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Advances in Landing Position Effect during Reading Guo-Li Yan 2013, 36(4): 770-775.  Abstract ( 3143 )   PDF (394KB) ( 2836 )   It is well known that our eyes move to different locations in text reading to obtain the useful information for comprehension. The basic oculomotor events in reading are composed of successive fixations and saccades. However, all the eye-movement behavior in reading results from two types of decisions: when to move the eyes and where to move next (Rayner, 2009). A large number of studies has demonstrated that the “when” decision is largely driven by lexical properties of words. But there is typically no correlation between how long the eyes remain fixated and how far they move. Therefore, findings from when to move the eyes can not be directly extended to where to move next. The aim of this research is to review the advances in where to move the eyes, which is one of the basic issues of eye movement control in reading. Much evidence from researches on eye movement control in reading of alphabetic languages has suggested that the “where” decision is generally to be made on word based, selecting a word as the next saccade target The most cited finding for supporting word-based eye guidance in alphabetic languages is the observation of the “Preferred Viewing Location (PVL)” effect (Rayner, 1979). The PVL effect can be seen when one plots the distribution of initial landing positions in a word. The initial landing position is the location that the eyes initially fixate after making a first pass saccade into that word. Researchers found the eyes most often land at a position slightly to the left of the center of words, though it tends to be nearer the centre for short than long words. In contrast to the PVL, which represents where readers fixate in words, the optimal viewing position (OVP) represents the location in a word at which recognition time is minimized. A number of researchers have been endeavoring to explain the landing position effect by constructing different types of computational models of eye movement control during reading, for example the oculomotor models and cognitive models. In the present paper, the advances in landing position effect were reviewed during reading of different languages, mainly including 1) in the inter-word spaced alphabetic writing systems, whether this effect was influenced by word length, inter-word spacing, frequency and predictability, age and individual differences. It is clear that the “where” decision is largely driven by low-level cues such as word length and space information; 2) the effect in the other writing systems (like Thai and Japanese). On the basis of these studies mentioned above, the advances in reading of Chinese were further reviewed, including whether the effect existed or not during Chinese reading; whether it was influenced by word length and inter-word spaces; whether it was influenced by the size and structure of Chinese character; and also whether there were age and individual differences on landing positions during Chinese reading. Finally, future directions on this topic were discussed. Related Articles | Metrics

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Homophone density effect in naming and sentence reading Guo-Li Yan 2013, 36(4): 776-780.  Abstract ( 3388 )   PDF (326KB) ( 1764 )   The present research investigated homophone density effect in different tasks. Homophone density refers to the number of homophone mates of a Chinese character. In the writing systems such as English, French and German, orthography and phonology have a high degree of overlap. Most of the studies on the neighborhood effects have been conducted with those writing systems. But Chinese has its own characteristics. For Chinese characters, phonology can be isolated from orthography, and one phoneme can have many different graphemes. So there need to be more empirical research done with readers of Chinese. Although there are several experiments to investigate the role of homophone density in the Chinese character identification, few of these studies investigated the effect of the homophone density in normal sentence reading. The current study employed two experiments to investigate the homophone density effect. In experiment 1, homophone density effect was investigated by naming task. It was a one-factor (homophone density: high and low) within-subject design, and in each condition, there were 36 low frequency characters. The structures of the characters under the two conditions were identical. And we matched word frequency, number of radical, number of stokes, power of word-formation and number of meanings for the two conditions. 26 undergraduate students participated in the experiment. The result showed a facilitative effect of homophone density; that is, characters with high homophone density were named faster and with fewer errors. In experiment 2, homophone density effect was investigated in the sentence reading. The design was the same as the experiment 1. We used the 72 characters to form 72 two-character words. All of the 72 characters were in the first place of the words. The words were matched on word property and frequency. And then the 72 words were put into 36 sentences. 31 graduate students participated in the experiment. Their eye movements were recorded with a SR Research Eyelink1000 eye tracker. It seemed that the effect of homophone density is neither facilitative nor inhibitory. The result showed that the context influenced character recognition. In summary, the two experiments indicated that the mechanism of homophone density effects were different in single character naming and in sentence reading task. Related Articles | Metrics

