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Cultural Neuroscience: A New Interdisciplinary Field Li Zhang 2011, 34(3): 514-519.  Abstract ( )   PDF (483KB) ( )   Cultural neuroscience is a new interdisciplinary field which combines culture, mind, and the brain. This article briefly introduced the diverse ideas from 2000 to 2010 in cultural neuroscience and reviewed some typical fMRI studies in this field. It supports the idea that the cultural neuroscience will bring about a new integrative theoretical framework for the study of the human mind. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Development of Children’s Non-symbolic Calculation Ability of Whole-number and Fraction and its Relationship with Number Memory liu guofang 2011, 34(3): 520-526.  Abstract ( )   PDF (683KB) ( )   There are two types of materials, including the symbolic (e.g., Arabic number) and the non-symbolic (e.g., graph), which can be used to measure children’s mathematical capability, however, previous literature showed that the symbolic materials would interfere the measurement of children’s true mathematical capability. In order to avoid the interference, the present study using the animation sequence research paradigm examined 94 55- to 75-month children’s non-symbolic calculation ability of whole-number and fraction Results showed that children’s performance in fraction calculation was a little weaker than that of whole-number calculation, and both the calculation abilities developed with age. At the same time, we measured children’s number working memory in the form of number recall and number recognition through story situation-based number memory task. Results showed that children’s number recognition ability was better than that of number recall. As children grew up, their calculation ability improved gradually with number working memory ability, and the two were correlated with each other significantly. Related Articles | Metrics

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Salience Influence Metaphor Comprehension：A ERP study 2011, 34(3): 527-531.  Abstract ( )   PDF (460KB) ( )   Researches of metaphor make people realize that metaphor is not only a means of rhetoric but also a cognitive style to explore the world. Cognitive linguistics about metaphor focused on cognitive mechanism of metaphor. With question about whether metaphor process need more cognitive effort than literal language, people found several theoretical interpretations such as standard pragmatic model, direct access view and graded salience hypothesis (GSH). GSH suggested that the fact of salient make the difference of language comprehension but not the fact of difference between literal language and nonliteral language (such as metaphor, ironic, idiom and proverb). With the advance of event relate potential, we recorded the brain electrophysiology when processing metaphor and literal language under strong or weakly salience. As with same level of salience between metaphor and literal, the literal stimulus could evoke a large N400 component because more effort according to direct access view. However, if weakly salience stimulus evoked larger N400, we could deduct that the salience impact Chinese metaphor comprehension and support the GSH. To investigate how the salience influences metaphor comprehension, we presented a modified S1-S2 task of metaphor and literal paired word with different salience (strong/weakly). All stimuli presented with paired-words extracted from rating pool with high or weakly salience as sentences form of “A is B” (such as Time is money). Participants read two levels of salience paired-words of metaphor and literal, each level with 40 trials, and judged the semantic relation between two words (S1-S2). The brain electrical activity of S2 were recorded from 64 electrodes mounted on participant’s heads according to the international 10–20 system with Neuroscan 4.3 software (NeuroScan, Herndon, VA, USA). Reference electrode was placed on the left mastoid and average mastoid reference was derived off-line using right mastoid data. EEG was amplified (half-amplitude band-pass 0.05–100 Hz) and digitized at a sampling rate of 500 Hz. The EEG was segmented into epochs of 200 ms pre-feedback (for baseline correction) and lasted 1000 ms after its onset. Two ANOVA analyses with fact of sentence type (metaphor vs. literal) and salience level (strong vs. weakly) were conducted of mean amplitude for N400 and P600 component. With results of N400, we found significant main effect of salience level [F (1,15) = 11.737, p < .01] that weakly stimulus with Related Articles | Metrics

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Perfectionism and Attention to Imperfect Figures 2011, 34(3): 532-537.  Abstract ( )   PDF (547KB) ( )   Using dot-probe task design, two experiments were conducted to explore the attentional bias models of participants to imperfect figures. In experiment 1, pairs of figures (one of the pair may be imperfect) appeared on the computer screen for 1000ms. Then, at the center of one of the paired figures appears an arrow, pointing upward or downward. Participants (perfectionists and non-perfectionists) were asked to press one of the two keys on a joystick as quickly and accurately as possible to indicate the direction of the arrow. Such task purported to contrast the attentional biases between the two groups. The second experiment used the same task design except that the time of the figure appearance was shorter (750ms). According to the two experiments, the researcher inferred the shift of attention (from 750ms to 1000ms) when the imperfection of figures were noticed. Results indicated that individuals low on perfectionism tended to show avoidance to the imperfect figures when the imperfect-perfect stimulus pairs were presented. In contrast, highly perfectionistic individuals had a tendency of showing attentional preference to the imperfect figures. The severity of imperfection (mildly imperfect vs. imperfect) of the figures also influenced the models and time courses of participants’ attentional bias. Attention of participants tended to disengage more easily from the mildly imperfect figures (broken line figures) than from the imperfect figures (broken solid figures). Results suggested that imperfect figures arouse “imperfection anxiety” and induces the attentional capture effects which prevents highly perfectionistic individuals from disengaging their attention from it. According to the two snapshots of attention bias with 750ms and 1000ms exposures, the present study indicated that the attentional capture effects induced by imperfect figures were quite similar in nature to those obtained in previous studies on other anxiety-provoking objects(Yiend & Mathews, 2001; Mogg et al., 2000). Therefore, imperfection anxiety may also be studied and interpreted through cognitive approaches, as pervious studies did on other anxiety and other emotional disorders. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Effect of Target Pre-exposure on Event-based Prospective Memory 2011, 34(3): 538-545.  Abstract ( )   PDF (786KB) ( )   This study included two experiments using the classical double-task PM paradigm. The aim is explored that sufficient exposure to the target prior to its being designated as such may aid detection of that target, thereby improving PM in the face of demanding ongoing activities. The results of experiment 1 showed that using both the strict and lenient criterion method, the main effect of target pre-exposure was significant. The results of experiment 2 showed that using both of the strict and lenient criterion method, PM score performed decreasing tendency from high to low level of target pre-exposure. In conclusion, the current study demonstrated that the targets exposing prior to the PM instructions generally improved PM performance, and target pre-exposure eliminated nearly all failures to remember the intended action. PM performance became better as target pre-exposure level rises. According to these results, the simple activation model was supported. Related Articles | Metrics

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An event-related potential study of noun-verb ambiguous effect in Chinese 2011, 34(3): 546-551.  Abstract ( )   PDF (533KB) ( )   Electrophysiological techniques were used to examine the effect of word class ambiguity on the brain response to Chinese noun-verb word class ambiguous words, namely, whether noun-verb word class ambiguous words and word class unambiguous items (nouns and verbs) engage different neural mechanism in grammatically well-specified contexts. There were three sets of stimuli used in the experiments: (1) word class unambiguous nouns, (2) word class unambiguous verbs, and (3) noun-verb word class ambiguous words(can be used as both nouns and verbs, but nouns and verbs senses have little or no semantic ambiguity). Words length and word frequency were matched across three word types. These stimuli were embedded in two contrastive grammatical phrase contexts that explicitly specified their word class: “yi ge(一个)+ _”(e. g., noun-predicting) and “bu yuan(不愿) + _” (e. g., verb-predicting,). All the phrases were ranged randomly and presented visually word by word. The subjects were asked to decide whether the presented phrase represented a legal or illegal phrase. ERPs in response to the nouns, verbs and noun-verb ambiguous words in different contexts were recorded. The ERPs were then analyzed using a repeated -measures ANOVA. Fig. 2 showed significant ERP differences between noun-verb ambiguous words and word class unambiguous word in intervals of 270-350ms. Unambiguous words elicited a larger N400 than did noun-verb ambiguous verbs over frontal and central sites, p=0.016. But the N400 effect only appeared in the verb-predicting context(see fig. 4), p=0.01. There no significant P600 effect between noun-verb ambiguous words and word class unambiguous word in intervals of 450-600ms. Fig. 6(left) showed significant word class effect for unambiguous nouns and unambiguous verbs. When the context completely matched their grammatical role, compared to unambiguous nouns, unambiguous verbs elicited a larger N400 over frontal and central sites, p=0.046, and a smaller P600 over posterior areas, p=0.04. Similarly, word class ambiguous words used as nouns elicited a larger P600 than did word class ambiguous words used as verbs(see Fig. 6 right), p=0.05. P600 was the index of grammatical process which elicited by grammatical features of word class in our experiment. Thus, according to the present data, we argue that noun-verb word class ambiguous words in Chinese are not special neural mechanism compared to word class unambiguous nouns and verbs. Related Articles | Metrics

