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Is it the Process or Content that Determines the Irrelevant Speech Effect on Chinese Sentence Reading? An Eye-Tracking Study Guo-Li Yan Zhu MENG 2018, 41(1): 2-7.  Abstract ( )   PDF (610KB) ( )   The irrelevant speech effect refers to the impairment of visual-information processing by background speech. Unlike the general noise, the studies on irrelevant speech effect mainly investigate the properties of speech on cognitive tasks. Most previous studies on irrelevant speech effect has focused on short-term memory for visually-presented word lists. They favored that the irrelevant speech effect is determined by the same process rather than the confusion between the contents of vocal and visual information. More concretely, the interference-by-process account considers the disruption as a result of conflict between deliberate processing in focal task and automatic processing of speech. However, little is known about the mechanism underlying the irrelevant speech effect in complex cognitive tasks. The present study extends this work by using measures of eye movements to examine whether the interference-by-process account also applies to the reading comprehension of Chinese sentences. Eye tracking provides a means for objectively recording and analyzing reading behavior in the normal environment, and its varied eye movement measures also permit examining subtle changes that occur during reading with background speech. 36 participants read sentences normally or being exposed to different types of background sounds. A 3 (background speech type: meaningful speech, meaningless speech, silence)×2 (task instruction: normal reading, proofreading) mixed design was used. The background speech type was the within-subjects factor, and the task instruction was the between-subjects factor. Processing in proofreading task is different from it is in normal reading. During proofreading, in addition to understanding the meaning of the sentences, the readers should pay more attention to the word-level information. The basic hypothesis was that if the irrelevant speech effect was due to the confusion of content, then we would expect that the interference occurred regardless of task instructions as the similarity of content between speech and sentence materials was not changed. Instead, if the interference was determined by the same process, we would predict an interaction between background type and task instruction. The accuracy rates of reading comprehension were not significantly different in all treatments. Linear-mixed effects models were used to analyze the eye movement data. The findings showed that: (1) Be consistent with many previous studies, the irrelevant speech effect on Chinese sentence reading was observed. The meaningful background speech reduced the reading rate, and leading the participants to make more fixations and regressions. While the meaningless speech had little influence on reading comprehension, which suggested that the semantic content of speech plays a more important role in the irrelevant speech effect on reading. (2) Furthermore, there was a significant interaction between background type and task instruction for reading rate and average fixation count per character. Specifically, the meaningful speech disrupted normal reading, while did not affect proofreading significantly. As the similarity between the contents of vocal and visual materials was identical, this interaction implied that it is the same process rather than the similar content determines the interruption. The present study supports the interference-by-process account. Some implications about the irrelevant speech effect in complex cognitive tasks were also discussed. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Effects of Dopaminergic System Genes on Attention Networks 2018, 41(1): 24-30.  Abstract ( )   PDF (903KB) ( )   Dopamine (DA) is one of the major neurotransmitters in central nervous system and acts as a powerful modulator of different aspects of cognitive brain functions. Numerous studies have revealed the important role of DA on attention networks. However, current imaging genetics studies only focus on the effect of one single gene of the dopaminergic system on local brain regions (mostly prefrontal cortex) but ignore the whole brain analysis and comparison between different genes. To advance our understanding of DA on attention, we conducted a meta-analysis to examine modulatory effects of three typical dopamine genes on whole brain attention networks. A literature search was first performed on imaging genetics studies on modulation of DA in attention tasks through PubMed. Keywords included but not limited to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and candidate dopaminergic system genes targeting the presynaptic, the postsynaptic neurons, or the synaptic cleft, such as the dopamine transporter gene (DAT), the catechol-O-methyltransferase gene (COMT) or the dopamine receptor gene (DRD). Reference lists were checked by hand and a total of forty-four papers were gathered and applied to our meta-analysis. We extracted the coordinates of peak voxels where genetic modulatory effect on attention was reported in the papers and then projected them onto a brain template in Caret to visualize the distribution of the modulatory effects of genes. Effect sizes were calculated using Cohen’s d to quantify the magnitude of activation difference between subjects with separate genotypes on each attention task. Random-effects model was chosen for the meta-analysis and effect sizes on effective modulation of dopaminergic system genes in different brain regions were calculated with Comprehensive Meta-Analysis program (CMA). To comparing difference across attention networks and dopaminergic genes, the Q-test of homogeneity was used to test for variations in effect size. Our results showed that the integrated effect sizes on effective modulation of dopaminergic system genes were all above .8 (Cohen’s d) in ventral attention network (VAN), including ventral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC), orbitofrontal gyrus (OFG), and superior temporal gyrus (STG), and also in dorsal attention network (DAN), consisting of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), superior parietal lobule (SPL) and frontal eye field (FEF). The VAN presented a significantly higher effect size in comparison to the DAN (Qb = 4.94, p < .05). In addition, variation test of effect sizes for dopaminergic system genes showed that COMT gene exhibited a significantly higher effect size than that of DAT gene (Qb = 77.04, p < .001) and DRD gene (Qb = 186.35, p < .001). Our study suggests the important role of dopaminergic system genes in regulating attention networks in the whole brain. As DAN enables the selection of sensory stimuli based on internal goals and VAN detects salient and relevant stimuli in the environment, the observed stronger modulatory effect of dopaminergic system genes in VAN than in DAN suggests that bottom-up attention, comparing with top-down attention, received more modulation from genes than environment. Our study invites broader and deeper studies on the relationship among genes, brain, and attentional behaviors at the network level in the future. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Effect of Frame and Series Trend on Trend Damping Su-Yu ZHANG Xiu-Xin WANG Xiu-Fang DU 2018, 41(1): 31-37.  Abstract ( )   PDF (941KB) ( )   Generally, individuals make forecasting in two ways: statistic forecasting and judgmental forecasting. Judgmental forecasting is characterized as being associated with systematic biases because of its subjectivity. Trend damping, one of these biases, refers to that individuals tend to underestimate future values for upward trend, and overestimate them for downward ones when forecasting from time-series with noise. In other words, people underestimate the steepness of the series’ trend. Previous research found that damping effect in upward trend was larger than that in downward trend. However, most experiments on trend damping required participants to forecast quantities for which values are better than lower ones, such as the sales of a good. It is possible that downward trends represented a situation of perceived losses, and that upward ones represented perceived gains. And in literature about decision making, many studies have found that the way a problem is expressed, or framed, can dramatically influence judgment. Some research further showed that trend damping in the frame of loss was larger than that in the frame of gain. This means that previous results may mix the effect of frame. Based on the shortcoming in previous studies, present research aimed to investigate the effect of frame and trend on trend damping through two experiments. Previous research suggested that the effect of frame and series trend on trend damping may result from two reasons. First, participants’ forecasts may have been subject to an optimistic bias. Second, individuals may have expected actions to be taken to reverse downward trends but not to reverse upward ones. Optimistic bias may still existed under uncontrollable event whereas reverse expectation not. However, research suggested that optimistic bias and reverse expectation may be weaken under uncontrollable event. Since then, experiment 1 examined the effect of frame and trend on trend damping under controllable event, and experiment 2 explored the effect of frame and trend on trend damping under uncontrollable event. Among these two experiments, the materials were time series which were constructed using power-law functions, of the general form: y=100+300×(x/48)k +error. The dependent variable was the D-value of predictive value and truth-value. Results showed that:(1)The truth-values were significant bigger than predictive values for upward trends, were significant smaller than predictive values for downward trends, in other words, significant damping effect was occurred. (2)The damping effect was greater when the slope of time series was bigger. (3)The interaction effect of gain-loss frame and series trend was significant under controllable and uncontrollable situation. The simple effect analysis both suggested that damping effect was greater in downward trend than in upward one in the frame of gain, but was no difference in the frame of loss. In the frame of gain, the downward trend are always negative, and the upward one are always positive. According to the optimistic bias, individuals may expect that the negative thing was less likely to occur, which may result in greater damping effect in downward trend. The reverse expectation suggests that individuals may hypothesize some actions to be taken to reverse the negative thing, which may also result in greater damping effect in downward trend. Adaptation account of trend damping proposed that people more frequently experience data series that are increasing than data series that are decreasing. As a result individuals develop expectations about how series typically change. These expectations may influence their forecasts; as a consequence the damping effect in the frame of loss was no difference. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Impact of Visual Information Material on the Effectiveness of Eye-controlled Highlighting Wang li 2018, 41(1): 8-14.  Abstract ( )   PDF (938KB) ( )   The information display technology has gradually developed in the human computer interface. In order to improve the user's operating performance, many traditional display techniques, including highlighting, focus-context technology and application adaptation, were studied by many researchers. However, those above techniques are unable to adapt themselves to changing needs of users when they search on a massive information display. Combined with the highlighting technique and eye tracking method, eye-controlled highlighting was used as a new resolution in information display interface. It highlights directly the information which users are searching, as shown in Figure 1 to 2. Compared with traditional highlighting, eye-controlled highlighting dynamically highlights information determined by users’ eye movement. Users search information more naturally and efficiently. This study consists of two experiments. It attempts to study how different material and word frequency influence three display conditions in visual search. Those tests were developed in VisualC#2010. All sessions were run on a 1440×900 resolution monitor. A 2 (stimulus type: number vs. word in Exp.1, high-frequency word vs. low-frequency word in Exp.2)*3 (highlighting type: block highlighting vs. single highlighting vs. no-highlighting) between-subject design was adopted in both experiments. Two experiments’ dependent variables were accuracy, searching time, and user’s evaluation of NASA-TXL. The NASA-TXL is six aspects of evaluation: mental demand, physical demand, temporal demand, performance, effort and frustration. One hundred and ninety-two right-handed adults participated in the study (42 females and 54 males in Exp.1, 39 females and 57 males in Exp.2), randomly assigned to the 6 levels of experiment. For each group, participants were asked to finish 20 times of searching tasks with different displays’ conditions. After the searching tasks, participants’ subjective evaluation was performed. All data were processed by SPSS 13.0. The mean and standard deviation of the six experiment types’ performance and satisfaction evaluation were shown in Table 1 to 4. The two - factor variance analysis results showed as follows. In Exp.1, 1) Searching numbers and words with two eye-controlled highlighting, participants had higher accuracy than those with no-highlighting (ps< .05). Besides, when searching numbers and words with block highlighting, participants was faster than those with single highlighting (ps< .05). 2) There were no significant difference between two eye-controlled highlighting both on the performance searching numbers and words (ps >.05). 3) Participants searching number felt tired with single highlighting than with no-highlighting in the term of physical demand, but feeling more comfortable in the term of frustration with single highlighting (ps<. 05). In Exp.2, 1) Searching high-frequency and low-frequency words with block highlighting, participants were faster than those with single highlighting and no-highlighting (ps< .05). 2) Searching low-frequency words with single highlighting, participants had higher accuracy than those with block highlighting and no-highlighting (ps< .05). 3) Participants felt more comfortable in aggregate score with two highlighting than those with no-highlighting (p<. 05). The study shows these conclusions: (1) two types of eye-controlled highlighting are better than no-highlighting; (2) block highlighting are faster than single highlighting; (3) single highlighting has more advantages in searching low-frequency words. Related Articles | Metrics

