but discriminable objects. Categories are especially valuable in infancy and early childhood, because the ability to categorize enable them to respond anew to each novel entity they experience. Category learning in infants usually refers to 1- to 3- year olds’ categorizing. Having a look at the previous study on in infancy, there can be summarized two views : one stressed on perceptual-based category learning, the other stressed on categorization inclusiveness hierarchy. The latter one emphasizes hierarchical inclusiveness, which classifies category levels to superordinate level (L1), basic level (L2), and subordinate level (L3). We are interested in which level infants first categorize on. Different methods have been devised for testing infants ages, and different result has gained. Here we improve the former researcher’s design and adopt some new ideas and technique to study the categorizing ability of infants of different ages on different levels and then draw the developmental trajectory of infant categorization. Three levels of category inclusiveness in 4 object domains (animals, vehicles, fruit, and furniture) were examined and assessed using a sequential touching procedure in thirty 9-14 months, 15-20 months and 21-26 months. For group analysis, we followed the tradition of testing children’s mean run length in each cell against chance (Mandler, 1987) in SPSS. For individual analysis, TouchStat V3.0（Dixon, et al. 2007) is adopted to assess the individual categorizer. The percentage of categorizers is calculated and two styles of categorizers are classified. Results shows: Mean run length at the basic level (L2) exceeded chance for all age groups; significant mean run lengths at the superordinate level (L1) varied by age, with mean run lengths exceeding chance in 15-20 months and 21-26 months; mean run lengths at the subordinate level of categorization (L3) didn’t exceed chance at 9-14 months and 15-20 months, but shows marginal significance which indicates a tendency of forming the categorizing ability. The data of individual analysis also shows the priority of basic level (L2), for 9-14 months infant, reveals that there are 41.7% of categorizers at the basic level, 25% at superordinate level, and 8.3% at subordinate level. Meanwhile, the gap of these percentages between different level narrows by age. On the whole, the study reveals a developmental trajectory of infants as: Basic level (L2) → Superordinate level (L1) → Subordinate level (L3). Related Articles | Metrics

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The Role of Cognitive Resource in 4-to-6-year-oldPreschool Children’s Inequity Aversion 2015, (6): 1391-1397.  Abstract ( )   PDF (672KB) ( )   This study tested two contradicting predictions: preschool children’s inequity aversion is a deliberative cognitive-controlled act or that it is an automatic act. The ultimatum game models social exchange in situations in which the rational motive to maximize gains conflicts with fairness considerations. In this study, Ultimatum Game variant was adopted to present allocation proposals by third-party, and we aimed at explaining the subjects’ decisions more accurately, because allocating intension was removed from the proposal. Mixed experimental design was 2(cognition resource)×2(proposal type) ×3(age group), then cognition resource and proposal type were between subject variables, to explore how preschool children’s disadvantageous and advantageous inequity aversion depend upon cognition resources. Operating cognitive resources by depletion task----Day-Night stroop task, and non-depletion task was designed when subjects should accomplish UG task with rich cognition resources. There were 12 UG trials, including equity proposal and inequity proposal 2 types. Before each trial, 1to 4 depletion tasks would be presented firstly in order to deplete cognition resources fully. All tasks were presented with computer, and depletion / non-depletion task and UG task were presented alternatively. Subject’s decision (reject or accept) was coded. We found that, （1）4-to-6-year-olds showed disadvantageous inequity aversion and it increased as they got older (F（2,101）=18.522, p<.001; M=3.33, SD=1.30; M=2.70, SD=1.40; M=1.25, SD=1.67). On the contrary, advantageous inequity aversion did not increase along with growing age and it expressed later. There was imbalance in development of these two kinds of inequity aversion (F（1,101）=76.557, p<.001, η2 =.431). (2) 4-to-6-year-old preschool children’s two inequity aversions were affected by available cognitive resources. If there were less cognitive resources, 4-to-6-year-olds would be more sensitive to the self interest and show low frequency of disadvantageous inequity aversion (F（1,103）=20.640, p<.001，η2 =.167; M=2.49, SD=1.68; M=2.97, SD=1.46) and advantageous inequity aversion (F（1,103）=21.558, p<.001, η2 =.173; M=3.63, SD=.70; M=3.87, SD=.42), and tended to accept unfair allocation proposal more easily. This illustrated that children’s inequity aversion was rational behavior controlled by cognition. (3) When cognitive resources were insufficient, compared with advantageous inequity aversion, the degree children’s disadvantageous inequity aversion reduced was higher (F（1,101）=5.973, p<.05, η2 =.056; M=.50, SD=.10; M=.24, SD=.05). This research revealed that 4-to-6-year-old preschool children’s inequity aversion is a deliberative cognitive-controlled act dependent upon available cognition resources. Related Articles | Metrics

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Home Stressors Influence Adolescents' Depressive Symptoms: Rumination as a Mediator 2015, (6): 1398-1403.  Abstract ( )   PDF (431KB) ( )   Abstract: Adolescence is characteristic of more vulnerability to depressive symptoms as adolescents develop rapidly in various aspects such as physical fitness, cognitive capacity and social roles. On the path to seek autonomy, independence and social identity, adolescents inevitably face various kinds of stressors which induce depressive symptoms when they could not cope with them adequately. Among these stressors, home stressors exist so frequently in adolescents' life that might aggravate adolescents' depressive symptoms. Although extant research has established the relationship between stressors and adolescents' depression, the mediating linkages in between remains to be explored. As a coping strategy, rumination refers to individuals' frequent recall of negative events that has happened in the past. The current study hypothesized that three home stressors such as family conflict, parental expectation and family rules are not only directly predict adolescents' depressive symptoms, they also indirectly affect depression through the mediating role of rumination. Aiming at testing these hypotheses, 570 students were chosen conveniently as our subjects from one junior high school and one senior high school in Jining, Shandong province, and data was gathered by administering such instruments as Depressive Experience Questionnaire, Ruminative Responses Scale, and Family Stress Questionnaire. By conducting path analyses, results indicated that both family conflict and parental expectation positively and significantly prophesy adolescents' depressive symptoms while family rules had no significant effect on depression. Similarly, the former two types of family stressors had positive and significant effect on adolescents' rumination while the third type had no obvious effect on depression. And rumination had positive and significant effect on depression. Taken together, rumination mediated the relationship between family stress and adolescents' depressive symptoms. Based on the above results, the following conclusions could be reached: home stressors are important predictors of adolescents' depressive symptoms but with different kinds of home stressors having different effects on depression. Among the three examined home stressors, family conflict has the largest impact on adolescents' depressive symptoms, with parental expectation ranking the second and family rule no effect on depression. Similarly, family conflict tends to induce rumination in adolescents when they face home stressors, as does parental expectation. what's more important is that rumination acts as a mediating role between home stressors and depressive symptoms. These results and conclusions mean a lot in that they provide theoretical guidance for coping with adolescents' depressive symptoms induced by home stressors. Specifically, it's reasonable for parents to avoid conflicts with their spouses and children, and once conflicts have occurred, they should actively resolve them. And parents should have adequate expectations in their children so as to reduce children's rumination and then depressive symptoms. Related Articles | Metrics

