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The Primacy of Warmth in Face Processing: Evidence from Eye Tracking Data 2019, (4): 770-776.  Abstract ( )   PDF (692KB) ( )   According to the stereotype content model (SCM), warmth and competence are the two universal dimensions of social cognition. While the relationship between warmth and competence is confused. Some studies suggested that warmth judgments carried more weight in social cognition and there was an effect of the primacy of warmth, but some were not. Moreover, it is unknown that what is the relationship between warmth and competence in facial attention processing. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to explore the relationship between warmth and competence in face processing from the perspective of attention. Thirty participants (seventeen females) participated in the experiment, which was designed a 2 (facial type: warmth, competence) × 2 (valance: positive, negative) within-subject study. And this experiment recorded the time to first fixation, the fixation counts and the total fixation duration by eye tracking technique. During the experiment, the two sides of the screen would present warm and competent faces randomly. And then a black probe point would appear randomly on the left or right side. The participants were told that they should judge the location of the probe as accurately as possible. There was a total of 270 trails, and all faces were presented only once, and the positions were balanced. At the end of the experiment, the participants were asked to evaluate the approach-avoidance of all faces with a 9-point rating (1 = very want to avoid, 9 = very want to approach). In terms of eye tracking data, the study found that the time to first fixation on the warm faces were shorter than the competent faces. Compared to the competent faces, fixation counts are more and total fixation duration are longer on warm faces, and similarly the fixation counts and total fixation duration of positive-judgment faces are more than the negative-judgment faces. The results of approach-avoidance judgment are significant between the evaluation of the negative warm and competent faces; individuals are more likely to avoid negatively warm faces than negatively competent faces. And the positive dimension was not significant. In the early stages of facial attention, the time to first fixation on the warm faces was shorter, which indicated that the judgment of others’ intentions takes precedence over the judgment of the competence to achieve intentions in the early stages of face perception, capturing the observer’s attention more quickly. In the late stage of attention, the attention to the warm faces are maintained. Compared with the competent faces, the warm faces may convey stronger threatening information. What is more, individuals evaded judgments about warm faces more than competent ones under negative conditions, which might reflect the intention of others directly affects the individual’s survival value and interpersonal activities, and then the individual present the alertness to the warm faces. Therefore, the data supported that there exists an effect of the primacy of warmth during the face processing. Related Articles | Metrics

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Effect of Working Memory on Insight and Analytic Problem Solving 2019, (4): 777-783.  Abstract ( )   PDF (607KB) ( )   Abstract Creative problems can be solved by either insight or analysis. Insight denotes the sudden formation of a concept or the reconstruction of knowledge. On the contrary, when employing an analytic approach, the correct answer to the solution always comes from a series of conscious initiative thinking. The effect of working memory on creative problem solving has been discussed by numerous researchers, for the reason that central executive function components of working memory are closely related to the effects of attention control and suppression of distraction. Researchers have tried to clarify whether working memory plays different roles in insight and analytic problem solving, but the cognitive processing mechanism of creative problem solving remains controversial and inconsistent. Based on the previous studies, it is proposed that different experimental materials and paradigms may cause interference. On the one hand, if the initial representation phase of creativity problem solving process is too difficult, the relationship between the subsequent processing phase and working memory would not be embodied. On the other hand, different experimental materials for insight and analysis may cover the actual psychological process of problem-solving. In order to eliminate the dependence of information processing load on working memory in the initial representational stage of creative problem solving，this study has focused on the relationship between working memory and creative problem-solving when the information processing load of representation stage is relatively small. And the Remote Association Task has been employed as the experimental material in the self-report paradigm to ensure that insight and analytic problem solving can be compared under equivalent experimental conditions. In line with the previous studies, two experiments have been conducted from the perspective of working memory capacity and additional working memory load respectively. The former focuses on individual differences, while the latter focuses on contextual factors and makes further exploration through direct experimental manipulation. In Experiment 1, working memory capacity of participants was measured by the Automation Operation Span task (AO-span). In Experiment 2, the dual-task paradigm has been applied in which participants are asked to speak loudly following the warning sounds while completing the creative problem-solving task. The result has shown that (1) The overall performance of creative problem solving by high WMC individuals is better, but the proportion of problem solving by means of insight is lower than that by low WMC individuals. (2) Higher working memory capacity is related to better performance on analytic approach instead of insight. (3) Additional working memory load could harm creative problem-solving performance. (4) Compared with the high WML condition, the number of problems solved by analysis under low WML condition increases. Whereas there is no significant difference in insight between the two conditions. The results of the experiment indicate that analytic problem solving relies on the support of working memory when completing the RAT task, but working memory has no effect on insight. This result has provided a strong refutation on the concept of nothing-special view. In addition, the results suggest that adequate cognitive resources help problem solvers to solve creative problems more analytically, and that when cognitive resources are insufficient, the proportion of problems solved by insight is larger. Compared with the experimental results obtained from the creative problem with high information processing load in the initial characterization stage, when the initial representational load is small, the effect of working memory on the initial representational stage has reduced. This may be one of the reasons why the results of this study are inconsistent with some previous studies. This study found that working memory has different effects on insight and analytic problem solving. There are two possible explanations for this result. Firstly, according to the dual-process theory, insight and analysis can be controlled by different processing systems which may be the reason why working memory plays different role among them. Based on the results of this study, the analysis may depend on the control processing system, while insight may depend on the automatic processing system. Secondly, the reason that working memory does not affect insight problem solving may be that the promoting and hindering effects at different stages offset each other. On the basis of this study, the future research can directly compare the creative problem solving process with different information processing loads in the initial representation phase. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The Bilingual Advantage Effect of Proficient Bilinguals: Edvients from N-Bank jiao jiang-li 2019, (4): 784-789.  Abstract ( )   PDF (455KB) ( )   Aims: The “bilingual advantage effect” mainly refers to that bilinguals have more advantages on executive functions involved inhibition , shifting and updating , in general , most researchers tend to study the effect of bilingual on the inhibition and shifting which are two distinct components of executive functions . The current study mainly investigated the effect of bilingual on the third component of executive functions , namely working memory updating . The current study also divided working memory updating tasks into single working memory task and conflict working memory task , in order to discuss the bilingual effect on working memory updating in the conditon of different executive function demands . Bilingual experience could be divided into more bilingual experience and less bilingual experience , so bilinguals were also divided into proficient bilinguals and non-proficient bilinguals . Methods : 36 Uighur-Chinese young adult bilinguals as participants , which involved 18 proficient bilinguals and 18 non-proficient bilinguals . All participants matched at intelligence scores which measured by APM-Set 1.The study included two experimental tasks , namely a simple digit 2-back task and a conflict digit 2-back . The conflict digit 2-back task involved conflict stimuli , and it meant this task involved conflict stimuli to make proactive interference and increase the executive function demands of the task compared to the simple digit 2-back task . Both tasks were designed by E - Prime 1.0 software . The current study was a two-factor mixed experiment design , the types of participants and task difficulties were independent variables , and the types of participants were intersubject variables , while task difficulties which included a simple 2-back task and a conflict 2-back task were variables within subject . The dependent variables were the accuracy and reaction time of targets , non-targets , lures and non-lures . Results : there was significant difference between the simple 2-back task and the conflict 2-back in the accuracy rate of the targets and non-targets , and it meant the conflict 2-back was more difficult than the simple 2-back task ; there was no difference between proficient bilinguals and non-proficient bilinguals in the reaction time and accuracy rate of the simple 2-back task’s targets or non-targets ; there was significant difference between proficient bilinguals and non-proficient bilinguals in the accuracy rate of the conflict 2-back task’s non-targets , lures and non-lures , that is to say , proficient bilinguals were more advantaged than non-proficient bilinguals on the accuracy rate of the conflict digit 2-back task’s non-targets , lures and non-lures . These results suggested that proficient bilinguals had advantages on the conflict working memory updating task but not the simple working memory updating task , which meant the bilingual advantage effect might only show in the working memory updating tasks that involved more executive function demands . Conclusions : (1)Bilingual advantages on working memory updating were not shown in the simple n-back task , because the simple n-back task involved less executive function demands . (2) Bilingual advantages on working memory updating were only shown in the conflict n-back task , because the conflict n-back task involved more executive function demands and might retrieve more cognitive control and conflict monitoring . Related Articles | Metrics

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The Harder You Forget, the More You Forget? ----The “Dose Effect” of Directed Forgetting for Emotional Materials 2019, (4): 798-804.  Abstract ( )   PDF (597KB) ( )   Many factors affecting directed forgetting have been studied in order to understand the processing mechanism involved. However, no research has examined the influence of subjective effort intensity on directed forgetting yet. This study used an item-method directed forgetting paradigm, using emotional words and pictures in two experiments, to investigate the psychological mechanism by which subjective effort intensity affected the directed forgetting for emotional materials. In Experiment 1, emotional words were used as stimuli in a 2×2×3 within-subjects design, with emotional valence (positive, negative), instruction (remember, forget), and effort intensity (20%, 60%, 100%) as the independent variables, and recognition rate and directed forgetting effect for emotional words as the dependent variables. In the study phase, emotional words were followed by the instructions to “remember” or “forget” with different effort intensities. The participants were instructed to process the emotional words according to the instructions and effort intensities. In the test phase, the participants were asked to recognize the old and new words. The results of the experiment showed that, regardless of positive or negative words, the harder it was to remember, the better the recognition rate. However, there was no difference in the recognition rate of positive words in the three effort intensities for forgetting, and the harder it was to forget the negative words, the more one could remember. In Experiment 2, emotional pictures were used as stimuli, and the experimental design and experimental procedure were the same as Experiment 1. The results suggested that the directed forgetting effect for emotional pictures was generally not significant. Regardless of positive or negative pictures, the higher the effort, the worse the directed forgetting effect, that is, the harder it was to forget, the more one could remember. The results of the above two experiments indicated that subjective effort intensity affected the intentional forgetting for emotional materials. Specifically, for positive words the more the efforts to try to forget, the more one could forget; whereas for negative words and pictures, the harder the efforts to try to forget, the more difficult it was to forget. This was related to the different processing methods for words and pictures, as well as the respective suitability for conscious processing and unconscious processing. In this study, the instruction to “remember” led to the selective repetition of emotional words and pictures, which accorded with the theory of selective repetition/passive decline; however, the instruction to “forget” with different effort intensities caused the active inhibition of emotional words and pictures, and this was in line with the theory of attentional inhibition/executive control. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Self-advantage in Response Inhibition: Evidence from Neural Oscillation Qian HaoYue 2019, (4): 805-812.  Abstract ( )   PDF (1030KB) ( )   Related Articles | Metrics