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Hand Proximity Effect: Content, Influencing Factors and Neural Mechanisms Xiaotao Wang 2018, 41(1): 45-50.  Abstract ( )   PDF (285KB) ( )   Recent studies have shown that human visual perception and attentional selection near the hands are substantially altered compared with stimuli far from the hands. For example, visual stimuli near the hands are detected more quickly, discriminated more accurately and processed more thoroughly compared far from the hands. This cluster effect of hand-stimulus proximity on vision is termed "hand proximity effect". Recent studies have shown that human visual perception and attentional selection near the hands are substantially altered compared with stimuli far from the hands. For example, visual stimuli near the hands are detected more quickly, discriminated more accurately and processed more thoroughly compared far from the hands. This cluster effect of hand-stimulus proximity on vision is termed "hand proximity effect (HPE)". The research on the HPE have flourished in the past ten years. The purpose of this essay, therefore, is to provide a systematically review of the existing body of literature. Research repeatedly found that placing hands near stimuli enhances perceptual processing and spacial working memory while impairs perceptual group and object-based perception. However, the results of hand-stimulus proximity's effect on executive control were inconsistent. Moreover, placing hands near the stimuli facilitates processing information relevant to grasp affordances. Thus, the affordance for specific actions moderates the HPE. The ownership of hand is another moderator. It is suggested that participants' own hand but not other's hand or fake hand near to the stimuli can affect visual processing. If the fake hand is somatically and visually similar to real hand, however, putting fake hand near the stimuli can affect visual processing. After cooperated to accomplish a task, other’s hand near the stimuli can induce HPE too. Consistent with embodied cognition theory, the attention theories proposed action-based explanations of HPE: objects near the hands candidate for action, thus they receive enhanced processing. There are two attention theories for HPE. The attentional priority theory suggests that hand-stimulus proximity affects early visual processing, whereas the delayed disengagement theory suggests that hand-stimulus proximity affects later visual processing. However, a recent study used event-related potentials found that the effect of hand-stimulus proximity on the visual processing ranges from early sensory processing to later cognitive processing. Two distinct theoretical accounts explain neural mechanism of HPE. The bimodal visuo-tactile neurons account suggests that stimuli in peri-hand space may activate the bimodal visuo-tactile neurons. Thus, the visual targets near the hand may be more salience than targets far from the hand because there are additional neural substrates representing the objects in peri-hand space. However, the trade-off of two visual pathways account suggests objects near the hand induce a bias toward the action-oriented magnocellular visual pathway. Conversely, objects far from the hand bias vision toward the perception-oriented parvocellular visual pathway. Future research should focus on the neural mechanisms, and the practical applications of the HPE. Moreover, the modulation of action-affordance, and the modulation of interpersonal and social factors on HPE may be promising in the future studies. Related Articles | Metrics

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The effect of thoughts of death and thoughts of survival on self-referential processing：Evidence from ERPs 2018, 41(1): 38-44.  Abstract ( )   PDF (730KB) ( )   Cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker posited that the capacity to reflect on the self poses a problem for human beings—the awareness of the existence of the self signifies that the self can also cease to exist. Previous works listed above have suggested that the death-related thoughts would limit people’s attention on self. However, it is still not clear whether individual is also prone to escaping self-awareness as a distal response to thoughts of death. Based on this, the first aim of the current study was to explore whether non-conscious mortality salience motivates avoidance of self-awareness. Processing information in the context of personal survival scenarios elicits a memory advantage, relative to other rich encoding conditions such as self-referencing. Although studies have shown that survival processing will facilitate the retrieval of self-related memory, it’s not definite conclusion how survival processing affects self-related memory encoding. The second aim of the present research was to explore the impact of survival processing on the self-related memory encoding. The current experiment is a 3×3 complex design. One of the independent variables is the priming (mortality salience vs. survival vs. control), the other is target (self /mother/valence). The dependent variables are the reaction time, positivity score and the brain electrical activities (LPC) when participants judge the personality-trait adjectives. Seventy-seven valid participants were assigned to one of the three priming conditions, after that, each participant was asked to perform 40 calculations in 5 minutes, which served as a delay between the priming task and the self-referential processing task. Electrophysiological data were collected while participants finished the self-referential task. During the self-referential task, 180 personality-trait adjectives (half positive and half negative) were selected. Each trial began with a fixation cross with its duration randomly varying between 300 and 500ms, which was followed by a trait adjective that was presented for 4000ms. Participants were asked to judge whether a trait adjective was appropriate to describe the self, their mother, or to judge the valence of a trait word. At the end of experimental, participants were asked to finish the PANAS scale. Behavioral results showed that the positive evaluation of the mother was significantly higher than the positive evaluation of the self (p<.01). And the RT in response to the self-judgments and mother-judgment was longer than that to valence-judgments (p<.01). The ERPs results showed: (1) In the condition of mortality salience, the LPC (late positive component) of self-judgments and mother-judgments are significantly lower than LPC of valence-judgments (self: p=.067; mother: p<.05). Self-judgments and mother-judgments did not reach significant level (p>.05). (2) In the condition of situation of survival, the LPC of self-judgments is significantly higher than LPC of valence-judgments (p<.05). (3) In the control group, there is no significant difference between the three types of target. In sum, these results suggested that mortality salience suppress self-processing. Opposite of this, the thoughts of survival promotes self-processing. Furthermore, East Asian (e.g., Chinese here) interdependent self depends on overlapping of neural substrates for the self and close others (e.g., mother). The ERPs is an objective indicator. The present study provides an evident support that non-conscious mortality salience motivates avoidance of self-awareness, non-conscious thoughts of survival enhances self-awareness. Future research can explore how two different priming affect the self-related memory retrieval and its mechanism. Related Articles | Metrics

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Happiness as Personal or Social? Electrocortical Reactivity to Self- and Social-oriented Pleasant Emotional Stimuli 2018, 41(1): 15-23.  Abstract ( )   PDF (1153KB) ( )   There were all sorts of different events which may arouse our emotional experiences in daily life. When processing and perceiving these emotional stimuli, there may include different emotional reactivity. They could be influenced by biological factors as well as cultural factors. It had been recognized that emotions exist along a social/nonsocial emotional dimension. The sociality dimension may reflect the differences between basic biological drives (nonsocial) and complex social interaction (social). Even though previous studies examined the important differences in social and non-social emotional stimuli, most of them focused on the negative emotions. However, as an important and indispensable part of the field of emotion study, it is necessary to include the study of positive emotions. Positive emotions are considered to be adaptive experiences and helpful to promote individual's psychological well-being. In current study, we aimed to examine the differences of the emotional reactivity when processing social/nonsocial positive emotions. Emotion perception is a process that integrates physiological, cognitive, and behavioral components. A series of even-related brain potential (ERP) studies is reviewed demonstrating the consistent and robust modulation of specific ERP components by emotional images. Specifically, emotional compared to neural pictures elicit an increase in the early ERP components (e.g., P1, P2, and N2) and the late positive potential (LPP). Modulations of the ERP components are thought to reflect the facilitated processing of, and increased attention to, motivationally salient stimuli. Therefore, ERPs provide a powerful measurement tool for capturing neural activity related to emotional responding. In the present ERP study, we used the Picture Perception Paradigm to explore the differences in brain cortical reactivity to social/nonsocial positive emotions. When 20 undergraduates watched and evaluated these social, neutral, and nonsocial pictures, their ERPs were recorded. 180 pictures were used in the study. Results showed that (1) the P1was larger for emotional than neutral pictures. As for P2, the difference was not significant, (2) the N2 was larger for social than nonsocial pictures; but had no significant differences between emotional and neutral pictures, (3) as for LPP, we divided into three time windows: the first one was from 300ms to 600ms, the second one was from 600ms to 1000ms, and the last one was from 1000ms to 1500ms. At the early time window, there were no significant results among different stimuli. At the second and the third time windows, the LPP was larger for social than nonsocial pictures. However, there was no significant difference between emotional and neutral pictures. The results suggested that positive social emotions properly had a higher priority during the emotional processing. And the advantage could be reflected in subjective experiences and physiological responses. These findings deepened our understandings of social/nonsocial emotions. Besides, these results could also provide empirical supports to processing of positive emotions. The future research could make significant progress in laying out the foundations identifying the diverse mechanism of emotional processing of different emotional stimuli. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Application and Characteristics of School-Based Mindfulness Intervention Wen-Jie DUAN 2018, 41(1): 85-90.  Abstract ( )   PDF (305KB) ( )   During the past three decades, mindfulness has been applied beyond many clinical fields, such as elderly care, workplace, schools and other settings, among which school is a particularly important field. Nowadays, an increasing attention has been paid by educators and advanced clinical practitioners to school-based mindfulness intervention. This review focuses on mindfulness in school setting for students and teachers, summarizing the main roles of school mindfulness. Previous studies documented that school-based mindfulness intervention can be used as an assistant to treat physical disease, such as chronic pain, high blood pressure, difficulty sleeping, and low quality sleep. Moreover, it also has salutary treatment effects on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depression, depression relapse and other mental illness. Mindfulness-based intervention was developed specifically to decrease bullying, alcohol addition, substance abuse and other disorder behaviors. School-based interventions target at students’ readiness which is a critical ingredient of students’ academic performance and personal competence in order to meet academic benchmarks or employment tasks. As it known to all, teaching is a tough work, since this stressful profession involves students’ demands, emotion management, and work overload. Many researches focused on understanding educators stress and consequence, and few professional development approaches has been tested to improve educators’ stress management and wellbeing. Increasing evidences suggest mindfulness may be an effective method for promoting stress management and wellbeing of educators. According to research reviewed in this work, there are several specific recommendations for future research to address the notable limitations. Firstly, the concept of mindfulness is still unclearly. There have been controversies leading to the emergence of different scales of mindfulness, which has triggered a series of issues related to factors structure and validities. Secondly, although there were some studies on mechanisms of mindfulness, few researches has further explored the mechanism of school intervention based on previous empirical studies. Lastly, future research should further explore the localization of the theoretical system of mindfulness and to establish an appropriate school-based mindfulness intervention for Chinese school setting. Related Articles | Metrics

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Time Concretizing Effect in Number Representation: Evidence from Number-line Estimation Task Lin-Cheng HU 2018, 41(1): 51-56.  Abstract ( )   PDF (622KB) ( )   The representation and processing of pure numbers are studied extensively and previous findings indicated that results of number-line estimation of younger children conform to Fechner's law, that is to say the estimation results increase logarithmically with the increase of the actual number for smaller children, while the estimation results increases linearly for older children in the same number range. But the limitation of this study field is that representation of concretized numbers is nearly ignored. SNARC effect revealed that subjects responded to large numbers faster with the right hand than with the left hand, whereas the reverse held true for small numbers. Based on the hypothesis of mental number line, the researchers developed a number line estimation task to explore the law of number representation and development. In this task, the subjects are presented with a line with numbers on both ends (e.g., 0 and 100), and ask the subjects to determine the position of the number (e.g., 70) on the line. At present, there are two different views on the processing mechanism of time, space and quantity. The first point of view proposes that the processing of the three kinds of information share the common processing mechanism. The representative theory of first point of view is ATOM (A Theory Of Magnitude) proposed by Walsh (2003), which considers that the processing of time, space and quantity depends on a single representation mechanism. Another view is the multi representation system, which holds that the processing of time, space and number are domain-specificity, and each kind of information processing has the unique representation and transformation mechanism. Number representation and processing are handled by a non-abstract system, which processes numbers according to specific situations. So, a lot of studies in the past utilizing the number line estimation task almost ignored the concretized meaning of numbers, that is to say ignoring the difference between pure numbers and concretized numbers. In current study, Siegler’s(2003) number line estimation task is used as prototype to explore the change of number representation from grade two to grade six under the condition of concretized time by appending time unit (秒, 小时) to pure numbers. When the number is given meaning, the numerical semantic information is changed into the time quantity information, and we can compare the similarities and differences between pure number representation and time quantity information representation. Three classes of children attended the experiment. Concretized numbers were divided into two levels, i.e. short time (秒，second) concretization and long time (小时，hour) concretization. The results indicate there exists time concretizing effect in number line estimation in number line estimation task. And within the scale of 0-1000, the logarithmic-to-linear representational shift occurred at second grade which was consistent with previous studies, and when the numbers were concretized with time, explanatory power of logarithmic model was increased and that of linear model decreased correspondingly in all of three grades. The regression analysis of estimation median indicated time concretizing effect in each grade. For second graders, the interaction between concretizing and models was significant, and simple effect test indicated at the level of linear model, time concretizing effect was significant, F（1，26）=4.72，P<.05，while at the level of logarithmic model, time concretizing effect was not significant, F（1，26）=3.50，P=.073。For second graders, time concretizing effect was significant, F（1, 29）=5.710，P<.05，η2=.165，Muncon=.842（Std =.008），Mcon=.853（Std =.007）。For sixth graders, the interaction between concretizing and models was significant, and simple effect test indicated at the level of linear model, time concretizing effect was very significant, F（1，30）=9.78，P<.005，and at the level of logarithmic model, time concretizing effect was significant, F（1，30）=6.19，P<.05. Generally speaking, for all three graders, the data indicated obvious time concretizing effect--under time concretizing condition explanatory power of logarithmic model was increased, meanwhile the explanatory power of linear model decreased. Therefore, it seems that the results support the hypothesis of multi representation system. Related Articles | Metrics