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An N400 Priming Effect Elicited By Highly Blurred Chinese Characters: Evidence for Lexical Analytic Process 2013, 36(4): 781-786.  Abstract ( 3204 )   PDF (349KB) ( 2318 )   Abstract The popular mechanisms of N400 component of the event-related brain potential (ERP) proposed to explain the N400s are the automatic spreading activation and lexical analytic process, which are in contrast with equally popular postlexical mechanisms that are conscious and attentional. The present study examed the contrast theories or mechanisms, and used ERP methodology to investigate electrophysiological correlates of cognitive representations underlying N400 priming effect for highly blurred and consciously unidentifiable Chinese character targets. In this study, three character items were presented in succession in each trial of a delayed character-matching task, representing intact prime, blurred target, and intact probe stimulus, respectively. Two variables, priming and blurring, were manipulated with a 2×2 factorial within-subjects design in the experiment, and ended up with 4 treatment conditions, which were primed slightly blurred, primed highly blurred, unprimed slightly blurred and unprimed highly blurred conditions. During a delayed character-matching task, the subjects were asked to press a key on keyboard if the target and the probe, which followed the target, were a same character in identity, and press another one if not. Sixteen native Chinese undergraduates or graduates participated in the experiment and were instructed to make a yes/no distinction in the task, and the data of four participants were given up because of unnormal data. ERPs of blurred Chinese characters (the targets) were recorded while participants performed a delayed character-matching task. Behavioral data showed interactions between priming and blurredness: the priming effects on accuracy rate and rection time were more significant for highly blurred targets than for slightly blurred targets. Repeated-measures ANOVAs on mean amplitude with factors of blurring (slightly blurred, highly blurred), priming (primed, unprimed), and electrode site revealed significant main effects of blurring and priming at the 300–500ms interval; At the 700–900ms interval, similar ANOVAs on mean amplitude revealed significant interactions on semantic priming and blurring, and significant interactions on electrode site and blurring; More importantly, the amplitude of N400 for Lever 3 elicited by the unprimed targets was significantly negative compared with primed targets (p < .001), and this difference was prominent at the central-parietal electrode sites (see Figs 2 & 4), which are consistant with Wang’s findings (2009). Extra subjects performed an identification test on the target stimuli; the identification rate is lower than the criterion, which is 33%, of unconscious processing. ERP data and the identification test on the targets together revealed that just as slightly blurred targets did, highly blurred, consciously unidentifiable targets that were semantically related to primes elicited smaller N400 compared with similar but unrelated targets. These results indicated that N400 priming effect could be elicited by highly blurred, consciously unidentifiable targets, supported the view that the N400 component could index unconscious lexical processing, and provided evidence against a postlexical account. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Effects of Explicit and Implicit Ambivalent Attitudes on Information Processing ZHANG LIN Qiang Xu 2013, 36(4): 787-891.  Abstract ( 2776 )   PDF (309KB) ( 2364 )   Ambivalent attitude as a topic in the field of attitude research is newly rising up. Ambivalent attitude is defined as the simultaneous existence of positive and negative beliefs or emotions with regard to the same object in an individual’s attitudinal basis. Previous studies investigated whether ambivalent attitude would facilitate or inhibit the processing of information which was related to the attitude objects, but the results are controversy. To address this question, the present study examined such effects from both explicit and implicit ambivalent attitude levels. The experiment was carried out as following procedures: First, we surveyed the ambivalent attitude among college students by open-questionnaire. Descriptive statistics showed that “EXERCICE” is an attitude objects which can generally induce ambivalence. Second, in formal experiment, participants who were random chosen and did not take part in pre-test were asked to perform two task presented on computer: a split semantic differential measure which was used for testing explicit ambivalent attitude induced by the attitude objects and an Extrinsic Affective Simon Task (EAST) which aimed to explore the implicit ambivalent attitude induced by the attitude objects. The sequence of tasks was counterbalance between participants. And then the participants were divided into higher and lower explicit ambivalent group, higher and lower implicit ambivalent group according to their scores in the split semantic differential measure and EAST. Then, the Study Test paradigm was used to probe the effects of explicit and implicit ambivalent attitude on the processing of information related to “EXERCICE”. In this paradigm, the unintentional and deliberately processing ways were also manipulated. The results indicated that (1) the response latency of the higher explicit ambivalent group was saliently shorter than the lower explicit ambivalent group. (2) The response latency which the higher implicit ambivalent group used to process deliberately the attitude objects information was significantly longer than the lower implicit ambivalent group. But in the unintentional processing level, the two groups did not manifest any difference. (3) The response latency which the higher implicit ambivalent group used to process information unrelated to the ambivalent attitude objects was conspicuously longer than the lower implicit ambivalent group. However, the response latency used for processing information related to the ambivalent attitude objects did not differ between two groups. These results suggested that implicit and explicit ambivalent attitude could influence processing of information associated this attitude in distinct ways. And the intensity of ambivalent attitude and the ways of information processing could affect information processing related to the ambivalent attitude objects. These results were further discussed in the sense of dual-attitude model. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Experimental study on the effect of the different styles aesthetic experience on autonomous physiological reactions 2013, 36(4): 792-796.  Abstract ( 3748 )   PDF (299KB) ( 2347 )   The aesthetic experiences must be based on certain nervous physiology of human. The extant literature shows that the orbit-frontal cortex is differentially engaged in the perception of beautiful and ugly stimuli, regardless of the category of painting, and that the perception of stimuli as beautiful or ugly mobilizes the motor cortex differentially. The evidence from Event-Related Potentials shows us: beautiful stimuli will stimulate much larger P3 than the ugly and neutral stimuli. This result is in accordance with the conclusion of the pleasure emotions studies. Besides the neural activities, the blood circulatory system, the respiratory system, the glandular secretion system and the digestive system etc. all participate in the emotional process. So, the localizations of aesthetic brain and neural electrical activity can’t supply the most comprehensive and objective description. In addition, the subjective evaluation of experience of aesthetic feeling can’t reflect the differences of aesthetic emotions. Most research focus on the different physiological reactions between the positive emotions and negative emotions. Will the aesthetic experiences induce similar physiological responses as positive emotions? This is a important question in personal psychology and positive Psychology. This research uses HR (hear rate) and GSR (Gal- vanic skin response) as indexes and music and visual pictures as the stimulus to explore whether the subjects’ autonomous physiological reactions are consistent across the audio-visual channel under four different aesthetic styles. A four level single factor experiment design is employed in Experiment 1. Subjects were asked to listen to four different aesthetic types of music (including concinnity, comedy, sublime, tragedy), and evaluate their aesthetic feelings engendered by these music. The results show that to all of the four types of music, over 70 percent of subjects choose the corresponding aesthetic words to express their feelings, it illustrates that these music really induce subjects corresponding aesthetic experiences. A 2(visual and auditory channel) × 4 (four aesthetic styles) experimental design is used in experiment 2 to measure autonomous physiological responses. Participants were stimulated by the picture and music, and their heart rates and Gal- vanic skin response were recorded with polygraph. Firstly, the subjects’ baseline is tested for 2 minutes. Secondly, the subjects were accepted different stimulus (seeing pictures and listening to the music) and their physiological reactions are recorded. After 30 seconds, their recovery numbers are recorded for 2 minutes. Thirdly, the participants took part in others experimental level after 15 minutes. The result shows that stimulus of four aesthetic styles all makes the heart rate and skin conductance decrease regardless of auditory or visual channel. The reactions of comedy, sublime are more obvious than those of concinnity and tragedy. All of this indicates that aesthetic does have very relaxed function. We made an analysis of main effect and variance, the independent variables were different aesthetic styles, and stimulus channels and dependent variables were heart rate and Gal- vanic skin response. The result is that the aesthetic style has the pure main effect on HR and GSR, but there is no interaction between aesthetic and channel. We conclude that different aesthetic styles do induce different physiological responses and they have cross-channel consistency. Physiological responses to concinnity, sublime, tragedy, comedy aesthetic experiences are different from negative emotions, but similar to positive emotions, which prove once again that aesthetic experiences belong to positive emotions. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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An Eye Movement Study on the Effect of Working Memory Load and Shape Distracter on the Attentional Capture of Deaf and Hearing-normal People Ting-Zhao Wang yanping YANG 2013, 36(4): 797-801.  Abstract ( 3178 )   PDF (289KB) ( 2016 )   There are two opposite views about attentional capture theory. One view is that attentional capture is not affected by the current task, but relies on significant extent of interference stimuli relative to the target stimuli. The attentional capture effect of shape interference stimuli is poor. Another view is that attentional capture is conditional capture. It is carried out under a top-down cognitive regulation. In addition, with regard to visual processing capacity and mechanisms of deaf people, researchers proposed “the change of visual attention resources allocation” hypothesis for deaf people. They thought that deaf people attempt to allocate more visual attentional resources to the margin of visual area in the processing of visual perception; however, the hearing-normal people tend to allocate more visual attentional resources to the central vision area. Introducing working memory load and view region variables, this study selected deaf and hearing-normal people, using eye tracker to investigate the attentional capture of shape interference stimuli on visual processing. It also compared the difference of deaf and hearing-normal people in visual processing and mechanism under the attentional capture experimental paradigm. This study used 2 (group) × 2 (working memory load) × 2 (shape distracter) × 3 (visual region) multi-factor mixed experiment design. Between-subject variable is category of subjects (deaf people, hearing-normal people), while within-subject variables are working memory load (high working memory load, low working memory load), shape distracter (shape distracter, no-shape distracter), visual region (1° viewing angle, 6° viewing angle, 11° viewing angle). The results showed that: (1) Although the shape distracter did not affect the cognitive performance of subjects’ visual processing, the subject's eye movement patterns was changed due to the change of working memory load. Under the condition of high work memory load, the number of fixation of shape distracter was higher than that of no-shape distracter; (2) The completion of subjects’ visual processing tasks was affected by the working memory load and visual region. The subjects’ eye movement patterns were different in different visual regions; (3) Deaf people had some disadvantages in visual processing in the high working memory load, but the attentional capture effects are the same for both deaf and hearing-normal people in the information processing of different visual regions and the shape of the interference. From the theories of attentional capture, this study suggests that the shape of the interference stimuli can capture attention when the cognitive control resources are decreased. Attentional capture was carried out under the top-down regulation of cognition. From visual processing capacity and mechanism of deaf people, this study suggests that under the attentional capture experimental paradigm, the information processing of margin visual area and central visual area of deaf people is the same as that of hearing-normal people. "Visual attention resource allocation change" hypothesis needs further verification. The innovations of this study are: (1) testified the theories of attentional capture; (2) compared the similarities and differences of visual processing capacity and mechanisms in deaf and hearing normal people. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Role of Time Dimension in Narrative Comprehension Lin CHEN 2013, 36(4): 802-809.  Abstract ( 3240 )   PDF (512KB) ( 1730 )   Situational model is one of the hottest issues in researches on discourse comprehension. At present, it is widely agreed that narrative comprehension involves setting up a mental representation of the states of affairs described by the text. According to the event-indexing model, which accounts for situational model in details, events are the core units of the mental representation, and they are indexed on five situational dimensions: time, space, protagonist, causality, intentionality. Time is an important dimension for constructing situational model, and a number of previous studies demonstrated readers tracked time information while reading texts. Some of them provided indirect evidence supporting that readers segmented the consecutive narrative by time into a series of discrete events in order to understand it. Speer and Zacks (2005) directly proved it with explicit event segmentation paradigm. Specifically, participants were asked to segment the points where they believed one meaningful unit ended and another began while they read some narrative texts describing everyday events. Their experiment results suggested that participants segmented event boundaries based on time adverbials. However, analyzing carefully with their experimental materials, we found that their demonstration failed to distinguish between event factor and time factor, because a new event appeared at object – time sentence. According to the event-indexing model and event segmentation theory, the whole event unit played original role in situation updating. Given the above consideration, in the present study, event segmentation paradigm was adopted to investigate event segmentation in narrative comprehension in Chinese narrative comprehension in three experiments. Participants were required to segment each narrative no less than three times. Moreover, they were required to list a title to each narrative in order to make sure that they were reading carefully. Experiment 1 was to repeat Speer and Zacks’ research results in 2005 in Chinese. Experiment 2 was to explore how readers segmented narratives without temporal adverbials, Experiment 3 further explored how readers segmented narratives in the condition of dissociating the time factor and the whole event unit, namely inserting temporal adverbials into the whole event unit. The results in experiment 1 showed that participants were more likely to segment them according to temporal adverbials; Furthermore, participants preferred segmenting them before disconnected temporal adverbials（“an hour later”）to before connected temporal adverbials(“a moment later”), which repeated the results of Speer and Zacks in 2005. However, the results in experiment 2 showed the participants more frequently segmented them according to the whole event unit, indicating that they mainly segmented the narratives according to the whole event unit. More important, the results in experiment 3a revealed that readers remained more to segment them according to the whole event unit, and there were not significant differences between disconnected and connected temporal adverbials The results in experiment 3b further replicated the results in experiment 3a. Taken together with experiment 3a and 3b, the results showed the temporal adverbials also facilitated readers’ event segmentation to some extent. The present findings above indicate that the whole event units are the core units of the mental representation constructed for a narrative; time shifts lead to situation model shift only in the condition of the time indexed the event shifts. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Effects of Task-unrelated Rules on Present Automatic Response Activation 2013, 36(4): 810-815.  Abstract ( 2574 )   PDF (380KB) ( 2758 )   The study manily concerned the top-down modulation on automatic processing, which could modify the classical automatic processing theory and give suggestions to implicit study methods to some certain. Top-down modulation is the function of our brain to modulate and select task-related information and allocate our attention on it, so we can accelerate the information processing. Automatic processing is defined as a process that needs little attention and cognitive resources comparing with the controlled processing. Recent findings questioned classical automatic processing theory by telling that maybe the automatic processing is also modulated by top-down factors including intention, task-set, temporal attention, spatial attention, expectation and etc. We improved the previous studies by modifying the paradigm and using Chinese stimuli. The study used masked priming paradigm to investigate if the top-down task-set factor could modulate the automatic semantic processing by ERPs. Subjects were asked to perform categorization task or structure decision task of the former stimuli (primes) and lexical decision task of the latter ones (targets). So, there are two kinds of task-sets: semantic and perceptual task-set. The stimuli were Chinese two-character words and pseudo-words citing from other articles. And the masks were a series of “#”. 14 undergraduate students were chose as subjects (6 males, 8 females). The mean age (±SD) is 21.9±(1.6) . The mean amplitude and peak latency of N400 which epoched between 300-450ms at F3、FZ、F4、C3、CZ、C4、CP3、CPZ、CP4、P3、PZ、P4、PO3、POZ、PO4 electrodes and the RT (response time) were used as indexes. The behavioral data and the electrophysiological data were acquired simultaneously by software Stim 2 and Scan 4.2. We used Repeated-ANOVA. The experimental design was 2 (task factor: semantic task & perceptual task) × 2 (priming conditions: prime-target semantic related & unrelated). And the electrode factor were introduced when statistical analysis were proceeded. The main behavioral result was that the main effect of task factor was significant, F（1，13）=7.703，p< .05, and the reciprocal effect between task factor and priming conditions was significant, F（1，13）=6.354, p< .05. Under the condition of semantic task-set, the RT of prime-target semantic related （838±130 ms）vs. unrelated（814±126 ms）was significantly different, F（1，13）=8.631, p< .05. The main result of electrophysiological data was : the reciprocal effect between task factor and priming conditions was significant, F（1，13）=4.819，p< .05. By further analysis, we found that under the condition of semantic task-set, the amplitude under the prime-target semantic related vs. unrelated conditions were significantly different, F（1，13）=7.167, p< .05, Mrelated=4.230?v, SD= .855?v, Munrelated=3.054?v, SD= .817?v. The conclusion is automatic semantic activation can be modulated by top-down task-set factor. Related Articles | Metrics

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Research on the Attentional Blink of Self-face vs. Other-face Based on the RSVP Paradigm 2013, 36(4): 816-821.  Abstract ( 2598 )   PDF (345KB) ( 2314 )   The experiment observed whether there is an attentional blink effect as self-face and other-face being target and probe stimulus respectively based on the rapid serial visual presentation paradigm. The results showed that when the probe stimulus was self-face, its recognition was obviously higher than other-face, especially when target stimulus was also self-face, the attentional blink disappearred totally; when target and probe stimulus were other-face at the same time, the AB effect occurred. This revealed that self-face performed better not only at drawing attention but also at holding it. Related Articles | Metrics

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Emotional Conflict Effect in the Face-word Stroop Task 2013, 36(4): 822-826.  Abstract ( 3745 )   PDF (294KB) ( 2462 )   In the face-word Stroop paradigm, a Stroop effect has been observed in the facial expression naming task as well as in the emotional word classification task. Those results suggest that the new emotional Stroop task may fail to show Stroop asymmetry which is a hallmark of the color-word Stroop task. Is the face-word Stroop effect non-analogous to the color-word Stroop effect after all? The purpose of this study is to investigate the interference effect in the face word Stroop task. The Chinese words “愉快 ” (“yukuai”, means happy) or “ 恐惧” (“kongju” means fear) were written in red letters across the faces, resulting in an affective congruent or incongruent matching. The total of 40 stimuli was used. Each picture was presented two times, with duration of 150ms or 1500ms separately, resulting in a block of 80 randomized trials out of which 40 were congruent and the remaining 40 were incongruent. There are four blocks, including two “word task” blocks and two “face task” blocks. The sequence was counterbalanced with an order of ABBA and BAAB. During the interval of two blocks, the participant could have a short break. All of them completed 320 trials in four blocks. All trials were presented in randomized order for each participant. Each trial began with the presentation of a fixation for 400ms. After a random inter stimulus interval (ISI) between 400 and 600 ms, the targets appeared in the center with duration of 150ms or 1500ms. The participant should respond as quickly and accurately as possible once the “?” appeared in the center. With a varying ISI of 1800–2300ms, the next trial began. E-prime software package was used for the stimulus presentation and data acquisition. Reaction times (RTs) and accuracy percentages were analyzed in 2(task: word vs. face) ×2(congruency between face and word: incongruent vs. congruent)×2(stimuli duration: 150ms vs. 1500ms) ANOVAs. For the RTs data, there was significant interaction between congruency and task. The interaction between duration and task was also significant. The main effects of these three factors were all significant. Further analysis indicated that the RTs in the “word task” was shorter than the “face task” when the targets displayed with a duration of 150ms, but not 1500ms. Furthermore, in the “face task”, when the targets displayed with a duration of 150ms, RTs were shorter for congruent compared to incongruent trials, i.e., a Stroop effect occurred; but in the “word task”, there was no significant difference in RTs between incongruent trials and congruent trials. When the targets displayed with a duration of 1500ms, there was no significant emotional conflict effect in the face task and in the word task. And there were no significant difference in RTs between face task and word task in the condition of 1500ms. To recap briefly, the present study found that there was a Stroop asymmetry effect in the face-word task. Emotional word processing is not affected by emotional face. And the duration of stimuli is an important factor in the face-word Stroop task. The face-word stroop task should be used carefully in the future studies. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Interaction between Syntactic information and Semantic information in Chinese Sentence Processing:The evidence from ERP Research 2013, 36(4): 827-831.  Abstract ( 2765 )   PDF (308KB) ( 2306 )   The timecourse of the interaction between syntactic and semantic information during sentence processing is investigated using event related potentials (ERPs). With the "ba" sentences, the present study examines brain responses to syntactic-only violation conditions, semantic-only violation conditions and doubly violation conditions. The specific procedure of the experiment is shown in Figure 1. The LAN effect is compared between syntactic-only violation sentences and doubly violation sentences. As shown in Figure 2, the doubly violation sentences give rise to longer latency (p<0.01) and larger amplitude (p<0.01) and more widely cortex distribution (p<0.05) than the syntactic-only violation sentences(see Figure 3&4). In the earlier stage of the syntactic processing, the completeness of the semantic information affects the LAN effect, there is an interaction between syntax and semantics in this stage. The N400 effect is compared between semantic-only violation sentences and doubly violation sentences. As shown in Figure 5, they don't have significant difference between the amplitude (p>0.05) and distribution (p>0.05), while the lack of the syntactic information in the doubly violation sentences prolongs the time of the sentence processing (p<0.01). In this stage, the processing of semantics is influenced by syntactic information, there is also an interaction between syntax and semantics in this stage. The P600 effect is compared between syntactic-only violation sentences and doubly violation sentences. As shown in Figure 2, they have the slightly different amplitude and highly different distribution, the doubly violation sentences give rise to larger positive component(p>0.05) and more widely cortex distribution (p<0.05). The P600 effect is reduced in the doubly violation sentences as compared to the P600 elicited in a syntactic-only violation sentences, the incompleteness of the semantic information affects highly the processing of the whole sentence, there is an interaction between syntax and semantics in this stage as well. These results suggest that semantic and syntactic information are integrated during the earlier stages of sentence processing indexed by the different LAN effect, and these interactions continue in the other stages of processing indexed by different N400 effect and the reduction of the P600. This study provides evidence supporting parallel processing model. Related Articles | Metrics