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The causes of Mirror writing and its underlying mechanisms 2011, 34(3): 552-557.  Abstract ( )   PDF (605KB) ( )   Mirror writing (MW) is a phenomenon characterized by flipping a single letter, a whole word, or a string of letters during handwriting. The flipped handwritings can be normally recognized when projecting to a mirror. MW sometimes incorporates with mirror reading (MR), and these two phenomena are usually defined as mirror error (ME) in previous studies. Non-voluntary mirror error has been observed in children as well as patients with brain damage. Although ME has been found relating to factors such as handedness, gene, intelligence, and script system, brain mechanisms of these phenomena is still unclear and many questions are not answered: e.g., why ME occurred when children are in early stages of learning to write, and then disappeared with learning progress? If ME-associated gene leads to the failure of left-lateralization for language and thus the occurrence of ME, what’s the advantage and disadvantage of the gene type? Is there some special cognitive ability for MW children? What is the relationship between handedness, left-lateralization and language system? This paper systematically reviewed theories on MW or MR, including motor hypothesis, visual-spatial hypothesis, visual word-form hypothesis and leftward eye movement hypothesis. The existing findings in relationships between ME and factors such as handedness, intelligence, and gene were summarized, and the potential neural mechanisms underlying the generation and development of ME were also discussed. Investigations on this phenomenon will benefit our further understanding on mental processing for script-reading and writing, the acquisition of writing skill, and the principle of the object recognition system. Related Articles | Metrics

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Location-based Inhibition of Return of the Congenitally Deaf people in Detection Tasks 2011, 34(3): 558-564.  Abstract ( )   PDF (550KB) ( )   Location-based inhibition of return (IOR) refers to a slowed response to a target appearing at a previously attended location. We investigated whether IOR time course and magnitude of deaf participants in detection tasks was changed after auditory deprivation. In Experiment 1, we observed comparable IOR time course and magnitude in both deaf and matched hearing participants. In contrast, results of Experiment 2 showed that less IOR in matched hearing participants was found when the fixation cue was absent with a 350ms-SOA, indicating that deaf participants disengaged attention faster than matched hearing participants. Deaf participants responded significant faster to the peripheral targets than the hearing participants, suggesting that deaf people possess enhanced peripheral attentive resources compared with matched hearing participants. Those results indicate that spatial attention is more effective and strategic for deaf participants than matched hearing participants. Related Articles | Metrics

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The more fluent the more beautiful?—exploration of abstract art aesthetic processing 2011, 34(3): 565-570.  Abstract ( )   PDF (749KB) ( )   Processes underlying aesthetic appreciation were investigated. Based on the hedonic fluency model, we assumed content accessibility, clarity, and beauty were associated with processing fluency and affected preference rating .According to the inconsistent results of previous studies, we attempted to explore the processing stages of aesthetic perception and aesthetic judgment. Using the explicit classification paradigm, in Experiment 1 we measured the time needed to recognize cubist art works of different classes of content accessibility, clarity, and beauty. And in Experiment 2 subjects were asked to evaluate all pictures presented in Experiment 1. The results demonstrate higher content accessibility, clarity, and beauty are associated with higher processing fluency. Content accessibility and beauty have positive correlation with preference rating. Higher processing fluency was associated with higher evaluation. In addition, the more beautiful the art work is the more processing fluency it owns. A gist is formed and used as criteria of classification during the initial stage of aesthetic appreciation. And the processing fluency of gist formation contributes to aesthetic evaluation. Related Articles | Metrics

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Eeffects of L2 Proficiency and Syntactic Similarity Between Chinese and English on L2 Syntactic Processing Jingjing Guo 2011, 34(3): 571-575.  Abstract ( )   PDF (484KB) ( )   For late second language (L2) learners, some researchers argued that L2 proficiency plays an important role on the L2 syntactic processing. However, some other researchers argued that first language-based experience determines the L2 syntactic processing. Until to now, few studies strictly manipulated both L2 proficiency and language similarity simultaneously, so that the effects of L2 proficiency and language similarity may be confused with each other. Therefore, it is still open if the modulating effect from L2 proficiency is different for different L2 structures which may have different relationship with L1. In the present study, we constructed two types of syntactic violations based on the similarity of Mandarin to English syntactic structures: 1) a similar syntactic violation, which exists in both Chinese and English and is expressed in a similar manner, such as predicate verb category violation, where the main word order in both languages is SVO (subject-verb-object) and a subject must be followed by a verb or verb phrase; 2) a different syntactic violation, which only exits in English, but not in Mandarin, such as subject-verb agreement violation, as this does not exist in Chinese. A group of high-proficiency English learners and a group of low-proficiency L2 learners with Chinese as native language were presented with English sentences including above mentioned syntactic violations. The EEG data were collected when the participants performed a semantic judgment task, which was designed to make the task more natural reading comprehension. The repeated ANOVAs were run on the mean amplitudes computed on three consecutive time windows (150-300ms, 300-550ms, 550-800ms). ERP data analysis showed that similar violation elicited a positive-going left-anterior distributed ERP response lasting from 150 to 800ms in high-L2 proficiency learners, but there was no any ERP effect for different violation both in high and low-proficiency learners. Behavioral data showed that there were significant differences between different L2 proficiency participants and different syntactic violations, namely, the accuracy of semantic judgment of the high-L2 proficiency learners was higher than low-L2 proficiency learners, and the accuracy was significantly lower when the sentences included similar syntactic violation. These results suggest that high-L2 proficiency learners are more sensitive to the similar syntactic violation than the different syntactic violation during sentence reading, and similar syntactic violation has a stronger effect on sentence comprehension. The interacting effects between L2 proficiency and language similarity reveal that L2 proficiency plays different modulating roles on different L2 syntactic structures, i.e., its modulating effect was significant on similar structures, but not on different structures. The effects of syntactic similarity revealed the mechanism that native language-specific experience has an effect on L2 leaning and processing. L2 proficiency also plays an important role during L2 syntactic processing, but its effect is confined by the L1 experience. Taken together, the results of the present experiment support the proposal that L1 experience influences L2 learning and processing. Related Articles | Metrics

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An Experimental Study on the Unstable Characteristics of Psychological Time on Space Ning-ning CAO 2011, 34(3): 576-580.  Abstract ( )   PDF (452KB) ( )   This study explored the unstable characteristics of psychological time on moving stimulus to indicate some link between psychological time and space in dynamic conditions. Subjects reproduced the duration of movement displayed on the monitor. The results showed that:(1) the reproduced duration of line and arc was significantly higher than nonocclusive circle and square;(2) contrasting line and arc, the main effect of duration was significant and the mean reproduced duration on direction of left-to-right and up-to-down was significantly higher than right-to-left and down-to-up;(3) The time estimation of arc movement was more close to the linear movement with the arc length than the chord length. Related Articles | Metrics

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Theory of Mind in Resilient Children 2011, 34(3): 581-587.  Abstract ( )   PDF (662KB) ( )   Resilience has gained enormous attention by scholars from both theoretical and practical perspectives for several decades. However, a lack of research on specific levels of protective factors, such as individual competence in ascertaining and judging other people’s psychological states, has rendered this field unsubstantiated except for some general rules. Therefore, this comparative study focuses on the differences in Theory of Mind between resilient children and non-resilient ones, and their implications for resilient development. Method: Employing multi-information convergence method, the authors screened out 99 resilient children and 176 nonresilient ones from 523 local primary and middle school students ranging from grade 3 to 8 in Henan Province who score relatively high on index of proximal adversity/pressure. A set of Theory of Mind (ToM) test was administrated to all subjects. This test included 12 strange stories that covered topics from pretending, joking, lying, white lies, metaphors and irony to persuasion, double bluff, misunderstanding, forgetfulness, jealousy, and contrary emotions. There was a control story (story on physics) between every two psychological stories. For every psychological story, children were asked an understanding question (score 1 if correct, 0 if incorrect), and a psychological inference question (score range from 0~3, higher score for children who explained the story in more details). Results: Taking reading ability, gender and age as covariates, results from MANCOVA revealed that resilient children got higher ToM scores in general than their nonresilient counterparts. ANCOVA showed that there are of significant differences in five ToM tasks such as pretending, irony, persuading, double bluff and misunderstanding, there is a critically significant difference in the task of white lie, while no significant differences in other ToM tasks are found between the two groups. When the effects of age and gender fixed, partial correlation indicated the noteworthy positive relationship between ToM and psychosocial development. Discussion: On the one hand, as actively requesting for social support and protective environment is crucial for children under pressure from adversity, those who have better interpersonal relationship will gain more psychological resilient ability than those who don’t have. On the other hand, there exists positive correlation between theory of mind and interpersonal relationship in children. Thus, the authors suggested that the better interpersonal relationship (and hence more opportunities for acquiring social support) played a major role in the relationship between theory of mind and psychological resilience. Implications for the correlation between ToM and psychological social development (i.e., children’s popularity rated by teachers and peers) are also discussed in detail. Conclusions: Psychological resilient children scored higher on twelve ToM tasks than nonresilient children; and there existed positive relationship between ToM competence and psychological social development, especially for the social competence that were rated by peers rather than teachers. Related Articles | Metrics