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A Reexamination of the Indicators for the Dual-Factor Model of Mental Health: Stability of Mental Health Status and Predictors of Change 2015, (6): 1404-1410.  Abstract ( )   PDF (674KB) ( )   A dual-factor model of mental health (DFM) examines the presence of wellness (i.e., subjective well-being; SWB) and psychopathology (i.e., internalizing and externalizing behavior problems) in explaining youth mental health functioning. Using a dual-factor model, previous research has yielded four unique groups: the complete mental health, the vulnerable, the symptomatic but content, and the troubled. Some researchers believe that DFM with integrated indicators may have some potential problems (Doll, 2008; Wang & Zhang, 2011), such as, lack of screening sensitivity. Affective self-regulatory efficacy is related to students’ depression and anxiety (Bandura, et al., 2003). Students’ academic self-efficacy and academic emotions contribute to their learning outcome and mental health (Dong & Yu, 2010; Dong, et al., 2014; Xiong, et al., 2011). The present empirical investigation aimed at testing the applicability of using life satisfaction on the wellness dimension and internalizing problems on the illness dimension of DFM, comparing academic and social functions of the four mental health groups, and further investigating the stability of mental health status and predictors of change in group membership. Method：Cross-sectional design and longitudinal design were applied in the present study. Consent procedure was followed in the study. This research took cluster sampling method to collect data from 1293 middle school students (Mage = 15.52, SD = ±0.75) and among them 531 were followed as the subjects of a longitudinal study. The self-report questionnaires used in the study included affective self-regulatory efficacy scale, academic self-efficacy scale, academic emotions scale, life satisfaction scale, and internalizing problems scale (Youth Self-Report). The survey was conducted at two time points: September 2013 and March 2014. Structural equation modeling was applied to test the applicability of DFM model. MANOVA and Post Hoc tests (LSD) were applied to investigate the the four groups’ academic and social functions. Repeated measures of means and multiple regressions were applied to test the predictors of change in group membership. Results：(1) The DFM based on life satisfaction and internalizing problems was feasible；(2)The complete mental health group demonstrated the best academic and social functions, and the troubled the poorest. The symptomatic but content demonstrated higher self-efficacy to regulate negative affect, academic self-efficacy and enjoyment than the troubled. The vulnerable had comparable levels of self-efficacy to regulate positive affect and enjoyment to the troubled. (3) From T1 to T2, middle school students’ mental health was relatively stable. The majority of the longitudinal sample did not change in mental health status. The proportions of positive change and negative change were close to each other. Among the change groups, the complete mental health had the highest stability, while the symptomatic but content had the lowest stability. (4) Self-efficacy for negative affect regulation, enjoyment and hopelessness predicted students’ life satisfaction and internalizing problems significantly. DFM with life satisfaction on the wellness dimension and internalizing problems on the illness dimension is applicable to middle school students in China, providing an alternative research perspective to DFM with integrated indicators. Intervention programs need to pay more attention to the symptomatic but content, since they are the least stable in mental health. Self-efficacy for negative affect regulation and academic emotions are good predictors of change in mental health group membership. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Formation and Development of Hui Children’ s In-group Favoritism Attitude 2015, (6): 1411-1418.  Abstract ( )   PDF (550KB) ( )   Ethnic attitudes is an important component of ethnic identity, also is an important variable which used to measure ethnic relations, a strong in-group favoritism easily lead to negative emotion, hostility and discrimination behavior toward out-group, and even induce violation and conflict between ethnic groups. Early childhood is an important period for the formation and development of ethnic attitudes, foreign studies found that there is an important relationship between the psychological adjustment and positive attitude or ethnic identity for ethnic minority children. But current studies on the development of ethnic identity almost from western countries, few studies have examined the Chinese minority children. China is a unified multi-ethnic country, and there are differences in western countries in the social context, ethnic policy and residential patterns etc., these factors likely to affect the formation and development of ethnic favoritism attitude. The present study attempted to extend research object to preschool children from the perspective of developmental psychology, discussed on the formation of children's mental age stage when children form ethnic favoritism attitude, explored the development and change tendency of implicit and explicit ethnic attitude. We selected children from Hui ethnic group as the participants of the present study, through two studies, explored two questions respectively: The first question is when does children form in-group favoritism attitude, do they prefer in-group or out-group? The second question is how does children’s ethnic attitude change with the growth of age? Study 1 selected 3, 4, 5 and 6 years old children as participants, used preschool racial attitude measure(PRAM), we tested children’s in-group and out-group favoritism attitude; Study 2 selected 6, 10 and youth adult as participants, used the implicit association test(IAT) and self-report method, measured participants’ implicit and explicit favoritism attitude toward in-group and out-group. The result of study 1 showed that: 3 years old children did not show significant difference on the evaluation of the in-group and out-group, but there were significant differences for 4, 5 and 6 years old children, they gave more positive traits toward the in-group compared with the out-group, this means that the children had been formed in-group favoritism attitude at the age of 4; the result of study 2 showed: with the growth of age, there was a sustainable growth for children's implicit in-group favoritism attitude; though the explicit attitude remained stable, still exhibited in-group favoritism. The present study suggested that preschool children as early as 4 years old had formed the ethnic attitude, the results were basically consistent with the foreign research results. But in our study, we found no out-group favoritism phenomenon for Hui ethnic group children (though they are ethnic minorities), this was mainly attributed to the difference of the social context between China and some western countries(such as America), because China has no serious racial discrimination history compare to western countries, ethnic status relatively equal. In addition, ethnic favoritism attitude is established in a comparative process, attitude of reference group toward in-group also affected the ethnic favoritism attitude. Future research should pay more attention to the social environment, family and peer effects of various factors on the development of children's ethnic group favoritism attitude. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Review of Maternal Verbal Scaffolding in Parent-Child Autobiography narrative 2015, (6): 1419-1424.  Abstract ( )   PDF (305KB) ( )   The parent-child autobiographical narrative plays a crucial role during children`s childhood. It can be defined as the activity which mothers and children recall and talk past experience with each other. Maternal verbal scaffolding, which can also be understood as mothers’ discourse, can provide leading help in the process of parent-child autobiographical narrative. Mothers often paly the very beginning role of storyteller and would offer help during children`s talking. Children learn to organize and construct their own narrative gradually through imitating mother’s language. Maternal verbal scaffolding may encourage and motivate children to behave actively in the process of narrative. It is quite significant to the development of children’s language, cognition and social emotion. The current paper mainly reviews the style of maternal verbal scaffolding and specifies its influence in terms of specific emotional events in parent-child autobiographical narrative. In addition, it provides the differences which may vary in gender and social culture of maternal verbal scaffolding. Besides, it shows the unique characteristics of disabled children. Finally, this paper intends to offer recommendations for the future research. Researchers suggested that elaborative level is a critical dimension of the style of maternal verbal scaffolding. Mothers with high elaborative style talk frequently about past, and engage in long and detailed conversations about what has happened. Mothers with low elaborative style, in contrast, do not talk about the past frequently and when they do, they tend to ask few and redundant questions. Researches indicated that mothers who engage in highly elaborative reminiscing have children