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From Numerosity Representation to Number Representation: The Acquisition of Human Numerical Competence under Embodied Cognition Perspective 2018, 41(1): 91-97.  Abstract ( )   PDF (314KB) ( )   Numerical competence is one of the basic components of individual understanding the empirical world. It represents one of the basic components of mathematical cognition. Investment on numerical competence can help us to understand the foundation of human mathematics cognition thoroughly. Although there are plentiful evidences to support that animals have numerical competence, studies have found that from lower animals to mammals, many of them have the approximate number representation ability and precise number representation ability.However，those results can only prove that human beings and animals have a a common mathematical cognitive basis. Compared to animals, the human ability is unique in that human beings have a complete number concepts. Human beings not only have the ability to represent and count quantity ，but also have the ability to carry out mathematical operations, to obtain the numerical competence, has a complete number concept system. Human beings are born with two number representation systems-approximate number system and precise number system. Both systems can not provide support for the precise representation of numbers beyond 3 or 4, therefore they are not the only basis for the formation of numbers competence.It remians unlcear about how the unique mathematical ability of human beings develop on the foundation of cognitive basis? What kind of cognitive mechanisms contribute to the development of numerical competence from numerosity representation to number representation? Then requires more complex cognitive mechanisms to support it. Debates on these issues continue from the view of traditional cognitive science and second-generation cognitive science. Based on the representation-computing paradigm, the traditional cognitive science holds that mind is a processor to deal with meaningless symbols in accordance with certain rules and the cognition is a process that information is captured through the calculation of symbolic systems mentally. Traditional cognitive science can not provide a powerful explanation for the acquisition of human advanced numerical competence. On the contrary, the second-generation of cognitive science poses a challenge that the conceptual representation is not an independent, abstract, arbitrary, and amodal symbols representation, but representation constructed by external perception, internal states, and actions mutually. In addition, it provided two cognitive mechanisms for number conceptual representation. We mainly provided theoretical supports and empirical evidences for the acquisition of human numerical competence under embodied cognition perspective. In recent years, there has been a new interpretation of brain structure and function in the field of cognitive neuroscience - the Neural Reuse Hypothesis may be a revelation of the overlap between quantity and space. Future studies should further uncover the cognitive neural mechanism of numerical competence. The study of number spatial metaphor still has broad exploration space. In addition, future research needs to proceed from the perspective of specific knowledge, to further explore how to better enable students to understand the mathematical concepts in teaching. Related Articles | Metrics

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Emotion Regulation Strategies and Subjective Well-being among Migrant Children in China: The Roles of Self-esteem and Resilience 2018, 41(1): 71-76.  Abstract ( )   PDF (679KB) ( )   An enormous amount of research attention has been devoted to investigating migrant children’s depression, loneliness, discrimination, and risk behaviors from the perspective of typical deficit model of adolescence, while relatively little attention has been paid to positive developmental outcomes. Subjective well-being refers to cognitive and affective evaluations of our lives. It is a significant indicator of positive youth development(PYD). Previous research showed that the emotional problem was one of the most important factors that affected migrant children’s life quality. So the emotion regulation may be a linchpin for subjective well-being among migrant children. Furthermore, high self-esteem and resilience also are the key protective factors for children’s developments. Accordingly, from the perspective of PYD, the purpose of this study was to get better insights into the associations between emotion regulation strategies (i.e., reappraisal and suppression) and subjective well-being among migrant children and test the possible mediating roles of self-esteem and resilience. 639 migrant children aged 9–14 years old from three primary schools in Beijing were recruited for participation. They were asked to complete a battery of self-report questionnaires, including the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (short form), Emotion Regulation Scale in Adolescents, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and the Resilience Scale for Chinese Adolescents. Firstly, descriptive statistics were utilized to describe the basic features of the variables. Then the multiple regression was conducted to acquire an understanding of the overall relationships depicted in the hypothesized model. The sequential mediation effects were estimated by the PROCESS macro for SPSS. Correlation analysis showed that reappraisal was positively associated with suppression, self-esteem, resilience and subjective well-being among migrant children. Suppression was negatively correlated with resilience, but had no relationships with self-esteem and subjective well-being. Self-esteem, resilience and subjective well-being were positively correlated with each other. Regression results indicated that cognitive reappraisal directly predicted migrant children’ subjective well-being, while suppression did not. Besides, cognitive reappraisal and suppression indirectly contributed to subjective well-being through both separate mediation path and chained mediation path of self-esteem and resilience. These findings demonstrated that it was meaningful to involve emotion regulation strategies, self-esteem and resilience when explaining migrant children’s subjective well-being. The important implication of this study is that cognitive reappraisal is an effective factor to promote the self-esteem, resilience and subjective well-being among migrant children by intervention. Meanwhile, we have a cautious attitude toward the value of suppression although some research showed that it had positive effects on interpersonal relationships in the collective culture，it might not be beneficial to migrant children under some circumstances. Thus, we should consider the specific events migrant children may encounter when we make an intervention plan. An additional implication is that we should also promote the subjective well-being of migrant children by developing their self-esteem and resilience, instead of just reducing or eliminating their problem behaviors. Related Articles | Metrics

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An ERPs Study of Adolescents' Reactive Aggressive Decision-making and Outcome Evaluation Process: A Self-Control Resources Perspective 2018, 41(1): 77-84.  Abstract ( )   PDF (900KB) ( )   Adolescents are prone to have aggressive behavior, especially reactive aggression. There are respectable research findings about the influence factors of adolescents' aggressive behavior at present. As a result of the external factors such as provocation, the aggressive behaviors of adolescent have been greatly increased, and self-control has an important effect on it. Ego depletion as an important manifestation of self-control, has been confirmed that ego depleted participants are more likely to be more aggressive than participants. The present study was based on the perspective of self-control resources to explore the behavior of adolescents’ aggressive behaviors. According to the General Aggression Model (GAM), the impact of individual resources on aggression is reflected in the processes of decision-making and outcome evaluation. These are the critical processes for adolescent to make reactive aggression. Therefore, this study used event–related potentials (ERPs) to explore the effect of self-control resource on the processes of adolescent reactive aggression and outcome evaluation. 40 high school students participated as paid volunteers in this study, randomly assigned to high ego depletion group (N = 20) and low ego depletion group (N = 20), of which 1 were due to artifacts seriously, processing data were excluded, finally we got 39 effective participants (20 boys, average age 15.82±1.36). In the experiment, participants filled in Trait Self-Control Questionnaire and Adolescent Aggression Questionnaire firstly. Then, a congruent or incongruent Stroop task was used to manipulate participants’ self-control resources. The rationale of this task is that people should control the predominant tendency to name the word when they are required to react to the color, which consumes a lot of self-control resources. After completing the Stroop task，participants were required to answer three manipulation checks and the Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS) before working on the competitive reaction time task (CRT),which was to test their reactive aggression. Meanwhile, participants’ EEGs were recorded by 64-channel ERPs equipment while they were carrying out the CRT task. The resulting amplitudes of P2 were entered into 2 condition (high ego depletion group, low ego depletion group) × 3 region (frontal F3, Fz, F4, central C3, Cz, C4, parietal P3, Pz, P4) ANOVAs for repeated measures. FRN amplitude induced by Fz point out, were entered into 2 condition (high ego depletion group, low ego depletion group) × 2 category (win, loss) ANOVAs for repeated measures. The behavior results showed that high ego depletion group showed more aggressive behavior than low ego depletion group. Scalp ERPs analysis revealed that in the time window of P2(180~240ms),there were significant main effects of region F(2,74)＝8.67，p＜.001，η2＝ .59. The parietal region elicited significantly higher P2 than that of frontal and central regions M frontal＝2.72 ± .30μV; M central＝2.50 ± .25μV; M parietal＝3.51 ± .21Μv. Significant condition × region interactions were found, F(2,74)＝2.99，p＜.05，η2＝ .38. The simple effect analysis showed, only in the frontal region, higher P2 was elicited in high ego depletion condition than that in low ego depletion condition. In the time window of FRN(280～320ms),there were significant main effects of category F(1,37)＝11.01，p＜.01，η2＝.52. “Loss” elicited more negative FRN than “win” in CRT task. Significant condition × category interactions were found F(1,37)＝8.61，p＜.01，η2＝.47. The simple effect analysis showed that only in the “loss” feedback condition, more negative FRN was elicited in high ego depletion than that in low ego depletion. These results indicate that ego depletion increases reactive aggression, and affects the processes of decision-making and outcome evaluation. It enriches the research of self-control resources and the processes of adolescent reactive aggression and outcome evaluation as well as providing a new perspective for the educators to prevent the reaction attack of teenagers. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Mediating Role of Personality Traits between Childhood Psychological Maltreatment and Maladaptive Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies 2018, 41(1): 64-70.  Abstract ( )   PDF (572KB) ( )   Psychological maltreatment is defined as impeding the mental and moral faculties and it involves the continuous, repetitive and inappropriate parenting behaviors, but not involve physical and sex contact, which greatly damage the children's cognitive, emotional and social development. Cognitive emotion regulation refers to the activation of a goal to regulate either the magnitude or duration of the emotional response, this process requires the involvement of cognitive control. However, little research addresses the relationship between psychological maltreatment and cognitive emotion regulation strategies in China, especially whether personality can be a mediator variable between psychological maltreatment and cognitive emotion regulation strategies. The present study, from the perspective of environment and personality, provides the basis for intervention for the health growth of children. We hypothesize that personality traits (neuroticism and extroversion) play a meditation role between psychological maltreatment and cognitive emotion regulation strategies. The sample in this study consisted of 405 children, ranged in age from 8 to 12 years old. Instruments were the Scale of The kid version of Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, Chinese Child version of Eysenck Personality Questionnaire and Child Psychological Maltreatment Scale. Structural equation model was employed to test the mediation effect of personality. Results showed that (1) Psychological maltreatment had significant positive correlations with Self-blame (p<.01), Acceptance (p<.01) and Catastrophizing (p<.01) and Other-blame (p<.01); psychological maltreatment had significant negative correlations with Positive Reappraisal (p<.05), Positive Refocusing Planning (p<.05) and Rational Analysis (p<.05),but had non-significant correlations with adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies (2) neuroticism had a significant direct effect on maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies (β=.589), but extroversion had non-significant indirect effect on maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies. (3)Psychological maltreatment had a significant direct effect on maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies (β=.493), neuroticism (β=.521), extroversion (β=.-266), but psychological maltreatment had non-significant indirect effect on maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies through neuroticism and extroversion (p>.05). These results indicated that neuroticism served as a full mediator effect between psychological maltreatment and maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies. Additionally, we use multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis to investigate the difference in gender and age of this model. Results also showed that the mediation model has gender and grade measurement equivalence (ΔCFI < 0.01、ΔRMSEA < 0.015). Psychological maltreatment is more subtle, so it is not easy to detect, but it can cause serious psychological and emotional harm to the individual, children who suffered from psychological maltreatment would exhibit difficulty in emotion regulation and neurotic children are more likely to use maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies when they are suffered psychological maltreatment. However, extraverted children are less vulnerable to psychological maltreatment maybe extroversion is a kind of stable trait, which is not susceptible to adverse environment. Additionally, as a kind of adverse environment, psychological maltreatment is more subtle, would cause significant harm to the children’s development and that this harm extends into adult life regardless of boys and girls. A practical implication of this study is that parents need to act as a "careful caregiver" in the daily life, actively provide a comfortable parenting style which enhance the child’s self-esteem and improve the quality of life. Future research may proceed from longitudinal studies and intervention studies. Key words：psychological maltreatment；personality traits；cognitive emotion regulation；children Related Articles | Metrics