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Influences of Types of Problem Posing and Structure Training on Mechanism of Text Signals 2011, 34(3): 588-592.  Abstract ( )   PDF (472KB) ( )   In this research , senior middle school students were examined respectively in 2 experiments, applying 2×2 between-group design. It aimed to investigate the influence that text signals have on different students of different types of problem posing when reading so as to verify the working mechanism of text signals. Conclusions were as follows. In the first experiment, after the addition of the variable with the name of types of problem posing the qualitative hypothesis of text signal was tenable while the quantitative hypothesis, which was very complex, was only tenable under certain circumstances. In the second experiment, the mechanism of the effect of text signals supported the strategy-switch hypothesis more. Related Articles | Metrics

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A Research on Influencing Factors of Adolescent Emotional Resilience 2011, 34(3): 593-597.  Abstract ( )   PDF (441KB) ( )   The impact of individual variables on adolescent emotional resilience include background variables of gender,age and other psychological variables.Through surveying 830 students,we find that gender and age variables have no substantial impact on adolescent emotional resilience, indicating that emotional resilience has a relatively stable psychological characteristics.There are close relationships between adolescent emotional resilience and personality traits,self-efficacy,psychological resilience and negative emotion regulation ability;and all of these psychological variables have significant predicted effect on adolescent emotional resilience.In these psychological variables, cognitive regulation ability of negative emotion and neuroticism are the two most important psychological variables predicted effect on adolescent emotional resilience;and neuroticism impacts on adolescent emotional resilience indirectly by intermediary variable of cognitive regulation ability of negative emotion. Related Articles | Metrics

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Development of Research on Psychological Empowerment Jinliang Wang 2011, 34(3): 598-601.  Abstract ( )   PDF (402KB) ( )   Psychological empowerment has attracted attention in the past 20 years from both researchers and practicers for its important role in an organization’s development. In the previous literature, different opinions on the structure of psychological empowerment have been put forward, including the single-dimension concept, three-dimension concept, four-dimension concept and six-dimension concept. In respect of its antecedent variables, researchers have examined the effects of individual (mainly including socioeconomic variables and personality variables) and organizational variables on psychological empowerment. As to its outcome variables, previous studies have found that psychological empowerment is positively related with individuals` job satisfaction, profession commitment, organization commitment, performance and mental health, but inconsistent findings still exists in the respect of the influence of psychological empowerment’s dimensions on these outcomes . Based on comprehensive analysis on literature, the limitations in the present domain of psychological empowerment were put forward, and the directions and advices for future study were also given. Related Articles | Metrics

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Behavioral Inhibition of 2-year-old Children Predicted Their School Adaptation at 7, 11, and 14 Years of Age 2011, 34(3): 602-607.  Abstract ( )   PDF (551KB) ( )   In the present study, we attempted to investigate behavioral inhibition in 2-year-old children and its associations with their school adaptation at 7, 11, and 14 years of age. At 2 years, the child and his/her mother were invited to the laboratory, and the child’s behavioral inhibition was observed in several situations. A series of follow up studies were conducted in this sample when the children were 7, 11and 14 years old. In the follow up studies, we asked teachers to complete measures assessing children’s social and behavioral competence and problems. Regression analyses revealed the following results: (1) Children’s behavior inhibition at 2 years had significant and positive effects on task orientation and peer social skill, and negative effects on learning problem and acting out at 7 years; (2) Inhibition positively predicted victimization and shyness-anxiety at 11 years for boys, but not for girls; and (3) Inhibition had negative effects on acting out and learning problem and positive effects on task orientation at 14 years. These results suggest that inhibition is a significant phenomenon that contributes to the prediction of children’s school adaption. Related Articles | Metrics

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Types of Social Support of Junior Middle School Students and Their Influence on Learning gao bingcheng 2011, 34(3): 608-612.  Abstract ( )   PDF (457KB) ( )   In order to overcome the shortage of cluster analysis which often bias the choice of a solution and the lack of statistical indices to assist in the choice of a final solution, the current study use latent profile analysis to study types of social support of junior middle school students. Beside, we also use discriminate analysis to validate the accuracy of the classification that use latent profile analysis to class types of social support. On the other hand, we not only study the relationship between social support, learning motivation, learning strategy, academic performance from the variable level. But also analyze the effect of different types of social support on learning motivation, learning strategy, academic performance from the perspective of individual differences. 374 junior middle school students are selected form one middle school to attend the questionnaire survey which includes perceived social support scale, motivated strategies for learning questionnaire and learning Motivation Scale. Students’ performances are measured by their mid-term test scores. Related Articles | Metrics

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The relationship between Children’s Interpersonal Trust, Achievement motive and cooperative behavior tendency Li-Ying CUI 2011, 34(3): 613-618.  Abstract ( )   PDF (490KB) ( )   【Abstract】 Objective： Cooperation is a complex interaction which plays an important role in the development of child socialization. Cooperation must have two or more independent body and the motivation to force them together. The study on cooperative behavior can retrospect to the late 19th century. Previous studies focused on adult cooperation mechanism through the experimental model of social dilemmas, or focused on the development of child cooperative behavior through the games and activities observation. The paper explore the relationship between children’s interpersonal trust, achievement motives and the tendency of cooperation behavior and attitude. Method：553 students of grade 3 to grade 8 completed Achievement motive scale, children’s Machiavellism scale, the Interpersonal Trust Scale, cooperative behavior and attitude questionnaire ,Two measurement ways were used in this study, self-rating and peer rating. Results：1, There is polarization in Children’s attitude on human nature when they enter a junior high school. The boy’s trust score is stabile, but the girl’s trust score is fluctuant.2, there is significant sexual difference in the development tendency of achievement motive. 3,The level of achievement motive for success is positively correlated with all of cooperative tendency and ability, the level of achievement motive for obviating failure is negative correlated with self-rating cooperative tendency. Conclusion：Interpersonal trust and achievement motives play an important role in children’s cooperation behavior. It is Achievement motive which play more important role than Interpersonal trust in the children cooperative behavior tendency. Related Articles | Metrics

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The development of middle school students’ self-evaluation and relationship between it and academic achievement 2011, 34(3): 619-624.  Abstract ( )   PDF (571KB) ( )   Objective: In order to explore the development of self-evaluation and the relationship between the self-evaluation and the academic achievements. Method: About me Questionnaire and Strength and Difficulty Questionnaire (SDQ) were employed to measure the self-evaluation. The academic achievement was measured by the scores of Chinese, Maths, and English. Correlation and regression analyzes were conducted. Results: (1) it showed that the junior high school students’ academic self-concept was better than that of the senior high school students’; (2) There was statistically significant positive correlation between self-evaluated academic effort and academic achievement, and the statistically positive correlation between self-evaluated academic competence and academic achievement was also found. Furthermore, self-evaluated academic competence could predict the academic achievement better positively. As for SDQ, only could the total score of SDQ predict Maths score negatively. Conclusion: There were differences in self-evaluation with different grade students, however, the junior two students’ scores in most aspects were all higher than other grade students; the academic achievement could be better predicted by academic self-evaluation and gender, whereas the relationship between SDQ and academic achievement was weak in this study. However, the Maths score could be negatively predicted by the total score of SDQ. Related Articles | Metrics