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Research on Zhuang university student’s SNARC Effect of One-digit Number Word lin yonghai 2013, 36(4): 832-836.  Abstract ( 2534 )   PDF (339KB) ( 2361 )   In recent years, the study of the spatial–numerical association of response code (SNARC) effect as a hot spot. Previous studies showed that the SNARC effect was found consistently for varying notation(e.g. auditory number word, visual Arabic numeral, visual number word, visual dice pattern). According to Dehaene, et al. (1993), the orientation of SNARC effect is formed by cultural factors such as general writing direction. In current study, The participants are Zhuang university student who master Chinese, English and Zhuang number words. The main goal of the present study was threefold: first, to investigate whether the horizontally SNARC effect could be observed in One-digit Chinese, English and Zhuang number words; Second, to find whether the size of the SNARC effect in the auditory condition as the same as the SNARC effect in visual condition; Third, to find whether Cultural factors affect SNARC effect of Zhuang auditory numbers which haven not corresponding visual numbers. In order to detect the SNARC effect under the conditions of visual and auditory One-digit number words, E-prime software programming in current study. Two experiments were conducted with the Chinese/Zhuang auditory number words(experiment I) and Chinese/English Visual number words(experiment II) ranging from 1 to 9, except for 5. Participants were required to classifying numbers by their parity. Reaction time and response accuracy were collected. Reserved the participant whom accurate no less than 80%. ANOVA analyses and regression analyses were performed in both experiments. Our data suggest that: One-digit Zhuang and Chinese auditory numbers have both shown the SNARC effect(see Figure 1, Figure 2); One-digit English and Chinese visual numbers have also shown the SNARC effect(see Figure 5, Figure 6).Further regression analysis showed that these three number word did show the SNARC effect (Figure 3,4,7,8). Took varying notation number words for t-test, there were not significant differences in .05 level. This indicates that the size of the SNARC effect in the auditory condition did not differ from the SNARC effect in visual condition; At last, the SNARC effect of Zhuang auditory numbers which haven not corresponding visual numbers were also affected by writing experience. Related Articles | Metrics

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Stress Reactivity and Emotional Recovery: Individual Differences in Sense of Coherence 2013, 36(4): 837-841.  Abstract ( 3244 )   PDF (305KB) ( 2533 )   There is a wealth of evidence demonstrating sense of coherence (SOC) is related to negative emotion, but the relationship with positive emotion remains unclear. Researchers have demonstrated that positive and negative emotions have different adaptive functions for individuals. Positive emotion could build individual’s physical, intellectual and social resources by broadening one’s thought-action repertoires (Fredrickson, 1998). Negative emotion could narrow one’s momentary mind-sets by behaving in a specific way. Using a “nine holes” task to create a laboratory situation of stress, we examined both negative and positive emotional experience among high and low sense of coherence participants. As far as we are concerned, there is no direct evidence about emotional recovery among sense of coherence individuals. But researches of relevant academic field-Resilience have demonstrated that high and low resilient individuals may differ in the pace of the emotional recovery (Waugh, Fredrickson, & Taylor, 2008). Thus, we examined characteristics of emotional recovery of high and low sense of coherence participants. In present study, there were 46 subjects (34 female, 12 male) to participate and complete the experiment. The 13-item short version of the Orientation to Life Questionnaire (SOC-13) was used to test participant’s sense of coherence. After filling in personal information, subjects saw one neutral picture quietly for one minute, then used PANAS (modified version) to rate their mood. Accompanying with experimenter’s instructions, all the participants finished the “nine holes” task, and then rated 14 pressure emotions. Afterwards they saw the other neutral picture for one minute, and then rated the same 14 pressure emotion items (randomly displayed). All the ratings were completed on the 14.0 inches computer. The results revealed that (1) Individuals with high sense of coherence reported significantly more positive emotion than low sense of coherence participants. By contrast, low SOC individuals rated more negative emotion than high SOC participants. (2) Low sense of coherence participants were induced more negative emotion rather than positive emotion when given the circumstances of stress. (3) High sense of coherence individuals got more emotion recovered during the rest period. (4) Individuals with low sense of coherence defined its characteristic towards emotion change, namely, they were induced more negative emotion under stress and recovered themselves more slowly. These findings suggested that high sense of coherence individuals may have greater ability to use positive emotion to cope with and adapt in stress or adversity; while individuals with low sense of coherence may have negative bias towards affective perception, thus they were more easily affected by negative emotion, which could confine their attention to the “bad” stimuli and prevent their emotional recovery process ultimately. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Explainable Reasonability of Ponzo Illusion: the Limitation of Tilt Constancy Theory 2013, 36(4): 842-847.  Abstract ( 3068 )   PDF (362KB) ( 1564 )   Tilt constancy theory is a new but limited theory that explains Ponzo illusion. The theory claims that the tilt induction effect of tilt background line made the subjects have the different perception of two horizonal lines. But other researchers had the different opinions from the Prinzmental’ result. All of the disputes seemed to be reflected the limitation existed in the theory. The method of adjustment was employed. In experiments，the fixed design was 2(viewpoints:6°，2°)×2(illusion versions: standard, rectilinear) ×2(distances of horizontal lines: 50mm，85mm and 120mm). In experiments，the subjects were asked to adjust the distances of horizontal lines below by the key“PgDn”and“PgUp”. Until they thought the distances of horizontal below that equaled the ones above. AVOVA was employed to analyze the figures calculated by the illusion magnitude formula. In Experiment 1, the illusion magnitude of symmetrical rectilinear version of Ponzo illusion was obtained the same as which Prinzmetal(2001) got when the distance of horizontal line was set to 50mm.However,under the condition of 85mm and 120mm,we got more magnitude of illusion than that of the previous results, the different results mismatched with the tilt constancy theory. In Experiment 2, we got the same magnitude as the former one. The results in the research reflectal that：（1）The result form the Prizmental could be seem in the specific condition.（2）Tilt constancy theory had its limitation，it can’t explain the production mechanism of Ponzo illusion in the all conditions.（3）The tilt background line was the important factor influencing the illusion magnitude. The mechanism isn’t the tilt induction effect，but the perception difference of the included angle of the background line.(4)Viewpoint and the distances of the horizontal lines were both the major factors influencing the Ponzo illusion magnitude. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Childhood Psychological Maltreatment to Junior High School Students’ Depression: Mediating Roles of Automatic Thoughts Rui SONG LIU AiShu 2013, 36(4): 855-859.  Abstract ( 3016 )   PDF (286KB) ( 2596 )   Abstract Purposes Although few researches have examined the cognitive mechanisms for the effect of childhood psychological maltreatment on depression, childhood history of psychological maltreatment is a risk factor for depression. The purpose of the study is to explore the relation among automatic thoughts, depression and the psychological maltreatment they had suffered in childhood. In this study, automatic thoughts were proved to be mediators. Methods Cluster sampling was applied in this study while 838 junior high school students were chosen from countryside of Heilongjiang Province as subjects. Childhood Psychological Maltreatment Scale, Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire (ATQ) and Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) were applied in this investigation. The statistical analyses were performed with SPSS 17.0. The reliability of the scales was tested with Cronbach’s Alpha. And the relation among childhood psychological maltreatment, automatic thoughts and depression was tested with Structure Equation Modeling. Results (1) The Cronbach’s Alphas of three scales were 0.72-0.95 in the study, acceptable coefficients. (2) In the investigation, 44.28% of the junior high school students had been maltreated in their childhood while terrorizing was the most common type of psychological maltreatment. (3) The study showed there were significant gender differences (P<0.001) in psychological maltreatment score. (4) The descriptive statistics for the main variables were presented in this study. The correlation matrix showed that automatic thoughts and depression were significantly correlated with psychological maltreatment (P<0.001). (5) Childhood psychological maltreatment had significant direct effect on automatic thoughts and depression (β=0.245, β=0.674, both p<0.001), and automatic thoughts had significant direct effect on depression (β=0.383, p<0.001). It was proved that automatic thoughts was a partial mediator between childhood psychological maltreatment and the depression of the children (Z=51.2, p<0.01). Conclusions (1) The childhood psychological maltreatment scale, ATQ and SDS had good reliability in the study. (2) The childhood psychological maltreatment was common in the investigated sample, and 44.28% of the junior high school students had been maltreated, terrorizing being the most common type of maltreatment. (3) The effects of childhood psychological maltreatment and automatic thoughts of junior high school students on their depression were proved in this study. The participants with a childhood history of psychological maltreatment reported higher level of depressive symptoms than those who had no experience, and this aggravation of depression was mediated by automatic thoughts. The mediating roles of automatic thoughts suggested salient leverage points for changing cognitive mechanisms reformation to decrease the depression level of junior high school students. Innovation Previous researches have proved the relationship between childhood psychological maltreatment and depression. Despite this, the study’s results support the proposal that negative cognition plays a particularly important role in the development of depression in children who experienced psychological maltreatment. In addition, this study illustrates that automatic thoughts are likely to be important targets for intervention in children who experienced psychological maltreatment. The children can be taught to think in the way that is good for their recovery from childhood psychological maltreatment. Related Articles | Metrics