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Cognitive Enhancement Using Non-invasive Brain Stimulation: Methods, Ethics, Applications Chang YANG 2019, (4): 813-819.  Abstract ( )   PDF (445KB) ( )   Cognitive enhancement refers to the improvement of cognitive function of normal healthy individuals, cognitive function including perception, attention, memory, learning, planning, reasoning, and problem solving. To pursuit excellence, humans employ a variety of approaches to enhance cognition, including education, drugs, and mental training. Recently, due to the development of neuroscience, substantial interest has been directed at using the non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) methods to enhance human cognition. The main NIBS methods include transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). TMS and tDCS could change the level of cortical plasticity to strengthen or weaken the excitement of the cerebral cortex. Specifically, TMS causes electric current generated by changing magnetic field to flow in a small region of the brain via electromagnetic induction, whereas tDCS uses the weak current flowing through the cerebral cortex to intervene or change brain activity. The greatest strengths of TMS and tDCS were able to change neural electrical conductivity and indicate the causal relationship between brain and cognitive or behavioral changes. Moreover, they are both relative secure and cheap. Thus, they are widely used in the improvement of individual basic and higher-order cognitive processes. However, previous studies may not report invalid or contrary results due to publication preference, so the actual and sustained effect from cognitive enhancement using the NIBS methods is difficult to determine. Moreover, cognitive enhancement using the NIBS methods raise a series of ethical issues, such as safety, freedom of choice, and fair. First, the potential safety risk that the direct effects of stimulation on brain structure is still unknown. Thus, it should take cautious to implicate those methods in the juveniles’ sample. Second, it should be pointed out cognitive enhancement using the NIBS methods on the specific group who has access to these techniques will impair social injustice and inequality. Third, the right to make freedom choices should be guaranteed. In some cases, people with specific professions such as the soldier or the astronaut may be reluctant to use cognitive enhancement, and they are forced to use cognitive enhancement in order to perform better. Cognitive enhancement using the NIBS methods are highly implicated in sports and military. In sports, the non-invasive brain stimulation can strengthen the body by improving the performance of hands, legs, and muscle tolerance, and promote the motor function by improving motor awareness and motor coordination, and also improve the psychological status before competitions by elevating an athlete's desire to win. In military, the non-invasive brain stimulation methods were widely used to enhance the cognitive abilities which are important of military performances and combat capabilities of soldiers. For example, considerable evidence found tDCS helps reduce the time and effort needed for learning the military skills, also can change and improve cognitive ability such as visual space and auditory attention, which play an important role in military performance and combat capability. Although there are considerable interests on cognitive enhancement using the NIBS methods and the findings make people understand the brain better, there are some directions that warranted future investigation. Firstly, the better brain stimulation techniques should be developed in future. At present, the brain stimulation techniques can only stimulate the superficial cortex, and they cannot reach the deep nucleus of the brain such as hippocampus and amygdala. Furthermore, the time and space resolution of the brain stimulation techniques are needs to improve. Thus, the stimulating techniques with better performance are needed in future. Secondly, the validity and reliability of the real effect of cognitive enhancement using the NIBS methods need to be verified by large samples. Finally, the implications of cognitive enhancement using the NIBS methods in people's work, education, and lives is also worth investigated in future. Related Articles | Metrics

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Video Game Training and its Transfer Effects on Executive Function 2019, (4): 820-826.  Abstract ( )   PDF (319KB) ( )   Video games have become a strain of entertainment. Previous studies have focused more on the possible negative effects of video games. In recent years, some studies have broken the existing misunderstanding of “playing games = game addiction = academic failure/delayed development” and found that action video game experience can improve player’s attention and visuospacial capabilities. Since then, researchers have begun to explore the transfer effects of video game training on cognitive abilities. Executive function is a functional structure that must be used in the mind processing of problem solving. It can enable individuals to integrate various resources when completing complex cognitive tasks and control the system to complete various processing. However, there is heterogeneity in the conclusions of existing video game training on the effect of the transfer effect on executive functions and their components.Specifically, a stable transfer effect was observed in the dual task research and updating tasks of working memory; however, this conclusion did not appear in the inhibition. This indicates that the composition of the executive function is different, and the transfer effect is different. In order to answer this question, this paper analyzes two representative theories, namely, the common demand theory and the learning to learn theory. Although both types of transfer mechanisms are backed by empirical research, there are some overlaps between the two in terms of whether the transfer object is a component of the execution function or all of them.It can be seen from the perspective of the transfer mechanism that it is impossible to determine what is the reason. Therefore, it is necessary to shift from the analysis of the transfer object to the analysis of the video game training itself, and consider what factors in the training research influence the transfer effect.Next, the transfer effects of measuring real game experience on executive function was firstly analyzed, the same as the effect of training on simulation game experience. It is found that the former's conclusion is relatively stable, that is, it can detect the transfer effect; and the latter's conclusion is more complicated. It can be seen that most of the inconsistent results of the transfer effect appear in training studies. This may be due to the fact of various conditional controls and different game types.Therefore, it is necessary to focus on the training research that simulates game experience and analyze the training conditions that may affect the transfer effect. At the end , Then the focus should be turned to domain specificity on training. In order to avoid the research bias caused by the theoretical basis or conceptual selection, the use of multiple measurement tasks and statistical methods such as factor analysis and structural equations could be enhanced. Third, in addition to filling in traditional video game experience questionnaires, the survey of gaming history could be added and game cognitive function components must be analyzed. Fourth, increasing the training dose and using the frequency of concentrated training instead of distributed training may improve the transfer effect of training research. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Roles of Autonomy Support from Parents and Head Teacher in Adolescents’ Subjective Well-being and Loneliness: A Person-centered Perspective 2019, (4): 827-833.  Abstract ( )   PDF (928KB) ( )   Most of previous studies on autonomy support were based on variable-centered approach (e.g., investigating the effects of specific autonomy support on some outcomes). The present study adopted person-centered approach to explore the associations among parents’ autonomy support, hand teacher’s autonomy support, subjective well-being and loneliness. This study aimed to identify the natural configurations of parental and head teacher’s autonomy support among Chinese adolescents, investigate the associations among demographic variables and autonomy support profiles, and examine the differences among those autonomy support profiles on adolescents’ subjective well-being (SWB; indicated by life satisfaction, positive affect and negative affect) and loneliness. The Psychological Parental Autonomy Support Questionnaire, Head Teachers’ Autonomy Support Questionnaire, Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (MSLSS), Affect Balance Scale (ABS), Adolescents Loneliness Questionnaire, and demographic information questionnaires were administered to 2941 adolescents (Mage = 14.58, SD = 1.56). Our sample included 1301 (44.20%) males, 1638 (55.70%) females (2 participants missed the gender information). We used Mplus 7.11 to conduct latent profile analysis to identify the best number of the potential autonomy support profiles. Then, we conducted multivariate logistic regression to examine the influence of gender, age, Socioeconomic status (SES) on the autonomy support profiles above. Finally, ANOVAs and post hoc tests (Bonferroni) were conducted after controlling demographic variables (gender, age and SES) to reveal the differences among profiles on SWB and loneliness. Results identified four meaningful profiles named as “low parents and moderate high head teacher autonomy support” (5.88%), “medium parents and low head teacher autonomy support” (5.00%), “moderate high autonomy support” (56.21%) and “high autonomy support” (32.91%). Moreover, males and younger adolescents had more likelihood of membership into medium parents and low head teacher autonomy support profile. The associations between SES and autonomy support profiles were insignificant. Additionally, adolescents in high autonomy support profile scored highest in SWB (indicated by highest life satisfaction and positive affect, lowest negative affect), and the lowest in loneliness, followed by moderate high autonomy support profile; adolescents in low parents and moderate high head teacher autonomy support profile scored lowest SWB and highest loneliness, even compared with low parents and medium head teacher autonomy support profile. Those findings indicated that autonomy support from parents and the head teacher not only enhanced Chinese adolescent’ well-being, but also protected them away from suffering of loneliness, which expanded the application of self-determination theory (SDT). Furthermore, the difference between low parents and moderate high head teacher autonomy support profile and moderate high autonomy support profile indicated that moderate high head teacher’s autonomy support can’t offset the lack of parents’ autonomy support. Low parents and moderate high head teacher autonomy support profile scored also lower than medium parents and low head teacher autonomy support profile in life satisfaction and positive affect. Overall results suggested that the lack of parents’ autonomy support had larger influence on adolescents’ well-being than head teacher’s autonomy support. The findings shed light on the understanding the associations among autonomy support from different sources, adolescents’ well-being and loneliness, and emphasis the importance of parents’ autonomy support. Related Articles | Metrics

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Inserting Spaces Benefits Chinese Developmental Dyslexic Children for Reducing their Visual Crowding: Evidence from Eye Movements 2019, (4): 834-840.  Abstract ( )   PDF (767KB) ( )   In alphabetic languages, some researchers suggested that, increasing the size of the space between the letters and words in text can facilitate dyslexic children’ reading performance by reducing the effects of visual crowding. However, the text in Chinese is usually a sequence of box-like pictorial symbols (characters), and these characters often combine with adjacent characters to form a word. Particularly, the boundaries between words are not demarcated using spaces or other visual cues. Some previous research suggested that adding spaces between Chinese words can facilitate the performance of typically developing readers and second-language learners. But the potential benefits of adding spaces to text for Chinese dyslexic children are still unknown. Accordingly, in the present study, we investigated the benefits for developing dyslexic children when they read the sentences which were inserted spaces between the characters or words. Eleven dyslexic readers (fifth grade), 15 age-matched controls (typically developing fifth graders) and 13 reading ability-matched controls (typical developing third graders) from a primary school, screened by five tests, including text comprehension, literacy-capacity test, orthography test, phonetic transcription test, and rapid naming test, took part in the current study. Texts were presented normally, or with spaces between all characters, or between character pairs that combined to form either words or non-words. Eye movements were recorded by a SR research EyeLinkⅡ eye tracker while the children were reading. The results showed that inserting spaces between words or characters reduced fixation duration in comparison to normal text for readers from all groups. However, whereas for the age- and ability-matched groups this was largely offset by an increase in the number of fixations and regressions in these conditions, this was not the case for the dyslexic group, leading to a reduction in reading times in the character- and word-spaces conditions in comparison to the normal text for this group. Hence, compared to normal text, increased spacing showed no overall facilitation for typically-developing readers, and incurred a cost for all readers in the non-word condition. But clear facilitation was observed for dyslexic readers when spaces were added between characters or words in sentences. Therefore, the results indicate, for the first time, that increased character spacing can benefit the reading performance of Chinese readers with developmental dyslexia. This benefit may arise from the reduced effects of visual crowding. Related Articles | Metrics