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A Forecasting model of Children’s Peer Relationship Constructed by Latent Variables 2011, 34(3): 625-630.  Abstract ( )   PDF (482KB) ( )   Abstract: The preceding researches on the factors impacting on children’s peer relationship show a general tendency of elementalism. In order to study the factors systematically, we selected 4 questionnaires and 6 measurable variables on the basis of prevenient researches, and adopted 478 available questionnaires from elementary school children from the forth grade to the sixth. The results indicate that, the first factor impacting on peer relationship is school-label, the sequent variable is competence trait and anxiety, the above three factors’ cumulative percentage of variance to the model is 74.887%. Confirmatory factor analysis shows the model has a good model fit and all regression weights are significant. The three latent variables can explain the variance of ZLM (Z score of Like Most) by 62.2%, and explain the variance of ZLL (Z score of Like Least) by 47.4%. The model has a good forecasting effect. School-label takes on a most powerful forecasting effect among three latent variables. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Stress and Social Support of Migrant Children and the Protective Role of Social Support in the Relation Between Stress and Psychological Adaptation Zeng Shouchui 2011, 34(3): 631-635.  Abstract ( )   PDF (508KB) ( )   Migrant children’s perceived social support status and whether migrant children’s perceived social support moderate the impact of stress on psychological adaptation were explored. 334 migrant children, 237 urban children and their parents were asked to complete the ASLEC, PSSS, and CBCL. Results indicated migrant children’s PSSS scores were significantly lower than urban children. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis suggested social support plays moderating role in the relation between stress and psychological adaptation, which suggested that social support plays protective role in the migrant children’s psychological adaptation. Related Articles | Metrics

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Research Review on Problem Solving Abroad and Its Teaching Meaning yuan weixin 2011, 34(3): 636-641.  Abstract ( )   PDF (623KB) ( )   Problem solving is a basic cognitive activity for human being, and is also a main way that students acquire knowledge. Enhancing students’ problem solving ability has already become an important target in the modern education. In the recent 20 years, the western psychologists and educationists have done the massive research on this domain, and yielded the substantial results. Problem solving is a process that the problems can be resolved by a series of thought operation. It is caused by certain situation and followed by some objective with the application of various kinds of cognitive activity and skills etc. As far as constitutive difference of the problem is concerned, problems are categorized into well-structured problem and ill-structured problem. The solving process of well-structured problem is a high level cognitive activity. It is generally made up of representing problems by schema activation, searching solutions, and implementing solutions. The solving process of ill-structured problems includes understanding problem statement, ensuring the existence and the nature of the problem, clarifying the causes of the problem, identifying and clarifying alternative opinions, generating and choosing possible solutions, and evaluating and implementing the solution. There exist major differences between well-structured and ill-structured problems in processes of solving problems. In a word, from the perspective of cognitive psychology, the problem is a difference between our current state and the target state that we want to achieve. Therefore, the problem solving is to try to eliminate this difference. The process of problem solving generally contains the following four stages: (1) problem representation; (2) strategy choice; (3) strategy application; (4) result evaluation. The process of problem solving is affected by many mental factors. The most influenced factors is constituted by representing problems, problem solver's knowledge structure, the thought level and cognitive strategy and regulation of cognition etc. Problem representation is based on understanding of problems, but suitable representation of problem exerts a remarkable influence on the degree of the problem solving. In the solving process of ill-structured problems, possessing complete and specific domain knowledge is extremely essential. The knowledge structuring, that is to say, forming optimized the cognition structure is the basis of enhancing problem solving ability. Whether the individual possesses thought level and strategy of solving problems, namely whether the individual can carry on analysis, synthesis, comparison and abstract to the problems, manifests the individual how to solve the problems. In the process of problem solving, the problem solver must continuously assess and monitor their solution process in order to judge whether this question solution generated and chosen is correct. In order to cultivate students’ ability to resolve problem in real teaching, we should adopt teaching model of problem solving. Such as Barrows’ problem solving teaching model: (1) organizing small group; (2) putting forward the question, solving the problem; (3) small group exchanges; (4) activity report; (5) problem solving reconsidering. At the same time, we should adopt teaching strategies contain promoting students’ knowledge conformity, designing open question, instructing correctly representing problems and regulating students’ problem solving process etc. Related Articles | Metrics

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The relationship between homework and academic achievement 2011, 34(3): 642-646.  Abstract ( )   PDF (511KB) ( )   Homework is not only an extensively-applied instructional instrument but also the most important learning activity for students after class. Despite the long history of homework research, the role that homework plays in enhancing student achievement is not thoroughly understood. The purpose is to explore the relationship between homework and academic achievement through reviewing the homework research. The conclusions can help teachers to assign homework and help students to study more effectively. From the characteristics of homework, the process of homework completion, parental involvement in homework and the mechanism underlying the effects of homework on study, the article explored the relationship between homework and academic achievement. Finally, the author pointed out the practical values and the further directions of research in this field. Most studies supported the conclusion that homework can improve academic achievement. Firstly, the characteristics of homework can affect students’ achievement. Researchers found positive association between homework time and achievement. Meanwhile, the relationship can be moderated by the age or grade of students. The appropriate amount of homework is conducive to high achievement. The proper strategies teachers adopt during homework assignment can enhance academic achievement. The recent studies obtained some new results. The strength and direction of the homework-achievement association depend on the homework indicator chosen and differ to some degree across analytical levels. Secondly, the process of students’ homework completion relates to their academic achievement. Some results showed that there were different patterns of preferred homework styles between high- and low-achieving groups. High achievers value their homework more, put forth more effort and are more persistent, as compared to low achievers. After then, the relationship between parental involvement in homework and academic achievement were discussed. If the parents are tought to improve the students’ completion of homework and help students to manage their homework behavior, the students’ achievement can be enhanced. Finally, the mechanism underlying the effects of homework on study were summarized.There are several suggestions for teachers and parents. The teacher should pay attention to the individual differences among students when they are assigning homework. They should select the most proper mode and homework materials to increase students’ interest and homework completion. Parents and teachers should cultivate children’s self-regulatory capability and good homework styles. All of these are helpful to enhance students’ achievement. At last, the author pointed out the further directions of research in this field. Homework is the most complicated learning activity. Many variables have effects on the relationship between homework and achievement. So the future research should discuss their relationship more detailedly from various angles. According to the systemic model of homework, learning environment, teacher, student characteristics and role of parents influence homework behavior jointly. How do these factors determine the effect of homework? Researchers should expand the research in the future. Because of nested data in homework research, the researchers should pay more attention to multilevel model to explore the relationship between homework and academic achievement. The author argued that homework research should be more closely associated with well-founded psychological theories of learning and instruction. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Influence of Thinking Style on the Learning Behaviour: A Cross-cultural Study between Chinese and American Students 2011, 34(3): 647-651.  Abstract ( )   PDF (447KB) ( )   Chinese students and American students were often portrayed as two different learning groups with the former being more passive in the classroom, and the latter more active. The authors speculated that thinking style might have an influence on the classroom behaviors of students, and at least partly explain the different learning styles of the two student groups.An existing thinking style measure and a self-developed learning behavior measure were implemented to three sample groups: American students, Chinese students in China, and Chinese students in the U.S. These samples were recruited from universities located on the Northeastern part of USA and the Southeastern part of China. One-way ANOVA was used to compare the mean differences of the cultural groups on the learning behavior measure. It was found that American students were generally more active in the classroom, while Chinese students, both in China and in the U.S., were less active in the classroom. However, American students and Chinese students did not differ in such variables as appearance of participation and independent thinking, which challenges the biased view considering Chinese students as “passive knowledge receivers”. The hierarchical regression was then used to investigate the relationship between thinking style and learning behavior. It was found that thinking style significantly predicts learning behavior in the classroom after controlling for cultural group and academic motivation. However, the effect size was relatively small with thinking style accounting for 4% variance in the learning behavior. It was also found that motivation moderated the relationship between thinking style and learning behavior. Finally, the Baron & Kenny criteria and bootstrapping method were used to test the mediation effect of thinking style. The results revealed that thinking style mediated the relationship between cultural group and learning behavior in the classroom. It was suggested that thinking style at least partially explains the behavioral differences in the classroom presented by Chinese and American students. The results of this study have the potential to contribute to the field of educational psychology by illuminating the relationship between thinking style and learning behaviors in the classroom. Nevertheless, the results should be interpreted with caution, since only self-report measures were used in this study, and the sample groups should not be considered representative to the populations in either country. Related Articles | Metrics

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Impact of Family Social Status on Career Decision Dependence Intention: The role of mediator of Confidence of Current Economic Situation 2011, 34(3): 652-656.  Abstract ( )   PDF (462KB) ( )   459 college students were used as subjects to investigate the relationships of family social status class, career decision dependence intention and confidence of current economic situation. The results indicated: (1) there is a significant correlation between family social status , career decision dependence intention, and confidence of current economic situation; (2) family social status has both direct an indirect effect on career decision dependence intention and confidence of current economic situation, have mediating effects on the relationship between family social status and career decision dependence intention. Related Articles | Metrics