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The relationship between social withdrawal and social adjustment 2013, 36(4): 860-864.  Abstract ( 2718 )   PDF (307KB) ( 2489 )   The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship among reticent and solitary-passive behavior and adjustment in Chinese children, and the moderate effect of gender. Participants are 145 children (M=129 months, SD=6.5, 60 boys and 85 girls) in Beijing, China. Children were invited to visit the university laboratory and play in quartet, and all sessions were videotaped. Reticent and solitary-passive behaviors were assessed on the basis of children’s behaviors during two free-play sessions in a battery of laboratory observation procedure, using the Play Observation Scale. After the observation procedure, children were asked to fill out some questionnaire which assessed children’s loneliness, depression and self worth. Participants’ teachers were visited and asked to report children’s academic achievements, leadership and school adaptation abilities and problems. It was found that reticent behavior was positively associated with internalizing problems(r=0.41, p<0.01) and victimization(r=0.39, p<0.01) and negatively associated with school adaptation ability(r=-0.36, p<0.05) for boys but not for girls, whereas solitary-passive behaviors was positively associated with indicators of adjustment problems such as loneliness(r=0.30, p<0.01) and depression(r=0.29, p<0.01), and negatively associated with school adaptation abilities(r=-0.29, p<0.05) and leadership(r=-0.31, p<0.05) for girls but not for boys. These results are not consistent with those findings from research conducted in western countries and indicate that the adjustment outcomes of reticent and solitary-passive behaviors are defined by cultural context. The results also indicate that gender may play an important role in defining the functional meanings of children’s social behaviors. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Influence of Study and Test Experiences on Underconfidence with Practice Effect in Judgment of Learning Gong-Xiang CHEN 2013, 36(4): 865-869.  Abstract ( 3052 )   PDF (306KB) ( 2253 )   Koriat, Sheffer, and Ma’ayan (2002) documented a phenomenon that they termed the underconfidence-with-practice (UWP) effect: When participants are presented with the same list of paired-associates for several study-test cycles, their JOLs exhibit relatively good calibration on the first study-test cycle, with a tendency for overconfidence. However, a shift toward marked underconfidence occurs from the second study-test cycle onward. The UWP effect was found to be very robust. Based on the memory for past test (MPT hypothesis), we examined the influence of the test experience and learning experience by inserting two judgments in learning and tests stages in two experiments: the second-order judgments (SOJs) and retrospective confidence judgments (RCJs). Second-order judgments (SOJs) pertain to an individual’s confidence in the JOLs themselves; the second judgment called retrospective confidence judgments (RCJs) ,which was used to access the correctness of past retrieval and often are assumed to arise from the retrievability of the to-be-judge item from memory. Participants were instructed that they would be learning 48 word pairs and making JOLs. JOLs were explained as judgment of learning based on what they thought were their chances for recalling the second word when given the first word during a memory test that would happen in a minutes. They were asked to use a scale from 0 to 100%. On trial 1 in Experiment 1, Participants completed the tasks in the order described below： a) Study. Each item was displayed individually for 3s to study. b) Judgments of learning. The participant judged the likelihood of correctly retrieving that item on a subsequent test of memory. c) Second-order judgments. A given JOL was followed immediately by an SOJ in Experiment1. d) Paired-associate recall. The cue was presented in an order of studying, and the participant was instructed to respond with the word that was originally paired with that cue. Experiment 2 was different from Experiments 1 in two aspects: First, SOJs was not used after JOL; Second, A given RCJ followed immediately the test. Participants were asked to rate confidence in the accuracy of each answer. They also used the scale from 0 to 100%. The results showed that the SOJs and RCJs did eliminate the UWP effect in two experiments and proved that the test experience and learning experience influenced the UWP effect indirectly. Such results indicated that UWP effect is affected by many factors, therefore, a single theory hypothesis can not explain all things of the effect. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Influence of Timing of Puberty on Girls’ Self-concept 2013, 36(4): 870-875.  Abstract ( 2975 )   PDF (358KB) ( 1992 )   As a developmental milestone, puberty is notable for its rapid and near-simultaneous transformation across biological, social, and psychological domains. As physical appearance matures, individuals must navigate changing social norms and expectations. This often necessitates a confrontation and, perhaps, reorganization of identity and self-perception. Aberrance in maturational timing seems to increase risk for emotional and behavioral problems during adolescence and early adulthood. In particular, girls who mature earlier than their peers seem to find pubertal adjustment especially challenging and are more likely to experience detrimental sequelae. The negative outcomes associated with early pubertal timing span multiple domains. These include psychological, medical, sexual, social, and academic correlates. The present research was to explore the influence of timing of puberty on girls’ self-concept. According to cluster sampling principle, 658 girls aged from 12 to 14 years old were investigated with the Pubertal Development Scale (PDS) and the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale (TSCS). The Results found that:①More than 90% of the 12 to 14-year-old girls are in midpubertal and late pubertal stage, and few girls are in prepubertal and postpubertal stage; ②The results of two-factor variance analysis showed that, there were no main effects of age and pubertal stage on all factor scores and the total score of TSCS; ③The interaction of age and pubertal stage was apparent on Family self, Social self, Self identity, Self action, and the total score of TSCS, the girls at low pubertal stages and high ages, and those at high pubertal stages and low ages, get significantly lower scores. The research showed that too late or too early puberty timing might both have negative effect on girl’s self-concept development. Further research should attempt to elucidate the mechanisms by which early maturation afects the adolescent girl’s self-concept development. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Relationship of Life Event and Pregnancy Stress:The Mediating Effect of Mental health and the Moderating Effect of Husband Support 2013, 36(4): 876-883.  Abstract ( 2973 )   PDF (530KB) ( 2614 )   Pregnancy is not only a natural biological process, but also a complex and changeable period of emotion. Pregnant women are often influenced directly by life events during pregnancy. They usually face many big physiological and psychological changes which may affect their psychosomatic health and increase the risk of pregnancy complications. Moreover, pregnant women will experience enormous pressure. Therefore, the present study aimed at investigating the relationship between life events and pregnancy stress of pregnant women by adding mediator and moderated mediator, which mental health status was considered as a mediator and husband support as a moderated mediator. A total of 403 pregnant women during their 24~33 weeks pregnancy were administrated to fill out basic information scale, life events questionnaire, pregnancy stress scale and the 10-item Kessler Psychological Distress Scale according to their actual situation. The results showed that: (1) the main effect of gestational age was not significant (F（6,774）=.88, p>.05) whereas the main effect of pregnant plans was significant (F（3,387）=3.07, p<.05). Moreover, gestational age combined with pregnant plans to affect pregnant women’s pregnancy pressure remarkably (F（6,774）=2.47, p<.05), especially in terms of pregnant women who was under 25-year-old; (2) life event was positively related to pregnancy stress and negatively related to mental health of pregnant women (r=.332 and -.252, p<.01); (3) the effect of life events on pregnancy was partially mediated by mental health status of pregnant women, that is, life events exercised an influence on pregnancy stress through mental health status. The proportion of the mediating effect was 11.92 percent. Moreover, husband support moderated the mediating effect which was caused by mental health status (β=-.117, p<.05); when the degree of husband support which was reported by pregnant women was high, mental health status significantly predicted pregnancy stress, that is to say, the mental health status was better, then the pregnancy stress was lower (β=-.479, p<.001); when the degree of husband support which was reported by pregnant women was low, the prediction of mental health status was not significant to pregnancy stress (β=-.071, p>.05). All in all, adjusting mental health status of pregnant women and providing them relevant social support were important to pregnant women, fetus, even families. Husbands, as expectant fathers, should pay attention to wives’ thoughts and feelings, care about their physical changes initiatively, encourage them to face with life events bravely and try to build favorable family atmosphere. All these will be good for pregnant women to have joyful and relaxed emotional experience. Accordingly, pregnant women can reduce pregnancy stress and confidently wait for the coming of a new life. The results also can let some child health care organization and gynecologists attach great importance to give suggestions and provide knowledge and any other beneficial help. Related Articles | Metrics

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Delay-discounting and Its Relations with Adolescent Substance Abuse and Addition and Externalizing Behaviors 2013, 36(4): 884-891.  Abstract ( 2976 )   PDF (530KB) ( 2202 )   Delay-discounting refers to such a phenomenon that future consequences or outcomes decrease in value or their effectiveness to control current behaviors, because they are delayed. For a delayed reward, the longer time it is delayed, the less its current subjective value will be compared to its actual value. Delay-discounting rate is used as a mathematical index to describe the extent to which a person discounts the value of future consequences or outcomes. Individuals with high delay-discounting rate tend to choose a smaller but immediate reward, rather than a larger but delayed one. In the current paper, we first introduced the definition, measuring methods and measure indices of delay-discounting. Then we reviewed studies on the relationship of delay-discounting and adolescent problem behaviors (including substance abuse and addiction and externalizing behaviors). The delay-discounting rate was significantly higher among addicted adolescents (i.e., teenager alcoholics, smokers, and Internet addicts) than the non-addicts, and delay-discounting could reliably predict of adolescents’ substance abuse and internet addiction. Although a significant association between delay-discounting and adolescents’ externalizing behaviors was expected theoretically, the empirical studies failed to find a consistent relationship between delay-discounting and adolescent externalizing problem behaviors. At the end of the paper, we gave several suggestions regarding to the directions for future research. First, the nature of delay-discounting should be extensively explored. Whether it is a personality trait or a phenomenon of cognitive and decision-making? Second, researchers need to conduct longitudinal study to explore the development trajectory of delay-discounting, and to reveal the associations between individual’s delay-discounting and the relevant personality and cognitive variables. Third, in order to reveal the impact of delay-discounting on adolescents’ psychological and social adaptation, more complex research design should be employed and other variables regarding to adolescents’ personality, cognition and developmental contexts such as parenting etc should be considered and included in the research. Last but not the least, the study of delay-discounting has a broad prospect, especially from a developmental perspective. Whether does delay-discounting related with positive youth development or not? Previous studies mostly focus on the individuals who have a high delay-discounting rate, and little study discuss about the low delay-discounting rate group. Does this low delay-discounting rate group have some advantages in daily work and life? These problems are worth studying and discussing . Related Articles | Metrics

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The Effect of Infant and Toddler Directed Videos on Parent-child Interaction for 1-2 Year-old Children 2013, 36(4): 892-898.  Abstract ( 2798 )   PDF (450KB) ( 3178 )   Using three kinds of infant and toddler directed videos, the study examines the impact of the following two factors on parent-child interaction for 1-2 year-old children, i.e., the interactions explicitly modeled in the videos and the cultural appropriateness of the videos. Two groups of child–parent dyads participated in the study (24 in the 12-month group and 24 in the 18-month group). Through comparing the parent-child interaction before the video viewing, during the video co-viewing and immediately after video viewing, the results show that after the video viewing, some videos which of rich interactive demonstration may have a positive impact on the quality of parent-child interaction. It implies that parents can learn and utilize the interactive opportunities that the videos provide as a basis for parent-child interaction. However, whether parents are able to benefit from the video is closely related to the characteristics of the video. Videos of rich interactive demonstration and cultural appropriateness can have positive impacts on parent-child interaction after video viewing. A video which has rich interactive demonstration but lack of cultural appropriateness may have no positive impacts on parent-child interaction. Therefore, although interactive demonstration of the video has important influence on the parent-child interaction, the cultural appropriateness is critical to the positive effects of videos. During video viewing, there was a decrease in amount of active parent-child engagement regardless of video condition. One reason is parent and child’s attention to the video, the more parents and children attended to the video, the less they interacted with each other. Another reason is, compared with the quality of parental engagement before the video viewing, the quality of parental engagement significantly decreased while the video was on. The research makes some recommendations about design of the content for infant and toddler directed video. Not only the video content should be appropriate for 1-2 years old children, but also it should take into consideration of how parents can learn from video. Infant and toddler directed videos shall provide effective learning tools for parents in terms of good parent-child interaction. Again, when bring in new videos we shall consider the cultural appropriateness, in particular for some videos that seem wonderful but not culturally appropriate. Related Articles | Metrics