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Cross-lagged Relationships between Planning and Attention Skills in Middle Childhood: A Two-year Follow-up 2018, 41(1): 57-63.  Abstract ( )   PDF (713KB) ( )   Planning is an important developmental outcomes in middle childhood, and also is an important correlate of academic achievement during school years. Planning is defined as the ability to formulate a strategy prior to action, execute the strategy, and verify whether the strategy is effective for solving a problem. It was argued that the planning process involved different attention skills, such as sustained attention to focus on the task, selective attention on the target characteristics, and attentional control to inhibit the inappropriate but preponderant responses. The previous studies showed attentional control and sustained attention significantly correlated with the development of planning, but it is unknown whether selective attention uniquely predicts planning. In addition, most of these studies are not longitudinal, and thus little is unknown about the predictive power of earlier attention skills to later planning and also the direction of the relationships between planning and attentions skills. Therefore, this study aims to examine the dynamic developmental relationships between planning and different components of attention skills (sustained attention, attention control, and selective attention) in middle childhood. One hundred thirty-nine 7-year-old children from a primary school in Shanghai city (67 boys and 72 girls; mean age = 89.81 months, SD = 3.22 months) were followed until 9 years old, and were annually assessed on planning, sustained attention, attentional control, and selective attention. Planning tasks were from the Planning subtest of Das-Naglieri Cognitive Assessment and attention were assessed by tasks from Test of Everyday Attention for Children. Pearson Correlations among planning and three components of attention (composite scores) indicated a significant stability for these four skills during the period from age 7 to age 9, and significant correlations among these variables at three points. The cross-lagged model was used to examined the developmental relationships between planning and three attention skills, and fitted well to the data (χ2/df = 2.30, GFI = .96, CFI = .97, RMSEA = .09). The results of crossed-lagged analyses showed the effects between planning and attentional and these between planning and selective attention were bidirectional during the period from age 8 and age 9, but sustained attention and attentional control at age 7 predicted planning at age 8, and planning at age 7 predicted selective attention. The results indicated a mutual relationship between planning and different attention skills. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Effect of Social Support for Smoking Cessation on Quitting Intention among Smokers: The Moderating Role of Social Identity and Mediating Role of Perceived Smoking Risk 2018, 41(1): 132-137.  Abstract ( )   PDF (630KB) ( )   The number of smoker in China is still large while most of them are unlikely to quit smoking. Majority of studies indicated that social support from significant others of smokers is particularly important for smokers during the cessation. Many evidences have shown social support from family and friends significantly predicting quitting intention. However, some studies did not find significant relationship between social support and intention to quit smoking. Based on the theories of social impact and social identity, the present study supposed that social identity for family and friends who providing social support would moderate the effect of social support on intention to quit smoking. In addition, with regard to the mechanism of social support influence quitting intention, the Stress-Buffering Model emphasized social support would reduce the negative physiological influence of stressors which is one of the original causes of smoking. Actually, more other reasons for smoking should be considered. Lots of theories and empirical studies indicated that quitting intention was significantly predicted by perceived risk of smoking. Given this, the present study supposed perceived smoking risk played mediating role on the effect of social support on intention to quit smoking. Questionnaires were used to test hypotheses and a total of 340 current smokers (the mean of smoking years was11.73, ranged from 1 to 48) participated in present study. The questionnaires included the sub-scales of emotional support and instrumental support for quitting smoking from Partner Interaction Questionnaire, the sub-scale of perceived smoking risk from Decisional Balance Scale, Identification Questions, and Intention to Quit Smoking Questionnaire. The mediation and moderation analysis were conducted by using PROCESS macro for SPSS. The results indicated that: (1) Social support for quitting smoking from family and friends significantly and positively predicted quitting intention among smokers. (2) The relationship between social support and quitting intention was moderated by social identity to family and friends who providing social support. With the high level of social identity, social support would positively predict quitting intention; while with the low level of social identity, the relationship between social support and quitting intention was insignificant. (3) The relationship between social support and quitting intention was mediated by perceived smoking risk. Perceived smoking risk, which was positively and significantly predicted by social support from significant others, positively associated with intention to quit smoking. It was concluded that the relationship between social support and intention to quit was moderated by social identity and mediated by perceived smoking risk. These findings were suggest that the inconsistent findings about effect of social support on quitting intention in previous studies might be resulted from different levels of social identity to the providers of support. Only with high level of identity, the social support would increase intention to quit. Meanwhile, it is suggest that social support which increasing perception of smoking risk and then increasing intention to quit smoking, performed the cognitive function besides buffering stress in the process of quitting smoking. Further studies should use multiple methods and construct diverse models to examine the relationship between social support and quitting intention among smokers. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Association between Cyber-ostracism and Depression: The Mediation Effect of self-esteem and the Moderating Effect of Mindfulness 2018, 41(1): 98-104.  Abstract ( )   PDF (569KB) ( )   Internet has become a popular medium and means to interconnect with others, especially among undergraduate students. Internet has brought great convenience to interpersonal interaction, but it also brought us problems such as with increased opportunities for inclusion, being ignored and excluded by others, a phenomenon referred to as cyber-ostracism. Studies have revealed that cyber-ostracism was an important risk factor for symptoms of depression, however, less is known about the underlying processes that may mediate or moderate this relationship. In addition, according to the Needs-threat Model of ostracism, cyber-ostracism is also distressing because it affects individuals four fundamental needs: belonging, self-esteem, control and meaningful existence. And sociometer theory also claims that poor interpersonal relationship such as perceived exclusion has negative effect on self-esteem and low self-esteem may cause the onset and maintenance of depression. Furthermore, the organism-environment interaction model and the diathesis-stress model of depression also propose that not all individuals are equally influenced by the same environment, and it is the dynamics of individual and context interactions that contribute to individuals' psychological and social adaptation. Therefore, it is important to explore the personality traits which can weaken the negative effect of cyber-ostracism. So, the present study aimed to investigate the association between cyber-ostracism and depression, as well as the mediating effect of self-esteem and moderating effect of mindfulness between them. A survey research method was conducted in which the Inventory of Cyber-ostracism Scale, Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale, the Self-Esteem Scale as well as the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) were administered to 644 undergraduates (mean age = 20.08 years, SD = 1.37). Data was collected and analyzed with SPSS 20.0, and the bias-corrected percentile Bootstrap method was used to analyze the mediating effect of self-esteem and the moderating effect of mindfulness. The results indicated that: (1) After controlling for gender and age, cyber-ostracism was positively correlated with depression, while negatively correlated with self-esteem and mindfulness; mindfulness was positively correlated with self-esteem, while both mindfulness and self-esteem were negatively correlated with depression. Cyber-ostracism not only had direct positive effect on depression, but also could significantly negatively predict self-esteem; and self-esteem could significantly negatively predict depression. Self-esteem partially mediated the relationship between cyber-ostracism and depression. (2) Besides, both the direct effect of cyber-ostracism on depression and the mediating effect of self-esteem were moderated by mindfulness, and both of the two effects were stronger for the group with lower level of mindfulness. Cyber-ostracism was a negative interpersonal experience in real life, while mindfulness could alleviate it’s detrimental effect. In summary, the present study constructed a moderated mediation model of self-esteem and mindfulness to reveal the mechanism underlying the relationship between cyber-ostracism and depression, which can contribute to a better understanding of how and when Cyber-ostracism increases the risk of depression. Furthermore, it suggests that early intervention concerning diminishing negative effects of cyber-ostracism may start with increasing individual self-esteem and mindfulness. Related Articles | Metrics

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Washing Away the Unpleasant Experiences, Retaining the Moment of Happiness ——The effect of recalling emotional events on the desire for “cleansing”/“conservation” 2018, 41(1): 105-111.  Abstract ( )   PDF (729KB) ( )   Physical cleansing has been a focal element in religious ceremonies for thousands of years. The prevalence of this practice suggests a psychological association between bodily purity and moral purity. Based on the association between physical and moral purity, Zhong and Liljenquist (2006) hypothesized that the feeling of having sinned might be washed away by physical cleansing. Zhong and Liljenquist (2006) suggested that a threat to one’s moral purity induces the need to cleanse oneself. This effect revealed itself through an increased mental accessibility of cleansing related concepts, a greater desire for cleansing products, and a greater likelihood of taking antiseptic wipes. Furthermore, some research results indicated that physical cleansing alleviates the upsetting consequences of unethical behavior and reduces threats to one’s moral self-image. Lee and Schwarz(2010) discovered that hand washing can reduce the classic post-decisional dissonance effect in a choice situation. In the time dimension, some studies have found that for the past bad things, people tend to think it as happened earlier than actually occurred. Hand washing removes more than dirt, may also reflect that washing more generally removes traces formerly by metaphorically wiping the slate clean. If so, washing one’s hands may lessen the influence of previous unpleasant behaviors or events that have no moral implications at all. So we put forward a hypothesis that if one event is the unpleasant formerly, persons all tend to wash it off, no matter whether it is relevant to moral. Hence, the current study hypothesized that individuals may also have the desire for “cleansing” after experiencing negatively valenced events unrelated to morality, and reversely have the desire for “conservation” (It referred to mental accessibility of conservation-related concepts, for example, a greater desire for products with the function of conservation) after positively valenced events. The three experiments were designed to test this hypothesis: To replicate the study of Zhong and Lilijenquist (2006) in the Chinese cultural context, irreligious participants with Chinese cultural backgrounds completed the gift choice task (Study 1a) and products evaluation task (Study 1b) after recalling a personal ethical or unethical story. In Study 2, we investigated whether participants would have a desire for physical cleansing and express a preference for cleaning products after recalling a negatively valenced event unrelated to morality. Finally, in Study 3 we further tested whether participants would have a desire for keeping and express a preference for products with the function of conservation (e. g., camera) after recalling a pleasant event in the past. The results showed that individuals had a desire for cleansing after experiencing not only immoral negatively valenced events and mood, but also other negatively valenced events and mood; reversely, participants had a desire for keeping pleasant memories after experiencing positively valenced events and mood. Based on these results, we propose the “emotional attunement principle,” which holds that humans can keep their internal harmony through an attempt to remove memories of the unpleasant past and keep pleasant memories. Hence, we propose a preliminary hypothesis that humans use the “emotional attunement principle” to cope with different emotional valenced events. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Influence of Chicken Soup for the Soul on the Temperature Perception, Interpersonal Evaluation and Self Evaluation 2018, 41(1): 112-117.  Abstract ( )   PDF (704KB) ( )   Chicken soup for the soul are book series which consist of inspirational true stories about people's lives. “Chicken soup for the soul” has now become one of the world’s best-known phrases and it refers to inspirational and warm hearting stories. The embodied cognition theory considered that cognitive processes might closely linked with physical sense perception. Conceptual metaphor theory assumed that the sensorimotor information should be an integral part for representing abstract concepts and the sensorimotor experiences could be activated by the abstract conceptual processing. Past researches have proved that temperature perceptions interacted with interpersonal emotions, that is, one’s physical warmth would cause positive evaluation of others and his or her interpersonal warmth would produce the perception of physical warmth. However, these researches were based on real self interpersonal perception. No research has been conducted to explore whether the abstract interpersonal description of others will influence the perception of physical temperature. Based on the embodied cognition theory and the conceptual metaphor theory, three experiments were conducted to test whether chicken soup for the soul could work as a warm reading material to affect temperature perception, interpersonal evaluation and self evaluation. In Experiment 1, 132 undergraduates were divide into two groups to read two kinds of reading materials, one of which were chicken soup for the soul stories, the other were business reports. After reading the given materials, the participants were asked to estimate the indoor temperature. In Experiment 2, after reading the soul storie or business reports, participants were asked to evaluate how the staff ’s personality on scales who handed out the reading materials. In Experiment 3, after reading the given materials, 90 undergraduates were asked to evaluate their own personliaty on scales. The results showed: (1) Chicken soup for the soul stories helped the participants produce a warm perceptual experience. The participants reading the Chicken soup for the soul stories estimated higher indoor temperature than those reading business reports ( group of chicken soup for the soul stories: M =15.076, SD=5.269; group of business reports: M=12.455, SD= 4.069; t=3.199, p=0.002, d=0.561). (2) The participants reading chicken soup for the soul stories thought more highly of the working staff. They tended to think the staff were warm and active. Warm feeling after reading the stories elicited positive evaluation of others. (3) Different reading materials didn’t elicit difference in self assessment. The research has proved that chicken soup for the soul stories can be used to understand the thermal metaphor, and participants tend to evaluate others in agreement with the thermal metaphor. The result of the research has indicated that besides real-life warm interpersonal perception, abstract interpersonal description could have an effect on the perception of physical warmth and influence real-life interpersonal evaluation. It has also proved that sometimes the understanding of concrete concepts is based on sensory-motor process, but after reading warm materials, there was no change on self assessment. Thermal metaphor seemed has no effect on self evaluation. In this way, understanding of familiar concrete concepts maybe not based on sensory-motor process. Related Articles | Metrics