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An Experiment Study of Trust Mechanism among Team Members in the Process of Virtual Team Collaboration 2011, 34(3): 657-663.  Abstract ( )   PDF (554KB) ( )   Virtual teams are groups of geographically or organizationally dispersed co-workers that are assembled using a combination of telecommunications and information technologies to accomplish an organizational task. The characteristics of virtual teams have computer communication significantly more than face to face communication; team members are geographically and/or organizationally dispersed; members have a common goal and engage in interdependent works. And the three characteristics were used as the standards that we designed and constructed virtual team in experiment. Effective operation of the team depends on mutual trust among members, especially in virtual teams. The characteristics of trust development in virtual teams were discussed using scenario simulation approach. and the trust were dividided into six factors to reveal the characteristics of virtual teams trust development over stages by examining the relationships of the six factors in all stages. Scenario simulation approach was used to examine the virtual team trust development. Student teams are frequently used target users for researchers to test or evaluate techniques and models in the team decision and collaboration research area. we selected a five student teams from a university in which each of the teams aimed to do the same team project over two months. There were six students in a team, each using QQ, MSN and e-mail to communicate with each other. Each team had the same team project to evaluate and redesign a website. Each experimental team has a leader whose responsible are organizing discussion, urging members to fill out the questionnaire and keeping records of communication. The team collaboration is controlled in the network environment and team members are not allowed to discuss issues about the task face to face. The discussions were running twice a week, and the experiment was lasted for two months. We conducted three surveys during the two months: After the first online discussion; a month later; at the end of the experiment. At the end of the experiment, we conducted a in-depth interviews on each team, to capture reasons for the differences of individual trust development of each team. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Influence of Personality Traits,Family Environment on Middle School Students’Moral Judgment Competence 2011, 34(3): 664-669.  Abstract ( )   PDF (522KB) ( )   Few empirical studies have examined the effects of individual difference variables (e.g., personality traits) and social environment variables (e.g., family environment) on adolescents’ moral judgment competence systematically. Based on the latest theories of moral judgment, this study tested the relationship of personality traits, family environment and moral judgment competence among middle school students. The aim is to provide some help for students’ moral psychological education and counseling. The participants were 900 students ranging from grade 1 of jurnior high school to grade 3 of senior high school. They are come from six urban districts and rural districts. 887 students finished the questionnaires (855 were valid, 96.4% ) which included three scales: Qingnian Zhongguo Personality Scale (QZPS), Family Environment Scale-Chinese Version (FES-CV, 3rd ed.) and Chinese Adolescent Moral Judgment Competence Test. In order to construct a relevant model for the different three variables, the statistical methods adopted correlation analysis, regression analysis and path analysis respectively. The research constructed four structural equation models: one direct effect model and three intervening process variable models. The models revealed that the personality traits and family environment variables to the middle students’ moral judgment have both directly effects and indirectly effects with relatively comprehensive. The results showed that the directly effects of personality traits factors influenting moral judgment competence are Good-heartedness and behavior style personality dimensions. Personality traits and family’s success, knowledge and control factors effect each other. And personality extroversion, behavior styles, good-heartedness, talent, emotionality and honesty indirectly influented it throught family achievement orientation, intellectal-cultural orientation and control. Furthermore, family’s success and control directly influented moral judgment competence. Family cohesion, achievement orientation, intellectal-cultural orientation, active-recreational orientation, moral-religious emphasis, organization and control indirectly influented it throught personality good-heartedness, talent and honesty. The findings revealed that the direct effects of middle school student’s personality traits, family environment on the moral judgment competence have more significance than the indect effects. Personality traits are the protective factors Related Articles | Metrics

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Third-party Punishment and Social Norm Activation: the Influence of Social Responsibility and Emotion Si-Jing Chen 2011, 34(3): 670-675.  Abstract ( )   PDF (552KB) ( )   The uniqueness of the co-operational behavior in human society may be related to the function of social norms. Norm Activation Theory believes that social norms have a great influence on human pro-social behavior only when activated, which exactly expresses the process of the Third-party Punishment. To explore the psychological mechanism of the norm activation process, an experiment was designed which contained both a Dictator Game (DG) and a Third-party Game (TP). TP was used as a way to activate the social norm of fairness. The norm activated subjects took both TP and DG during the experiment while the non-activated ones took only DG. A significant enhancement of the pro-social behavior in DG was found in norm activated subjects after TP. We also found that social responsibility played an important role in norm activation. Subjects with higher social responsibility presented more pro-social after activated. The result revealed that a third-party subject punished the behavior against social norms even the punishment was costly. This phenomenon was explained as an arouser of both the responsibility to protect social norms and anger about the destruct of social norms. Further more, higher Social Responsibility a person had implied a stronger activation of social norms, which brought more anger and pro-social behaviors. With experimental errors and explanations of other theories eliminated, this result revealed that there were two important processes in norm activation: the arouser of the responsibility to protect social norms and the inspirer of the anger about the destruct of social norms. These two processes implied that social norm activation was not only a cognitive awakening process but also an emotional inspirer. Therefore, responsibility, which contained both cognitive and emotional component, might be paid more attention to in studies about the activation of social norms. Related Articles | Metrics

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The relationship between Emotional Labor and Depression/ Anxiety: Emotional Exhaustion as a mediator 2011, 34(3): 676-679.  Abstract ( )   PDF (392KB) ( )   The topic of emotions in the workplace especially emotional labor is beginning to garner closer attention by researchers and theorists in recent years. Emotional labor is the process of regulating both feelings and expressions for organizational goals. Following Hochschild’s seminal work, a number of researchers have since studied the effects of emotional labor on workers, with mixed findings. On the basis of previous relevant researches and literatures of emotional labor, the purpose of this study is to explore: (1) the relationship between emotional labor and emotional exhaustion; (2) the relationship between emotional labor and depression/ anxiety; (3) the mediation role of emotional exhaustion between emotional labor and depression/ anxiety specially. ELS, MBI and SCL-90 were applied and 328 employees in retailing participated in this study. The data was processed and analyzed by SPSS16.0 for window. Correlation analysis shows that: (1) deep acting, which is one dimension of the emotional labor, is significantly negatively related to emotional exhaustion (r=-0.215, p<0.01) and may predict emotional exhaustion. Employees use deep acting more frequently in their work to reduce their exhaustion. (2) Deep acting is significantly negatively related to depression (r=-0.159, p<0.05) and anxiety (r=-0.161, p<0.05), it may predict depression and anxiety. Deep acting can alleviate depression and anxiety of employees. The result of regression analysis indicates that emotional exhaustion acts as a mediator between emotional labor and depression/ anxiety. In regression analysis, Deep acting influenced emotional exhaustion (beta=-0.242, p<0.01), depression (beta=-0.159, p<0.05) and anxiety (beta=-0.106, p<0.05) at the first and second step. When exhaustion entered at the third step at which point deep acting became nonsjgnificant indicating a mediation effect. Overall, the results show that surface acting has no significant correlation with exhaustion, depression or anxiety; deep acting is significantly and negatively predictable to emotional exhaustion, depression and anxiety. Emotional exhaustion plays mediator role between emotional labor and depression/ anxiety. Conservation of Resources Theory holds that mental resources are limited; over use mental resource can lead to emotional exhaustion and influence psychological health. From this point of view, several issues are noticeable in the present studies. First, deep acting is a distinct and useful strategy, which can provide mental resource thereby diminish emotional exhaustion, depression and anxiety of employees. So it seems organizations should train their employees to use more deep acting in their work. However, mental resources from deep acting are limited, organizations should provide other approaches to let their employees obtain mental resources, such as create supportive work atmosphere thereby reduce the mental depletion during their emotional labor. Related Articles | Metrics