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Parental involvement and Vocational School Students’ academic engagement: the moderation role of parenting style 2013, 36(4): 899-903.  Abstract ( 3176 )   PDF (409KB) ( 3396 )   Parent involvement refers to parents involve in children’s schooling. The result of parent involvement on children’s academic area was mixed. Previous studies indicated the role of parenting style in children’s academic development; however, few of them explored the effect of parenting style on the relationship between parent involvement and children’s academic engagement. Moreover, Vocational School Students, as the lost behind students in academic domain, may need more positive support from parents due to their negative experience in school, but the empirical study about Vocational school students is sparse. Hence, the present study aims to investigate relationship among parent involvement, parenting style and Vocational School Students’ academic engagement, tries to identify the mechanism underlie the effect of parent involvement. Parent involvement and parents’ autonomy support/controlling questionnaire as well as academic engagement questionnaire were administered to 513 Vocational School Students and 672 high school students from 18 schools. The Cronbach’s Alpha for the three questionnaires is 0.93, 0.87, and 0.82 respectively. Results indicated that ：1. Social Economic Status (SES)of vocational School Students was significantly lower than high school students (t(1183)=16.35，P<0.00); 2. Parent involvement of Vocational School Students involved less than their counterpart of high school students (t(1183)=5.318，P<0.001); Hence，we can infer that one of the reason for the low level parent involvement in Vocational School may due to their low SES. Parents with low SES may lack of enough skill and knowledge in involving in children’s schooling. 3. Both parent involvement of Vocational School and high school students showed similar types of involvement. Parents involved most in daily care(for vocational school students=3.08±0.79；high school students=3.36±0.76),learning at home was the second, collaboration with community was the last, which suggested that parents in China tend to involvement at home rather than collaboration with school and community due to parents belief towards learning and the insufficient system among parent, school and community. 4. The effect of parent involvement on children’s academic engagement was moderated by parents’ autonomy-supportive/controlling style. The type of learning at home and decision making significantly predicted student’s academic engagement under the autonomy-supportive parenting style（simple slope=0.339， t=7.34，p<0.001， for learning at home；simple slope=1.19，t=3.56，p=0.004，for decision making）, whereas this effect was not found in the controlling parenting style. The present study demonstrated the moderation role of autonomy-supportive/controlling parenting style in parent involvement and Vocational School Students’ academic engagement. One the one hand, it portrait a picture of parent involvement of Vocational School Students；On the other hand，it identified the mechanism of parents involvement , highlighting the moderation role of parenting style in the effect of parent involvement in academic engagement. Related Articles | Metrics

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Moral Disengagement and College Students’ Prosocial Behavior: The Moderating Effect of Moral Identity 2013, 36(4): 904-909.  Abstract ( 5182 )   PDF (506KB) ( 5740 )   Moral disengagement is an individual predisposition to evoke cognitions that allow individuals to restructure their actions to appear less harmful, minimize their role in the outcomes of their actions, or attenuate the distress that they cause to others. Thereby, individual with high levels of moral disengagement may tend to report less prosocial behavior. But, the majority of research on moral disengagement has been conducted in Western cultures, and we have limited knowledge about the moral disengagement of Chinese counterparts. Moral identity is a key psychological mechanism that translates moral judgments, principles, or ideals into action. In other word, moral identity is an important source of moral motivation, leading to greater concordance between one’s moral principles and actions. For example, a stronger sense of moral identity predicts higher rates of volunteerism, and is positively related to perceptual and reflective “moral attentiveness”, empathy, and other forms of prosocial behavior. Therefore, the aim of this present study was to examine the relationship between moral disengagement and college students’ prosocial behavior, and the moderation of moral identity in contemporary China. The Moral Disengagement scale, the Prosocial Tendencies Measure, and the Moral Identity Scale were administered to 550 college students (218 boys and 332 girls) in Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province, using Structural Equation Model Analysis. Results were as follows: (1) Moral disengagement had a negative effect on the prosocial behavior (?=-.29, p<.001). Moral identity had a positive effect on the prosocial behavior (?=.42, p<.001), and significantly moderated the relationship between moral disengagement and prosocial behavior. (2) There was a significant positive relation between moral disengagement and prosocial behavior at high levels of moral identity, ?=-.45, p<.001. However, at low levels of moral identity, the relation between moral disengagement and prosocial behavior was nonsignificant, ?=-.10, p>.05. Finally, the theoretical and practical implications of the findings from the study were discussed. It was argued that findings enriched the theory of moral disengagement by confirming the moderating role of moral identity in the relationship between moral disengagement and prosocial behavior. It suggests, based on the findings, that we can nature individual’s prosocial behavior by reducing their moral disengagement, and improving their moral identity. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Children's Behavioral Inhibition and Maternal Parenting: A longitudinal Study 2013, 36(4): 910-914.  Abstract ( 2686 )   PDF (599KB) ( 1738 )   As transactional model suggested, children are not only the passive recipients, but also active participants during the interaction of family system (Sameroff & Mackenzie, 2003). Children with different temperament may react differently to the similar parenting and induce different parenting behaviors. However, this children-effect-on-parents is often underestimated, and whether it differs in cultural context is unexplored. Chen and his colleagues (1998) have pointed out that children’s temperament, such as behavioral inhibition, has different functional meanings in social interactions and adjustments in different cultural contexts. The purpose of this study is to explore the possible bidirectional relation between maternal parenting and children’s behavioral inhibition by using cross-lagged design. A sample of 104 Children from rural areas of Gansu, China, participated in this study. The children and their mothers were invited to visit local laboratory when they were at 4 years and 6 years old. Children’s behavioral inhibition and maternal parenting were observed during Free-Play, Puzzle task and Stranger Approach vignette. Cross-lagged regression analyses were carried out to study reciprocal influences between maternal parenting and children’s behavioral inhibition. The results showed that children’s behavioral inhibition at 4 years could predict their maternal acceptance and guidance-induction at 6 years after controlling their maternal acceptance and guidance-induction at 4 years; however, maternal parenting at 4 years could not predict children’s behavioral inhibition at 6 years after controlling their behavioral inhibition at 4 years. These findings highlighted children’s active role in parent-child interaction. Besides, the results indicated that children’s high behavioral inhibition might induce more maternal acceptance and guidance-induction in rural areas, which was different from the results in urban areas of China. Therefore, the results may help us understand transactional model of parent-child relationship and the cultural adjustment meanings of children’s temperament. Related Articles | Metrics

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Research on Referential Communication’s Promoting the Indirect Learning of Relational Category 2013, 36(4): 915-921.  Abstract ( 2459 )   PDF (438KB) ( 1696 )   "Relational category" means that identification of category is determined by a common relation structure. People are more inclined to use indirect means to learn category knowledge in real life, such as referential communication. "The indirect category learning " means that learners interact with their objects and learn category knowledge indirectly. Previous studies mainly focused on the characteristics of category learning by "the direct category learning" paradigm. Thus, this study designed three experimental tasks (functional prediction task, liberal classification task and dimensions selection task). The purpose is to explore the indirect learning characteristics of 4 features’ complex relational category by the referential communication learning paradigm. The study designed four features (foot, mouth, hand, eye) virtual alien as experimental materials, each feature has two values(0,1). Three dimensions of virtual alien contain two functional relationships: a simple functional relationship-absorbing water and a complex functional relationship-generating electricity. And simple relationship is contained within complex relationship. The fourth dimension is the interference dimension. Four permutations of these physical features—A. foot, mouth, hand, eye; B. eye, hand, foot, mouth; C. eye, hand, foot, mouth; D. eye, hand, foot, mouth—were assigned in order to eliminating influence on expectations on features or functions of the participants. 96 undergraduate students participated in the current study, evenly divided into male and female, and they were grouped in a random manner. The study used the indirect category learning paradigm-individual indirect category learning condition (24 persons) and referential communication category learning condition (48 persons), and a non-functional predictive learning condition (24 persons). The three experimental tasks were being continuously. The interpretation result of liberal classification explores whether the relations in indirect learning process more salient than features when both acting as category standard by a chi-square test. The result of functional prediction explores that between referential communication learning and individual indirect learning, which one is more effective by a repeated-measures ANOVA of the function prediction accuracy rate. The result of dimension selection explores whether the level of the selective attention of the participants under the conditions of referential communication is significantly higher than that under the individual conditions by a t test. The research found out that with respect to interpretation type of liberal classification result, the participants under the condition of category’s indirect learning are more inclined to select functional relations as the standard of classification while the participants under the condition of non-functional prediction learning are inclined to choose the standard of feature. In the functional prediction learning process, the participants under the condition of referential communication scored significantly higher points than individual condition, and it began to emerge from the fifth learning stage. When it comes to dimension selection task, the average number of biological dimension revealed under the condition of referential communication is significantly greater than that under individual condition. Specifically speaking, there is a strikingly stark difference between the number of relative dimension relating to the participants under the two learning conditions; the things are opposite to the above with respect to that of non-relative dimension. The study shows that in terms of liberal classification task, the participants are more inclined to choose the relation as the standard of category under the condition of indirect learning of category; The learning effect of referential communication condition is significantly better than that of individual condition during the functional prediction process, and such difference is mainly embodied in the middle and later term of learning process in relation to the formation of referential convention rather than in the earlier time of the process; The level of selective attention of the participants under the condition of referential communication during the indirect learning of relational category process is significantly higher than that under individual condition, and such difference is characterized as directivity of selective attention rather than concentration of selective attention (the inhibition of non-relative dimension). Referential communication promotes the indirect learning relating to 4 features’ complex relation category. Related Articles | Metrics

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An Analysis of Mediator Variables between Academic Achievement and Children’ Loneliness ZHANG Lian-Yun 2013, 36(4): 922-927.  Abstract ( 3109 )   PDF (373KB) ( 2266 )   Academic achievement may influence teacher acceptance, peer acceptance and parent-child attachment, and then influence their loneliness. Many studies found that there was close relationship between social relationship and loneliness. However, there was few study focus on the relationship between academic achievement and loneliness. In this study, the mechanism of how academic achievement may affect children’ loneliness would be explored. To determine the specific effect of social relationship on the relationship between academic achievement and loneliness, five models were formulated. The first, second, third and fourth were single-mediator models. They explored the mediating roles of peer rejection, teacher acceptance, parent-child attachment, respectively, between academic achievement and loneliness. And the fifth model, as a multi-mediator model, simultaneously explored the mediating roles of teacher acceptance, peer rejection, parent-child attachment. Findings from this study are intended to provide empirical supports for the strategies that the prevention and intervention of children’ loneliness. Attachment Security Scale, Peer Nomination Questionnaires, and Children’ Loneliness Scale were used to investigate 438 children from elementary school from Grade 4 to Grade 6. Academic achievement was measured by the scores Chinese, Mathematics, and English. To examine the mediator effect of social relationship, the Structural Equation Modeling was used. The results indicate that, the relationships among academic achievement, teacher acceptance, peer acceptance, parent-child attachment and loneliness are significant; when only one mediator variable was examined，teacher acceptance, peer rejection and parent-child attachment were all important mediators respectively between academic achievement and loneliness．The relationship between academic achievement and loneliness could be fully mediated by teacher acceptance，while parent-child attachment or peer rejection could be a partial mediator between academic achievement and loneliness．When multiple mediator variables are examined simultaneously，teacher acceptance, peer rejection and parent-child attachment together could fully mediate the relationship between academic achievement and loneliness; sufficient indices of fitness are obtained for the mediation model． Based on the results of the model testing, the conclusions as follows: teacher acceptance, peer rejection, parent-child attachment have full mediator effect on the relationship between academic achievement and loneliness; there are indirect relations between academic achievement and loneliness; there are direct relation between academic achievement and social relationships; academic achievement could predict teacher acceptance, peer rejection and parent-child attachment directly; there are direct relation between social relationships and loneliness; teacher acceptance, peer rejection, parent-child attachment could together predict loneliness directly. Related Articles | Metrics