who develop better memory, narrative and cognition. The elaborative style can be further separated into two independent components: maternal structure and autonomy support. They both have important impacts on the level of maternal verbal scaffolding. This article also discusses the influence of maternal verbal scaffolding on children’s narrative in the specific emotional events. The specific emotional events require parents to recall positive or negative events. There may be different underlying goals when reminiscing about positive vs. negative experience. When mothers and children reminisce about positive events, it makes sense that mothers may try to create a shared emotional history with their children. In contrast, when discussing negative experiences, mothers may have the goals of helping their children to understand and resolve negative effects. Although this field has made many achievements, researches in this area can be further strengthened. The first major area is about the influence factor of maternal verbal scaffolding. How maternal reminiscing style is linked to mothers’ personality, self-concept and some factors of children can be further studied. Besides, future research should investigate how mothers’ reminiscing goal can affect maternal reminiscing style. Mothers of different reminiscing goals may vary in their language. In addition, Future studies need to explore how the maternal verbal scaffolding change with the development of children’s memory and understanding level. Finally, we need to broaden the research beyond mother-child conversations about everyday shared past events. Children’s reminiscing partner can be extended to father, grandparents, aunts and uncles, teachers, siblings, and peers. Besides, how the family as a whole reminisces about their past is an intriguing question and is worthy to be furthered studies. Related Articles | Metrics

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Mechanism of Decoy Effect -- The Moderating Role of Product’s Perceived Risk Yong-Mei LIU 2015, (6): 1425-1431.  Abstract ( )   PDF (616KB) ( )   Previous research found that decoy effect varies under different types of products, i.e., consumers’ choice preference for dominating option present unsteadiness with the addition of evoked option. Decoy effect might lose effectiveness in certain situations. As perceived risk has great influence on product evaluating process, it might be an important factor that moderates the decoy effect. In order to explore the deep reasons of decoy effect’s instability, the mechanism of decoy effect is studied from the perspective of product’s perceived risk in this paper. Through the 2(high/low risk)×2(decoy/without decoy) factorial design, 2 types of risk perception product(high/low risk perception product) and 2 levels of decoy situation (original / decoy selection) were examined in this study. In the low risk purchase scenario, participates imaged that they need to buy a toothpaste among the given alternatives independently. Whereas, they imaged themselves purchasing a laptop in the high purchase scenario. The original selection (no decoy condition) has two options, one is the target product which is the dominating alternative, the other one is the competing product. The decoy selection (decoy condition) added an evoked product which is dominated by the target product rather than the competing product. The data were collected from 188 undergraduate and graduate students in a university of china. Cash prizes were used to motivate voluntary participation. There were 4 types of experimental conditions: high risk perception product with no decoy, high risk perception product with decoy, low risk perception product with no decoy and low risk perception product with decoy. Each participant was engaged in both kinds of products and randomly assigned to 1 of the 2 decoy conditions. The final choice, degree of product’s perceived risk and attractiveness of target and competing product were recorded in each purchase scenarios. In addition, the moderating effect of product’s perceived risk was studied in different decoy conditions with multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), and the mediating role of relative attractiveness (the difference of the attractiveness of target option and their competing counterparts) was further analyzed with stepwise method. According to our statistics, respondents in the decoy conditions who are lured by the decoy alternative in the low perceived risk product are unlikely to switch their choices. However, they are more likely to switch in their high perceived risk counterparts. The results show that there is an interaction effect of decoy situation and product’s perceived risk, i.e., the influence of decoy product on consumer choice is moderated by product’s perceived risk. The decoy effect arises significantly in high risk perception products, but insignificantly in low risk perception products. On the other hand, it is proved that relative attractiveness of the target product is a fully mediating variable in the model, i.e., product’s perceived risk and decoy situation affect the share of target product by influencing its relative attractiveness. This paper proposed a mediated moderation model to explain the mechanism of decoy effect. Our findings replenish the previous studies of decoy effect and illustrate how firms could take advantage of the context sensitivity of consumers to design more profitable product marketing plans. In summary, high risk perception product is more suitable for the context marketing versus low risk perception product. In other aspects, the target product’s attributes should above the average level among the selection in order to improve the relative attractiveness which is deduced from the mediating effect. Related Articles | Metrics

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A Longitudinal Study of the Predictive Effects of Employability, Cognitive Appraisal and Employment Insecurity on Psychological Well-being among University Graduates 2015, (6): 1432-1437.  Abstract ( )   PDF (794KB) ( )   Every year, millions of university graduates in China have to face the difficult employment conditions and thus suffer great stress, so how to ease the mental tension and keep psychological well-being of university graduates during their job searching processes has attracted many researchers' attention. To seek the theoretical clues behind, this study aims to explore the predictive effects of employability, cognitive appraisal and employment insecurity on psychological well-being among university graduates during their job searching processes. Based on Self-Regulatory Theory, a research model consisted of 6 hypotheses was put up. In order to verify these hypotheses, a three-wave longitudinal survey was carried out. The wave one was conducted in October 2012, the wave two one month later and the wave three another month later. The wave one contained demographic variables and employability. Cognitive appraisal and employment insecurity were measured in the wave two. And psychological well-being was measured in the wave three. Graduates from 52 universities from 16 provinces (including municipalities) in China were invited to participate in the study, except those who were pursuing higher education or had found a job. In total, 757 valid questionnaires were gained in the wave one. In the wave two and three, 557 and 343 valid questionnaires were received respectively. The results of SEM analysis showed that: Employability predicted appraised challenge, employment insecurity and psychological well-being significantly (point est. = .216, SE = .062, BC bootstrap 95% CI = .095, .337 ; point est. = -.217, SE = .047, BC bootstrap 95% CI = -.310, -.124 ; point est. = .223, SE = .072, BC bootstrap 95% CI = .083, .364) ; Appraised challenge mediated the relationship between employability and employment insecurity (point est. = -.036, SE = .014, BC bootstrap 95% CI = -.064, -.009); The relationships between employability, appraised challenge as well as appraised threat and psychological well-being were mediated by employment insecurity (point est. = .058, SE = .024, BC bootstrap 95% CI = .011, .105 ; point est. = .057, SE = .024, BC bootstrap 95% CI = .011, .104; point est. = -.037, SE = .017, BC bootstrap 95% CI = -.071, -.004); And employability predicted psychological well-being through appraised challenge and employment insecurity sequentially (point est. = .012, SE = .006, BC bootstrap 95% CI = .000, .025); The results suggest that we should enhance graduates’ employability before or during their job searching processes, in order to help them cognize and appraise job search positively, and then release employment insecurity and keep mental health. Previous researches in China mostly concerned about the predictive effects of such variables like personality and emotional factor on psychological well-being, while this study examined the relationship of employability and psychological well-being and the mediation effects of cognitive appraisal and employment insecurity between them. Besides, this study reflected the lagged change of psychological well-being predicted by employability, cognitive appraisal and employment insecurity more convincingly using a three-wave longitudinal survey. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Influence of Trustees’ Name Recognizability on Their Trustworthiness 2015, (6): 1438-1444.  Abstract ( )   PDF (475KB) ( )   Researchers explain the effect of Chinese names now more from the perspective that names activate semantic information. But judgment reflects not only content but also the metacognitive experience of processing the content. Recoginzability can influence the processing fluency, an important cue of metagognitive experience. The recognizability of a name here depends on the using frequency of the characters included in the name. Names with more rarely used Chinese characters are more difficult to recognize. We demonstrate that this processing difficulty makes people with hard to recognized names to be thought less credible. And the effect exists when the names’ attractiveness of literal meaning and implied meaning are both controlled. To explore whether regognizability will influence people’s judgment on trustee’s trustworthiness, we combined 60 Chinese names without first names. 30 names are difficult to recognize and the other 30 easy to recognize. Each name contains 2 characters. The 120 characters were all collected according to Chinese national standard GB2312–80. 60 characters used to combine the easy-to-recognize names were randomly collected from areas 16-55 in GB2312–80 and characters used to combine the difficult-to-recognize names from areas 56-87.Characters from areas 16-55 are the most frequently used Chinese characters and characters from areas 56-87 are less but not the least frequently used Chinese characters. Then we created a questionnaire comprised of a random and mix of all the 60 names and asked 28 participants to “please rate the ease with which these names of people can be recognized’’ on a scale where 1 =very difficult and 7 =very easy.” Finally 5 names with the highest scores and 5 names with the lowest scores were chosen as the materials used in the next studies. We call names with the highest scores the easy names and names with the lowest names the difficult names hereafter. To make the manipulation check, we analyzed participants’ recognizability ratings using ANOVA, which revealed that easy names were rated as significantly easier to recognize. Then we asked another 31 participants to rate the attractiveness of both the literal meaning and implied meaning of the 10 names. ANOVA results showed that there were no significantly differences between the 2 groups on the attractiveness of both the literal meaning and implied meaning.33 and 32 participants then respectively participated in two within–subject experiments. The first experiment showed that people with easy names are thought to be safer, by asking subjects to evaluate people’s names on a positive or negative dimension. The second experiment demonstrated people’s trustworthiness higher when they are with easier–to–recognize names by adopting the trust game. At last, we choose 5 easily recognized names and 5 difficultly recognized names from some students’ real names. We repeated tasks in experiment 1 and experiment 2 and got the same results. This study is a new instantiation of trustworthiness. The present research demonstrates name can influence one’s trustworthiness not only because of its attractiveness and its implied meaning, but also because of its recognizability. The findings support that tangential properties such as ease of processing can matter when people evaluate information attributed to a source. And expend its usage to the area of trustworthiness. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Role of Self-Control Resource in Intertemporal Decision-making Gui-Bing HE Xiang-Hui YAN 2015, (6): 1445-1451.  Abstract ( )   PDF (654KB) ( )   The failure of self-control has been considered to be associated with criminal behavior, smoking, dieting, and even divorcing. The reason why self-control may fail is supposed to be that people has limited capacity for self-regulation. According to the theory of Limited Self-Control Resource (SCR), differences in self-regulation performance must be due to the difference in amount of SCR. Hagger, Wood, Stiff & Chatzisarantis (2010) summarized that SCR had significant impact on self-control behavior, but the role of SCR in intertemporal decision-making, which supposed to involve impulsivity and self-regulation, was still unclear. Based on the theory of SCR and previous studies, we designed two experiments to reveal the effects of SCR level and its variation on intertemporal decision-making. Experiment 1 investigated the effect of individual’s SCR level on intertemporal decision-making in natural condition via questionnaire. Experiment 2 used a dual-task paradigm to examine the effects of SCR manipulation tasks and SCR variation on intertemporal decision-making. The results of Exp.1 demonstrated that participants with higher SCR level showed stronger preference to SS option in intertemporal decision-making. Exp. 2 showed that (1) different SCR manipulation tasks lead to different SCR change and SS preference in intertemporal decision-making. Perception-control task caused more SCR depletion and stronger SS preference than thought-control task did. (2) Higher proportion of participants experienced SCR depletion and less experienced SCR enhancement in perception-control group, than that in thought-control group. (3) Participants who experienced SCR depletion exhibited a significant increase of SS preference, but who experienced SCR enhancement would exhibit a significant decrease of SS preference. (4) The initial preference of SS (SS1), pre-decision SCR level (SCR2) and SCR fluctuation experience had jointly effects on intertemporal decision-making. These findings proved the important role of self-control resource in intertemporal decision-making by means of both group level analysis and individual level analysis. In addition, these results should have benefits to understanding the mechanism of how and why SCR fluctuated after the execution of different SCR manipulation task. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The Development of Corruption：Using Latent Growth Mixture Modeling 2015, (6): 1459-1465.  Abstract ( )   PDF (867KB) ( )   How corruption behavior develops？The theoretical derivation implies that corruption should decrease as time pass by. Because if the probability of being caught is p every time, then after n times of corruption, the probability of being caught is increasing exponentially to 1-(1-p)n . Contradictorily, the practical experience indicates that people often increase corruption. There could be two explanations to such contradiction. Firstly it may because of the ignorance of the real corruption development trends for those corruptors who didn’t get caught nor exposed. Secondly, it may because of the negligence of some key subjective factors in theoretical derivation, like perceived probability and controllability of risk. Therefore, the study simulated a corruption situation in laboratory to (1) Explore how corruption behavior develops with time passing by, (2) Explore the effects of perceived probability and controllability of the risk on people’s corruption behavior. Participants were 155 college students in Beijing (37% males). We simulated a common bribery situation in our laboratory, and observed how people behave in 10 rounds corruption simulated situations. The participants played as government officials, and faced with bribe from faked businessman. They needed to decide whether to accept it or not. And if they accepted the bribe, based on the amounts of bribe, there was a certain probability they would get punished. However participants could avoid the punishment by finishing a task. We manipulated the level of risk probability and risk controllability in the corruption situations. Using latent growth mixture modeling, three distinct linear growth patterns of corruption behavior were identified. First class (39.36%), with a middle initial status of corruption, demonstrated a slow non-significant linear decrease in the following times. We call this class “normal-corruptors”. The second class (30.97%), with a higher initial status of corruption, demonstrated a slowly non-significant linear increase in the following times. We call this class “slowly-falling-corruptors”. The last class (29.68%) remained a very low degree of corruption, or no corruption at all. We call this class of people “non-corruptors”. Analyses also showed that the probability and controllability of risk have different effects on corruption development. The probability of risk only has effect on the initial status of corruption. However the controllability of risk has effect not only on the initial status but also on the slope of the developmental trends. In the condition of a low-level risk probability, people intended to have a higher initial status of corruption compared to the condition of a high probability. And in the condition of a high-level controllability, people intended to have a higher initial status of corruption and also they tended to have a more rapid development in the following times. The results suggested that the corruption trajectory is heterogeneous and there are three different classes of corruption development trajectories. The research also suggested that increasing the risk probability of corruption is not as effective as we thought before. And in order to keep corruption within limits, we need to pay more attention to reduce the people’s controllability. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Relationship of Obsessive-compulsive Tendencies, Confidence Regarding Inner Experience and Lack of Feeling of Knowing 2015, (6): 1466-1474.  Abstract ( )   PDF (905KB) ( )   The present study aimed to explore the relationship of obsessive-compulsive(OC) tendencies, confidence regarding inner experience and lack of feeling of knowing. We employed a 2(OC tendencies: high vs. low)×2(confidence: undermined vs. controlled) ×2(external proxies: upward phase vs. downward phase) mixed design, in which OC tendencies and confidence as the between-subjects variables, external proxies as the within-subjects variable. Padua Inventory(PI, Chinese version) was used to select 17 high(upper 10%,9 female and 8 male) and 18 low(lower 10%,9 female and 9 male) OC individuals. Then, we used instructions experimentally undermining/controlling confidence in judgments of the target internal state in non-selected participants of two groups. False biofeedback paradigm was used, in which relaxation as the target internal state, and two false pre-programmed biofeedback phases as external proxies for the internal state of relaxation, one of a descending line graph signaling to participants an increase in relaxation, and one of an ascending line graph signaling a decrease in relaxation. The order of the two false pre-programmed biofeedback phases was counterbalanced across participants and within each group. Participants were tested individually in a small and quiet room, we explored their situations of reliance on external proxies for internal states in different confidence conditions. Subjective assessments of relaxation were measured with a Visual Analogue Scale(VAS) on which participants were asked to place a mark that best described their relaxation levels during each task. Additionally, we measured their actual autonomic arousal level of galvanic skin response (GSR)and respiration(RSP) rate by a biofeedback apparatus(NeXus-10 Mark II, Mind Media B.V. Netherlands),in order to rule out a real relaxation level differences between the two biofeedback phases. At the end of the experiment, participants were asked to rate how confident they were about their two subjective relaxation estimates, using a scale of 0-100, in order to check whether our manipulation created a significant difference between participants with undermined/controlled confidence regarding their confidence in their estimates of internal states. The results showed that, (1)no matter how confident in their estimates of internal states, the high OC participants were more susceptible to external proxies in judging their internal states in comparison to low OC groups;(2)the high OC participants with undermined confidence were more affected by external proxies when judging their own internal states than with controlled confidence; in the condition of undermined confidence, high OC participants were more affected by external proxies in judging their internal states as compared to low OC participants. These findings indicated that,(1)individuals in high OC tendencies suffered reduced feeling of knowing in internal states;(2)high OC participants’ reduced feeling of knowing were affected by confidence regarding their inner experience. The research results can help to reduce high OC individuals’ doubt and related OC symptoms, and may be facilitate cognitive and meta-cognitive therapy of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Influence Factors of Online Game Consumption 2015, (6): 1482-1488.  Abstract ( )   PDF (710KB) ( )   Despite of global economic turmoil, online game industry has showed a steady and rapid growth. Online games in China have a large number of supporters, According to China Internet Network information Center (CNNIC) in 2014, there are 3.68 billion domestic network game users by the end of June 2014. Apart from large user groups, online game industry also benefits from abundant profits. Chinese online game market size of 2013 has reached RMB 891.6 billion. And it will also continue to grow. At present, there are many international empirical researches about online game consumption. And it has also played an important role to the development of game industry. Comparatively speaking, there are less researches in China. To certain extent, this has restricted the development of China's online game industry. Online game consumptions and traditional consumptions have both similarities and differences. It is of great significance to explore the influence factors of online game consumption for theory development and practical application. Researchers have paid more and more attention on online games consumption studies. This study systemizes the factors that influence online games consumption. The factors include individual characteristics, online game characteristic，social interaction characteristics, perceptual characteristics and experience characteristics. The individual characteristics that affect online game consumption are age, gender and personality. The online game characteristics that affect online game consumption are game quality, service quality, customization and innovation. The social interaction characteristics that affect online game consumption are social behaviour, social capital and social norms. The perceptual characteristics that affect online game consumption are value perception, risk perception and control perception. The experience characteristics that affect online game consumption are fun and flow. Future research may concern and compare the factors that influence different kinds of online games consumption. Also the influences of negative social interaction and online-offline social migration on online game consumption need further research. Past research limitations and future research direction mainly include the following three aspects. First, the current online game categories are various, while the existing research has focused on massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) research, lack of awareness of the other game categories. There are huge differences among different game categories in such aspects as theme, form and goal setting. Therefore, research based on the research of category differences can give us more understandings of the psychology and behavior of online game consumption. Also it can put forward more targeted and feasible suggestions to online game development and marketing. Second, the social interaction is an important characteristic for online game to be distinguished from the traditional video games. It is also an important factor influences the online game consumption. Current study has only considered the positive social interaction effect on the online game consumption, while ignoring the role of negative social interactions. Prospect theory tells us that people have different sensitive degrees to loss and gain. The pain of loss is much greater than the pleasure of gain. In online games, positive social interaction will benefit the players, while negative social interactions will bring their losses. Thus, researchers should also paid enough attention to the latter. Third, although the players usually have fun together with strangers, they also played with their parents, relatives, colleagues and offline friends. Regrettably, there are few studies investigating the online-offline migration’s effect on the online game consumption. It is worthy of attention in future research. Related Articles | Metrics