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Intergenerational Transmission of Subjective Well-being: Moderated Mediating Effect 2019, (4): 841-847.  Abstract ( )   PDF (642KB) ( )   Subjective well-being is an important content of positive psychology. The adolescent period is the key to individuals’ growth and development. Researches of adolescences’ subjective well-being can not only enrich the research of developmental psychology, but also can help them to get better sense of well-being as well as promote their development of mental health. According to the developmental conceptualism, individuals’ development is realized by the continuous social interactions between them and their situations. Family environment is the most important environment for children’s, adolescents’ and parents’ growth and development. As the main component of family environment, it plays a vital role in the growth of children and adolescence. Previous studies have shown that aggression, marital conflict, education achievements and so on have intergenerational transmission effects, while there are few studies on the intergenerational transmission effect of subjective happiness. Therefore, the first purpose of the current study was to test whether parents’ subjective happiness would affect their children’s subjective well-being. In the family, parent-child communication is an indispensable link, and a large part of the influence of parents on adolescence is through the function of verbal communication. Therefore, the second purpose of this study was to test whether the parent-child communication played an intermediary effect between parents’ subjective happiness and adolescents’ subjective happiness. Adolescent individuals pursue emotional independence and gradually establish emotional connections outside the family. Therefore, individuals with different emotional autonomy may have different levels of communication with their parents. Therefore, the third purpose of this study was to test whether adolescent emotional autonomy played a moderating effect. Taking the adolescences of middle school students and their parents in 292 families as the research objects, the intergenerational transmission effect of parents’ subjective well-being and adolescent subjective well-being was investigated by the questionnaire survey method, and the mediating effect of parent-child communication and the moderating effect of adolescent emotional autonomy were also discussed. The results show that: (1) parents’ subjective well-being could significantly predict the adolescent subjective well-being of middle school students. (2) Parent-child communication played a partial mediation in parents’ subjective well-being and adolescent subjective well-being of middle school students. (3) Adolescent emotional autonomy could regulate the influence of parent-child communication on adolescent subjective well-being in middle school students. Adolescences with low emotional autonomy were more likely to be affected by parent-child communication in their subjective well-being, while individuals with high emotional autonomy would reduce the role of parent-child communication. The results of this study not only enriched the previous studies on the factors of subjective well-being, but also added the intergenerational transmission theory in the field of psychology. It explained the mechanism of action of subjective well-being inter-generational transmission effect, and provided theoretical basis and guidance for the cultivation of parent-child relationship and the establishment of children’s positive emotion. However, there are some limitations in this study. For example, subjective reporting method is mainly adopted in the measurement of subjects, because there may be social desirability. In addition, this study takes adolescent subjective well-being as the dependent variable, and adopts the method of cross-sectional study. It is impossible to determine whether this relationship still exists over time. Related Articles | Metrics

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The differences of the contextual predictability effect between highly-skilled and low-skilled developing readers during parafoveal processing: Evidences from eye movements 2019, (4): 848-853.  Abstract ( )   PDF (531KB) ( )   Contextual predictability plays a crucial role in affecting lexical processing when reading character-based languages like Chinese. Words that are predictable from prior context are read more quickly and are less likely to be directly fixated than are unpredictable words. Previous studies have shown that there was significant difference of contextual facilitation effect for children with different reading skills. However, the relationship between reading skills and contextual effect is still controversial. Lexical quality hypothesis and Predictive coding framework have different hypothesis for this issue. The former states that less-skilled readers rely more on sentential context due to their low-quality lexical representations, however, the later states that higher-skiller will benefit more from sentential context at the early-stage of lexical processing because high reading skill enables automatic access to context-based inferences. Furthermore, numbers of evidences have showed that the occurrence of contextual predictability effects reply heavily on the lexical parafoveal process, and if the absence of valid parafoveal preview, the effects of contextual predictability would be decrease or disappear (Balota, Pollatsek, &Rayner, 1985; White, Rayner, & Liversedge, 2005; Schotter, Lee, Reiderman, & Rayner, 2015). Thus, recent investigations of the impact of contextual predictability on parafoveal preview effects on eye movements between highly-skilled and low-skilled developing readers during sentence reading provides a new source of insight into this issue. In current experiment, the boundary paradigm was used to investigate the parafoveal processing (Rayner, 1975). In this paradigm, the preview of a target word is manipulated to be correct or incorrect until the point of fixation crosses an invisible boundary preceding the preview. At this point the preview is replaced with the target word. Reduced fixation times on a word observed after a correct compared to an incorrect preview is known as preview benefit. Developing Chinese readers (32 skilled, 32 less-skilled) were selected from a pool of school children (aged 10-12 years) whose reading skills had been comprehensively assessed based on the tests of reading comprehention and speed-reading. All participants read sentences containing two-character target words for which predictability （higher or lower predictability）and previewing type (identity or noword preview)was manipulated. The results indicated that, for highly-skilled readers, there was a preview effect in higher predictability sentences, but it didn’t occur in lower predictability sentences. For low-skilled readers, the preview effect has no differences in two types of sentences. In addition, there was larger effects of contextual predictability on total reading time for less-skilled developing readers than that of higher-skilled developing readers. These suggested that there are fundamental differences in the influence of contextual predictability on lexical process for skilled and less-skilled developing Chinese readers. Specifically, the highly-skilled developing readers can use contextual predictability information to facilitate parafoveal processing, while low-skilled readers relied more on it during the later processing. The results were in line with the Predictive Coding Framework. Related Articles | Metrics

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Item Selection in Difficulty-value Trade-off Situations and Its Eye Movement Characteristics Zhi-Wei WANG 2019, (4): 854-860.  Abstract ( )   PDF (643KB) ( )   Item selection is one of the most important indicators of the effectiveness of learning control. Early researchers focused on the influence of item difficulties on item selection. It is believed that learners will monitor the item difficulties, and choose to study the easer items first, especially when total study time is limited. Recently, researchers found that when facing materials with different values, learners choose to give priority to study the items with high value. However, when they came to the conclusion that learners will choose items according to their difficulties or values, they did not control the other factors strictly. In the present study, we want to know when facing items with different difficulties and different values, what kind of items will learners choose to learn, the easiest one, the one with the highest value, or the one with the highest expected return? And how does the selection process take place? In experiment 1, 3 items (each item contains a Spanish word and its corresponding Chinese translation) were presented on a 21 inch screen. One was easiest (highest pass rate), one had the highest point, and the other one had the highest expected return (pass rate × point). Pass rate and point of the items were marked separately above and below the items. Participants were asked to choose one of the three items for the subsequent learning phase. In experiment 2, 2 items with different pass rate and different point were presented, and participants were asked to choose one from the two items for the subsequent learning phase. Eye movement data was recorded using an EyeLink 1000 Plus eye tracker sampling at 1000 Hz. All words were presented in white SimSun 21 point font, on a black background. If participants selected items by calculating the expected return of the items, there would be more saccades between different attributes of the same item than saccades between same attributes of the different items. The main results were as follows: (1) In Experiment 1, there was a significant main effect of item type, F(1, 29) = 225.41, p < .001, ηp2 = .89. Participants chose more items with the highest expected return than other items (ps < .001).(2) In Experiment 2, there was no significant difference in first fixation index, proportions of dwell time, proportions of fixations and average pupil diameters between pass rate and point, ts ≤ 1.54, ps > .05. (3) In Experiment 2, there were more saccades between same attributes of the different items than saccades between different attributes of the same item t(25) = 2.29，p < .05，Cohen’s d = .46. The findings suggest that when learners facing materials with different values and different difficulties, their item selection is not only based on difficulty or value, but based on comprehensive consideration of difficulty and value. And the comprehensive consideration is not by performing an expectation computation, but by comparing the same attributes of different items. The results are compatible with uncompensated models. Related Articles | Metrics

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The relationship between college students’ perceptions of the learning environment and learning outcomes: The mediating role of student engagement 2019, (4): 868-875.  Abstract ( )   PDF (618KB) ( )   Two major perspectives have guided theory and research into student learning in higher education: Students’ perceptions of the learning environment and student engagement. As literature suggests, students’ perceptions of the learning environment and engagement can significantly predict their learning. These studies, however, were conducted separately, and researchers have not examined the joint effects of perceptions of the learning environment and engagement on learning. The present study thus attempted to examine the relationships among Chinese undergraduates’ perceptions of the learning environment, engagement, and three types of learning outcomes. The mediating effects of student engagement on the relationship between perceptions of the learning environment and outcomes were expected. A sample of 3,063 sophomores from a full-time research-oriented university in Mainland China were surveyed through an online questionnaire platform. Convenience sampling was used to choose the respondents. Presage, process, and product variables were measured in the study. The presage variables included course experience and cocurricular experience. The process variable referred to student engagement. The product variables were measured by learning outcomes of academic achievement, generic skills, and learning satisfaction. CFA was performed to assess the construct validity of the measures. SEM was used to examine the relationships among variables, as well as to test the mediating effects of engagement on the relationship between presage variables and learning outcomes. The CFA results showed that the measures were reliable and valid in assessing Chinese undergraduate’s perceptions of their learning environment, engagement, and learning outcomes. The SEM results supported a model which showed that students’ perceptions of the learning environment had a direct effect on learning outcomes and an indirect effect, via their engagement: (1) Student engagement partially mediated the relationship between perceptions of the learning environment and academic achievement, (2) student engagement fully mediated the relationship between perceptions of the learning environment and generic skills, and (3) student engagement partially mediated the relationship between perceptions of the learning environment and learning satisfaction. The results confirmed the benefits of perceptions of the learning environment and student engagement on learning. As expected, student engagement has an effect on learning, and the engagement is in turn predicted by perceptions of the learning environment. Students’ perceptions of the learning environment can also directly predict their GPA and satisfaction. Based on the results, university should try to create a positive learning environment to improve students’ learning experience, and to increase their engagement. Resources are suggested to be placed on these educational experiences outside the classroom to achieve a quality undergraduate education. The curriculum should be structured to induce students to devote more time and effort to academic related activities. Teachers should attach great importance to teaching quality and improve their instructional design, including well organizing their lessons, providing clear teaching objectives and requirements, encouraging discussion and reflective thinking, as well as offering guidance and freedom of study. Students’ ability and satisfaction can thus be promoted by improving their in-class and out-of-class learning experience, and by increasing learning engagement. Limitations and direction for future research are discussed in the end. Related Articles | Metrics