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Coping Strategies and Identity Management of Stereotype Threat of Rural-to-Urban Female Migrants Jian Guan Min-Quan CHAI 2013, 36(4): 928-935.  Abstract ( 2658 )   PDF (498KB) ( 2496 )   Stereotype threat has become one of the most widely studied topics of the past decade in social psychology. The concept of stereotype threat is a situational predicament where individuals are at risk, by dint of their actions or behaviors, of confirming negative stereotypes about their groups. It is the resulting sense that one might be judged or treated in terms of a negative stereotype. In 2003, Steele and Aronson’s seminal article on the subject was named a modern classic. In the years since the publication of Steele and Aronson’s article, many articles have followed and documented the generalizability of the stereotype threat effect to a broad array of groups and domains of activity. Studies have observed the effect of stereotype threat on performance. In fact, very fem studies have gone beyond performance to examine some of the other important consequences of stereotype threat. Our research has recognized this omission and started addressing a crucial subject. The term ”rural-to-urban migrants” in the Chinese context refers to farmers-turned-workers who used to be farmers but have now left the countryside to find jobs or a better life in the cities. Although the migrants play an indispensable role in the economic growth in China, they are frequently portrayed negatively by citizens. The migrants also face challenges in relation to attitudes of indigenous urban-dwellers. Rural-to-urban migrants often perceive or experience much discrimination because of their socioeconomic status, language and ethnicity. The general aim of our researches was to investigate the effects and coping strategies of stereotype threat of rural-to-urban female migrants. In this study, we selected Tianjin, a major city located in the northeast of China, as our study site. The sample consisted of 124 rural-to-urban female migrants recruited using a snowballing technique. The present research, consisting of four co-relational studies, investigated coping strategies and identity management of stereotype threat of rural-to-urban female migrants. Study 1 began with measure of identity fusion to explore Chinese female rural-to-urban participants’ city identity and country identity. The results indicated that female participants’ city identity was significantly lower the identity of rural in baseline. Study 2 used the measure of stereotype threat and measure of impression management to test coping strategies and identity management. It showed when facing the stereotype threat of city identity, the city identity of participants who had high impression management improve no significantly, but the rural identity had a significant decline, otherwise both of them are not significant of low impression management. In study 3, we used the measure of extreme behavior. The results found that participants of high city identity had more city identifying behaviors than low city identity participants. Years of working in the cities and income influenced city identity. And in the study 4, measure of role model was adopted. The results showed that the city identities of participants who receive deserving role model subscale improve significantly, and had a significant decline of rural identity. Therefore, the results suggest that female migrant workers tend to use negative coping strategies to cope with city identity stereotype threat, and have a reasonable expectation to their self-identity when facing different types of role model. Related Articles | Metrics

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Emotions and Illsion of Control Influence Herd Behavior Jun ZHOU 2013, 36(4): 936-941.  Abstract ( 2592 )   PDF (402KB) ( 1703 )   Herd behavior is a typical irrational behavior in stock markets. Investors’ herd behaviors are motivated by exogenous variable such as information asymmetry, information uncertainty or ambiguity, high information cost, homogeneousness of investors, etc. and endogenous variables such as confirmity, need of rewarding or reputation, cognitive heuristics, investors' traits and emotions, illusion of control, etc., and they may explain observations of excess volatility of stock markets. This study’s purposes are to examine the impact of specific emotions and illusion of control of individual investors on herd behavior. A 3×2 between-subjects design crossed a emotions manipulation(neutral, happiness and fear)with an illusion of control manipulation(high, low) and one hundred eighty-two participants were assigned to six experimental conditions. After completing judgment-of-control task adapted from Alloy & Clements(1992), 35% of the lower and upper of 182 participants were divided into high or low of illusion of control according to illusion of control composite index scores. Then participants entered specific emotion-elicited procedure. They put on the headset and watched one of three film clips on the computer, which depended on the experimental condition, following to have self-reflective writing in order to make the emotional experiences more personally meaningful and intense. Last, participants attended a 12-periods invest decision-making task by respectively three-emotions group. After completing all the tasks, participants were asked to describe specific emotions by PANAS-X scale. Dependent variable was each participant’s herd behavior. The results found three emotions control conditions effectively stimulated specific emotions, i.e. neutral, happiness, and fear, and individual analyses of variance(ANOVAs) on self-reported experience of happiness, F(2,179)=172.10, and fear, F(2,179)=440.76, revealed strong emotion-induction effects(ps<.001). The main effects of specific emotions(F(2, 114) = 164.61, p< .001,η2=0.74) and illusion of control(F(1, 114) = 62.67, p< .001,η2=0.36) to the buy herd behavior were all significant. As the "emotions" hypothesis predicted, happy individuals’ buy herd behavior(M = 0.99 , SD = 0.86) was the highest, and neutral individuals’ (M = -0.04 , SD = 0.48)was second, and fear individuals’ (M = -0.95 , SD = 0.38) was the lowest. Compared with low illusion of control individuals’(M = -0.35 , SD = 0.78), high illusion of control individuals’ (M = 0.35 , SD = 1.08) buy herd behavior was more. The main effects of specific emotions(F(2, 114) = 163.38, p< .001,η2=0.74) and illusion of control(F(1, 114) = 63.82, p< .001,η2=0.36) to the sell herd behavior were all significant. As the "emotions" hypothesis predicted, fear individuals’ sell herd behavior(M = 1.02 , SD = 0.87)was the highest, and neutral individuals’ (M = -0.12 , SD = 0.57)was second, and happy individuals’ (M = -0.90 , SD = 0.28) was the lowest. Compared with high illusion of control individuals’ (M = -0.35 , SD = 0.73), low illusion of control individuals’ (M = 0.35 , SD = 1.11)sell herd behavior was more. More importantly, a significant interaction between emotions and illusion of control also emerged(F(2, 114) = 7.94, p < .01,η2=0.12). Simple effect analysis indicated that with happy emotion high illusion of control investors were disposed to optimistic buy herd behavior, and with fear emotion low illusion of control investors were disposed to pessimistic sell herd behavior. The current results suggest that specific emotions and illusion of control do have effects on investors’ herd behavior. Besides advancing theories of emotion and illusion of control influencing investors’ decision making, these results have some pragmatic implications. Whether herd behavior is irrational , rational or bounded rational is future research direction. Related Articles | Metrics