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Micro-Ecology of Intergroup Segregation in Intergroup contact BIN ZUO 2018, 41(1): 154-159.  Abstract ( )   PDF (343KB) ( )   Social psychological research on segregation has mainly worked within the theoretical framework of the contact hypothesis. Critics of the contact studies has focused too heavily upon self-reported measures, and laboratory conditions, research suggests that the conditions for successful contact rarely occur naturally in everyday life. Improving this weakness, micro-ecological studies have examined the contact effect through observable intergroup interactions occuring in everyday life settings. A micro-ecological approach has been used to examine intergroup relations in a variety of public space in the United States and South Africa.Micro-Ecology of intergroup segregation between groups, based on race, gender, ethnicity or religion, is obvious all around us. It can be observed intergroup behaviour in a variety of settings including universities, open public seating, parks, playgrounds and beaches. As a micro-ecological process, that is, intergroup segregation that shapes intergroup relations in contexts where members of different groups share proximity and where intergroup boundaries are fleeting and informal. A large number of studies have demonstrated high levels of intergroup segregation over time in different regions and countries. Research on micro-ecology of intergroup segregation has tended to focus on isolation behaviors in naturalistic settings, it is important to preserve both spatiality and temporality when studying inter-group Segregation. Intergroup segregation aimed to examine situation, characteristics, patterns and dynamic changes of the intergroup relationships within the everyday spaces of people’s lives. The observational study aimed to analyse the nature and extent of informal intergroup segregation by plotting the distribution of members of different group in differentareas and sub-areas of the observation points over time.The research on micro-ecology of intergroup segregation has relied on maps and digital imaging technology to capture the distribution of members of different group populations within a defined space, to understand feature of micro-ecological processes.The measure indexes of intergroup Segregation are introduced, D indices, measure segregation as a function of the evenness of distribution of members of different groups across public space, P indices, estimates the potential that the average member of one group has for interacting with members of another group. Analyzing segregation at the micro-level provides an important choice to the research methods in the study of intergroup relations.There are some limitations in the existing studies, future research should pay more attention to improving the theory，explore the mechanism . The potential psychological consequences of micro-ecological processes of intergroup segregation should be concered, such processes are significant not only because they shape the frequency or opportunity for contact,but also help to constitute the symbolic context in which intergroup relations are formed and expressed.Specifically, next research might explore the social psychological meanings of intergroup segregation in greater depth, including their relationship with processes of intergroup contact, need to pay closer attention to the informal segregation that model intergroup relations in everyday life. A mixed methods approach bridges the gap between research, in order to investigate micro-ecological dynamics, there is a need to develop techniques to undersand the emergment and transformation of socio-spatial systems that are fluid, transient and complex, to develop methodologies for uncovering the intergroup segregation and for exploring their social psychological implications. Related Articles | Metrics

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How Psychological Resilience Influence employees’ Creativity：The Role of Psychological Safety and Creative Self-Efficacy 2018, 41(1): 118-124.  Abstract ( )   PDF (620KB) ( )   Abstract In the current knowledge-based economy, innovation is essential for enterprises to survive and develop. The creative capability of knowledge workers is the fuel that drives a company's engine of innovation. Hence, organizational researchers have devoted great attention to seeking ways to foster the creativity of knowledge workers. To address this question, we built a mediated moderation model of knowledge workers’ creativity. Specifically, our study examined the interactive effects of psychological safety and creative self-efficacy on knowledge workers’ creativity. 380 employee questionnaires and 105 leadership questionnaires were distributed to the 15 companies located in Zhejiang Province, 370 employees (response rate was 96.1%) and 100 supervisors (response rate was 95.2%) returned the questionnaires. After screening out the problematic cases, the final sample consists of 350 employees and 90 supervisors. In the sample of employees, 48.3% were male; most of the participants ranged from 25-30 years old, most of the employees had been working less than 6 years, most of the participants had a?college?degree. To examine the distinctiveness of the study variables, we conducted a confirmatory factor analysis using AMOS 17.0. We also employed a multiple regression analysis to test the mediated moderation model using SPSS 13.0. This study proposed and tested a moderated mediation model in which psychological resilience influences knowledge workers’ creativity, with psychological safety as a mediator and creative self-efficacy as a moderator. The results showed that 1) psychological resilience was positively related to psychological safety; 2) the employees’ perception of psychological safety mediated the relationship between psychological resilience and their own creativity; 3) creative self-efficacy moderated the relationship between psychological safety and knowledge workers’ creativity, that is, the higher the creative self-efficacy, the stronger the relationship; 4) creative self-efficacy moderated the mediated relationship through psychological safety, that is, the higher the creative self-efficacy, the stronger the mediated relationship. Our findings contribute to employee creativity literature. Most studies have focused on the prediction of situational factors for the employees’ creativity, which may have obscured some individual factors that can exactly explain why employees engage in creativity. And most studies of individuals of level creativity have been conducted from a single angle, which is not enough to stimulate knowledge workers’ creativity. Our study established a comprehensive model mediated by the perception of psychological safety in which psychological safety and the creative self-efficacy predicted the employees’ creativity. Therefore, our study provides a fresh window on the predictions of employee creativity in organizations. In terms of practical implications, firstly, managers of organizations should create a frustration situation consciously, which will significantly improve employees’ psychological resilience. Secondly, it’s necessary to cultivate an open cultural environment, in which will significantly enhance employees’ psychological safety. Further, our findings suggested that, creative self-efficacy is not only the drive of employees to realize creativity, but also adjust the individual cognition (psychological safety) and the relationship between the employees' creativity, thus it should be worth trying for managers to train employees’ creative self-efficacy. Related Articles | Metrics

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Influences of Group Empathy on Intergroup Relationships: From the Perspective of Social Conflict Resolution 2018, 41(1): 174-179.  Abstract ( )   PDF (320KB) ( )   Abstract:Group empathy refers to the process that a group membership internalizes and indirectly experiences another group member’s cognition and emotion. Group identity or label is the basis of group empathy. The empathy subjects' state of self-perception determines group identity, while the number of people involved in empathy is not important. This article proposes that group empathy is another form of empathy that differs from individual empathy, and analyzes the differences. Group empathy and individual empathy differs in sense of identity, empathy preference and cultural influence. First, group empathy and individual empathy?are born?of?different background: The former is produced in group level, activating group identity, while the latter is produced in individual level, activating individual identity. Second, empathy preference between individuals is influenced by interpersonal distance, while the group empathy level mainly lies in whether the empathy object belongs to a group, whether the empathy subject has common experience with the empathy object, etc. Third, the expression of group empathy and individual empathy influenced by culture is different. Group empathy can promote intergroup relations. In reducing negative factors, group empathy contributes to the emergence of unfairness feeling, and reduces intergroup bias through unfairness feeling. It helps to reduce intergroup aversion, and reduces intergroup aggressive behavior and intergroup conflict. In increasing positive factors, group empathy makes the subjects show more positive attitude to outgroup members, and increases contact intention with outgroup members. It enhances more intergroup interaction and intergroup prosocial behavior by promoting intergroup attitudes. Empathy motivation and cultural frame switch are 2 perspectives to analyze how group empathy promotes intergroup relationship. Empathy is a motivation account which means individual can choose to approach empathy or avoid empathy according to different circumstances. Individual is prone to have group empathy if group empathy can make him(her) acquire positive emotional experiences, or the target group has a cooperative or congeneric relationship with his (her) own group, or under the influence of social desirability effect. In addition, for bicultural individuals, they can moderate their cognition system to guide their behavior according to cultural clues intergroup or outgroup as they know and have internalized not only intergroup culture, but outgroup culture. Therefore, when they are in the perspective of outgroup culture, they may have more empathy to outgroup members. In the end of this article, we propose the future research direction as follows: Firstly, exploring the differences between group empathy and individual empathy from?perspective of neural mechanism. Secondly, establishing a comprehensive model of how group empathy influences intergroup relationships, combined with intergroup anxiety, meta stereotype, common group identity and other factors; Thirdly, finding out the mechanism of how group empathy promotes intergroup relationships. Because of intergroup preference can be accurated in each group member, so contradictions will be mitigated through empathy intervention, knowledge impartment and other ways on each member’s individual circumstances. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Effect of Workplace Negative Gossip on Scientific and Technical Personnel Creativity Heng-Bo DU 2018, 41(1): 125-131.  Abstract ( )   PDF (834KB) ( )   With the increasingly fierce competition in the workplace, workplace "cold" violence is becoming more and more prominent. It caused serious negative impact on the organizations as well as the members, but its influence to employees and organization is little understood. Although researchers have investigated the factors influencing creativity, little research has linked workplace "cold" violence to scientific and technical personnel creativity. Based on the theory of workplace "cold" violence, this study draw into interpersonal trust as mediator and emotional intelligence as moderator, setting up a moderated mediation model to investigate the relationship between workplace negative gossip and creativity and to examine the mediating role of interpersonal trust as well as the moderating role of emotional intelligence playing in the linkages between workplace negative gossip and interpersonal trust under the situation of Chinese organizations. The research involves 327 valid samples, which from scientific and technical personnels of high and new technology industries of Shandong Peninsula. 385 scientific and technical personnel were investigated on workplace negative gossip, emotional intelligence, creativity and interpersonal trust .The effective response rate was 84.9%, the common method bias was not significant in the research. We used AMOS 21.0 to examine construct reliability and average variance extracted of all measurements, the SPSS 21.0 was used to carry out regression analysis. The hierarchical regression and the bootstrapping method show that：(1)Workplace negative gossip has a direct negative effect on the creativity. (2) Workplace negative gossip can indirectly affect creativity through interpersonal trust, which is a mediator, that is to say, interpersonal trust partially mediated the relationship between workplace negative gossip and creativity. (3) Emotional intelligence moderated the relationship between workplace negative gossip and interpersonal trust, the negative effect was stronger when emotional intelligence was lower. (4) The mediating role of interpersonal trust in the relationship between workplace negative gossip and creativity was moderated by emotional intelligence. In other words, the mediating effect of interpersonal trust is stronger only when the level of emotional intelligence is low rather than high. Above all, based on Chinese cultural background, the influence mechanism of workplace negative gossip on creativity was built, which may has important significance in theory and practice for the future research. This study reveal the relationship between workplace negative gossip and the creativity of scientific and technical personnel and the mediating effect of interpersonal trust as well as the moderating effect of emotional intelligence. Thus, this study fills in the gap of the research on the relationship between workplace negative gossip and creativity, contributes to the understanding of the black box between workplace negative gossip and creativity. In order to improve the employees’ creativity, the organization should pay attention to the workplace negative gossip and take preventive actions to reduce the probability of workplace negative gossip. A good communication platform is necessary for the organization, which can increase trust and cooperation. Then, the employees’ creativity can be stimulated. In addition, the organization should focus on employees’ individual factors, such as emotional intelligence. Related Articles | Metrics

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Work-Related Use of Information and Communication Technologies after Hours: The “Double-Edge Sword” Effect and Psychological Mechanism 2018, 41(1): 160-166.  Abstract ( )   PDF (730KB) ( )   Within the past 30 years, the information and communication technologies such as smart-phone, laptop has spread across and networked the world and become an important part of our everyday life. Technology allows people to perform work via sending and receiving messages or emails, and keep contact with their supervisors or clients regardless of time and space. Nowadays, it is common for employees to conduct work through information and communication technologies on nights, weekends, or even holidays. Work-related use of information and communication technologies after hours (W_ICTs for short) has aroused wide concern in both research and practice due to its possible impact. Although this field has accumulated a number of research, the scholars have not drawn a consistent conclusion yet. So this article is aimed to review the relevant research and provides a structured summary about the definition, measurement, the “double-edged sword” impact of W_ICTs on individuals’ work and private life and its possible theoretical explanation. At the end of the article, some suggestions for the future research have been discussed. Different scholars have come up with many similar expression with subtle difference about W_ICTs, which may hinder the understanding and comparison between researches. This literature review clears them up and provide the definition of W_ICTs. That is, using information and communication technologies to deal with work during non-work time. It is found that there is no universal accepted measurement of W_ICTs base on the review of relevant literature. Most scholars quantify it by asking employee the frequency or how long they use mobile technology to handle work issue after hours, which may still exist some questions. As for the effect of W_ICTs on individuals’ work and life, there are both pros and cons. One the one hand, W_ICTs contribute to dealing with work issue anytime and anywhere, so that it provides convenience for employees to handle work more efficiently. On the other hand, W_ICTs brings work issue into non-work domain, which may leave employees no time to company the families or to relax and recover from work. As a consequence, they will be in the risk of perceiving work-family conflict, work exhaustion, followed by physical and psychological health problems. In view of the convenience and challenge W_ICTs brings, the questions how and why these effects come out, whether there is any terminal conditions have receive much attention. Some scholars tried to introduce theories in work-family domain into W_ICTs, such as job demands and resources model, conservation of resource theory. This article discussed 3 main theory model that are mentioned most to explain the “double-edge sword” effect of W_ICTs, which is, the work-family boundary theory, the conservation of resource theory and the self-determination theory. On the basis of the review of relevant literature, this article put forward some suggestions for the future research. The scale of W_ICTs is badly in need of improvement, so as the design of research. Then future research could expand the outcome variables. The theory model that introduced to explain the effect of W_ICTs also needs to be examined by more empirical research. Related Articles | Metrics