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The effects of career resilience on work performance and career satisfaction 2011, 34(3): 680-685.  Abstract ( )   PDF (527KB) ( )   Abstract: Career resilience is a person’s ability to adapt to changing Career resilience is a person’s ability to adapt to changing workplace, even when the changes are discouraging or disruptive. Since career resilience is a required characteristic for employees to achieve success in the current and future workplace, more understanding about the concept of career resilience and how it affects one’s career decision and job behaviors will shed significant insight on designing or improving manpower training program and career counseling. The primary purpose of this study is therefore to explore the effects of career resilience. According to London’s theory (London, 1983), one with high level of career resilience will demonstrate initiative, purposive action and high performance, however the opposite will demonstrate withdrawal, anxiety and confusion (e.g., absenteeism, task avoidance, physical or psychological symptoms of stress, low performance). Thus, we predicted that employees with higher level of career resilience would achieve higher level of performance than employees with lower level of career resilience. At the same time, Waterman and Collard pointed out that career-resilient individuals had better career self-management ability and employability (Waterman, Waterman, & Collard, 1994; Collard, Epperheimer, & Saign, 1996), thus, we conjectured that employees with higher level of career resilience would gain higher degree of career satisfaction than employees with lower level of career resilience. The sample consisted of 324 managers from the 59 electronic related corporations under one information group. The manager’s career resilience level was measured with a Career Resilience Questionnaire on six factors developed by a Chinese scholar. The demographics variables and the level of their career satisfaction and performance were measured with questionnaires too. The Harman signal factor testing and multitrait-multimethod testing showed that common method variance was not significant here. When examining the effects of career resilience on performance, the variables of demographics and career satisfaction were controlled, and when examining the effects of career resilience on career satisfaction, the variables of demographics and performance were controlled. Correlation analysis indicated that the three variables of career resilience, career satisfaction and performance positively correlated each other. Multiple regression model and hierarchical regression model was used for testing hypothesis and results showed that career resilience yielded statistically significant effects on performance and career satisfaction. Career resilience alone explained 15.2 percent of the variance in performance after controlled the variables of demographics and career satisfaction, and explained 5.9 percent of the variance in career satisfaction after controlled the variables of demographics and performance. Although popular and frequent in its appearance in business writings of recent times, the academic writings of career resilience are far more limited. This study contributed not only to the academic literature on career resilience but also to our understanding of the effects of career resilience. In addition, this empirical research provided evidence for the existing career resilience theories and suggested that both organizations and individuals should pay attention to the importance of career resilience. Finally, limitations of this research and suggestions for future research were discussed. Related Articles | Metrics

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Workplace Ostracism in China: The Moderating Effects of Gender on Psychological Health and Job Satisfaction 2011, 34(3): 686-691.  Abstract ( )   PDF (465KB) ( )   Given that little is known about the impact of ostracism on employees in Chinese workplace, and even less research has investigated gender differences in terms of workplace exclusionary behavior. The current study explored the applicability of Workplace Ostracism Scale (WOS) in China and gender differences on psychological health and job satisfaction. Workplace Ostracism Scale (WOS), Psychological Health Questionnaire and Job Satisfaction Questionnaire were used to test a sample of 437 employees with diverse job titles. The WOS was translated into Chinese upon careful consideration. Based on 137 samples (57 men and 80 women), some revisions were made according to the result of item-total correlation and exploratory factor analysis. Then 300 employees (160 men, 136 women and 4 unknown) from various companies were invited to join the final survey. The reliability and construct validity of WOS were tested by internal consistency reliability and confirmatory factor analysis. Results of item analysis showed that the correlations between the ten items of WOS and the total score ranged from 0.36 to 0.86. All correlations listed were significant at p<0.01. Exploratory factor analysis showed that 10 items had two factors. However, there was only one item in the second factor. Based on further examination, it was found that this item was a rather general statement, while others were all about the specific descriptions. So it was best to eliminate the first item. Then, EFA was conducted on the left nine items. Results showed that all nine items had one factor with an eigenvalue 5.26. This factor can explain 58.50% variance. Internal consistency reliability and confirmatory factor analysis were used to confirm the reliability and construct validity of WOS. Results showed that after eliminating the first statement of the scale, the WOS was a reliable and valid measure in Chinese workplace as well. To test whether gender moderated the relationship between exclusion and outcomes, a moderated hierarchical regression analysis was conducted on psychological health and job satisfaction. For each analysis researchers first entered the main effects for workplace ostracism and gender. In the second step, we entered the interaction term between ostracism and gender. Consistent with predictions, the addition of the interaction resulted in a significant change in R2. To illustrate this interaction, a low workplace ostracism group and a high workplace ostracism group were created for each gender. The results demonstrated the moderating effect of gender on the relation between workplace ostracism and psychological health and job satisfaction. The present study provided a useful measure for Chinese workplace ostracism literature — the revised WOS. It was also demonstrated that, the effects of ostracism were, in fact, moderated by gender. Specifically, workplace ostracism was predicted to have a stronger negative impact on psychological health and job satisfaction of women compared to men. Overall, workplace ostracism cannot be neglected. Special attention should be drawn on this phenomenon. Related Articles | Metrics

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Stress management and control for foreign senior executive of multi-national corporation in China 2011, 34(3): 692-695.  Abstract ( )   PDF (340KB) ( )   【Abstract】 Object: Study the stress situation of foreign senior executive at multi-national corporation in China, research the relation between method of stress management and control. Method: Use interview method, combine with social culture adaption scale, psycho-adaption scale, and management scale, to do the study of 67 examples. Results: the resource of stress by senior executive are from job characteristic, support of human relation and personality. Job characteristic is major reason, the relation between social culture adaption and psycho-adaption is positive correlation (p<0.01), the frequency of patience style have positive correlation with two adaption(P<0.01）. The frequency of help style has negative correlation with social culture adaption（P<0.01）. Obviously, there are difference between job adaption and patience style in different working area. Conclusion: the stress of foreign senior executive major from job characteristic and human relation, patience style of problem-solving stratege to psycho-adaption become helpful. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Main Issues in Trust Research and Their Development Status 2011, 34(3): 696-702.  Abstract ( )   PDF (708KB) ( )   Trust has attracted great attention from researchers in the organizational field. What resulted in or nurtured trust is one of the important issues in this field. Previous researchers focused on the tendency of trustors and the trustworthiness of trustees, and proposed that the general opinions on others and the traits of trustees, i.e., ability, benevolence and integrity, influenced the levels of interpersonal trust. Nowadays researchers paid more attention to contextual factors, the proactivity of trustors and affective or emotional factors, and made significant advantages on swift trust. The positive effects of trust on interpersonal interactions, teams, organizations and the society have obtained agreements among researchers, but when and how trust made these effects is still not really clear. Recent relevant research tries to answer the question from the following perspectives: the mechanical analysis of the relationships between trust and antecedents and that of the relationships between trust and outcomes. Current research on the development of trust has focused on the constructions of theoretical models, and has changed from the rational choice model to the motivated attribution of model (MAM). MAM stresses the attritional processes in the formation of trust and may be an important direction for the research on trust development. The measurement of trust is the basis of empirical research in this field. Researchers developed various questionnaires for trust, but none got widely used. Borrowing form Game theory and its empirical paradigm, some researchers used trust game to manipulate trust and trustworthiness. Moreover, some researchers apply social network analysis in trust research and analyze the reciprocal relationships in the given network. This method considers the effect of relational network on trust, which not only manipulates the trust more accurately, but also sets technical bases for further understanding the effects and mechanisms of trust. Following the above directions, future research should understand the image of trust in relational model, address the macro–level contextual factors as antecedents of trust, test models of trust development and establish the integrated models for the mechanism of trust. Related Articles | Metrics

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Regulatory Mode Theory: New Development in the Domain of Self-regulation 2011, 34(3): 703-708.  Abstract ( )   PDF (621KB) ( )   Regulatory Mode Theory is an important part of Higgins’s self-regulation theory system; it holds that self-regulation involves two independent regulatory modes: locomotion mode and assessment mode, locomotion concerns to change the present state, while assessment concerns to get the perfect solution. Based on the characteristics of locomotion and assessment, the paper introduces the measurement of chronic regulatory mode and the activation of situational regulatory mode, and concludes the effect of regulatory mode on basic psychological phenomenon (e.g. motivation/cognitive) and special psychological phenomenon (e.g. inter-temporal choice/ regulatory depletion), as well as the fit effect based on regulatory mode. Future researches could pay attention to the development of regulatory mode, the multiple methods of measurement and activation of regulatory mode, and the effect on the special psychological phenomenon such as counterfactual thinking. Related Articles | Metrics