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Charismatic Leadership and Subordinates’ Work Engagement: The Intermediary Mechanism of Identification’ Two-dimension Construct 2013, 36(4): 942-948.  Abstract ( 2818 )   PDF (442KB) ( 2631 )   This study paid attention on the influence of charismatic leadership on subordinates’ work engagement and selected organizational identification and identification with leader. Based on social identification theory, we tried to find the intermediary role of subordinates’ organizational identification and identification with leader in the process of charismatic leadership influencing subordinates’ work engagement. This study investigated 252 employees from several enterprises in China. Through SPSS statistical analysis, we found that organizational identification played a partly intermediary role in this relationship, but identification with leader played a full intermediary role. Besides, subordinates’ organizational identification and identification with leader as two dimensions of identification played intermediary roles in the above relationship at the same time. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Effect of Social Prejudice and Group Threat on the Intergroup Conflict 2013, 36(4): 949-955.  Abstract ( 2699 )   PDF (428KB) ( 1927 )   The purpose of the present study was probing into the effect of social prejudice and group threat as well as their cognitive processing mechanism on the intergroup conflict behavior conformation. Based on the interviewing of related literatures review and experiments, the present study operated the implicit social prejudice and intergroup threat as the independent variables, and choosing the index of Competitive Reaction Time task and Story Completion Protocol as the experimental dependent variables with choosing the Doctors-Patients prejudice as the exemplars of social prejudice. The present study found that as follows: (1) For DOCTOR subjects, social prejudice had the significant main effect on the punished intensity and punished duration as well as the aggressive expression number. But for PATIENT subjects，social prejudice had the significant main effect only on the punished duration index ; (2) Whether DOCTOR subjects or PATIENT subjects, group threat had the significant main effect on the punished intensity and punished duration and also the aggressive expression number. The result suggested that for the conformation of the intergroup conflict, according to the forces comparison which both sides of conflict hold, social prejudices played important role showing as Directional feature; and group threat had more prominent and direct impact on the trigger of intergroup conflict. In addition, the present study also found that the "two-direction" that research way helps to reveal the nature of the relationship of social prejudices and aggressive behavior. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Influence of Temporal Distance on Value Orientation of college students' Self-brand Connections ——Based Theory of Construal Level 2013, 36(4): 956-959.  Abstract ( 3720 )   PDF (268KB) ( 2561 )   Self-brand connections (SBC) measure the extent to which consumers have incorporated brands into their self-concept.Construal level theory holds that individuals construct different representations of stimuli in their environments, which vary in terms of the degree of abstraction.Research have shown that temporal distance is a primary determinant of construal level.Construal levels influence individual’s judgement and decision making by a preference for information that match the individual's abstract or concrete mindset.Recently, researchers have linked construal levels to important aspects of consumer behaviour,this research adds to this line of inquiry by examining the role of construal level in consumer response to Self-brand Connections. In Experiment One, 2(temporal distance: now, the coming month,the next five year)×2(brand value: mass-market brand, luxury brands)was conducted. The results of variance analysis showed that the main effect of brand value was not significant,F (1,89) = 1.934, p > 0.05; The main effect of temporal distance was also not significant,F (1,89) = 0.540, p > 0.05;the interaction between brand value and temporal distance was significant,F (1,89) = 3.987, p < 0.05.In "now" level,Value Orientation of mass-market brand was better than luxury brands,t (28) = 2.095, p < 0.05; In "the coming month" level, there was no significant difference, t (32) = 1.727, p > 0.05; In "the next five years" level,Value Orientation of luxury brands was better than mass-market brand,t (29) = 2.971, p < 0.01.Experiment One through manipulation of temporal distance revealed that self-brand connections was based on functional attributes in distal temporal distance, but in proximal temporal distance it was based on the symbol properties. In Experiment two,2(temporal distance:now,in the coming month,in the next five year)×2(brand value: mass-market brand,luxury brands)×2(feedback situation:the positive feedback situation,the negative feedback situation) was conducted.the study through the manipulation of success or failure situation explored the mechanism. the triple interaction of brand value,temporal distance and feedback situation was significant, F (1,175) = 5.265, p < 0.05,we made further analysis, and the results were as follows:in the positive feedback situation, Value Orientation of mass-market brand was better than luxury brands in"now" level,t (28) = 2.556, p < 0.05; In "the coming month" level, there was no significant difference, t (30) = 1.458, p > 0.05; In "the next five years" level,Value Orientation of luxury brands was better than mass-market brand, t (29) = 3.914, p < 0.01.In Negative feedback situation, variance analysis of 2(Brand value) ×2(temporal distance ) was made that,the main effect of brand value was significant, F (1,89) = 53.561, p < 0.01; the main effect of temporal distance was not significant, F (1,89) = 0.351, p > 0.05;the interaction of brand value and temporal distance was not significant,F (1,89) = 0.356, p > 0.05.The results indicated that in the positive feedback situation, with the extension of temporal distance, Value Orientation of luxury brands was better than mass-market brand gradually; but In the negative feedback situations whether distal temporal distance or proximal temporal distance,value orientation of mass-market brand was better than luxury brands. Conclusion:temporal distance influence value orientation of college students' self-brand connections, its mechanism is self-enhancement. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The Impact of Psychological Capital on Employees’ Career Success: Mediating Role of Career Commitment Ren-hao Ren Zhong-Lin WEN 2013, 36(4): 960-964.  Abstract ( 4576 )   PDF (300KB) ( 3668 )   Why are some people more successful in their careers than others? Given that careers were important to individuals, organizations, and society, career success was always an interesting topic for both organizational practitioners and researchers. An examination of the literature on career success revealed human capital, social capital played critical role on fostering one’s success. With an increase in mergers, acquisitions, and layoffs, career environment drastically changed. Recent organizational research had suggested that psychological capital may facilitate employees’ career success. This research aims to explore how psychological capital influence on employees’ career success. A survey was conducted with 265 employees from a large State-owned enterprise in a province from eastern China to explore how psychological capital had influence on employees. Employees’ psychological capital, career commitment and career success were rated by participants self-report. After controlling human capital factors, such as, educational level and organizational tenure, we analyzed the data by using SEM, The results revealed that: (1) Employees’ psychological capital had a salient positive relationship with career commitment and career success; (2) Psychological capital increased employees’ career commitment, and the latter increase employees’ probability of career success; (3) Career commitment played a partial mediator between psychological capital and objective career success, but the effect of psychological capital on subjective career success was totally mediated by career commitment. Our findings provided a new perspective on how to foster employees’ career success. In application, it suggested managers should cultivate their employees’ psychological capital to facilitate employees to achieve their career success. Besides, employees should develop positive attitude towards their career (i.e., career commitment) to flourish their career success. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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A review of influencing factors and motivation mechanisms of rumor spreading 2013, 36(4): 965-970.  Abstract ( 3040 )   PDF (378KB) ( 2887 )   The spreading of rumors is a very common phenomenon in social life as an informal channel of exchanging information. It can affect the attitude and behavior of the public as the information spreads among people. Researchers have paid much attention to the potential harm rumors can cause, especially during World War II. The study of rumors dates back hundreds of years, during which the rumor transmission is what most concerns researchers. With the development of network and the involvement of varieties of media, not only has the content of rumors themselves changed, but the mode of transmission, the speed and breadth of the rumors have also undergone tremendous changes. The purpose of this article is to describe and summarize the study of rumors, which includes the generation, dissemination, social psychological mechanisms involved in the process of influencing factors. Rumor is defined as something that is said to be true but lacks secure standards of evidence .There exist essential differences among rumors, gossip and urban legend. The transmission of rumors is not passive. It involves rich dialogues, subjective viewpoints, inferring meaning, and varieties of unspoken messages, all within the communication. Traits of specific groups and context are two kinds of variables that significantly affect rumor transmission. When studying the spread of rumors, researchers pay the most attention to anxiety, the desire for control, trust, ambiguity, and threats. One study that focused on explaining why these factors can influence rumor transmission indicated that fact finding, relationship enhancement and self-enhancement are the three most important underlying motivations of rumor transmission. When individuals are in a fuzzy and threatening context, rumors tend to be generated which often will have a very negative impact on the individual’s life. With the development of varieties of media, the internet and other communication technology, both organizational managers and government officials face the rumor problem. Rumors can be destructive in public emergencies (natural disasters, accidents, disasters, public health emergencies, social events, etc.), as they affect the public morale and easily lead to social chaos. What’s important is that under the condition of modern information technology, the speed and scope of its breeding and spreading is difficult to predict. The emotions behind the generation and dissemination of rumors magnify and spread. In the modern information technology society, the controllability of rumor spreading will be extremely difficult, not to mention costly. Since the reform and opening up, the occurrence of major events in China has shown a rapid upward trend. Future studies should prescribe more importance to the relationship between the cluster-efficacy, trust and authority to explore how rumors lead to mass incidents. The similarities and differences among those who spread rumors are expected to reduce or even eliminate the impact of individual behavior. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Dynamic Mechanism Underlying Mental Time Travel: The Role of Self 2013, 36(4): 971-977.  Abstract ( 3513 )   PDF (459KB) ( 1602 )   Mental time travel is comprised of mental reconstruction from personal past events (episodic memory), as well as mental construction from possible future events (foresight) (Suddendorf & Corballis, 1997). Recent findings suggest that both episodic memory and the self can contribute to shape the episodic future thinking (foresight). However, how self-concept may make the process different is not yet fully understood (Shao, Yao, Ceci & Wang, 2010). The current two studies therefore aim to explore the dynamics between the self and mental time travel. The first study investigated how core self-evaluations can be related to mental time travel, by showing whether the self-concept can predict episodic future thinking. Sixty undergraduates completed 4 questionnaires (self-esteem, self-efficacy, locus of control and neuroticism) to evaluate their core self-concepts. Each of them had to either recall past experiences or simulate future scenarios by 4 various aspects (autobiographical fluency, autobiographical specificity, amount of episodic details and phenomenology). A series of correlation analyses and stepwise regression analyses were conducted. The main results show that reported frequencies at future imagination are significantly predicted by past autobiographical fluency (β = .60，p < .001, R2 = .44) and self-esteem (β = .30，p < .005, R2 = .09). Furthermore, the self-efficacy (β = .36，p < .01, R2 = .13) rather than past events can predict the subjective feeling at future events imagination (phenomenology). The second study further explored whether the episodic future thinking can be shaped by different self-construal. Sixty undergraduates were randomly assigned to one of two groups: interdependent or independent self-concept. Participants assigned in each of these groups were presented with a story either focused on self or others. Six questions were further asked to confirm the priming effect. The follow-up interview involved topics in terms of autobiographical specificity, personal focus of past/future events, and phenomenal characteristics. To examine whether the self-construal would affect mental time travel, five repeated measure analyses of variance (ANOVAs) with time (past vs. future) as a within-subject factor, and self-construal (interdependent vs. independent) as a between-group factor were conducted. The main results show : (1) Those in the interdependent self-concept group reported more specific past and future experiences than those in the independent group, F(1,58) = 6.51，p < .05，ηp2 = .10; (2) Those in the interdependent self-concept group reported more information about others and relationships, whereas those in the independent self-concept group described more details about themselves, F(1,58) = 9.36，p < .005，ηp2 = .14; (3) Those in the independent self-concept group gave higher scores at evaluating their subjective feelings, expressing more richness and vividness of episodic details than the other group, F(1,58)= 5.27，p < .05，ηp2 = .08. These findings suggest that the self-concept can drive the construction of past and future events. Our studies reveal the dynamics between the self and mental time travel from a novel perspective. Related Articles | Metrics

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What Will Chinese Do After Immoral Behaviors？ Jun REN 2013, 36(4): 978-983.  Abstract ( 3616 )   PDF (345KB) ( 2805 )   Moral emotion has been a focal element of moral Psychology. It will affect individual behavior patterns. Zhong and Liljenquist(2006), confirmed the existence of “Macbeth Effect” with their experiments, that is, washing hands can reduce one’s immoral sensation. However, some other researches made inconsistent conclusions. The contradictory results indicated that there may exist a certain metaphor relation between social culture and individual psychology. Or, perhaps, to a certain extent, the related research conclusion is not universal. Influenced by Confucianism, Chinese culture has its unique characteristics which are especially known as Face Perceptions. This thesis is focused on the discussion of what will Chinese do when they are under the influence of immoral emotion in the context of Face Perceptions culture, with the Chinese university students as subjects. The study includes three experiments, mainly through arousing the subjects’ immoral emotions(or moral emotions), and then through three examinations, including the preference of character words(concealing- related words and neutral words ), goods choice(concealing-related goods and neutral goods), as well as the preference of color(black and white). The first experiment employs one-factor between-group design, in order to test the ability of immoral emotions(or moral emotions) in affecting individual’s tendency of concealing-related behavior. The steps of the second experiment is the same as the first experiment, but the test mode is changed into a hidden test in order to examine whether immoral emotions(or moral emotions) have the influence of individual hobby about goods choice. The third experiment adopts 2(immoral emotions and moral emotions)×2 (concealing-related behavior and rest) two-factor between-group design in order to inspect whether after concealing-related behavior, people will prefer the white color under the influence of immoral emotion (or moral emotions). The experimental results are as follows: Not only the Chinese university students who are under the influence of immoral emotion have an increased mental and behavioral accessibility of concealing-related behaviors and goods, but also the subjects who are under the influence of immoral emotion have a greater likelihood of the white color after their concealing-related behaviors. While there is no concealing-related behavior (rest), they have a greater desire for the black color. The previous psychological researches found that people preferred white after they made the moral behaviors, while black became their favorite after the immoral behaviors. In a series of three studies' results indicate that, differencing from Western using cleaning as a way to reduce their threatened morality, Chinese individual shows sensibility to moral concealing-related behavior. Related Articles | Metrics

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A　Polytomous extension of High Order DINA Model Tu Dong-Bo 2013, 36(4): 984-988.  Abstract ( 2908 )   PDF (263KB) ( 1754 )   Almost all of cognitive diagnosis models are only adaptive for dichotomous items, which can not satisfy the demands in real work and become the bars of the application and development of cognitive diagnosis. This paper extended the dichotomous HO-DINA model to polytomous and used MCMC algorithm to estimate its parameters of polytomous HO-DINA model. To explore the feasibility of MCMC algorithm and the estimated precision, and to probe the properties of polytomous HO-DINA model, Monte Carlo method is used here. There are two experiments: (1) Fixed the number of cognitive attributes(6), of test items(60) and of examinees (500). The target of this experiment is to explore the feasibility of MCMC algorithm and the estimated precision. (2) This experiment intent to study the properties of polytomous HO-DINA model. In this experiment, the number of cognitive attributes varied with possible values of 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Simulation results showed: (1)Under polytomous HO-DINA model ,the estimation method of MCMC algorithm holds fairly robustness, and it’s precision of item and ability parameters are preferably great. Which indicates the MCMC algorithm method is feasible; (2) The estimate precision of parameters, , and , and the attribute match ration (MMR & PRM) are decreasing with the increasing of the number of attributes, but the estimate precision of and parameters are on the contrary. (3)In real work, if PRM is asked to be higher than 80%, then the number of cognitive attributes is suggested not greater than seven. Related Articles | Metrics