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Three approaches of Personality Research and Their Integration 2015, (6): 1489-1495.  Abstract ( )   PDF (457KB) ( )   Personality psychology is only one field that aims at to view the human being as a complex whole. In the process of studying human nature, it successively appears three kinds of research paradigms which includes trait approach, motive approach and life narrative. Integration of three aspects can provide a full account of human individuality. Firstly, traits are various concepts proposed by personality psychologists, which can reveal and explain people’s behavioral consistencies across situations and time. In other words, trait approach devotes to answer what personality is “having”. Since the establishment of personality psychology, many scholars have put forward various traits categories, forming outline of personality’s static structure. Some of the most influential theories have been widely accepted all over the world, such as Cattell’s concepts of surface traits and source traits. Another pioneer of personality, Eysenck concludes three traits to generalize one’s personality profile, which are extraversion-introversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism. On the other hand, some researchers based on lexical hypothesis suggest that personalities can be grouped into five basic categories, whose well-known labels are extraversion-introversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience. Meanwhile, these psychologists have developed many different methods with well-established reliability and validity, in order to evaluate individual difference on traits, Secondly, motive reflects personality’s dynamic or mechanism, which puts more emphasis on personality’s power or dynamic, hence answering the question of what personality is “doing”. If researchers have employed traits to outline one’s personality profile, we may still feel that it has missed something specific and detailed contents of one’s individuality. That is what motive approach purpose to fill up with. One’s motivation can tell us what people fundamentally want or desire in contextualized time, place and role. There are many greatest theories of human motivations, which have revealed one’s needs, motivations, goals, and plans from different standpoints. Such as, Sigmund Freud suggested that humans are motivated by deep urges regarding sexuality and aggression. Murray has provided a list of 20 basic psychological needs or motives. By contrast, other humanistic psychologists, such as Rogers, Deci and Ryan, Maslow placed more importance on needs for self-actualization and other growth-promoting human tendencies. Accordingly, narratives approach concerns personality’s development which study personality development or process and aim at answering what personality “will to be”. Recent years, researchers have proposed that personality narratives can be foundation to integrate trait and motive paradigm, so as to more profoundly understand personality. According to an integrated life story, one can integrates the past, present, and future into a meaningful whole with unity and purpose. How to interpret one’s life according story? From years of exploration, researchers have been especially interested in identifying the central thematic lines in life stories. Maybe, one person is greatly different from others, but all their stories suggest that people are searching for some form of power or love, or both. More generally, thematic lines often reflect what has been called agency and communion. Life narrative approach tends to investigate one’s life across long time, emphasizing thorough and deep study about the whole person. However, narrative approach is just emerging which haven’t been accepted with wide recognition nowadays. It may be faced with many difficulties and limitations, which needs improvement. Related Articles | Metrics

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A Study of Item Consistency Index Combining with Hypothesis Testing 2015, (6): 1496-1503.  Abstract ( )   PDF (458KB) ( )   From a psychological perspective, cognitive diagnostic models (CDMs) are divided into two basic categories called compensatory and noncompensatory diagnostic models depending on the interaction of skills. The interaction of skills in examinee’ item response behavior may sometimes be better modeled as disjunctive (e.g., psychological assessment) and other times be better modeled as conjunctive (e.g., mathematical assessment). In other words, the choice of mode of attribute interaction clearly depends on the diagnostic setting. The selection of an appropriate CDM is based on analyses of the cognitive interaction between the skills and the items on the test. It almost always requires consultation of the literature and close collaboration among psychometric and substantive experts, in addition to empirical checking and confirmation. In conjunctive condensation rule, hierarchy consistency index (HCI) or item consistency index (ICI) can be directly used to assess whether actual examinees’ or items’ response patterns match the expected response patterns. It should be noted that the HCI or the ICI cannot be used with disjunctive CDMs where the mastery of all the attributes measured by an item is not necessary for successful performance because of the assumption that high ability on one attribute can compensate for low ability on other attributes. This leads us to propose the new indices that are specifically designed to identify misfits of item response vectors relative to disjunctive models. HCI or ICI requires the assumption that, from a correct or incorrect response, one can infer that the examinee has or has not mastered all attributes required by the item. Such an inference is often unreasonable and it is likely to draw the possibly incorrect inference. Considering statistical inference is generally more precise than everyday inference, we introduce a consistency index based on hypothesis testing to help detect misfitting item response vectors under the disjunctive condensation rule. The new consistency index with the original ICI can be used in the selection and evaluation of conjunctive or disjunctive model for data analyses. We also proposed a method to estimate slipping and guessing parameters based on comparison of item responses. To investigate whether the new indices can work well under certain conditions, simulated data are generated with an independent structure using five attributes. Four important factors were included in the design of the simulation study: (a) cognitive diagnostic model including two conjunctive models and a disjunctive model; (b) the quality of test Q-matrix with the four error rates from 0 to .4 with step .1, (c) the quality of items, and (d) the number of examinees with N = 500 or 1,000. The results show that these indices can be used to evaluate cognitive assumptions, to assess the quality of test Q-matrix, to identify poor items with attribute misspecification and to estimate noise rate in response data. The new consistency index with original indices may provide better understanding of the nature of cognitive assumptions and they will help determine which psychometric model is most appropriate and interpretable for the intended diagnostic assessment. Related Articles | Metrics

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A Search for Alternatives to test Equating with no common items Yue Liu 2015, (6): 1504-1512.  Abstract ( )   PDF (1053KB) ( )   The NEAT((non-equivalent groups with anchor test) design is widely used in large scale educational assessments. However, in practical, security problems in some regions make it difficult to re-use items; it is also impossible to use inner anchor sets in high-stakes tests. Besides, the criteria for selecting anchor set are hard to achieve in some situations. The purpose of this study is to find a practical alternative for score equating when NEAT design is not conducted in large-scale assessments, and to evaluate the new method in various conditions. This new approach is called Assembling Anchor Sets (AAS) approach. First, items from different tests are ordered by the predicted difficulty of experienced experts. Then, items of nearly equal difficulty are chosen as common items, considering the representativeness of anchor tests at the same time. Last, equating methods under NEAT design should be applied. The study is a mixed measure design of simulation conditions and score equating methods. Two equating procedures are compared. One is to build anchor sets using AAS approach and imply the equipercentile equating methods under NEAT design, the other is to treat the two simulated samples as random groups, and use the equipercentile equating methods under random groups design. There are two simulations in the research. Simulation 1 aims to explore the effect of the error of experts’ judgments on the AAS approach. There are five simulation conditions:(1) number of examines (2000 and 5000);(2) anchor length(5 items, 1/8 of total test;10 items,1/4 of total test);(3) proportion of mistakenly predicted items(four levels in the condition of 5 common items, 0%、20%、60%、100%;five levels in the condition of 10 common items, 0%、30%、50%、70%、100%);(4) errors of predicted item difficulty(+1 and +5);(5) difficulty levels of total tests(equivalent and non-equivalent). Simulation 2 aims to find out the influence of the differences of nearly equal difficulty items on the AAS approach. There are five simulation conditions, four of which are the same as the factors (1) (2) (3) (5) in simulation 1. The other one is the differences between the difficulty of common items (+0.15 and +0.25). In both simulations, test length is fixed as 40 items, and 30 replications are generated. Data are generated according to Rasch model using R program. The equipercentile equating methods are conducted by R package called “Equate”. The responses of the examinees took the original test on the new test are also simulated. Therefore, it can be referred as the examinees took both the original and the new tests. Then, equipercentile equating method under random groups design can be applied to equate the scores on the new test to the original test. This is the true scores in the study. Finally, the two equating methods are evaluated by four criteria: bias, mean absolute error, root mean square error, correlation between the scores after equating and true scores. The results show that:(1) as the proportion of mistakenly predicted items, the errors of predicted item difficulty, and the differences between the difficulty of common items increase, the equating error of AAS approach increases;(2)in the conditions of equivalent groups, when the proportion of mistakenly predicted items is large, the errors of predicted item difficulty are serious, and the differences between the difficulty of common items are obvious, the AAS approach is worse than the method under random groups design; in the conditions of non-equivalent groups, the AAS approach is always better than random groups methods;(3) in the conditions of non-equivalent groups, as anchor length increases, the equating error of AAS approach decreases. In conclusion, it is highly recommended to use the AAS approach in non-equivalent groups conditions. Further research should focus on developing some practical ways to increase the accuracy of predicted difficulty of items. Related Articles | Metrics