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An ERP Study of Implicit Attitude towards Smoking for Different Degree Smokers 2011, 34(3): 709-713.  Abstract ( )   PDF (431KB) ( )   The present study used Implicit Association Test to investigate the implicit attitude of different degree of male smokers towards smoking words, and used Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to investigate the congruent pairings and incongruent pairings in neural processing. We explored the combined influence for smoking behavior by cognitive factor and physiological mechanism. We used the Single-Target IAT to collect behavior results. The Single-Target IAT consisted of five phases: (1) practice sorting attribute stimulus to the attribute categories (positive vs. negative); (2) practice critical combined sorting of all stimulus to both the target and the attribute categories; (3) critical combined sorting of all stimulus to both the target and the attribute categories; (4) practice critical combined sorting with reversed response requirements for the target; (5) critical combined sorting with reversed response requirements for the target. In general, responses tend to be faster when the two categories that share a response key in the combined phases are somehow associated than when they are not. The difference in reaction time (RTs) between phase 3 and 5 reflects whether smoking is associated more strongly with positive or negative. Brain electrical activity was recorded from 64 scalp sites using tin electrodes mounted in an elastic cap (Brain Product), with the reference on the left and right mastoids. The vertical electrooculogram (EOG) was recorded with electrodes placed above and below the left eye. Inter-electrode impedance was maintained <5 kΩ. The EEG and EOG were amplified using a 0.05-100 Hz bandpass and continuously sampled at 500Hz/channel for off-line analysis. Eye movement artifacts (blinks and eye movements) were rejected offline. EEG to different types of responses was analyzed after the stimulus appeared. The averaged epoch for ERP was 1,000 ms including 800 ms poststimulus and 200 ms prestimulus. Only EEGs to correct responses related to the target words were analyzed. Based on the grand averaged map and topographical map (see Fig. 1, Fig. 2), 18 electrode sites (Fp1, Fpz, Fp2, F7, Fz, F8, F1, F2, FCz, CP3, CPz, CP4, P3, Pz, P4, O1, and O2) were chosen for three-way repeated measures analyses of variance (ANOVA). The ANOVA factors were task type (congruent pairings, incongruent pairings), smoking degree and electrode site. For all analyses, p-value was corrected for deviations according to the Greenhouse Geisser method. After analyzing, we obtained the following conclusions: (1) As the behavior results suggested, multiple-factor repeated measures ANOVA revealed significant difference between congruent pairings and incongruent pairings of heavy smoking participants. [ F (1，14)= 6.750, p < 0.05]. Only the implicit attitude towards smoking words of the heavy smokers was negative significantly. (2) As the ERP results suggested, P200 only showed higher amplitudes in response to heavy smokers for incongruent pairings than light smokers. LPC showed higher amplitudes in 700-800ms in response to incongruent pairings for heavy smokers than congruent pairings. Related Articles | Metrics

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An experimental research on the non-verbal false belief tasks of the autistic children Nan ZHOU 2011, 34(3): 714-722.  Abstract ( )   PDF (938KB) ( )   Theory of Mind (ToM) refers to understanding and recognition of the person itself and others’ mind estate (such as desire, belief, intention, motivation and feeling, etc.), based on which causative prediction and explanation are made towards corresponding behaviors. So far the correlative researches domestic and overseas of ToM have mainly focused on the normal children; the ability of autistic children’s “theory of mind” which in turn could prove some basic hypotheses of ToM was seldom investigated. We tested “theory of mind” by the modified non-verbal false belief test, the unexpected-content task, based on the former design, then got four results of the study as followed, 1) The non-verbal false belief tasks, more exactly the modified unexpected-content task is suitable to the autistic and mental retarded children; 2)The theory of mind of the autistic children including the low language function ones are significantly lower than that of the mental retarded children; 3)The results of the theory of mind of the mental retarded children is the same with those reported in former researches; 4) Compared with mental retarded children, the autistic children seems to show much difficulties in focusing on the transfer and exchange of article. Related Articles | Metrics

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Group Sandplay in Undergraduate'S Career Planning Application 2011, 34(3): 723-726.  Abstract ( )   PDF (294KB) ( )   Objective: To investigate the effect of the group sandplay on undergraduate's career planning. Method: 16 students be divided into two groups randomly, the experimental group join the group sandplay, and control group do nothing, then compare with the results carried out between the two groups during the former and the latter tests. Result: The group sandplay is benefit to the undergraduates to be better to understand themselves, to build their confidences, to realize their career and increase their career-making ability. Conclusion: The group sandplay has the Profound and effective principle to the undergraduate's career Planning, its can be wildly used as a useful method. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Effect of Traumatic Exposure on Posttraumatic Growth after the Wenchuan Earthquake：The Role of Resilience as a Moderator 2011, 34(3): 727-732.  Abstract ( )   PDF (506KB) ( )   166 teenagers who experienced the Wenchuan earthquake were investigated by revised PTGI (Posttraumatic Growth Inventory)、CD-RISC(Conner-Davidson Resilience Scale) and self-designed questionnaire on traumatic exposure and the relationship of traumatic exposure,resilience and posttraumatic growth was discussed. The Results show that PTG was significantly different between genders, with PTG of female higher than that of male. One dimension of traumatic exposure, the subjective scared level can positively predict PTG. Furthermore，resilience strengthens the relationship between subjective scared level and PTG. It also strengthens the relationship between another dimension of traumatic exposure, housing damage level and PTG. Related Articles | Metrics

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A Diathesis-Stress Model of Suicidal Ideation in Highschoolers: A Multiwave Longitudinal Study 2011, 34(3): 733-737.  Abstract ( )   PDF (444KB) ( )   Purposes: To examine whether neuroticism moderates the relationship between negative life events and suicidal ideation. Methods: A stratified one-stage cluster sampling produced a representative sample of students who attended public high schools. During the initial assessment, 618 high school students (302 boys, 316 girls) completed the following 3 scales to assess negative life events, neuroticism and suicidal ideation: ⑴ adolescent life events quetionnaire-revised (ALEQ-R), ⑵ NEO five factor inventory-neuroticism subscale (NEO-FFI-N), ⑶suicidal ideation questionnaire (SIQ). Researchers returned to the schools to meet with students every three months for the subsequent 21 months (i.e., 3months, 6 months, 9 months, 12 months, 15 months, 18 months and 21 months). At each of these follow-up assessments, students completed each of the following questionnaires: (1) SIQ, (2) ALEQ-R. Data were analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling analyses. Our dependent variable was within-subject fluctuations in SIQ scores during the follow-up interval. Our primary predictors of SIQ were fluctuations in ALEQ-R scores during the follow-up interval (STRESS), and NEO five factor inventory-neuroticism subscale (NEO-FFI-N). As NEO-FFI-N is a between-subject variable, NEO-FFI-N scores were standardized prior to analyses. As STRESS is a within-subject predictor, ALEQ-R scores were centered at each participant’s mean prior to analyses such that STRESS reflects upwards or downwards fluctuations in an adolescent’s level of stress compared to his/her mean level of stress. Results: Hierarchical linear modeling analyses indicated that after controlling the effects of initial levels of suicidal ideation and gender on suicidal ideation, a non-significant main effect of neuroticism arised (? = .59, F(1, 557)= 3.05, p > .05), while a significant main effect of negative life events (? = .08, F(1, 2963) = 37.93, p < .001) appeared. Additionally, a significant two-way, cross-level interaction emerged between negative life events and neuroticism (? = .03, F(1, 2963) = 4.35, p < .001). Conclusions: The association between negative life events and suicidal ideation is moderated by nueroticism. Adolescents who had higher levels of neuroticism reported greater elevations in suicidal ideation following elevations in negative life events than other adolescents did. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Processing Phases of Attention Biases in Depressed Older Individuals 2011, 34(3): 738-743.  Abstract ( )   PDF (584KB) ( )   The normal aged group who had never suffered from depression, and the aged depressed group were recruited using GDS, SDS and HAMD as tools. The cue-target task and emotional Stroop task were used to test the phases of attention bias in depression, and the effect of depth of processing and the cues on the attention biases in depressive older people. The results showed that: (1) In the cue-target task, when the presentation of stimuli was for 250ms or 500ms, there were no differences in IOR effects between all types of stimulation for both depressed aged people and the normal aged group (P> 0.05) under this condition, this means that the aged depressed group showed no attention bias. When the presentation of stimuli was for 750ms or 1000ms, the depressed aged people's IOR effects were significantly different under different types of stimulation, F(2, 66) = 3.22, P = 0.046, while the normal group showed no difference in IOR effects under all types of stimulation (P> 0.05) . Further test indicated that when the presentation of stimuli was for 750ms or 1000ms, the IOR effects to the stimulation of sad faces were significantly different between the two groups, F(1, 33) = 10.03, P = 0.003; F(1, 33) = 18.21, P = 0.000. These indicated that the depressed aged people's attentional biases appeared when the presentation of stimuli was 750ms or 1000ms. (2) In the Stroop task, there were significant differences of RTs under different cue types of stimulation in the aged depression group and there were significant differences of RTs between two groups under the stimulation of sad faces, double sad faces, sad and natural faces, F(1, 41) = 5.37，P=0.026；F(1, 41) = 7.08，P=0.011；F(1, 41) = 7.28，P=0.010；which hints that attention bias in depressive aged group to negative cues may appear in early attentional process phase. The authors considered that the depressed aged people’s attention bias can occur in the initial allocation phase or attention disengagement phase; and was impacted by the depth of processing. Related Articles | Metrics