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An Introduction of da: An Index of Relative Metamnemonic Accuracy Xiping Liu Liang-Zi SHI 2013, 36(4): 989-993.  Abstract ( 3031 )   PDF (256KB) ( 1976 )   This article described a revised index of relative metamnemonic accuracy (also known as resolution) for research on metacognitive monitoring. A number of different indices have served in the measure of metamnemonic accuracy, such as Goodman-Kruskal gamma coefficient (?) and indices of the signal detection theory (SDT). SDT indices (e.g. d’ and Ag) suffer from their own limitations when applied to relative metamnemonic accuracy. In contrast, gamma coefficient has dominated in metamnemonic research since Nelson (1984) introduced it. Even though researchers found some of its crucial shortcomings, no index could evaluate the resolution of metamnemonic judgments better than?; however, a revised SDT index da may serve as a desirable replacement of?. Da has a larger scale of [0, ∞) than [-1, 1] of? , and it can overcome the shortcomings of ? in the respect of interval-level analyses and conclusions. A couple of studies focused on the use of this new index to evaluate metamnemonic resolution (Benjamin & Diaz, 2008; Masson & Rotello, 2009). We explained the advantages of da in respect of its application in research, instead of providing mathematical and statistical accounts, and continued with how to compute da, using the example from Benjamin and Diaz (2008). Based on those empirical comparisons of da and?, we made a recommendation that da would be the most desirable index of relative metamnemonic accuracy in a 2×N (N≥4) metacognitive task. Da has been adopted in several studies on recognition as an index of discrimination (Benjamin, Diaz, & Wee, 2009; Macmillan & Creelman, 2004; Matzen & Benjamin, 2009; Tullis & Benjamin, 2011), and recently, Benjamin and his colleague investigated metamnemonic accuracy for faces with da for the first time (Hourihan, Benjamin, & Liu, 2012). Therefore, we concluded that da has a hopeful prospect in its application in research on metacognitive monitoring, and we suggested that researchers should develop a standardized procedure as well as an advanced program for data processing to make da widely accepted by metacognitive researchers. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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A Review on Research Methods of Ego-Depletion Li-Wei ZHANG Feng YU Fang-Yuan CHAI 2013, 36(4): 994-997.  Abstract ( 3247 )   PDF (238KB) ( 1995 )   To mention individual success, good self-control is one important factor that cannot be neglected. In the self-control process, however, people always have to pay for every act resulting in ego-depletion. And this may lead to the failure in self-control later. The ego-depletion can be well illustrated by the self-control strength model, which believes that the source of self is limited. If it is used in one task, the other resources of self control will reduce. It leads to that people cannot reach the standard of established self control performance. And then, self-depletion occurs and results in later control failure or reduction. And in the studies researchers usually use the dual-task paradigm. Researchers randomly assign participants into depletion or non-depletion group (or high-depletion or low-depletion group). And the participants are asked to complete two sequential tasks: task 1 (depletion task) and task 2 (performance task). And in the first task, the self-depletion occurs. After the first task has been finished, the measurement of second task closely followed. And it turns out that out of the self resource consumption in the former task, participants of the depletion group behave poorly in the later task. The depletion task and performance task normally take different forms in order to assemble the effect in general. In this article, we draw a review on the methods of ego-depletion, including inducing, measuring and overcoming in the dual-task paradigm. The inducing part includes inhibiting desire, regulating emotions, thought suppression, attention control and so on. And the ego-depletion measuring includes physical stamina, problem-solving task, concentration and vigilance-type task and so on. Moreover, on methods of overcoming ego-depletion we discuss four points: 1) increase the individual’s overall self-control ability; 2) restore individual’s energy of self-control; 3) motivate individual to mobilize more energy to overcome depletion effects; and 4) reduce the energy loss of self-control tasks. Besides, in this article we also concern about the limitations in present ego-depletion studies, and they are: 1) whether in some self-control tasks used cannot reach agreement; 2) Dual-task paradigm is too simple, and more research are needed extra tasks in the future; 3) We need to use physiological indicators instead of behavioral indicators; 4) The methods of overcoming ego-depletion are temporary. Therefore, we suggest that future studies should focus more on the task effectiveness, employ the three-task more frequently and so on. And we believe that future studies will pay more attentions on the methods of short-term effects, while improving the overall control capabilities in the ego-depletion overcoming. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Psychological Deviation and Its Generation Mechanism in Judgmental Forecasting Xiu-Fang DU 2013, 36(4): 998-1003.  Abstract ( 3006 )   PDF (366KB) ( 3477 )   Different from statistic forecasting, judgmental forecasting, beyond statistical technique, is a subjective way that people use intuition and other cues to forecast what will happen. So it has deviation inevitably. Psychological research found that the deviation in judgmental forecasting has two kinds: inconsistency and bias. Inconsistency is a random deviation from the optimal forecast, whereas bias is a system one. The main performance of bias is as follow: (1) Trend damping. In other words, the forecasts lie below upward trend lines but above downward ones. (2) Elevation effect. That is people often overestimate the trend of no trend series in forecasting. (3) People add random noise to their forecasts. According to the lens-model suggested by Brunswik, there are two type inconsistencies in judgmental forecasting: inconsistency of information acquisition and inconsistency of information processing. The deviation in judgmental forecasting is affected by the process of information processing and features of data series and data presentation format. The process of information processing is quasi-rational. It involved both analytic and intuitive processes. The meaning of intuition is produces an answer, solution, or idea without the use of a conscious, logically defensible, step-by-step process, such as heuristics. There are three main heuristics: availability, representativeness, and anchoring-and-adjustment. Harvey suggested that the type of information on which forecasts were based was the primary factor determining the type of heuristic that people use to make their predictions. The irrational information processing also include overconfident in judgment. People are often too confident to their own beliefs and ability and too optimistic to future. This leads to elevation effect. Hindsight bias is the third type irrational information processing. When recalling their own forecasting, People tend to believe that their forecasting is more accurate than it was. To explore the characteristics of data series that affect judgmental forecasting, researchers conducted a large number of experiments using artificial data. They found that: Different trends of series prediction deviation degree different. High seasonality data may deteriorate judgmental performance. Judgmental forecasting often can't deal well with the series of instability. Random noise has decremental effect on forecast accuracy. Large number of historical data points is not good for judgmental forecasting. Short-term forecast is generally more accurate than long term forecast. Graphical vs. tabular data presentation is a factor that effect accurate, but there is no final conclusion about which one is better. In order to find the effective methods to improve the accuracy of judgmental forecasting, psychologists have studied extensively.Harvey and Stewart suggested some principles respectively that can improve reliability in judgmental forecasting. Other researches found that provision of feedback, decomposition, combining and suggestion adoption could improve the accuracy of judgmental forecasting. Related Articles | Metrics

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Advance of Behavioral Genetics and Neurogenetics of Human Emotional Memory renlai zhou 2013, 36(4): 1004-1008.  Abstract ( 2990 )   PDF (304KB) ( 1276 )   Lots of studies revealed the effects of emotional memory enhancement, that is, we remembered more emotional arousing events more vividly than neutral events, which has significant adaptive value in evolutionary terms implicated in human survival. However, there are extensive individual variations in emotional memory phenomenon, based on some neural and genetic substrates. Recently behavioral genetics and neurogenetics researches of emotional memory made a great breakthrough and confirmed this hypothesis. Firstly, two sorts of genes were introduced in details in this review--the deletion variant of ADRA2B and BDNF Val66Met polymorphism. Moreover, this review discussed the advances of behavioral genetics and neurogenetics of emotional memory. The first behavioral genetics study (de Quervain et al., 2007) using photographs from the international affective pictures system (IAPS) found that the deletion variant of ADRA2B is related to individual differences in enhanced memory for emotional information in healthy young Swiss participants and increased traumatic memory in Saharan African refugees who experienced multiple and highly aversive life-threatening situations. Specifically, the deletion carriers showed more enhanced short-term emotional memory processes and long-term traumatic memories compared with noncarriers. These data suggested that the deletion variant of ADRA2B acts primarily as a loss-of-function polymorphism of the α2b-adrenergic receptor in the regulation of emotional memory. Based on the first behavioral genetics study, this research group continued to finish a neurogentics study to deeply explore the neural mechanisms of the emotional memory enhancement effects by using pictures from IAPS and event-related functional MRI techniques(Rasch et al., 2009). During encoding negative pictures, carriers of the ADRA2B deletion variant exhibited higher amygdala activation and significant stronger functional connectivity between amygdala and insula compared with noncarriers of the deletion. The findings indicated that the ADRA2B deletion variant is related to increased responsivity and connectivity of brain regions implicated in emotional memory. The latest study confirmed these previous findings and extended that the deletion variant in the ADRA2B gene leads to larger contributions of the amygdala and inferior frontal gyrus to successful formation of emotional memories(Urner et al., 2011). However, a study fine-mapping the genomic region harbouring BDNF and BDNFOS showed a significant association of the SNP rs6265 (Val66Met) with the recall of words with positive emotional content 24 h after learning. Specially, Val/Val homozygous participants had better memory performance than Met carriers. Above all, these behavioral genetics and neurogenetics studies break new grounds in emotional memory research and further support the view that emotional memory system have some specificities, which is largely independent of memory for neutral information. Future studies will focus on more candidate genes and interactions between multiple brain regions. Moreover, it is necessary to use positive and negative arousing face expressions and increase the amount of male participants to investigate how the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism influences the encoding and recognition of emotional face in future. And it seems reasonable to focus on the influences of gene variations and polymorphism on emotional memory trade-offs effects or memory narrowing, not limited in discussion of emotional memory enhancement effects. Related Articles | Metrics

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The “Heart” of the Working Mechanism of Mindfulness: Attention or Attitude？ Min-Zhu JU 2013, 36(4): 1009-1013.  Abstract ( 3169 )   PDF (312KB) ( 1850 )   Recently, the psychological construct mindfulness has received a great deal of attention. The majority of research has focused on clinical studies to evaluate the efficacy of mindfulness-based interventions. This line of research has led to promising data suggesting mindfulness-based interventions are effective for treatment of psychological and physical symptoms. However, an equally important direction for future research is to investigate questions concerning mechanisms of mindfulness-based interventions. This theoretical paper puts forward its own opinion attempting to address the question “How do mindfulness-based interventions actually work”, in an effort to explore which is the decisive mechanism of mindfulness. Mindfulness, which has its roots in Eastern contemplative traditions and is now integrated into psychological theory and practice, is defined as the awareness that arises out of intentionally attending in an open and discerning way to whatever is arising in the present moment. Mindfulness-based interventions are complex and multifaceted, incorporating elements of various mindfulness-related techniques, such as breath awareness, body scans, and walking meditation, as well as physical exercise and stretching and training in cognitive reappraisal. However, considering only the most directly mindfulness-related techniques, two different kinds of working mechanisms can be identified, described as attention and attitude. The attention in mindfulness practice refers to maintaining selective attention on the “primary object of observation and be aware of it from moment to moment”. The attitude refers to attentive, nonreactive awareness of whatever is occurring in the present moment, “treating all thoughts as equal in value and neither pursuing them nor rejecting them”. The question now is which of the two mechanisms the conclusive one is. Mindfulness is associated with a special state of consciousness that can be evoked when attention is purposefully brought to the present moment while fostering an open orientation to experience. It involves a high level of ability in attentional control, including sustained attention to maintain awareness of current experience, attention switching to bring attention back to the present moment when it wanders, inhibition of elaborative processing to avoid dwelling or ruminating on thoughts or feelings that are outside of the present moment and non-directed attention to enhance awareness of present experience, unfiltered by assumptions or expectations. To cultivate these abilities of attentional control, almost all the mindfulness practices start from attention training. On the other hand, mindfulness training is about coming to see where natural, automatic reactions stop and the simulation, elaboration, and avoidance processes begin. It aims to cultivate a “being” (opposite to “doing”) mode of mind through meditation practices that teach people how to pay open-hearted attention to objects in the exterior and interior world as they unfold, moment by moment, through which practitioners switch their center of consciousness from prior experience and threatening imagination to present reality. In this way, the meditation practitioner begins to see clearly the difference between automatic reactivity, and the overlearned simulation processes that imbue objects and situations with extra implications. In this process, the transformation of the center of attention is the most important. This hypothesis is directly and indirectly provided by a great deal of empirical study. Related Articles | Metrics

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Understanding the impact of culture on social brain function: The perspective of individual relationship 2013, 36(4): 1014-1022.  Abstract ( 3251 )   PDF (574KB) ( 1332 )   Abstract：Despite diverse contents, the essence of social cognition lies in the human understanding of self, other and their interrelation. As a unique social phenomenon, culture has extensive influence on social cognition, which is focally manifested by the influence of culture on brain processing of "self" and "other" information. Research in culture neuroscience showed a significant influence of culture on self-related processes such as self-relevant memory and self representation, which probably stems from different styles of self-construal in different cultures. In the cortical level, these differences are mainly manifested by different functional changes in medial prefrontal cortices during self-relevant processing in different cultures. In parallel with these evidence, culture also has an important influence on brain processing of “other” information, particularly other people' emotional states, which is mainly embodied by the culture advantage effect in identifying facial expressions and by the culture differences in empathetic processes. This is most evident in culturally modulating effect in amygdala activation. Future studies of cultural neuroscience, may attach more importance to studying neural mechanisms underlying the impact of culture, sub-culture, and religious culture on diverse forms of social cognition (empathetic processes, social comparison, and joint social action), and on the interaction between self relevant processing and emotional relevant processing. Keywords: Self construal, Cultural Neuroscience, Empathy, Self representation, Emotional processing Related Articles | Metrics