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Influence Factors on In-session Client Resistance and Working Alliance: A Process Research Ming WANG Guang-Rong JIANG Qi-Wu SUN 2015, (6): 1513-1518.  Abstract ( )   PDF (913KB) ( )   In-session client resistance is any behavior that indicates overt or covert opposition to the counselor, the counseling process or the counselor’s agenda. It can be seen as a process of interaction between client and counselor, and it is generally associated with negative counseling outcomes. Besides, working alliance is one of the important components of counseling relationship and is stably associated with positive counseling outcomes. To overcome client resistance and enhance working alliance is important for advancing counseling process and achieving positive counseling outcomes. The current study is based on the perspective of counseling process research, aims to examine the effects of counselor directiveness and client trait reactance on in-session client resistance, and also to examine the effects of the aforementioned 3 variables on working alliance which is from the view-point of client. With the permission of 38 clients and 19 counselors, 38 ongoing counseling sessions from 3 Chinese college counseling centers were recorded. These audio tapes were coded by 4 objective raters to obtain the indexes of in-session client resistance and counselor directiveness. The Client Resistance Code (CRC) was individually coded by 2 objective raters, and the Therapist Behavior Code-Revised (TBC-R) was by other 2. Before formally coding, these 4 raters were respectively trained nearly 20 hours. After training, the Cohen’s Kappa of CRC and TBC-R were both greater than .90. Two self-reported questionnaires, which were the Psychological Reactance Scale (PRS) and the Working Alliance Inventory-Short Form, Client Form (WAI-SC), were administrated in all 38 clients. PRS was filled out before the recorded session, and WAI-SC was after. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis and bias-corrected nonparametric percentile Bootstrap method were applied to the data statistics. Examinations of the effects on in-session client resistance indicate that counselor directiveness has significantly positive effects (β=.53, t=3.74, p＜.01), and the effect size is high (Cohen’s f2=.39). But client trait reactance has no statistically significant effects; neither does the interaction of counselor directiveness and client trait reactance. Examinations of the effects on working alliance indicate that client resistance has marginally significantly negative effects (β=－.31, t=－1.97, p=.06), and the effect size is moderate (Cohen’s f2=.11). But client trait reactance and counselor directiveness have no statistically significant effects; neither does the interaction of counselor directiveness and client resistance. Examinations of the mediation effects of counselor directiveness and client resistance on working alliance indicate that they both have no statistically significant effects, the bias-corrected Bootstrap 95% CIs are (－.12, .07) and (－.11, .01) respectively, both including 0. But in a relative comparison, the mediation effect of client resistance is higher than counselor directiveness. The mediation effect of client resistance accounts for 62% in the full effect (i.e. ab/c), 12% in the possible maximum value of mediation effect (i.e. κ2). But the mediation effect of counselor directiveness accounts for 17% in the full effect (i.e. ab/c), 4% in the possible maximum value of mediation effect (i.e. κ2). In conclusion, the results of the present study indicate that: ⑴the more counselor directiveness, the more in-session client resistance; ⑵client resistance is harmful to working alliance; ⑶client resistance maybe plays as a mediation role during the process of counselor directiveness impacts working alliance. Related Articles | Metrics

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Are Autistic Children the Mind-Blindness? : On the Gallagher’s Interaction Theory 2015, (6): 1519-1524.  Abstract ( )   PDF (546KB) ( )   The field of autism research is dominated by the mind-blindness theory, which is based on the mentalistic supposition and the supposition of universality. These assumptions advocate that other minds are hidden away, closed in, behind the overt behavior that we can see, and we understand others mainly by this mind-reading way. Interaction Theory refuses these two suppositions, and proposes that intersubjectivity involves three levels: primary intersubjectivity, secondary intersubjectivity and narrative competency based on the evidence of development psychology and phenomenological research. On the level of ontogeny, these three have been in succession, and in the social interaction level of mature individuals they are mutually beneficial, but the foremost way of understanding others is the intuitive social interaction which is on the basis of sensory-motor. There are obstacles of autistic children with the primary intersubjectivity and the secondary intersubjectivity. Actually, Both scientific evidence from developmental psychology and phenomenology suggest that theory of mind itself is not a good explanation of non-autistic intersubjective experience. In the view of Gallagher, If theory of mind can not offer an acceptable account of our normal interaction with others, then the lack of a theory of mind does not offer a good account of the problems of autistic children. In order to explain the problem of social interaction of autism, Gallagher outlined the interaction theory, which incorporates evidence from both developmental and phenomenological studies to show that humans are endowed with important capacities for intersubjective understanding from birth or early infancy. And in adulthood these abilities don’t disappear, but continue to play the role, and only in a special situation which the ability is not enough to explain the more advanced narrative ability will play a role. From perspectives of neuroscience and phenomenology, interaction theory consider the effects that both sensory-motor problems and problems of central coherence may have on primary and secondary intersubjectivity as well as their connections to the social symptoms. Certainly, the interaction theory is facing many challenges now, and we also look forward to provide a unified research program which integrate developmental, phenomenological, enactive, and dynamical approaches of social interaction together. Related Articles | Metrics

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Application of Chinese characters in the practice of localization of dream interpretation 2015, (6): 1525-1530.  