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Effects of contextual emotional prosody on the dynamic processes of novel words learning 2019, (4): 876-883.  Abstract ( )   PDF (1516KB) ( )   Word learning can help individuals master the basic knowledge of science and culture, promoting social interaction. A large number of researchers carried out studies on word learning from different angles. But most previous studies of word learning are less to inspect in context and ignored the impact of the emotional valence. This makes the learning process too unrealistic and the results are lack of a certain ecological validity. So the present study determined to simulate natural learning context to investigate the regulation role of angry, happy and neutral emotional prosody in word learning in high limited context combining with event-related potential technique with high temporal resolution. During the encoding phase, the prosodic contexts were presented via loud speakers firstly and then the to-be-learned words appeared. Participants should infer and learn the meaning of the pseudo-word according to the prosodic context. The correspondent real words were subsequently given to the participants for checking their guessing. To help the consolidation process, the pseudo-words were presented again after the checking. During the testing phase, two kinds of tasks were employed. In experiment 1, participants were asked to judge the concreteness of real words which were primed by consistent or inconsistent pseudo words. While in experiment 2, the task was to explicitly judge the meaning consistency between the real words and pseudo-words. Results of experiment 1 showed that there were significant effects of concreteness of words and emotional prosody, ie., the concrete words had processing advantage over the abstract words and angry prosody showed longer reaction time than happy and neutral prosody. More importantly, there were significant interactions between emotional prosody and words’ concreteness, and the further simple analysis revealed that emotional prosody effects only showed in abstract words not in concrete words, indicating that abstract words compared to concrete words are more susceptible to the impact of emotional prosody. Behavior results of experiment 2 were similar to the experiment 1, and the processing for abstract words learned in angry contexts was impact compared to the words learned in neutral and happy contexts. ERP results experiment 2 showed that:(1) During the testing phase, angry prosody elicited larger N300 than neutral prosody, indicating that in the early lexical semantic processing component, angry prosody entailed more cognitive load; concrete words evoked smaller N400, LPC than abstract words, indicating that concrete word showed semantic processing advantages at late lexical semantic processing component. (2) During the encoding phase, the angry and happy elicited larger N400 and smaller LPC than neutral prosody, which reflected that there more cognitive afford for retrieving the meaning of the target words, and the reanalysis and integration process of them was inhibited since the cognitive resources were taken up due to emotional arousal. Furthermore, concrete words evoked larger N400 than abstract words, indicating that concrete word showed semantic processing advantages at late lexical semantic processing component. Taken together, conclusions as follow could be made through our experiments. (1) Contextual emotional prosody has different modulating effects on word learning. Angry prosody has a significant negative effect on word learning. (2) The influence of emotional prosody was moderated by the concreteness of the learned; emotional prosody has a bigger effect on abstract words learning. (3) The modulating role of emotional prosody in word learned could be originated from the earlier semantic mapping and later semantic integration processes during the encoding phase. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Facilitating Effect of Stereotype Threat on Cognitive Performance and its Mechanism: a Study among Migrant Children Born In Cities Yi-Ting FAN Tian-Shuang ZHOU Lijuan Cui 2019, (4): 884-890.  Abstract ( )   PDF (702KB) ( )   Previous research has focused on the negative effects of stereotype threat, but more and more studies have found that stereotype threat has also brought positive effects. With the development of society, a new special group has emerged among the Migrant Children--the Migrant Children Born In Cities. They were born and raised in cities with much higher city identity. Whether they are influenced by stereotype threat because of the status of migrant children bothered us. This study aimed to explored the effects of stereotype threat on this new group and the influencing mechanism. From a positive perspective, we hypothesized that stereotype threat would have a positive effect on them and promote their cognitive task performance. Based on the arousal theory of stereotype threat, the present study investigated the mediating effect of attentive on the relationship between stereotype threat and cognitive task performance, and the impulsivity’s moderation of the self-esteem. In Study 1. At first, we manipulated the level of stereotype threat (threat VS non-threat). Subjects were asked to read a text and then complete the cognitive task test under the priming situation. The independent t-test showed that the cognitive task test score of the threat group was significantly higher than that of the non-threat group (t=-2.29, p<0.05). The results indicated that stereotype threat positively predicted the performance of Migrant Children Born In Cities. Attentive and self-esteem were further included in the study 2. Before priming the situation, subjects were asked to complete the Self-esteem Scale, then read the text to prime the situation of stereotype threat (the same as study 1), report their level of attentive (from 1 to 5), and complete the cognitive task test. We analyzed the moderated mediating effects of the hypothetical model in SPSS macro PROCESS. The results of moderated mediating effect test showed that the interaction between stereotype and self-esteem (t=1.82, p<0.05) and the interaction between self-esteem and attentive (t=-3.45, p<0.001) were significant. The simple effect analysis is further indicated that the mediating effect of attentive was significantly moderated by self-esteem when it was in low level. For individuals with low self-esteem, Stereotype threat affects cognitive task performance through attentive (standardized indirect effect of the attentive on stereotype threat=-0.62; standardized indirect effect of the cognitive task performance on attentive=3.18; Bootstrap95%CI[-2.68, -0.02]); For high self-esteem individuals, the mediating effect of attentive was not significant. Meanwhile, self-esteem is an important protective factor for them to against with stereotype threat. In summary，this study revealed the characteristics of this new group---Migrant Children Born In Cities and enriches the existing research in the field of stereotype threat. The current study provides a new perspective for the research of the migrant children. The findings highlight the importance of positive qualities like self-esteem which can protect them from threat. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Relationship between Family Socioeconomic Status and Adolescents’ Self-Efficacy: The Mediating Role of Family Support and Moderating Role of Gender 2019, (4): 891-897.  Abstract ( )   PDF (782KB) ( )   Self-efficacy is the core concept in social cognitive theory. It refers to the belief in one’s ability to achieve goals. Self-efficacy has significant influence on individual’s attributional style, motivation, and behavior as well as school and job performance. In accordance with the family stress model, economic hardships and pressures for the family with low socioeconomic status can exacerbate child and adolescent maladjustments. Low self-efficacy is one of the maladjustments and empirical studies repeatedly confirm that family socioeconomic status (FSES) consistently predicts adolescent’s self–efficacy in various countries. Although many studies have focused on the direct association between FSES and self–efficacy, little is known about the underlying mediating mechanism (i.e. how FSES influences self–efficacy) and moderating mechanism (i.e. for whom the influence would be stronger). According to the family stress model, the influence of FSES on adolescent maladjustment is primarily through parents’ interpersonal conflict and disrupted parenting. Empirical studies also find that parents of low FSES are worse in parental involvement, emotional warmth and understanding for their children. Meanwhile, social support is closely related to self-efficacy for adolescents. Therefore, this study hypothesized that family support could mediate the link between FSES and self-efficacy. In addition, the adverse impacts of low FSES is stronger for girls due to son preference tendency in China. And there is a decline of parents’ gender inequalities along with family economic growth. Therefore, this study further hypothesized that gender could moderate the relationship between FSES and family support. To test the hypotheses, the present study constructed a moderated mediation model to examine the effect of FSES on self–efficacy for adolescents. Specifically, the present study examined the mediating role of family support in the relation between FSES and self–efficacy of adolescents, and tested whether the indirect effect was moderated by gender. A sample of 520 high school students completed a battery of self–report questionnaires measuring their FSES, self–efficacy, family support, and gender. All the measures showed good reliability and validity in this study. Data were analyzed using SPSS 23.0, Mplus 8.1 and the SPSS macro PROCESS. The results were as follows: (1) FSES was positively correlated with family support and self-efficacy, and family support was also positively correlated with self-efficacy; female adolescents were higher in family support while lower in self-efficacy comparing with the male counterparts; no difference was found in FSES between male and female adolescents. (2) FSES significantly exerted direct effect on self–efficacy; and there was indirect effect on self–efficacy through the mediation of family support as well. (3) The indirect effect of family support was moderated by gender, and the effect was stronger for female adolescents. The study highlighted the mediating role of family support and the moderating role of gender in the effect of FSES on self–efficacy. It contributes to a better understanding of the effects as well as its paths and conditions of FSES on self–efficacy of adolescents. Moreover, it also provided some constructive suggestions for protecting and improving self–efficacy of adolescents from family of lower socioeconomic status. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Influence of Original Family Functioning on the Quality of Intimate relationship via Co-dependence: A Moderated Mediation Model 2019, (4): 898-904.  Abstract ( )   PDF (1108KB) ( )   Whether adult individuals could establish and maintain intimate relationship is directly related to their mental health levels. It is commonly known that persons’ experience derived from original family is determinant to their well-being when entering an intimate relationship in adulthood. Although research exploring such relationship is not uncommon, little evidence-based study explaining the mechanism for the impact of childhood experience in original family on intimate relationship quality exists. Co-dependence, a psychological tendency of individuals to indulge in dysfunctional relations, is a potentially important mediator connecting childhood experience in original family and quality of current intimate relationship. However, empirical studies on roles of co-dependence playing in intimate relationship are rare and further studies are needed. In order to explore influence of original family functioning on quality of intimate relationship and its mechanism of action, we constructed a moderated mediation model to examine mediating effect of co-dependence and moderating role of individual self-differentiation. Convenience sampling was adopted. 500 Chinese college students (180 men, mean age=21.22 years, SD=2.34), who had experienced or were experiencing intimate relationship, participated in the study with informed consent. They completed anonymous questionnaires including social demographic status, Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale II-Chinese Version (FACES II-CV; 30 items, two factors: Family Cohesion and Family Adaptability; α=.89),Chinese Codependency Assessment Tool (CCDAT; 58 items, five factors: Other Focus/Self Neglect, Low Self Worth, Medical Problems, Hiding Self and family of origin issues; α=.93), Differentiation of Self Inventory (DSI; 27 items, four factors: Emotional Reactivity, Emotional Cutoff, Fusion with Others and I-Position; α=.82),and the Quality of Relationship Index (QRI, 6 items; α=.91).The hypothesized moderated mediation model was tested using PROCESS macro in SPSS 22.0. Test method of Harman single factor was used to make sure that common method deviation didn’t exit in this study. Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and regression analysis were used. The key findings were as follows: (1) Original family cohesion (β=.21,p<.001) or family adaptability (β=.20,p<.001) could significantly predict the quality of intimate relationship; (2)Not only did family cohesion or family adaptability have a directly predictive effect on the quality of intimate relationship, but also had an indirect influence through the mediator of co-dependency;(3)The mediating effect of co-dependency was regulated by self-differentiation. For lower levels of self-differentiation, the mediating effect was pronounced, for higher, the mediating effect was not pronounced. The results indicated that there was a close relationship between original family functioning and intimate relationship. Good family adaptability and cohesion can play demonstration roles for individuals in how to maintain a high-quality intimate relationship. Moreover, original family functioning also influenced intimate relationship through the mediator of co-dependency. Meanwhile, this indirect effect was moderated by self-differentiation. That is, quality of intimate relationship in individuals with high levels of self-differentiation would not be influenced by their family functioning. The results may help to expand study perspective of co-dependency and reveal the intermediate mechanism of family functioning on the quality of intimate relationship. The mediating effect of co-dependency and moderating role of self-differentiation in this study have certain enlightenment significance for establishing and maintaining intimate relationship. Convenience sampling was adopted. 500 Chinese college students (180men, mean age = 21.22 years, SD = 2.34), who had experienced or were experiencing intimate relationship, participated in the study with informed consent. They completedanonymous questionnaires including social demographic status, Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale II-Chinese Version (FACES II-CV; 30 items, two factors: Family Cohesion and Family Adaptability; α=0.89),Chinese Codependency Assessment Tool (CCDAT;58 items, five factors:Other Focus / Self Neglect, Low Self Worth, Medical Problems, Hiding Self and family of origin issues; α=0.93), Differentiation of Self Inventory (DSI; 27 items, four factors: Emotional Reactivity, Emotional Cutoff, Fusion with Others and I-Position; α=0.82),and the Quality of Relationship Index (QRI, 6 items; α=0.91).The hypothesized moderated mediation model was tested using PROCESS macro in SPSS 22.0. Test method of Harman single factor was used to make sure that common method deviation didn’t exit in this study. Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and regression analysis were used. The key findings were as follows: (1) Original family cohesion(β = 0.21,p< 0.001)or family adaptability(β = 0.20,p< 0.001)could significantly predict the quality of intimate relationship; (2) Not only did family cohesionorfamily adaptabilityhave a directly predictive effect on the quality of intimate relationship,but also had an indirect influence through the mediator of co-dependency;(3) The mediating effect of co-dependencywas regulated by self-differentiation. For lower levels of self-differentiation, the mediating effect was pronounced, forhigher, the mediating effect was not pronounced. The results indicated that there was a close relationship between original family function and intimate relationship. Good family adaptability and cohesion canplay demonstration roles for individuals in how to maintain a high-quality intimate relationship. Moreover, original family function also influenced intimate relationship through the mediator of co-dependency. Meanwhile, this indirect effect was moderated by self-differentiation. That is, quality of intimate relationship in individuals with high levels of self-differentiation would not be influenced by their family function. The results may help to expand study perspective of co-dependency and reveal the intermediate mechanism of family function on the quality of intimate relationship. The mediating effect of co-dependency and moderating role of self-differentiation in this study have certain enlightenment significance for establishing and maintaining intimate relationship. Related Articles | Metrics