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Space Concepts and Their Organization in the Case of Blind Children 2011, 34(3): 744-749.  Abstract ( )   PDF (485KB) ( )   There are two different views on the relationships between language and cognition: one is Linguistic Universalism, which declares that language is only the input or output of thinking, and that differences in language do not affect consistency of cognition; the other is Linguistic Relativism, which asserts that language affects cognition, and that people who speak different languages may have different styles of cognition. This kind of controversy also exists with respect to the relationships between spatial terms and spatial cognition. Some researchers believe that human could universally share spatial cognition, but others believe that different languages could produce different spatial cognitions and different spatial experiences. Owing to the blind people loss sight, they may possess different space concepts and concept structure of space words. How do blind people organize the space words? This study investigated the space concepts and their organization in the case of blind children. 63 blind children of Guangzhou Blind School took part in the experiment. They were asked to sort 17 pairs of Chinese spatial terms summarized by Yi-Fu Tuan into groups, according to the terms’ similarities. The groupings were subject to a Multi-Dimensional Scaling analysis and a Hierarchical Clustering analysis, in order to reveal the blind children’ spatial cognitive themes and spatial concept constructions. The results showed that there were two dimensions in the semantic spaces of the space words of the blind children：⑴state and direction；⑵geo-center and body-center. The blind children showed four space cognition themes：⑴three-dimensional direction around body；⑵ space distance；⑶three-dimensional boundaries；⑷space states. The concept structures of spatial words of the congenital blind children and the postnatal blind children were similar basically, but there were some differences among them, the concept structures of spatial words of the congenital blind children emerged the dimension of vertical/horizontal. This kind of result pattern also could be found between primary school blind children and middle school blind children, but owing to different reasons. The entire study showed that Lacking of visual perception determined the nature of space terms organization by blind children , but language , culture and education play important parts in blind people’s spatial cognitive themes and spatial concept structure also. Related Articles | Metrics

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Successive Measuring Metacognitive Monitoring : Master Mind Task Testing Ying-He CHEN Jia-Jia HAO 2011, 34(3): 750-754.  Abstract ( )   PDF (468KB) ( )   As the essential component of metacognition, metacognitive monitoring refers to people’s ability to know and control their own mental functioning. It is a kind of psychological action which possess deep implicit, which composed of monitoring processes and control processes. Many methods for the assessment of metacognition monitoring have their pros and cons. At present, on-line methods appear to be much suited to measure it, but it is difficult to design the task. Master Mind game has been extensively used in psychological and educational research. The present study aimed to analyse the usefulness of different kinds of Master Mind game and obtain valid scores that adequately reflected metacognitive monitoring. Using multi-method designs such as interview, a dynamic assessment format of Master Mind game was developed in order to investigate metacognitive monitoring. Thirty four university students participated in the study. First, participants were asked to complete Raven’s Progressive Matrices, and then they were required to complete four groups of Master mind game in possible moves. The four groups game were different from numbers of colors （choose three colors from five colors possible, choose four colors from six colors possible ) and whether required to put them in right order four from corrected place. After each attempt, feedback was give to inform participants of how many colors were correct and how many were placed in the correct location. Interview followed every group of game. The results showed that：（1）Only when the task was rather difficult and strategies were searched, metacognitive monitoring can be triggered, such as in Game 4 (choose four colors from six colors possible, and put them in right order )；(2) As for metacognitive monitoring indexes recorded on computer, the proportion of feedback time represented university students’ metacognitive monitoring level, while the frequency of violation of feedback well reflected college students’ metacognitive control level. At present, multi-method designs is scarcely available in the literature on metacognitive monitoring. The use of Master Mind which provides valid and reliable assessment is a meaningful attempt. Related Articles | Metrics

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Psychometric Exploring of Face-audence Communication Apprehension Scale for Chinese College Students Zhi-Fei Song Hong-Li WANG 2011, 34(3): 755-760.  Abstract ( )   PDF (497KB) ( )   Communication apprehension has a negative influence on person’s study and life (McCroskey,1978).At present, there were two important scales to examine social phobia or anxiety, Communication Apprehension scale(PRCA-24) and Personal Report of Confidence as a Speaker(PRCS). However, above scales only examine social phobia from subjective experence and behaviour.Meanwhile different culture background existed in Western and Eastern research (Zhong Jie，Li Bo，Qian Ming-yi.2002), there wasn’t a native communication apprehension scale published for Chinese college students in China. So we were supposed to develop the Communication Apprehension Scale for Chinese College students according to actual background of Chinese college students and examine the reliability and validity of Face-audence Communication Apprehension, we also named it as Chinese Communication Apprehension Scale(CCAS). We used 3-phase procedure to develop it. First, we reviewed a great deal of relevant refence and different social phobic scales,and chose proper adjective words in order to describe social phobic disorders; Second, we held open-interview in college students for collectiong information, and then form preliminary survey; Finally, we had 3 psychological professors, 5 postgraduates and a clinical psychological doctor to evaluate each item for clarity,specificity, and representativeness. During investigation, we also adopted 3 steps. First, 400 students from education and non-education universities in south-west China were for pre-survey. 349 useable data(191 male,158 female)was for items analysis in order to make up formal scale. Second,760 participants from universities in Guizhou,Yunnan, Sichuan provinces were for formal survey. 619 usable data (252 male,367 female) was divided into two parts, one was used for confirmatory factor analysis(CFA); the other part for cross-validity analysis. Finally, three weeks later, 100 participants retest for test-reliability. The results show that the CCAS has four factors with 20 items: lecture apprehension, social communication apprehension, group communication apprehension, and communication confidence. The CFA showed the fitness of the high order factor of the scale: CMIN/DF=1.692, GFI=.916, IFI=.940, NNFI=.930, CFI=.939, RMSEA=.047. The whole scale’s consistency reliability was .903 , and the test-retest reliability was .88. So we can come to the conclusion that confirmatory factor analysis studies show the structure of the CCAS was reasonable. The internal consistency、test-retest reliability, content validity, construct validity of the CCAS entirely were accorded with psychometric demands. The CCAS can be used as an effective and reliable tool for assessing college students’ communication apprehension. Related Articles | Metrics

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A Study on the Structure Characteristics of Vocational Interests of University Students 2011, 34(3): 761-766.  Abstract ( )   PDF (480KB) ( )   The spherical model of vocational interest structure has been demonstrated by several studies and has much more advantages in guiding scale development of vocational interests and counseling practice in the field of vocation psychology. This empirical study endeavors to test the spherical model of vocational interest structure with a sample of Chinese university students and terminally obtain a brief vocational interest scale based on spherical model of vocational interest structure. A sample of 5831 undergraduate students was asked to give evaluation of their acquaintance to a sample of 140 occupational titles on 5 point Likert Scale. The items were selected from the vocational interest scale developed by National Education Examinations Authority, Ministry of Education, People's Republic of China. The number of specialties of the subjects amounts to 129. The development, examination of a spherical structure model of vocational interests was attempted. Multidimensional scaling analysis conducted on the item level responses supported the presence of the three dimensions with the stress value of 0.28 and 72% variance accounted for. The three dimensions could be named data-idea, people-thing and prestige according to the meaning of the items with the high absolute coordinate values on them, which sported the previous studies by James Round and Lirong Long. The configuration of the structures on every plane formed by the three dimensions’ combinations turned out circular shape. And the three-dimension configuration clearly presented a solid sphere. As is known, the items locating on the surface of the sphere have the largest discrimination value and are highly valuable in explaining the difference of subjects. Imitating Terence’s methods, principle component analysis was conducted and three principle components were subtracted by which 57.5 percent of the total variance was accounted for, and twenty-four subscales were created for geometrically defined combinations of the three dimensions which correspond with prestige, people-thing, and data-idea. A hypothesized spherical model was created with these subscales lying on the surface of the sphere. This spherical representation was then examined by means of randomization test executed by the programs of RANDALL and 18RQND96. Strong support was yielded for every circular structure on the three two-dimension planes formed by the three dimensions’ combination and the three-dimension spherical structure. The corr Related Articles | Metrics