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Structure and Measurement of Doctor-patient Trust and its Integrated Model Judy Zhao 2018, 41(1): 167-173.  Abstract ( )   PDF (420KB) ( )   Trust of Doctor-patient relationship has always been an important research area of medical ethics and social psychology. This study reviewed the literature related to the measurement of doctor-patient trust in recent years and systematically analyzed them from the aspects of conceptual structure and measurement scales. It is found that there are a variety of measurement dimensions, mainly involving the attitude, ability and behavior of doctors and patients in the process of medical treatment, as well as the psychological structure of perceived intimacy of doctor-patient relationship. The purpose of this study is to construct the overall framework and measuring indicators of trust measurement of patients and doctors. The current researches mainly focused on structural measurement of doctor-patient trust from the perspective of the patient. Most of them take the weak position of patients as analysis foundation and stress patients' emotional factors in the process of doctor-patient trust. At present, the development of measurement tools of patient trust has been diversified. Scholars generally adopt multi-dimension and multi-level scale forms. According to psychological structure and content of patient trust, its measurement can be divided into the following three types: differently targeted patient trust measurement, psychological structure-based patient trust measurement and doctor features-based patient trust measurement. Through combing the basic features of some important patient trust scales, statistics find out that “Technical Competence”, “Confidentiality”, “Honesty”, and “Benevolence” appeared several times in different scales, which indicates that patient trust is largely determined by professional ability and competence of medical service. And “Loyalty” and “Global Trust” becomes the measurement dimension used once and again by scholars, which indicate that patient trust also originates from self-perception of doctors and their medical service. Doctor trust in patients is also an important component of doctor-patient trust. Broadly speaking, doctor trust involves doctor trust in patients, medical institutions and medical systems. However, existing researches only cover doctor trust in patient, with most of them measuring from doctors’ subjective perception of doctor-patient relationship as well as patients’ behavior and attitude in seeking treatment. This is because doctors were in an advantaged position due to possession of medical knowledge and ability of treating diseases under traditional bio-medical environment. Hence doctors hold a central position in the building process of doctor-patient trust relationship. Therefore, scholars diluted the interaction of doctor-patient trust relationship and relatively neglect the measurement of trust in medical side at the primary stage of doctor-patient trust research. To summarize and integrate current studies systematically, this research attempts to propose a general conceptual framework of doctor-patient trust relationship to show multiple dimensions of doctor-patient relationship in a broad sense. This conceptual framework not only pays attention to general trust relationship and interpersonal trust relationship between doctors and patients aiming to cure diseases and restore health for patients, but also stresses organizational trust of medical system. To clarify different perspectives and measurement dimensions of doctor-patient trust measurement, this research integrates the relevant researches and proposes an integration model of measurement tools of doctor-patient trust ultimately. With a view to promoting the scientization and standardization of the measurement of doctor-patient trust relationship, this mode summarizes different objects, psychological structure, character features of both parties, and positive and negative direction measurement of doctor-patient trust. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Influence of JIAZHI Identity on Yi People’s Well-being：the regulatory role of ethnic identity 2018, 41(1): 145-153.  Abstract ( )   PDF (1214KB) ( )   Abstract Yi people deeply affected by Jiazhi group. Compared with Han people who have two tier group structure what are Chinese identity and Han ethnic identity. Yi people have three-tier group structure what are Chinese identity, Yi ethnic identity and Jiazhi identity. Previous studies found that the Yi people have a high identity of Chinese national identity and the ethnic identity. So, whether the Yi people’s unique Jiazhi identity also have a high level and have a positive impact on well-being. However, at present, the research on Jiazhi of Yi people mainly through interview method, field investigation method and the literature method and lacks quantitative research. So we introduce social identity theory of psychology to studying Jiazhi structure and we also revising the Jiazhi identity scale of Yi people according to the internal group identity scale in order to further explore the relationship between national identity and Jiazhi identity and find out how is it impact on Yi people’s well-being. In study one, according to Colin Wayne Leach ingroup identity scale, we revised the Jiazhi identity scale, and using it to measure Yi people’s Jiazhi identity level. We found that the questionnaire has a good degree of reliability and validity. In study two, we found that, firstly, the Yi people's Jiazhi have an important impact in daily life, Yi people have a higher Jiazhi identity（M=4.79，SD=1.16）. Secondly, we found that Yi people have a higher ethnic identity（M=4.00，SD=0.51）and Chinese nationality identity（M=3.98，SD=0.53）which is similar to the previous results. Thirdly, we found that Yi people are agree with their own ethnic culture（M=4.30，SD=0.616）and have a strong sense of belonging（M=4.47，SD=0.47）in their daily life. Then we also found that the well-being of the Yi people is in the middle upper level（M=3.29，SD=0.55）which is similar to the previous results. More specifically, the most satisfactory in terms of well-being is health satisfaction（M=3.80，SD=0.87）and relatively the lowest satisfactory is economy satisfaction Finally, we found that the ethnic identity of the Yi people has a regulatory role on well-being and Jiazhi identity. Yi people’s Jiazhi identity support for the sense of well-being and have a significant positive prediction on it. More specifically, a higher ethnic identity, means the Jiazhi identity has a stronger prediction of Yi people’s well-being. For national identity, In China, national identity includes the Chinese national identity and ethnic identity, in which the Chinese nation is the upper group, and the nation is the lower group, constitute a two-tier group structure. In the identity of the Yi people, in addition to both the identity of the ethnic, but also deeply affected by the impact of Jiazhi support. Compared with the Han people who have two tier group structure what are Chinese identity and Han ethnic identity. the Yi people have three-tier group structure what are Chinese identity, Yi ethnic identity and Jiazhi identity. Previous studies have found that the Yi people have a high identity of the Chinese national and the ethnic identity. So, whether the Yi people’s unique Jiazhi identity also has a high level and have a positive impact on well-being. However, at present, the research on Jiazhi of Yi people mainly through the interview method and the field investigation method and the literature and lacks the quantitative research. So we introduce the social identity theory of psychology to studying Jiazhi structure and we also revises the Jiazhi identity of the Yi people according to the internal group identity scale. In order to further explore the relationship between national identity and Jiazhi identity and find out how is it impact on Yi people’s well-being. In study one, according to Colin ingroup identity scale, we revised the Jiazhi identity scale, and using it to measure Yi people’s Jiazhi identity level. We found that the questionnaire has a good degree of reliability and validity. In study two, we found that, firstly, the Yi people's Jiazhi has an important impact in daily life, Yi people has a higher Jiazhi identity(M=4.79，SD=1.16). Secondly, we found that Yi people has a higher ethnic identity(M=4.00，SD=0.51) and Chinese nationality identity(M=3.98，SD=0.53) which is similar to the previous results. Thirdly, we found that Yi people are agree with their own ethnic culture(M=4.30，SD=0.616) and have a strong sense of belonging(M=4.47，SD=0.47) in their daily life. Then we also found that the well-being of the Yi people is in the middle upper level(M=3.29，SD=0.55) which is similar to the previous results. More specifically, the most satisfactory in terms of well-being is health satisfaction(M=3.80，SD=0.87) and relatively the lowest satisfactory is economy satisfaction. Finally, we found that the ethnic identity of the Yi people has a regulatory role on well-being and Jiazhi identity. Yi people’s Jiazhi identity support for the sense of well-being and have a significant positive prediction on it. More specifically, a higher ethnic identity, means the Jiazhi identity has a stronger prediction of Yi people’s well-being. 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A simple and effective Q-matrix Estimation method:from non-parametric perspective Yu-Ting HAN Tu Dong-Bo 2018, 41(1): 180-188.  Abstract ( )   PDF (1100KB) ( )   Abstract Nowadays, we are not satisfied with a total score from measurement, but hope to get a informative report. As the core of new generation test theory, cognitive diagnosis(CD) attracts more and more people's attention. Since it can reveal the result form a microscopic perspective, such as individuals’ knowledge structures, processing skills and cognitive procedure etc, it would help us to take individualized teaching and promote students ' development. Cognitive diagnosis assessments infer the attribute mastery pattern of respondents by item responses based on Q-matrix. The Q-matrix plays the role of a bridge between items and respondents. Many studies have shown that misspecification of the Q-matrix can affect the accuracy of model parameters and result in the misclassification of respondents. In practice, Q_matrix is established by experts. However ,with the application of cognitive diagnosis ,more and more researchers found that specification of Q-matrix was very hard. Different experts may provided different Q_matrices. To avoid the subjectivity from experts in Q-matrix specification and ensure the correct of Q_matrix, researchers are trying to look for objective methods. Many researchers have found a number of methods to estimate and validate the Q_matrix. Nevertheless,existing methods need information from parameter and a large amount of computation. To simplify the method of Q-matrix estimation, this article introduces a new Q-matrix estimation method based on Hamming Distance(HD) which is simple and non-parametric. The process of the method as follow: Firstly , we infer the attribute mastery pattern of respondents by Hamming Distance. Secondly, we can establish a Expected Response Pattern(ERP) matrix by the relationship between attribute mastery pattern of all respondents and each measurement pattern. Finally, the method measures the distance between all respondents’ Observed Response Pattern（ORP）and Expected Response Pattern（ERP）in each measurement pattern, and choose a measurement pattern with the minimum Hamming Distance to items. In this way, we can infer the measurement pattern of items. When there are more than one measurement patterns which are the same minimum Hamming Distance, we take random choose. This method based on some items which were assumed correctly pre-specified. In order to explore the effect of the method, we considered different number of participants, different number of base items and different Q-matrix whose attribute number is different. The item parameters and attribute mastery pattern of respondents are obeyed a uniform distribution. The Monte Carlo simulation study and real data study showed that: generally, the Hamming Distance method can recover the real Q-matrix with a high rate of success, especially when item attributes is 3 and the number of base items is more than 10. When attributes is 3, no matter how many base items and participants is, the rate of success of the method can reach at least 97%. When the number of base items is more than 10, no matter how many participants is, the rate of success can reach 90% in 3 Q-matrix. Relative to the sample size, the number of base items is more important. Furthermore, the method is easier to understand and needs less computation. For example, the time taken by program is not more than 30 second under 3 attributes and 8 base items condition. The real data study also showed that the Hamming Distance method can estimate the Q_matrix with a high success rate. The results of this study demonstrate that Hamming Distance method is an easy and preferable method in Q-matrix Estimation. Compared to the existing methods, Hamming Distance method is faster and superior. Besides, without the needs of parameters estimation, the method is not affected by the deviation caused by the misfit between model and data. In a word, the Hamming Distance method is simple and effective in Q-matrix Estimation, what is meaningful to the simplification of cognitive diagnosis. Related Articles | Metrics