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Deceptive behaviors under the altruistic and egoistic?motivations: An ERP investigation 2019, (4): 905-912.  Abstract ( )   PDF (1540KB) ( )   People tell lies not only for their own self-interests but sometimes also to help others. Little is known about the ways in which different types of goals modulate behaviors and neural responses in deception. The present study investigated the behavioral and neural processes associated with spontaneous deception triggered by different levels of altruistic motivation (the charity project rated high or low on the willingness of helping scale receive the money the participants won in the game) and self-serving motivation ( the participant self gets the money he/she won in the game). Twenty-four right-handed participants (12 males, age: 18.5±0.8 years (mean±s.e.)) participated in the present study, they were instructed to perform a coin-flip guessing task in which they could earn 5 RMB if they correctly predicted the outcome of a coin-flip and earn 0 RMB for an incorrect one. However, the distribution of the money they won was different in each block. In two of the three blocks, the money would be donated to a highest/lowest on the willingness of helping charity project chosen by the participant him/herself before the task; in the last block, the participants would gain all of the money they won. The order of the blocks was counterbalanced among participants. In each block, half of the trials, the participants recorded their prediction by a button-pressing before the coin-flip (they did not have the opportunity to lie without being caught; NoOp condition). In each NoOP trials, after a 1000ms fixation, the Chinese Words ‘Shuzi’ and ‘Hauwen’ would appear on each side of the screen for 3000ms and the participants were instructed to record their prediction by pressing the button ‘F’ if they predicted ‘head’(“数字”) and the button ‘J’ if they predicted ‘tail’ (“花纹”) for that particular trial. After pressing, the outcome of the coin flip would appear for 2000ms. Then, the question ‘Correct?’ appeared on the screen next, the participants were instructed to indicate whether their prediction was correct by pressing the Y key for ‘Yes’ or the N key for ‘No’. After the response, a screen would show how much money the participant earned in this trial for 1000ms. The other half of the trials was opportunity-to-deceive-without-being-caught trials (Op). While in the other half of the trials; they only needed to make a mental prediction. The structure of the Op trials was the same as the NoOp trials. The only difference was instead of the head and tail in the NoOP trials, the word ‘Random’ would appear on both side of the screen for 3000 ms. When the word ‘Random’ appeared, the participants would make a prediction mentally and press the ‘R’ key to indicate they finished their prediction. The Op condition allowed the participants to freely engage in voluntary deception by over-reporting the accuracy of their prediction without being detected. EEG during the task were recorded and the ERPs when they observing the outcome of the coin-flip were analyzed. Results showed that the patterns on behavioral response and ERP data in high level of altruistic motivation and low level of altruistic motivation are high correlated. Behaviorally, the participant who lied more under high level of altruistic motivation also lied more in the low level of altruistic motivation, and both of the degree of lying negatively correlated with the participants’ PD score. Neurally, the difference of N2 and P3 between Op and NoOp conditions were only significant in the self-serving condition, but not in the altruistic condition. Combined with behavioral and ERP findings, it can be concluded that deceptive behavior under altruistic motives is fundamentally different from deceptive behavior under self-serving motives, and that there is only a qualitative difference between deceptive motives based on different levels of altruism, with no qualitative differences. We also find PD empathy traits play an important regulatory role in altruistic motivated deception, the individual with higher PD scores, and the less deceptive to achieve altruistic goals. These findings shed light on the neural basis of “white lies”. Related Articles | Metrics

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Leader’s Humor Style and affect on Local Learning Jie GAO Wen Zhonglin Yang WANG JIA CUI 2019, (4): 913-919.  Abstract ( )   PDF (785KB) ( )   Humor divides into four styles according whether the humor is positive and whether the humor aims to oneself: affiliative humor, self-enhancing humor, aggressive humor, self-defeating humor (Martin, 2003). Local learning means learning behaviors happen in the group, the group members would like to discuss and help each other (Wong, 2004). It shows that leader’s humor have effect on sharing behavior in group (Robert & Wilbanks, 2012), but the studies about leader’s humor and local learning is limited. Besides, there are a lot of papers explore the relationship between leader’s humor and organizational variables, but there is no paper in China explore it. This study investigates the relationship between leader’s humor and local learning, the mediate effect of LMX between them, and the difference between four different humor styles.. Based on Humor Style Model and LMX Model, four comparing mediate models was established, 325 employees from different companies finished Humor Style Questionnaire (HSQ) , Leader-Member Exchange Questionnaire (LMX-16) and Local Learning Questionnaire. The data was analysed with SPSS and Mplus to confirm the assumption. The results show that LMX completely mediates the relationship between Leader’s Affiliative humor and Local learning (a1b=0.070, p<0.01; c1’=-0.043,p=0.438 ); LMX partly mediates the relationship between Leader’s Self-enhancing humor and Local learning (a2b=0.070, p<0.001; c2’=-0.043,p<0.01 ); LMX completely mediates the relationship between Leader’s Aggressive humor and Local learning (a3b=0.070, p<0.001; c3’=-0.043,p=0.788 ); LMX partly mediates the relationship between Leader’s Self-defeating humor and Local learning (a4b=0.070, p=0.523; c4’=-0.043,p=0.085 ). The mediate effect between Leader’s Self-enhancing humor and Local learning is more than the one between Leader’s Affiliative humor and Local learning (∣a1b∣-∣a2b∣=-0.134, p<0.01); the mediate effect between Leader’s Aggressive humor and Local learning is more than the one between Leader’s Affiliative humor and Local learning (∣a1b∣-∣a3b∣=-0.095, p<0.05). The direct effect between Leader’s Self-enhancing humor and Local learning is more than the one between Leader’s Self-defeating humor and Local learning(∣c2’∣-∣c4’∣=0.340, p<0.01). The outcomes demonstrate that: (1) Leader’s Affiliative humor and leader’s Self-enhancing humor have positive effect on Local learning, Leader’s Aggressive humor and Leader’s Self-defeating humor have negative effect on Local learning; (2) LMX completely mediates the relationship between Leader’s Affiliative humor and Local learning, the same as Leader’s Aggressive humor. On the contrary, LMX partly mediates the relationship between Leader’s Self-enhancing humor and Local learning; (3) Both Leader’s Self-enhancing humor and Leader’s Aggressive humor have a higher mediate effect on Local learning than Leader’s Affiliative humor, and the direct effect between Leader’s Self-enhancing humor and Local learning is more than the direct effect between Leader’s Self-defeating humor and Local learning. This article is a start of exploring the effect of Leader’s humor in China, Leader’s humor have effect on Local learning, and LMX act as the mediator. While, Leader’s humor styles make difference in the four mediate model. Beside, the conclusion of this article shows a lot of suggestions for company and leader, such as leader should learn to use positive humor to enhance group learning, self-enhancing humor is the most effective humor than the others, which can also be a part of training for leader. Related Articles | Metrics