Abstract ( )   PDF (326KB) ( )   Dream interpretation has a unique charm in the practice of counseling and psychotherapy. Dream is generally considered as the avenue to the kingdom of unconsciousness of human beings, and the best way to learn unconscious contents of an individual. Currently, most domestic practice of dream interpretation is still based on the Western theories and technologies. Despite the progress, this approach is imposed-etic conduction in essence, which means that theories and technologies rooted in Western culture are directly applied to Chinese society, so it lacks intrinsic fitness with the actual situation of Chinese society and culture. Actually, psychological counseling should not be seen as abstraction beyond time and space, but as a historical and cultural phenomenon. Therefore, the localization of the practice of dream interpretation is a critical issue the Chinese dream workers have to confront. As to this issue, the use of Chinese characters in dream interpretation merits our close attention. As a typical representative of hieroglyphics, Chinese characters capture exactly the ethos of traditional Chinese culture. Both traditional dream studies in China and modern dream theories in the West have mentioned the feasibility of the application of Chinese characters in dream interpretation. Nonetheless, those ideas scatter in numerous writings, lack of clear and systematic presentation. To be more specific, traditional Chinese dream statements lack scientific basis, and its specific operation is too arbitrary; while modern Western dream interpretation only observes the association between Chinese characters and dream interpretation without meaningful discussion, nor has it proposed practical procedure -. In the practice of psychological counseling, traditional Chinese culture needs to be interpreted from the aspect of contemporary psychology and to convert the operation, in order to meet the paradigm of psychological discipline. The theory construction of dream interpretation has laid its foundation on Freud and Jung, whose ideas are still the essential guideline for subsequent dream interpretation workers in the innovation of theory and practice. Based on the relevant ideas of Freud and Jung, this paper elaborated the theory construction of Chinese characters in dream interpretation. After a brief review of the application of Chinese characters in traditional Chinese dream theories, this paper discussed four aspects of consistency of the working mechanism between Chinese characters and dreams. Firstly, dreams have the same expository purposes as Chinese characters. In the transformation of dreams, collective unconsciousness makes dreams thought-oriented. In this sense, both dreams and Chinese characters are a channel of mind delivery with certain meanings and aims. Secondly, dreams resemble Chinese characters in the ways of expression. Dreams express unconscious thoughts with symbolic imagery, and Chinese characters express ideas with symbolic written symbols, so dreams have the similar way of expression with Chinese characters. Thirdly, dreams and Chinese characters have a common origin. The originality of image makes itself the common ground for dreams and languages. At last, the formation process of dreams is reciprocal with Chinese characters, which is not from images to ideas but from ideas to images. Based on the analysis above, we can conclude that there is a corresponding relationship between dreams and Chinese characters. While interpreting the dreams of Chinese people, we can obtain inspiration from Chinese characters. Its operative steps are as follows: according to the content and structure of dream images, the dream interpreter finds the Chinese character corresponding to the dream image, and then grasp the thoughts of the dream so as to interpret it. The feasibility of the above steps is mainly based on two facts. Firstly, the dream image is the direct expression of the unconscious thoughts; secondly, the correspondence between dream images and Chinese characters is reliable. What’s more, this paper also demonstrated the explicit operational steps with two cases, so as to show the application of Chinese characters to the interpretation of dreams. In practice, the seeking of Chinese characters corresponding to dream imaginary requires a profound grasp of the historical evolution of Chinese characters, especially early writing structure and original meaning of Chinese characters, which have experienced tremendous changes after long years. Therefore, it should be liberated from simplified characters popularly used nowadays, and be combined with the reexamination of the history of Chinese characters as well as the relative background to get the meaning of dreams. The application of Chinese characters in dream interpretation highlights the characteristics of Chinese characters as ideographic characters, labeling dream interpretation with unique charm of traditional Chinese culture. This also fits in with the requirement of “cultural consciousness” in academic research. The reason lies in the fact that Western writing system belongs to phonogram , while Chinese characters belong to ideogram combining phonetic and graphic features, in which imaginary plays an important role and have more advantages. Thus, Chinese characters can be used in dream interpretation by analyzing ideographic meaning to understand what is hidden in dreams. In summary, employing Chinese characters to interpret the meaning of dreams is useful in the practice of localization of dream interpretation. Chinese characters are of great significance for inspiration and guiding to scientifically understand the essence of the dreams and correctly interpret the dream. Meanwhile, the practice of Chinese characters in dream interpretation also needs to be cautious, because this method is not the only way of interpreting dreams, neither can it be applied to all sorts of dreams. Besides, this application needs a prerequisite that dream workers not only need to master modern technology but also should grasp relative Chinese cultural knowledge. As Freud has said, to what extent we know dreams is only determined by practice and experience, thus the practice of Chinese characters in dream interpretation needs the accumulation of more experience. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Relationship between Bicultural Identity Integration and Psychological Adaptation: The Mediating Role of Dialectical Self 2015, (6): 14751481-14751481.  Abstract ( )   PDF (327KB) ( )   The number of bicultural individuals and even multicultural individuals greatly increased because of the cultural diversity resulted from factors such as globalization, migration, mixed-living，and so on. Many bicultural individuals are often confronted with the problem of psychological adaptation (Berry, Phinney, Sam, &Vedder, 2006). From the perspective of subjective perception of cultural identity with bicultural individuals, the present study investigated the relationship among bicultural identity integration（BII），dialectical self and psychological adaptation, and examined the mediating effect of dialectical self between BII and psychological adaptation This research used the questionnaire-survey taking the Tibetan (n=281) and Hui (n=106) college students in Northwest multi-ethnic areas for example. Results are as following: (1)Two studies converged to show that consistent with our hypotheses, BII(Harmony–conflict dimension) was positively correlated with psychological adaptation,(r = .13，p <.05; r = .23，p < .05) , but negatively correlated with the dialectical self(r = -.23，p < .01; r = -.36，p < .01)between Tibetan and Hui bicultural individuals. In addition, the dialectical self was negatively related to BII as anticipated(r = -.48，p < .01; r = -.51，p < .01). (2) Multiple regression analysis and Bootstrapping method showed that the dialectical self for Tibetan and Hui people fully mediated the relationship between BII(bicultural harmonious-conflict) and psychological adaptation(the mediating effect accounted for 84.6% and 78.3% of the total effect respectively). What the results enlightened us is that the psychological adaptation of minority bicultural individuals can be enhanced from the perspective of cultural identity integration or dialectical self , which is a brand-new and effective path. In our real life, creating harmonious cultural atmosphere can reduce the extent of the dialectical self with minority bicultural individuals, forming consistent values and unified self-concepts. Therefore, negative disturbance resulted from culture shock, such as contradiction and indecision will be effectively reduced. The sense of belonging in cultural psychology will be also boosted, which enhance their psychological adaptation and improve their state of psychological health. In addition, the difference between our research and the study of the western research（Chen, S. X., & Benet‐Martínez, 2013）is that western researchers often choose bicultural individuals from western countries as their participants, such as Asian American. They found that BII were positively correlated with psychological adaptation on its two dimensions (dimensions of harmony–conflict & dimensions of distance–blend). However, the current research showed that dimensions of harmony–conflict was positively correlated with psychological adaptation, but dimensions of distance–blend had no significant positively correlation with psychological adaptation. For those minorities who live in two kinds of culture, the results above revealed that the distance between the two cultures have no significant impact on their psychological adaptation ,but the degree of conflict between the two cultures have significant effects on their psychological adaptation. The results enlighten us that one of the effective measures improving the level of psychological adaptation of bicultural minority individuals is to integrate the conflict elements of two cultures through various ways in order to build a harmonious atmosphere of the two cultures in their lives. At the same time, for the minority students, the cultural similarities between their own culture and Han culture in family and school education should be focused on, which can reduce conflicts and bad mood owing to their misunderstanding of Han culture, cultivate an open mind and form harmonious values and world view as well as improve the level of mental health. Related Articles | Metrics