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Quality Monitoring Technique Combining Bayesian Method with Sequential Procedure in CAT System 2018, 41(1): 189-195.  Abstract ( )   PDF (973KB) ( )   Computerized adaptive testing (CAT) was proposed to measure the trait levels of examinee with great precision than conventional tests by building an individualized test for each examinee. Test items are selected sequentially, according to the current performance of an examinee. So, the test can be tailored to each examinee’s trait level, thus matching the difficulties of the items to the examinee being measured. In the field of the CAT research, the security of item pool is greatly important for the fairness of test and the protection of item pool. So far, many studies have proposed different kinds of item exposure control techniques to limit the maximum exposure ratio of each item, such as a-stratified method, Sympson-Hetter (SH) strategy, restricted maximum information strategy, shadow test approach and so on. However, only emphasizing the item exposure control is far from being enough. This method cannot prevent some people to steal the items from the exam room. Actually, when a CAT item pool has been used in practice for a while, some items may be compromised due to either item overexposure or some contrived reasons. When the number of compromised items increases, both the reliability and validity of the continuous testing system and the estimate accuracy of examinees’ ability will be damaged. In order to guarantee and maintain the security of the CAT system, sequentially monitoring procedure (SMP; Zhang, 2013) was developed to detect whether the performance or statistical characteristic of individual items has gone through any significant changes during their lifetime in an item pool or not. Nevertheless, , the rate of Type I errors may occur when using the SMP in the process of monitoring. Moreover, there is no concern about how compromised items could affect the ability estimate accuracy in the Zhang’s study. Thus, this paper combining the person fit index which was calculated by Bayesian Method with the sequentially monitoring procedure, and proposed a new approach called SMP_PFI method to decrease the rate of Type I errors. The rationale and operating steps of the new method were illustrated. The new method could not noly examine whether the items which had already been flagged by SMP were truly compromised or not, but balance the relationship between ability estimate accuracy and the number of items that be freezed in the item pool. The simulation studies were conducted to investigate the performance of SMP_PFI method. Particularly, the correct response probability of examinees who had preknowledge of the receiving items was set at 0.8 or 0.9 artificially in Zhang’s study, which ignored the interaction between the examinee themselves and the property of items. So, we adopted the modified 3PL model to simulate responses when examinee received compromised items. Experimental results showed that the new method could effectively reduce the rate of Type I errors, and users also could set the criteria of CPFI index at any reasonable level to balance the relationship between ability estimate accuracy and the number of items that be freezed in the item pool. Related Articles | Metrics

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Formulation of Grade Response Multilevel DRIFT Model 2018, 41(1): 196-203.  Abstract ( )   PDF (1148KB) ( )   Recently, both national and international educational assessment programs have highlighted the usefulness of constructed-response item (CR item), accordingly, rater effect also be concerned. The grade response multilevel facets model (GR-MLFM), which proposed by Kang, Sun and Zeng (2016), was used to detect rater effect, and simulations demonstrated that GR-MLFM cannot only estimate the item and person parameters precisely, but also can detect the rater effect efficiently. GR-MLFM integrates the advantages of many facets Rasch model, multilevel random coefficient model, and grade response model. Like other many facet models, however, GR-MLFM also regard rater effect as just static effect, which means for GR-MLFM, only the overall rater effect can be obtained across the time stages, while the specific rater effect for each time stage unobserved. In fact, when the rating task takes place over the period of several hours or several days, concern may arise about the comparability of ratings both between and within raters over time (Wolfe, Moulder, Myford, 2010). This phenomenon is called DRIFT that means differential rater functioning over time. Myford and Wolfe(2009) developed the separate model(SM), which based on many facets Rasch model that include time variable as one of the facets of the model, to estimate the specific rater effect for each time stage. With the model, we can obtain the separated severity and the change trend of severity for each rater. Nevertheless, SM cannot find out the factors that affect rater drift. There were many research also aimed at detecting drift effect with generalizability theory or other item response model and etc. However, these methods or models can only detect rater drift effect but cannot discuss the affected factors behind rater drift. In order to detect rater drift and find out which factors that can affect rater drift simultaneously, the authors try to construct a model that dealing with this situation, we name it as grade response multilevel DRIFT model (GR-MLDM). The model extended the GR-MLFM and inherited the thoughts of SM, therefore combine the advantages that come from both GR-MLFM and SM. Two simulation studies, using rater fixed effect model and rater random effect model respectively, are conducted to evaluate the reasonable and feasible of GR-MLDM. For the fixed effect model, there are four types of parameter (discrimination, difficulty, ability, and rater severity over time) and no interaction effect between raters and time, which means that the overall severity of raters will remain the same across time. As for the random effect model, interactions between raters and time are allowed; therefore the dynamic “rater drift” can be detected. Results show that:(1)GR-MLDM, both fixed effect model and random effect model, can estimate item and person parameters precisely.(2)Compared with fixed effect model, random effect model can detect rater drift more precisely; furthermore, due to the interaction between raters and time stages, the random effect model shows more suitable for large-scale assessment. For further investigation, we will apply GR-MLDM into the real situation so that to verify the applicability of this model. In addition, predictors also can be added into the random model to form the full model, which can evaluate factors that affect rater drift in practice. Related Articles | Metrics

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Generalized Hierarchy Consistency Index for Cognitive Diagnosis Assessment 2018, 41(1): 211-218.  Abstract ( )   PDF (3531KB) ( )   In educational practice of cognitive diagnostic assessment (CDA), it is crucial to validate the reasonability of the hierarchical structure of attributes, because it can affect the quality of CDA and the accuracy of classification of examinees directly. Several indices that validate the reasonability of the hierarchical structure of attributes have been developed by researchers. Based on attribute hierarchy method (AHM), Cui, Leighton, Gierl and Hunka (2006）developed hierarchy consistency index (HCI) to detect the misfit of examinees; also Ding, Mao, Wang and Luo (2011) modified the HCI, then developed a new index——Modified HCI（MHCI). In addition, Guo (2012) proposed the hierarchy misfit index (HMI) to detect the misfit of examinees’ misfit responses. Although these indexes can be used to detect misfit, all of these indexes are suitable for dichotomous. For polytomous items, in order to validate the reasonability of attribute hierarchy (AH), researchers, in general, transform these polytomous items into dichotomous items according to some prespecified rules, then calculate the HCI (Kang, Wu, Chen, & Zeng, 2015; Kang, Xin, & Tian, 2013) or MHCI (Ding et al., 2012). However, it will lose some details when transform polytomous items into dichotomous, therefore produce larger errors (Ding, Wang, & Luo, 2014) and underestimate the consistence of AH. The purpose of this study is extending the Modified HCI (MHCI) to a new HCI that suitable for both dichotomous and polytomous items, and we name the new HCI as generalized hierarchy consistency index (GHCI). To evaluate the suitability of GHCI, a simulation study and an empirical study are employed. For the simulation study, two independent variables are manipulated: type of attribute hierarchy (AH) and proportion of transformation. The AH has 4 levels (linear, convergent, divergent, and unstructured) and the proportion of transformation has 5 levels (0%，60%, 67%, 75%, 100%). The control variables are the number of attributes, K = 5, and the number of examinees, N = 2000. Results show that: (1) Both GHCI and MHCI are affected by type of AH, the linear AH has the best GHCI and MHCI, then is convergent AH, after that is divergent AH and the unstructured AH is worst. (2) GHCI has larger means than MHCI regardless of AH and proportion of transformation. In sum, lower accuracy are found when MHCI is used to calculate the consistence of AH for polytomous items, while GHCI produced high accuracy. To test the practical feasibility of GHCI, an empirical study is conducted. Results show the consistent pattern with simulation. Related Articles | Metrics

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Preliminary Work for Modeling Questionnaire Data 2018, 41(1): 204-210.  Abstract ( )   PDF (392KB) ( )   Questionnaire data have been frequently employed in empirical studies of psychology, as well as in many other behavioral and social science disciplines. This paper discusses preliminary work for modeling questionnaire data, including the data processing which might affect the analysis result. First of all, initial processes of raw data are introduced, including data checking, missing value imputation, and normality test. Then we focus on the questionnaire (scales and items) evaluation based on a measurement model using Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA). The construct validity of the scale is acceptable if the measurement model reflecting the hypothetical construct proposed by the theory fits the data with acceptable fit indexes (CFI and TLI > 0.9; RMSEA and SRMR <0.08, say). When item-factor relationship is examined, some items with low loading (e.g., less than 0.4 in the completely standardized solution) are often deleted. It is necessary to consider and explain that the remaining items of the scale are still a representive item sample to measure the latent variable. For a general test, the measurement errors of items are reasonably uncorrelated. If Cronbach's coefficient α is high enough to be accepted, then test reliability is also acceptable. Suppose that the total score of the test is meaningful and employed, it would be better report the composit reliability with a confidence interval. For a multidimensional test, the total score could be employed only when homogeneity reliability is not lower than 0.5. For a reaseach with several latent variables, discriminant validity could be examined by a series of CFA models. One-factor model is the worst fitted whereas the separated-factor model in which one latent variable corresponding to one factor is the best fitted. Discriminant validity is verified if the separated-factor model is obviously better fitted than any other competitive model in the series of CFA models. Then a method factor is added to the separated-factor model as a global factor to set up a bifactor model, and common method bias is not a problem if the bifactor model is not obviously better fitted than the separated-factor model. Structure equation models are frequently applied to analyze questionnaire data. It is suggested that the sample size be large enough so that it is more than 10 times of the nubmer of indicators, or 5 times of the number of parameters which are freely estimated. When the sample size is not large enough, item parceling constitutes a technique of improving the quality of indicators and model fit. The prerequisites for parceling are unidimension and homogeneity, and the applicability of parceling is the analysis of structural models, rather than measurement models. If the scale is multidimensional, internal-consistency approach is recommended so that the items of the same dimension are parceled to one or three indicators for structural equation modeling. When a multiple regression model is involved, multicollinearity could be detected by tolerance or the variance inflation factor (VIF=1/tolerance). Each predictor has a VIF, and a VIF of 5 (or 10) or above indicates a (or serious) multicollinearity problem. A VIF > 5 (or 10) is equivalent to the variance of the predictor is explained by more than 80% (or 90%) by all the other predictors, that is, the coefficient of determination of the regression of the predictor on all the other predictors is larger than 0.8 (or 0.9). For a cross-sectional design of study, it may be an issue how to propose a hypothesis that one variable is a cause of another. The issue could be addressed by domain theory, literature or commonsense. If X is more essential (or more stable, or more objective, or more long-standing, etc.) than Y, X is much more likely to act as a cause than Y. Variable control is necessary for causal inference, in order to eliminate the spurious effect when there exists a common cause of X and Y, or remove the unanalyzed effect when there exists a covariate with which X affects Y. Recently the replication crisis attracted attention and discussion. For a questionnaire data set, different results might arise from different methods of processing data before modeling and analyzing. Appropriate data processing could help obtain a reasonable result and raise the repeatability of the result. Related Articles | Metrics