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Are Lower Class Individuals more Uncooperative? Jian Guan Shuxian Jin 2019, (4): 920-927.  Abstract ( )   PDF (716KB) ( )   Social class is a multifaceted construct that is rooted in both objective resources and subjective perceptions of socioeconomic status (SES) rank vis-à-vis others in society. An emerging body of research has shown that social class shapes both psychological experience and behaviors of individuals. In daily life, people usually face conflicts between self-interest and group-interest, which refer to mixed-motive situations called social dilemmas. The proper solution to those conflicts depends on mutual cooperation rather than mutual defection. To date, prior research has demonstrated that social class can affect how people balance the interest of themselves and others, and literature has mainly examined how individuals’ social class shapes their interaction with others. However, prior studies paid more attention to prosocial behavior such as helping and donating, with emphasis on the influence of self-class on behaviors. Here, we explored the effect of both self- and target- social class on cooperative behavior, investigated how target-class affect the relationship between self- social class and cooperation, and tested the mediating role of state trust in others in the moderation model. Accordingly, the present study consisted of two studies. In study 1, 236 college students took part in the survey and we assessed their subjective and objective social class, as well as cooperative behavior, so that the effects of self- social class on cooperation can been tested. In study 2, 94 college students, with different levels of subjective and objective social class, were randomly assigned to high and low perceived target-class priming conditions. Participants’ state trust and cooperative behavior to the target were then measured in a real-life give some dilemma. The measurement of their subjective and objective social class conducted the same tools as study 1. The results indicated that: (1) lower class individuals were significantly more cooperative than their upper class counterparts, and both individuals’ objective and subjective social class can predict their cooperative behavior; (2) the perceived target-class played a significant role in moderating the cooperative behavior of individuals from different classes. To be more specific, when perceived target-class was low, lower class individuals would engage in more cooperative behavior than their higher class counterparts; however, when perceived target-class was high, individuals’ self-class would not predict their cooperative behavior, (3) the state trust in the target mediated the moderating effect of target-class. The results support and expand the social cognitive theory of social class, suggesting that lower class individuals are more likely to focus on both self- and other-interests in order to survive and achieve life goals. The study also reveals that apart from self social class, target social class matters and people would perform differently when interact with lower class targets. In addition, state trust can mediate the moderation effect of target social class in the relation between self social class and cooperative behavior. These are not only further theoretical explorations, but also notable suggestions to improve higher class individuals’ cooperative behavior, especially their cooperation with lower class targets. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Consequences of Green Transformational Leadership and its Theoretical Explanation 2019, (4): 928-934.  Abstract ( )   PDF (623KB) ( )   Faced with the increasing environmental pollution, the society has called organizations to take the environmental responsibility and adopt green management practice. Leaders, as the decision makers and monitors of organizational activities, have been considered to playing a crucial role in organizations’ green management by encouraging and fulfilling the green goals. Hence, some scholar applied traditional transformational leadership theory to the green management field and proposed the concept of green transformational leadership. Since its emergence, green transformational leadership has attracted many scholars’ attention and interests. Green transformational leadership refers to the leaders’ actions that motivate followers to strive for the organizational green vision and encourage followers to achieve green performance beyond the expectation. To date, some scholars adapted the Avolio and Bass’s (1995) MLQ to measure green transformational leadership by including some environmental words or sentences. Considering MLQ charges for use, some other scholars adapted the transformational leadership scale developed by Podsakoff et al.’s (1990) to create the measurement of green transformational leadership. Given the adaption of traditional transformational scale may reduce the reliability and cannot represent the construct comprehensively, Robertson (in press) reexamined the structure of green transformational leadership and developed a four-dimension scale, which includes environmental idealized influence, environmental inspirational motivation, environmental intellectual stimulation, environmental individualized consideration. Several studies have investigated the consequence of green transformational leadership and provided the empirical support for the green implication of green transformational leadership. Specifically, green transformational leadership has been found to facilitate followers’ green behavior, green creativity and organizational green behavior, green product development, and green innovation performance. The effect of green transformational leadership on follower green behavior is robust even after controlling for the effect of general transformational leadership. Further, social cognitive theory, affective event theory, self-determination theory, organizational identification and dynamic ability theory provides the theoretical explanation for the underlying mechanism of the green transformational leadership – green outcome relation. For example, social cognitive theory was used to explain the mediating role of green self-efficacy, green mindfulness and green conscious, affective event theory was used to explain the mediating role of pro-environmental harmonious passion, self-determination theory is used to explain the mediating role of autonomous motivation and controlled motivation, social identity theory is used to explain the mediating role of green organizational identity and dynamic ability theory was used to explain the mediating role of organizational green ability. Finally, we demonstrate four directions for future research. First, future research could integrate and compare the multiple ways through which green transformational leadership exert effects on green behavior, which can contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the underlying mechanism. Second, we suggest future research to adopt a contingency approach and explore the moderating role of Chinese culture (collectivism and power distance) in the relationship between green transformational leadership and green behavior. Third, an actor perspective on the effect of transformational leadership on leaders themselves (i.e, leader well-being) needs to receive more attention. Finally, future research should devote efforts to identify the ways to develop green transformational leaders by exploring the antecedents of green transformational leadership. Related Articles | Metrics

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The relationship between life events and depression of college students: The moderated mediating effect 2019, (4): 935-941.  Abstract ( )   PDF (1107KB) ( )   Currently, college students are living in an era of coexistence of multiple cultures and values, confronting with the problem brought from globalization and urbanization, and facing the pressure of growth, development and selection.The effects of life events on depression have already been identified, and there may also be some other factors that play important roles in depression formation. Thus, it is urgent to find depression formation of the effect of life events. Some influence factors turned to be important were chosen to find the mechanism of depression formation, self-esteem, attributional style and neuroticism were been selected. According to previous research and related theory, self-esteem and attributional style can be considered as diathesis, which can play a mediating role in the formulation of depression, meanwhile, neuroticism was treated as moderator in it. Basing on these conclusions. To integrate the current studies, this study proposed to find the mechanism of life events on depression. In order to identify the mechanisms causing depression, the influence factors of depression need to be of prime concern. To fulfill this target, previous conclusion of meta-analysis is regarded as the variables, Moreover, we just choose those mental-analysis journals with typical samples and high quality. By careful analysis of the relationship between various influencing factors, the accurate process of depression formation is found. During the research, the adolescent self-rating life events check list, multidimensional-multiattributional causality scale, five factor inventories revised neurotic subscales, self-esteem scale, center on epidemiologic studies depression scale was used. In total, 1100 participants from two universities in Shaanxi were measured, and 882 effective questionnaires were taken back eventually, with 47.5% males and the average age of 19.22 (SD=1.15). In addition, the method of principal component analysis was tested for SPSS to check whether there was the common method bias or not, and the results showed that there was no significant deviation. In the analysis of these data, the model was verified by means of correlation analysis, mediation test and moderation test. 　　The results showed that life events, self-esteem, neuroticism, attribution and depression were significantly correlated with each other. The final model showed that there were 3 paths which reflected the effects of life events on depression: life events had a direct effect on depression; attribution could mediate the relationship between life events and depression; life events could affect self-esteem through the mediating effect of attribution, and influenced depression indirectly. The direct effect of life events on depression was 50.3%, and the indirect effect was 49.7%. Meanwhile, neuroticism had a moderating effect between self-esteem and depression in the model. That is, the influence of life events on depression was a moderated mediating effect. 　　The innovations of the article lie in the prudent use of previous researches’ conclusions and the appropriate selection of the relevant factors of depression, and then a comparatively perfect model of depression formation is formed, which may have significant meaning and practical value for the future precise interventions of depression. More longitudinal researches are also expected in the future. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Influence of Work Connectivity Behavior After-Hour on Satisfaction With Work-Family Balance: A Moderated Mediation Model 2019, (4): 942-948.  Abstract ( )   PDF (634KB) ( )   Over the last decade, segmented perceptions (e.g., conflict, enrichment, and facilitation) of work–family balance have received extensive attention from scholars in research , yet far less attention has been put to the comprehensive state of work-family balance, such as satisfaction with work-family balance(SWFB).SWFB is defined as an overall level of contentment resulting from an assessment of one's degree of success at meeting work and family role demands. Previous studies examined the antecedents of SWFB that were mostly narrowly defined in terms of job characteristics such as work hours, job complexity and control over work time hours. However, the development of communication technology changes job characteristics, and new job characteristics create new challenges for work-family balance. In order to make up for this research gap, we built a moderated mediation model which is based on the work-family boundary theory. We investigated the effects of work connectivity behavior after-hours on SWFB. Moreover, the mediating role of psychological detachment and the moderating role of work-family centrality were examined. In this study, we explored the theoretical framework by using the data of married employees and have fixed working hours in Wenzhou and Hangzhou. The data was collected through paper questionnaires and electronic questionnaires. In order to reduce the homologous error, the questionnaire survey was conducted using the couple-matching approach, and a total of 237 valid matching questionnaires were retrieved. We first used Harman's univariate analysis for common method bias testing , and AMOS 21.0 for confirmatory factor analysis, then use hierarchical regression and Bootstrap for hypothesis testing. The results showed that: (1) work connectivity behavior after-hours was negatively related to SWFB; (2) Such relationship was partially mediated by psychological detachment; (3) Work-family centrality moderated the relationship between work connectivity behavior after-hours and SWFB, such that this relationship was only significant when work-family centrality was high. Our findings provide some theoretical and practical implications. Firstly, this research broadens the research of SWFB in China. The previous mainly focused on SWFB in the west context, thus ours made up for the research gap. Secondly，this research enriches the understanding of several emerging constructs, such as work connectivity behavior after-hours, psychological detachment and SWFB. Thirdly, through exploring the moderating role of work-family centrality, this study offers a more comprehensive view that employees’ work connectivity behavior after-hours are more likely to reduce SWFB. Beyond the theoretical implications highlighted above, there are a number of practical strategies that organizations can use to increase employees’ SWFB. Firstly, it’s necessary for organizations to counter the negative effects of communication technology, while they use communication technology to increase work efficiency. Secondly, due to the importance of psychological detachment, organizations should protect employees' leisure time to provide a better emotional state to work and improve their work performance. In addition, because of the influence of work-family centrality, employees can shorten the time or frequency of their work connectivity behavior after-hour. Inevitably, there are still some limitations. Finally, we recommend that subsequent studies be performed to examine the crossover effects of work connectivity behavior after-hours. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Effect of the Passive Use of Social Networking Sites on College Students' Fear of Missing Out: the Role of Perceived Stress and Optimism 2019, (4): 949-955.  Abstract ( )   PDF (881KB) ( )   With the sweeping progress of technology and environment, people will automatically check their mobile software and generate corresponding information behaviors in the mobile social environment. Users’ perception of Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) in the mobile social media environment has gradually become a prevalent phenomenon. This phenomenon has been defined as “a pervasive apprehension that others might be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent”. Prior research have shown that FOMO may be linked to general unhappiness, negative mood, and depressed feelings. More attention has been paid to explore the mechanism of FOMO. FOMO in social media environment is associated with the use of social networking sites that divided into active use and passive use. Passive Use of Social Networking Sites(PUSNS) takes a long time for individuals and more likely to arouse such negative emotions as anxiety. Research has shown that PUSNS is an important factor influencing FOMO, but few studies have demonstrated the influence mechanism. According to the Social Selection Hypothesis, most of the individual's emotional problems stem from maladaptive cognitive biases such as perceived stress. Perceived stress produced by PUSNS is an important cause of FOMO. In addition, researchers point out that there are complex interactions between influence factors of FOMO. This study hypothesized that optimism as a protective factor for individual development can alleviate the negative effect caused by FOMO. In addition, it has been found that there is gender differences of optimism’s moderating effect in other variables. This study also investigated the gender differences of optimism’s moderating effect in the relationship between PUSNS and perceived stress or FOMO. The purpose of this study is to explore the influence mechanism of PUSNS on FOMO. By convenient sampling, totally 443 college students (186 boys and 257 girls) who have experience in using social networking sites were recruited to participate in this study. They were tested with the scale for the passive use of social networking sites, the perceived stress, the optimism, the fear of missing out. All the measures showed good reliability and validity in the present study. The results indicated that: (1) passive use of social networking sites has a positive direct effect on FOMO. (2) The positive association between passive use of social networking sites and FOMO was mediated by perceived stress, and there is gender difference in this indirect effect. The indirect effect was stronger for girls than boys. (3) optimism moderated the effect of passive use of social networking sites toFOMO. To be more specific, the relationship between passive use of social networking sites and FOMO was much stronger for college students with low optimism relative to those with high optimism. In addition, only in the male group, the moderating effect of optimism is significant. These findings had significant theoretical and applicable values and would contribute to reducing people’s FOMO. Firstly, it is beneficial to reduce passive use of social networking sites. Secondly, it is important to help college students to improve the level of optimism. Last, the interventions for college students’ fear of missing out should pay attention to the combined influence of those factors. Related Articles | Metrics

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Relationship between Cross-cultural Communication Competence and Depression in International Students: Mediating Effect of Identity Gaps 2019, (4): 956-962.  Abstract ( )   PDF (892KB) ( )   During the past few years, more and more international students study in China which has become the largest destination for studying abroad in Asia. In order to ensure international students complete studies successfully, their mental health couldn’t be ignored. Previous studies mainly focused on cross-cultural adaptation of international students in China. A few research has focused on international students’ depression. Among all affecting factors, cross-cultural communication competence has been noted to be a vital predictor. Cross-cultural communication competence is negatively linked to international students’ depression. Most research to date has only focused on the direct link between cross-cultural communication competence and international students’ depression, however, little is known about the specific mechanisms underlying the association between cross-cultural communication competence and depression. According to the communication theory of identity, personal–enacted identity gap and personal–relational identity gap might be important factors playing chain mediation role in the association between cross-cultural communication competence and depression. Determining the mediators would be significant to offer guidelines to prevention and intervention of international students’ depression. Therefore, this study examined the relationship between cross-cultural communication competence and international students’ depression as well as the potential mediating roles of identity gaps in such a relationship. To explore the relationships among cross-cultural communication competence, identity gaps and depression in international students, we recruited 301 international students from an university in Wuhan. Participants anonymously completed Cultural Intelligence Scale, Personal–enacted Identity Gap Scale, Personal–relational Identity Gap Scale, and Depression Scale. All statistical analyses were completed by SPSS21.0 and PROCESS. The main findings of this study were as followings: (1) Correlation analysis showed that cross-cultural communication competence was negatively correlated with depression, while personal–enacted identity gap and personal–relational identity gap were positively correlated with depression. (2) Multiple mediation modeling indicated that cross-cultural communication competence did not directly affect depression, but indirectly affected depression through two pathways. Specifically, cross-cultural communication competence could affect depression through the mediating effect of personal–enacted identity gap, and through multiple mediating role of personal–enacted identity gap and personal–relational identity gap. These results may benefit a better understanding of the relationship between cross-cultural communication competence and depression in international students in China as well as its underlying mediating mechanism (i.e., how cross-cultural communication competence influences depression). In addition, the present study can provide some available suggestions for preventing and intervening depression in international students. Furthermore, future research could pay more attention to following aspects: (1) Applying time series design to make causal claims and provide a number of additional advantages. (2) Focusing on more cultural attributes of different international student groups, such as communication style, cultural distance. (3) Exploring the relationship among online cross-cultural communication, identity and mental health. Related Articles | Metrics

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Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on Cognitive Enhancement of Healthy Individuals: Application and Its Influencing Factors 2019, (4): 963-970.  Abstract ( )   PDF (344KB) ( )   With the development of social economy, there is growing interest in methods and techniques for improving cognitive functions. Among these methods and techniques, as a low-cost, efficient and noninvasive brain stimulation method, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a promising neuroenhancement technique which is especially suitable for practical applications in healthy populations. The aim of this review is to introduce recent studies on the application of tDCS to enhance the cognitive function of healthy individuals and briefly discuss the potential influencing factors of tDCS in cognitive enhancement. tDCS involves passing weak electric currents on the scalp to modulate the resting potentials of underlying neural tissue. The study of motor-evoked potentials showed that anodal tDCS could enhance the cortical excitability, and cathodal tDCS could decrease the cortical excitability. However, the neural underpinnings of tDCS effects on cognitive task performance still remain elusive. The network activity-dependent model shows that the cognitive enhancement effect of tDCS depends on the interaction of many factors, including tDCS protocol, cognitive task and task-related neural network. tDCS has been found to modulate many cognitive components. Here, we focus on the enhancement effects of tDCS on perception, attention, memory, learning and multitasking. First, tDCS studies on perception were performed for visual, auditory and pain perception. For visual and auditory perception, the studies applied tDCS over the visual cortex, auditory cortex and primary somatosensory cortex. For pain perception, tDCS can regulate pain perception in two ways: the first is to increase the pain threshold by modulating the cortical excitability of the sensory cortex and the motor cortex. The second is to relieve the pain by adjusting the cortical excitability of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Secondly, the studies aimed to explore the enhancement of attention applied tDCS over the DLPFC and the parietal cortex (PC). Different aspects of attention have been investigated, such as alerting, orientation, internal and external attention. Third, the effect of tDCS on memory have been reported with tDCS over the frontal and parietal cortex. Many studies have focused on improving working memory, as well as demonstrating the effect of tDCS on long-term memory. Fourth, tDCS studies on learning have explored the enhancement of vocabulary learning, motion learning and perceptual learning. Due to the diversity of learning content, the effect on the task and tDCS protocol are different. Finally, some studies have shown that tDCS over the frontal cortex can improve multitasking. These results indicate the causal relationship between the frontal cortex and cognitive functions, including executive function and cognitive control. On the basis of retrospective study, we conclude that tDCS as a tool to improve the cognitive ability of healthy volunteers has an important prospect. However, the coherence of the evidence base and the translational potential of these findings are currently constrained by a number of factors, including stimulus parameters and individual differences. In the future research, there are still many important issues to be further explored: Firstly, the physiology mechanism under tDCS effect is still unclear; Secondly, standard stimulation parameters should be established; Thirdly, the use of high-definition tDCS or the combination of tDCS and other high-technology, can further improve the spatial resolution of tDCS; Finally, the tDCS effect on children and the elderly deserves to be explored. Related Articles | Metrics

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Identity Motives: Concept, Measurement, and Psychological Effects Han-Wu-Shuang BAO 2019, (4): 971-977.  Abstract ( )   PDF (1057KB) ( )   Identity refers to people’s answer to the question “Who am I?”. In short, identity includes all aspects of self-images. Human identities are not static. Some psychological needs can guide the ongoing processes of identity construction, maintenance, defense, and change. Such needs are known as identity motives, which refer to “tendencies or strivings toward certain identity states and away from others”. To understand identity motives and their functions, researchers have conducted a series of empirical studies and developed an integrated model of identity motives—the motivated identity construction theory (MICT). In this article, the authors aim to review these studies, propose a new model to organize various identity motives, and discuss future directions. According to the MICT and latest empirical evidence, people are motivated to view themselves as positive (the self-esteem motive), competent and capable (the efficacy motive), different from other people (the distinctiveness motive), while also being included and accepted by significant others (the belonging motive). Additionally, people strive to see their past, present, and future selves as continuous and interconnected (the continuity motive) and their lives as meaningful (the meaning motive). These six motives are not independent from each other but interrelated in a meaningful way. Existing studies have revealed important functions of identity motives, such as guiding identity processes and promoting psychological well-being. First, identity definition is mainly guided by the continuity, meaning, self-esteem, and distinctiveness motives, whereas identity enactment is largely predicted by the belonging and efficacy motives. Second, the continuity motive is the major motivational component that guides the process of identity maintenance. Third, when individuals are confronted with identity threats, the self-esteem, meaning, and belonging motives can help buffer against threatening information. Fourth, the self-esteem, efficacy, continuity, and meaning motives can influence the direction of identity change. Finally, the satisfaction of the self-esteem, efficacy, meaning, and distinctiveness motives predicts positive affect and psychological well-being. In sum, all the identity motives work together and complement each other in guiding identity-related processes. These findings shed light on both empirical research and organizational application concerning self and identity. Nonetheless, previous studies are limited in several ways, which in turn point to directions for future research: First, future studies should test the dimensions of identity motives based on exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses rather than solely theoretical assumptions. To help clarify this issue, the current review proposes a 3-dimension model to organize these motives. The first dimension is positivity, including self-esteem and efficacy motives, focuses on the affective valence of identity. The second dimension is integrity, including continuity and meaning motives, focuses on the cognitive content of identity. The third dimension is relationality, including distinctiveness and belonging motives, focuses on the interpersonal characteristics of identity. This model provides a concise frame, but needs empirical examination. Second, since identity construction is a lifelong dynamic process, future research should examine the developmental trajectories of identity motives. Third, experimental paradigms should be developed and applied in future research, so that causal inferences can be proposed. Finally, the neural mechanisms underlying identity motives warrant future investigation. Related Articles | Metrics

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Ought-to-be and To-be of Social Psychological Service System Construction: Based on the Evaluation of 12 Experimental Districts in China 2019, (4): 978-987.  Abstract ( )   PDF (676KB) ( )   The construction of social psychological service system (SPSS) is an important solution to innovate on social governance in China, which aims to solve the problems of social mentality cultivation and psychological construction, and carry out social governance according to psychological laws. However, it remains a question whether the connotation of what the SPSS ought to be has been followed out by different districts in practice. The present study adopted a text analysis method. First, we collected online text materials (more than 170,000 words) reflecting the status quo of SPSS construction in 12 experimental districts across China. Second, we encoded the texts to describe what the construction practice factually was in each area. The text encoding system included 6 primary indexes, such as organizational frameworks, operational patterns, platform construction, targets and contents of service, talent construction and evaluation indexes, and 23 secondary indexes. Finally, the encoding results were compared with the ought-to-be connotation of SPSS on the aspects of content range, construction strategy, and methodological value defined by the central government official documents. The results firstly showed that there was a server tendency of replacing the SPSS with individual mental health services. The solutions which had been made by the local governments were mainly targeted at passively preventing individual mental problems rather than positively cultivating social mentality and social psychology. Second, the SPSS was limited to the role of societal risk prevention and control, so as to maintain societal stability and harmony. In practice, social psychological services were often regarded as a tool to prevent some people with mental problems or disorders and deviation risks to cause troubles or commit crimes. Third, the relationship between SPSS and social governance was often misread, either not realizing the methodological value of SPSS for social governance, or mistakenly attributing social reality problems to individual mental problems or ideaistic problems, but neglecting their roots in institutional structure. The above shortcomings are partly caused by people’s wrong conceptual understanding, in which the SPSS is equalized to individual mental health services and a means of maintaining societal stability. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a correct and unified concept definition of SPSS in various official documents and deepen relating academic research by introducing macro “societal psychology” view to complement individualism view in the current psychological subject. Moreover, we should encourage local government to create new ways of social governance, and summarize local creative practical experience and generalize it national wide. Related Articles | Metrics