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The relationship between Traumatic Exposure and Substance Abuse among adolescents after the Wenchuan earthquake: The mediating role of PTSD and Attachment 2018, 41(1): 219-224.  Abstract ( )   PDF (510KB) ( )   Exposure to traumatic events can be associated with a large number of negative psychological outcomes and behaviors, particularly substance abuse is the most typical behaviors. Studies indicated that substance abuse may impair adolescents’ academic performance in school, and even leads to self-injure behaviors. While studies found traumatic exposure has direct positive effect on substance abuse in traumatized people, we don't know exactly about the mechanisms or the role of other factors in the relationship between traumatic exposure and substance abuse. According to relevant theories, PTSD and attachment plays an important role. It has been documented that PTSD is a common and representative posttraumatic reaction, and it involves intrusive symptom, hyper-arousal symptom, and avoidance symptom. According to self-medication hypothesis, people with PTSD symptoms use nicotine or alcohol to alleviate subjective states of distress. Therefore, substance abuse is probably a coping style for those people to self-mediate the affective flooding or numbing involved in this condition. Additionally, world assumption hypothesis suggested that individuals’ assumptions about this world, themselves and others may be shattered by traumatic experiences, and then they may feel unsafe and unprotected, and hard to believe in others. This might further damage their parent attachment or peer attachment. Whereas insecure parent-child or peer attachment would lead to negative feelings and emotions, thus exacerbate the negative outcomes of traumatic events. Wherein, people can't feel warm or lack support from parents or peers, so they are more likely to use substance abuse. In addition, symptoms of PTSD may also further disrupt parent-child attachment or peer attachment. For these reasons, this study incorporates PTSD and attachment into exploration of relationships between traumatic exposure and substance abuse, examining the internal mechanism how traumatic exposure affect substance abuse. The current study used traumatic exposure questionnaire, posttraumatic stress disorder inventory, parent and peer attachment inventory and substance abuse questionnaire to investigates 1435 adolescents at 1.5 year after Wenchuan earthquake, and selects 354 adolescents who meet the criterion of substance abuse, 68.1% boys and 31.1% girls (Mage=15.17 years, SD=1.68 years). The structural equation model was used to examine the relationship, and results found that traumatic exposure has no significant effect on substance abuse by peer attachment, and by PTSD via peer attachment. However, traumatic exposure has a direct and positive effect on substance abuse, but this effect is not significant after mediators was entered. In addition, traumatic exposure has indirect and positive effect on substance abuse by PTSD and parent attachment, respectively. More importantly, traumatic exposure also has a multiple indirect effect on substance abuse by PTSD via parent attachment. In summary, the results indicated parent attachment plays more important role than peer attachment in such a significant cases as earthquake. It suggests that traumatic event itself doesn’t destroy adolescents’ parent attachment, instead may enhance their attachment to parents. In this condition, support or company from their parents may decrease substance behavior. But when they develop some PTSD symptoms, their parent attachment might be impaired under sense of powerlessness and out of control. Therefore they need a way to relieve their suffering, so substance abuse behaviors may increase. This study enriches the mechanisms between traumatic exposure and substance abuse among adolescents, which helps us to better understand their behaviors after earthquake. This results remind us to consider specific negative symptoms of each individuals after traumatic events, and focus on their parent attachment, exploring more about how they feel about themselves and their parents after earthquake. So we can take corresponding measures to intervene with these guidance, and help them recover from the disaster. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Neural Mechanism and Biology Basics of Cooperation and Competition and the Performance of Patients Yi-Qin LIN Hui XIE XIA LiSheng 2018, 41(1): 225-230.  Abstract ( )   PDF (290KB) ( )   Cooperation is generally defined as involving a group of individuals working together to attain a common goal. In contrast, competition involves one person attempting to outperform another and facilitating the realization of results that benefited to themselves. Cooperation and competition are two key components of social interaction and the two resolutions for conflict. Cooperation contribute to constructive interpersonal relationships while competition may lead to the destructive interpersonal relationships. However, cooperation and competition are important for our daily life, study and business work. In recent years, there are more and more literature to investigate cooperation and competition, however, on the one hand, those focused on human social interaction and the neural mechanism about cooperation and competition is less. On the other hand, fewer researchers investigate cooperation and competition of patients with psychological and psychiatric disorders. The current review summarizes recent researches on cooperation and competition, from the perspective of psychology and society, focused on the neural mechanism, biology basics and the difference between patients’ cooperation and competition, hoping to provide theoretical basis for the rehabilitation training of patients. From the paper, we illuminate the neural mechanism of cooperation and coopetition. Both cooperation and coopetition could result in activation of a common frontoparietal network and the anterior insula. Moreover, distinct regions were found to be selectively associated with cooperation and competition, notably the orbitofrontal cortex in the former and the inferior parietal and medial prefrontal cortices in the latter. We all know that cooperation is divided into reciprocated cooperation and unreciprocated cooperation, unreciprocated cooperation was associated with greater activity in bilateral anterior insula and amygdala compared with reciprocated cooperation. Furthermore, the strength of functional connectivity between anterior insula and lateral orbitofrontal cortex could predicted subsequent defection. When it comes to the biology basics of cooperation and coopetition, researchers argue that oxytocin is associated with cooperation. It, generally speaking, could promote individuals’ cooperative behavior. At the same time, testosterone concentrations are modulated by competition outcome, for example, the testosterone concentrations of winners increases relative to losers in a competitive situation. Besides, changes in testosterone in response to victory or defeat will feedback to influence future dominance-related behaviors. For instance, a rise in testosterone may facilitate competitive behavior, the decrease in testosterone may promote submissive behaviors. In addition, this paper summarizes some researches about the patients’ cooperation and competition, such as anxiety disorders, depressive disorder and personality disorder patients. Besides, these similarities and differences in cooperative and competitive performance are drawn between those patients. We find that diminished cooperativeness may occur in almost all major psychiatric disorders, except to anxiety disorders. However, the tendency to avoid competition only appear in depressive disorder rather than anxiety disorders or personality disorder patients (unpublished data). On the contrary, psychopathy are characteristic of the tendency to compete, suggesting that this abnormality in social behavior may be specific for depressive disorder. Lastly, we try to give some advice on the analysis and research about cooperation and competition, hoping researchers to realize the influence of situation, individual difference and social class, thereby, improving the reliability and generalizability of experimental results. Related Articles | Metrics

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Social Feedback Deficits in Individuals with Depression: the state of art and unsolved problems Zhen-Hong HE 2018, 41(1): 231-237.  Abstract ( )   PDF (1410KB) ( )   Depression is associated with severe deficits of social function. Depressive symptoms are related to negative expectancy bias, social anhedonia, high sensitivity to, as well as impaired emotion regulation of social exclusion and social rejection. This review focuses on social feedback, one of the most important social information, in individuals with depression (including clinical depression and subclinical depression). We aim to investigate the anticipation, experience and emotion regulation processes of social feedback in individuals with depression. There are a number of paradigms measuring different aspects (anticipation, experience, or both) of social feedback processing. The most frequently used tasks are “cyberball” task, “social judgment” task, “chatroom” task, “social feedback” task, and “social incentive delay” task. Besides, other tasks are also commonly seen and used, such as social evaluative task, “character trait” task, “island getaway” task, and “the montreal imaging stress” task. Firstly, researchers already have a deep understanding about the experiencing deficits of social feedback in individuals with depression. It is found that similar to nonsocial rewards (food or money), individuals with depression also showed anhedonia to social rewards, i.e., positive social feedback, which may mainly due to hypoactivation of the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) and hyperactivation of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). In contrast, individuals with depression exhibited abnormally increased sensitivity to negative social feedback (social exclusion and social rejection), which is related to the overactivity of sgACC. Secondly, researchers are less concerned about the anticipation of social feedback in depression. However, the altered anticipatory processing is supported by some behavioral and neuroimaging findings. Specifically, individuals with depression showed impaired reward circuit (especially ventral striatum) when anticipating monetary reward. In some behavioral findings, individuals with depression reported more negative expectation and less positive expectation about social interaction, which may suggest the dysfunction of this reward circuit in depression when anticipating social feedback. Thirdly, although we found no direct evidence supporting the regulation of emotions evoked by social feedback in individuals with depression; they did showed deficits in regulating basic emotions (happy and sad). In studies on healthy individuals, rVLPFC seemed to be the crucial area of regulating social feedback, which may provide some valuable clues to studies on depression. The framework of this review is largely consistent with the “negative cognitive traid” in the unified model of depression. The unsolved problems in this research area are as follows: 1) The specificity of social feedback processing deficits in depression needs to be defined, because it is not clear that individuals with depression show the same or different deficits in processing social versus non-social feedback; 2) Causality between the observed brain dysfunction and the given behavioral deficits in social feedback processing in depression still puzzles us. However, some work may enlighten us. Using the non-invasive neurostimulation tools, such as rTMS, to excitatorily or inhibitorily stimulate the target brain area, researchers can then measure and compare behavioral and neuroimaging indexes between the real and the sham group and thus clarify this casual issue. 3) We cannot rule out the possibility that patients with clinical depression and individuals with subclinical depression have the different mode of social feedback processing deficits. Related Articles | Metrics

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Substance Addiction and Its Withdrawal: A Perspective of Reversal Learning 2018, 41(1): 238-243.  Abstract ( )   PDF (885KB) ( )   Substance addiction has been a worldwide problem characterized by the lack of control over the use of substances in spite of increasingly negative consequences. It not only damages the addicts’ physical and mental health, but also threatens the social stability. There is evidence that reversal learning plays an important role in the occurrence and development of addiction. Reversal learning is the ability to update the stimulus-outcome associations according to the changing environment. It has to do with people’s social and emotional behavior. In a classical reversal learning task, subjects are presented with two visual stimuli simultaneously. One is accompanied by a reward and the other accompanied by a punishment. Subjects are required to choose the stimulus that could bring the reward to them through trial–error learning. After a period of time, the stimulus previously associated with reward will lead to punishment, whereas the stimulus previously associated with punishment will lead to reward. Then the subjects need to establish the new stimulus–outcome associations. However, the research on reversal learning in substance addiction has showed that addicts usually have problem with adapting their choice to reward contingencies. Once they learned that a specific stimulus has a certain outcome, they may struggle to learn that the same stimulus is later associated with a different outcome. Specifically, substance users may continue to attribute positive outcomes to some stimuli even in conditions when it has changed. These findings have also been confirmed by studies?on?laboratory?animals. The present paper reviews the research on addicts’ reversal learning: First of all, although a few studies reported that there was no reversal learning deficits in certain substance addicts (e.g. heroin users), most studies showed impaired reversal learning among substance addicts. In addition, there are two forms of reversal learning deficits: perserveration and excessive switching, respectively reflecting impulsivity and compulsivity. In the next place, anomalous activities in reversal–specific brain areas, such as ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), have been found among the substance addicts compared to the controls. Such results provided evidence for understanding behavioral impairment from a physiological perspective. What’s more, the findings of reversal learning in the context of substance–related stimuli is mixed, which may derive from different types of reversal learning task. In the end, the reversal learning ability could predict addictive behavior. Individuals with poor reversal learning are more likely to use addictive substances. However, there are still some unclear issues need to be further explored in the future: (1) the brain mechanism of reversal learning deficits in different types of substance addicts; (2) the influences of substance–related stimuli on addicts’ reversal learning; (3) the effects of the addicts’ impulsivity and compulsivity on their reversal learning; (4) the predictive power of reversal learning on addictive behavior. All in all, understanding the key role of reversal learning in substance addiction is not only rather meaningful for understanding the mechanism of addiction, but also can provide a new direction for treament and prevention of substance addiction. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Dynamic System Theory of Moral Motivation: A neo-Kohlbergian Approach of Moral Development 2018, 41(1): 244-249.  Abstract ( )   PDF (267KB) ( )   Although many valuable research results have been obtained in the field of moral development, there are some challenges need to resolve. One of the main problems is the developmental fissure in moral psychology. That is many contemporary studies on moral judgment and emotion have been carried out without connections to developmental processes or temporal changes. Another puzzle is the limited mainstream conception of moral motivation that moral motivation has been viewed only or predominantly as the process of producing moral behavior. The isolation of judgment from conceptions of moral motivation reflects another fissure in moral psychology between moral behavior and moral judgment. To solve the above problems, Kaplan and his colleagues proposed a comprehensive view of moral motivation named dynamic system approach to moral motivation by combination of Kohlberg’s moral cognitive development theory, Dynamic Systems (DS) perspective and Self-Determination Theory (SDT). From the dynamic system approach to moral motivation, moral motivation can be defined as the dynamic developmental process of self-organization and self-regulation of cognitive and emotional elements out of which moral judgment and action emerge. The process of moral motivation is an ongoing iterative or recursive process. As a complex network of interconnected components, moral development involves shifts in the strengths of multiple attractors, as well as increases in self-regulation with regard to the operation of moral attractors. The dynamic system model views context as a dynamic variable that is subject to rapid changes. There is a continuous temporal interaction and reciprocal determinism between context and motivation in moral experience. Both cognitive and emotional processes are strongly involved in moral motivation, which can be perceived and mentally represented in emotional or cognitive terms. In the view of dynamic system, moral identity can be seen as emerging from the process of self-organization over macrodevelopmental time. Moral identity has a top-down influence on moral thinking, feeling, judgment and action in real-time moral motivation. Multicausality in moral motivation reflects that causal responsibility in moral judgment or action does not belong to a single experience, but rather to the microdevelopmental and motivational process by which such components are connected. Both long-term and short-term development can be seen as shifting probabilities of multiple attractors. Ongoing series of microdevelopmental shifts in the operation likelihood and intensity of multiple moral motivation structures serve as building blocks for long-term changes in moral development. Nonlinearity means that moral motivation is highly complex and the magnitudes of changes in moral motivation are often not proportionate to the preceding changes in inputs. Long-term increases in moral motivation occur through repeated learning experiences in contexts that call for various moral judgments and actions. The dynamic system theory represents a neo-Kohlbergian approach of moral development which has some supportive empirical evidences. Further research should concentrate on the relationship between moral cognition and emotion, the influence of environmental factors, the combination of crossing and longitudinal design and the improvement of research instrument. Related Articles | Metrics