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Parafoveal Processing of Character N+1 of Deaf Readers 2019, (4): 997-1003.  Abstract ( )   PDF (678KB) ( )   Several studies found deaf individuals have enhanced visual processing in the parafovea in low-level perceptual tasks and access parafoveal N+1 semantic information more quickly during Chinese sentences reading. This study further investigated whether the enhanced visual processing of deaf college students in the parafovea would affect parafoveal N+1 compound characters preview benefits during silent reading of Chinese sentences. The current study adopted a 3(Groups: deaf college students, reading control group, age control group) ×5 (Preview conditions: identity, orthography, phonology, semantics, unrelated) mixed experimental design. The group was as a between-participants factor and the preview condition was as a within-participants factor. There were a total of 35 severely to profoundly deaf college students. The deaf participants hearing loss was ≥ 75dB in the better ear. The deaf participants were either born deaf or became deaf before three years old. None of the deaf participants had received a cochlear implant. The deaf reader's group had an age-matched college students control group (n = 35) with typical levels of hearing and a reading skill matched middle school students control group (n = 35) with typical levels of hearing. Forty-nine target compound characters were selected, embedded in the first place of 80 two-character words. Each target character had five preview character conditions. Each participant read 80 experimental sentences and 16 filler sentences. All preview conditions were counterbalanced across participants by Latin square. The current study adopted the gaze-contingent boundary paradigm. EyeLink 1000 plus desktop system with a sampling rate of 1000 Hz was used to record eye movements. The distance between the central point in the display screen and participants was 70 cm. Each Chinese character was subtended 1.08 °visual angle. Data were analyzed using the lme4 package within the R environment for statistical computing. The first fixation durations, gaze durations, and total fixation durations were analyzed for the target characters. Across the three eye movement measures, the deaf readers showed a preview benefit in the identical character condition compared to the unrelated character condition and numerical trends in preview benefits from orthographic, phonological, and semantic character preview conditions relative to the unrelated character condition. Further analysis was conducted to examine whether the parafoveal N+1 compound characters preview benefit is modulated by reading levels of deaf individuals. Using the median-split procedure, deaf readers were divided into the fast reader's group (n =17) and slow readers group (n =18) based on their reading fluency test scores. The results showed the fast reading speed deaf readers acquired preview benefits from identical, orthographic, phonological, and semantic character preview conditions relative to the unrelated character condition. However, the slow reading speed deaf readers only showed the preview benefit in the identical character condition relative to the unrelated character condition. In conclusion, the current study provided evidence to demonstrate enhanced visual processing of high-level reading deaf readers (fast readers) in the parafovea could affect parafoveal N+1 compound characters preview benefits during the silent reading of Chinese sentences. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Psychological Secrets Behind Body Postures: Under the Perspective of Embodiment 2019, (4): 1004-1009.  Abstract ( )   PDF (321KB) ( )   Under the perspective of embodiment, body postures not only accompany certain mental states, but also have a significant effect on psychology and behavior. As an important part of embodiment research, posture effects are of?great research value and?have attained rich achievements. We summarized the effects of "upright" and "slumped", "expansive" and "contractive", "horizontal" and "vertical" postures which have caused extensive concern. The six postures are all high-frequency postures with good ecological validity as well as typical meanings, which are usually manipulated as independent variables in comparative studies. Thereinto, "upright" and "slumped" have partial limbs differences in postures (upper body). In daily life, upright postures are associated with positive meanings, while slumped postures are associated with negative meanings. Upright postures and slumped postures not only are explicit expression of emotional state, a great majority of experiments indicated that upright postures can induce positive emotions such as pride, whereas, slumped postures induced negative emotions such as learned helpless. The effect caused by upright postures and slumped postures also exist in self-evaluation, emotion management, social cognition, and have the consistency in stress situation and social interaction situation. "Expansive" and "contractive" postures have a distinction in entire body display. Indiciduals with expansive posture seem high-power and dominant, in contrast, contractive postures are considered as low-power and obedient. The two kinds of postures have an effect on physiological, psychological and behavior levels. When individuals act expansively compare to act contractively, it would be more powerful and confident feelings, as well as tended to take more risky choices, honest behavior and improve interview performance. From the physical standpoint, The differences in "horizontal" and "vertical" postures mainly consist in the spatial positions. However, plenty of researches found that the effect differences of horizontal postures and vertical postures mostly reflected in brain activity patterns, cognitive functions and so on. In general, it is reported that horizontal posture is not conducive to process cognitive tasks compared to vertical postures(including sitting postures and standing postures), and brain activities were inhibited when individuals act horizontal postures. Vertical postures (expecially standing posture) probably more fit for work and study. We reviewed theories in?regards?to the internal mechanisms of posture effects. Neuromuscular feedback theory, self-perception theory and situated cognition theory were constructed from physiological, psychological and situational perspectives respectively. Nevertheless, both of the theories have advantages and limitations, they are unable to account for how posture effects arise perfectly alone. It is revealed that the internal mechanisms of posture effects may be a multi-dimensional and dynamic process which acquires further exploration through cognitive neuroscience methods in the future. Furthermore, we pointed out the limitations and future research directions. (1) “double-tasks paradigm” and “primng paradigm” have?their?own?characteristics, it is essential for researchers to examine the effect differences caused by paradigms. (2) The semantic?interference of posture introductions to posture effects have to be controlled. (3) Posture effects are unable and mild, Repetitive research will be developed in the future. (4) We should use cognitive neuroscience technologies such as fNIRS to strengthen deep mechanism analysis. It is suggested that the neural mechanism, time course changes, individual differences of posture effects, mental adjustment function of postures，and posture effects in special populations such as depression and Alzheimer's disease would become popular research hotspots. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Role of The Core Belief Challenge between The Painful Degree of Traumatic Events and Post-traumatic Growth 2019, (4): 1010-1016.  Abstract ( )   PDF (581KB) ( )   Traumatic events are common in the world. As we all know, traumatic experience will bring psychological pain to individuals. Post-traumatic growth (PTG) is the most common positive outcome after traumatic events. And previous studies have found that many factors have an effect on the developmental process of PTG. An enormous amount of research attention has been devoted to investigating the core belief challenge and PTG, while relatively little attention has been paid to the relationship between the painful degree of traumatic events and PTG, and the painful degree of special different traumatic events may lead to different outcome. the purpose of this study was to get better insights into the associations between the painful degree of different traumatic events and PTG, and to test the possible mediating role of the core belief challenge. 535 college students were assessed by the Scale of Lifetime Incidence of Traumatic Events-Student Form, Core Beliefs Inventory and Post-traumatic Growth Inventory. For the purpose of data analysis in this study, the first 15 items of Lifetime Incidence of Traumatic Events-Student Form were assigned to five domains: traumatic events related to victim or witness of accident, injury, illness, or death (4 items), the traumatic events related to family member hospitalized or died(2 items), the traumatic events related to natural disaster, such as flood, and fire (2 items), the traumatic events related to family conflict, such as parental divorce (2 items), and traumatic events related to maltreatment, such as physical hurt, and sexual harassment (5 items). Pearson product moment correlation coefficient was employed to assess associations of main study variables(i.e., degree of traumatic events pain, the core belief challenge and PTG). structural equation modeling (SEM) were performed to explore the mediation effect of the core belief challenge. The results showed that (1) the painful degree of traumatic events related to family member hospitalized or died had significantly negative correlations with PTG (p <.01) and the core belief challenge (p <.01) ; the painful degree of traumatic events related to maltreatment had significantly positive correlations with PTG (p <.01) and the core belief challenge (p <.01); the painful degree of traumatic events related to victim or witness of accident, injury, illness, or death had significantly positive correlations with the core belief challenge (p <.05); the painful degree of the traumatic events related to natural disaster and family conflict had non-significant correlations with PTG and the core belief challenge; (2) the painful degree of traumatic events related to victim or witness of accident, injury, illness, or death had a significant direct effect on on the core belief challenge ( =.12)and PTG ( =.09); the painful degree of traumatic events related to family member hospitalized or died had a significant direct effect on the core belief challenge ( =-.16)and PTG( =-.17); the core belief challenge had a significant direct effect on PTG( =.64); the painful degree of traumatic events related to maltreatment had a significant direct effect on the core belief challenge ( =.19)and PTG( =.13). These results indicated that the core belief challenge served as a mediator effect between the painful degree of traumatic events and PTG. The important implication of this study is that it was necessary to involve traumatic event types when promoting individual PTG. Thus, we should consider the specific traumatic events individual may encounter when we make an intervention plan. Another implication of this study is that Cognitive reconstruction is an effective factor in promoting PTG and alleviating the painful degree of the traumatic events of individual by intervention. we should also promote personal PTG by reconstruct their cognitive, instead of just reducing or eliminating their problematic events. Related Articles | Metrics

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Qualitative Research in Psychology: History, Current Status, and Prospect Wu-Ming HE Jian-Hong ZHENG 2019, (4): 1017-1023.  Abstract ( )   PDF (374KB) ( )   The article reviewed the historical background, current situation, potentials, and challenges of qualitative research in psychology. Qualitative research in psychology exists a long past, but only a short history. The qualitative approach has been a tradition since the beginning of psychology. Many prominent psychologists such as Freud, Wundt, James, Piaget, and Bruner employed qualitative methods to establish their well-known theories. But this history was neglected by mainstream psychology for a long period of time. Most of the psychological textbooks emphasize quantitative approaches and results but do not mention the fact that many theories are qualitatively generated from qualitative data. Qualitative reports had been mostly rejected by mainstream journals. However, the recent development of institutions, publishing outlets, and research publications that aim at facilitating qualitative research implies the returning of qualitative traditions. Psychological institutions for qualitative research has been established in Germany, England, the USA, and China in recent decades. Several academic journals for qualitative reports also emerged in recent years. Qualitative research has gained momentum in most areas of Western psychology, such as narrative psychology, developmental psychology, counseling psychology, positive psychology, and sports psychology. The development of qualitative research in China is represented by the establishment of related institutions and is featured by the progress of research in life narrative and psychobiography. Scholars from both sides of the Taiwan Straits set up the Society for Life Narrative and Psychobiography and hold academic meetings regularly. Also, the first academic journal for psychobiography around the world has been found in 2014. Qualitative methods are also used by Chinese psychologists in studying the psychology of personality, social phenomenon, counseling, and sports. The nature of qualitative methods allows researchers to investigate these areas in the context of Chinese culture and to identify special concepts and distinctive features. Still, some problems remain. Qualitative research has been misunderstood to be a lack of standardized criterion in evaluating its quality. Nevertheless, the efforts to provide a set of principles for evaluating qualitative studies have been undergoing and a unified framework for designing and reviewing qualitative psychology research was proposed in recent years by APA. Another potential risk is proceduralism, in which qualitative research practice such as interviewing has been guided to follow a “standardized” procedure, in order to increase researchers’ productivity. Such a practice engenders the flexibility of qualitative methods. Despite such problems that are needed to be solved, the qualitative approach in psychology showed its potentials in studying the complex psychological phenomenon and in generating new concepts or theories. Qualitative methods have helped Chinese psychologists in identifying particular personality dimensions of Chinese people, forming the special theoretical framework in the field of social psychology for issues including attachment and trust, providing new insight into the practice of clinical therapy. The qualitative traditions in psychology seem to have been recognized by a lot of psychologists and are contributing to many areas of psychology. In general, rejuvenating qualitative psychology represents a period of turning to pluralism in the field of psychology. Related Articles | Metrics