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The Audio-visual Modality Effect in Ego Depletion 2016, 39(3): 514-519.  Abstract ( )   PDF (394KB) ( )   Self-control is the ability to attain deliberative control over impulses and abstain from gratifying immediate needs and desires. The strength model of self-control is the most influential theory of explaining the failure of self-control. The strength model indicated resources used for an initial self-control attempt are no longer available for later attempts, resulting in decreased self-control performance. This phenomenon is labeled ego depletion and has been demonstrated in a wide range of studies. The prior studies on strength model focus on different tasks sharing the limited resource. The present study explored whether the same task exerted different modality share the limited resource. The authors adopted the dual-task paradigm through two experiments to validate the modality effect in ego depletion. In Experiment 1, the first task was the working memory task which executed through auditory or visual modality, and the second task was the physical stamina tasks which exerted independent of auditory and visual modality. In Experiment 2, the first task was the working memory, and the second task was the Stroop task which exerted through visual modality. The results of experiment 1 showed that participants who completed visual depleted task performed worse at the second handgrip measure than participants who completed visual non-depleted task, and there is no significant difference at the second handgrip measure between participants who completed auditory depleted task and auditory non-depleted task. The results of Experiment 2 were the same as the ones of Experiment 1. The experiment 1 and experiment 2 indicated implementing the same self-control task through different modality depleted unequal resource, so had different effect on a subsequent task of self-control, which validated the modality effect of ego depletion. Related Articles | Metrics

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Language-specific cortical activation patterns for phoneme verbal fluency task in Chinese assessed by functional near-infrared spectroscopy 2016, 39(3): 520-526.  Abstract ( )   PDF (1301KB) ( )   Verbal fluency task is a kind of traditional psychological test that used to assess individual language fluency ability for transmission of information and a classic paradigm for studying human cognitive and language skills. Since the indicator of this task can distinguish healthy people and patients with certain diseases, it has been widely adopted in some clinical areas, including psychiatry, neurology, neurosurgery and so forth. Because Chinese is a typical Logogram, the neural correlates on the task of its Chinese version may be language-specific. Therefore, the current study investigated brain mechanism when 34 right-handed healthy college students did the Chinese phoneme verbal fluency task assessed by Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS). 34 right-handed (16 males, 18 females) graduate students participated in the experiment and the measuring instrument for brain was LABNIRS Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy which was made by Shimadzu company. Experiment design was within-subject design. Participants were asked to sit in a quiet undisturbed lab to complete Chinese phoneme fluency task, meanwhile assessed by LABNIRS in their frontotemporal area, with the indicator of oxygenated hemoglobin concentration (HbO). The total experimental task consisted of 5 blocks and each block continued for 60s, during which the former 30s for the target condition, namely verbal fluency task and the latter 30s for the rest condition. Before the five blocks, practices were necessary in order to prevent confounding variable. The instructor was presented on a computer in front of participants by E-prime software before being tested and experimental materials were Chinese shengmu: /y/，/sh/，/j/，/d/，/x/, which were randomly presented to the subjects. The data were divided into two kinds: behavior and fNIRS data, which were analyzed respectively. The results showed that the subjects in the verbal fluency task generates an average of 7.23 words per 30s, similar to that of previous study and accord with the expectation. The results of fNIRS found that the task significantly activated the pre-central gyrus, post-central gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus, middle frontal gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, supramarginal gyrus on the left hemisphere and right pre-central gyrus, post-central gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus, superior temporal gyrus, supramarginal gyrus which is bilateral activation pattern. When students doing Chinese verbal fluency task, the activation of the brain areas lay in bilateral frontotemporal region. Moreover the language-specific activation areas were found, which may be bilateral supramarginal gyrus, as the featured regions of Chinese phoneme fluency task. In order to get the valuable information further, this study also analyzed the time-course characteristics during task. According to the results, there was a small but obvious fluctuation around 6 seconds and this feature may be a good revelation for healthy subjects in Chinese phoneme fluency task. This study not only can be provided for the clinical application of brain science and but also be regarded as reference data for psychology tests, which can be better for differentiate research between patients with normal in Chinese verbal fluency task. In addition, this discovery is also proof for specific aspects of Chinese language as a typical Logogram. Related Articles | Metrics

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Semantic Satiation in Representing Chinese Words 2016, 39(3): 527-533.  Abstract ( )   PDF (803KB) ( )   Many of us may have a noticeable experience that when we continuously looking at a character or a word, it will then become strange and weird. This phenomenon was first investigated century ago at 1970, and it was defined as verbal satiation back then. During the researches of such phenomenon, many researchers have reported that prolonged viewing (e.g. 1 minute) or massive repetition (e.g. 30 times) of an English words, result in a lapse or a loss of the meaning of the word. Jakobovits (1960) had first identified this subjective experience as semantic satiation, emphasized that the locus of satiation is to be semantic. Followed researches conducted in English language proved with many paradigms that semantic satiation was commonly occurred, which means with the continual observation to the target word, its meaning will gradually fade away. The same phenomenon was also proved to be existed within Chinese and Japanese characters. However, researchers claimed that the satiation in Chinese characters has nothing to do with semantic but merely an effect of the structure, therefore should be named as “orthographic semantic”. Different ideas among researchers have evoked questions on this issue, whether there is an essential difference between different languages on verbal satiation or it’s just a matter of detection? The representation and the mechanism of verbal satiation are required to be further discussed. This research used speed category matching paradigm to investigate the satiation in Chinese words, as we all know Chinese is a typical ideographic language when English is a phonetic language, so the satiation in this two language may have raised some difference. Four experiments are included in the research. In exp1, test whether the category matching paradigmcan detect satiation with the priming of Chinese words. In exp 2, use lexical repetition to test if the satiation was occurred in the process of lexical representation. In exp3, use meaning repetition to test if the satiation was occurred in the process of semantic representation. In exp4, use ideographic Chinese words to see how it influences satiation. All experiments used 2(repetition status)*2(matching status) within-subject design. All subjects were Chinese college students. In the data analysis, in order to successfully detect repetition factor, the trial position in each block will be regard as a new study factor. The study results showed that in exp1, the reaction time was prolonged due to the repetition, which indicates the occurrence of satiation. However, exp2 and exp3 suggest that lexical repetition and semantic repetition alone cannot trigger satiation. In exp4, use the ideographic words as materialonce again triggered satiation in the processof semantic repetition. The results of these four experiments indicate that there is semantic satiation in Chinese words, which showed no essential difference between English and Chinese. However, since the form of Chinese words includes abundant semantic information, the satiation can be in either occurred in the associative level or purely in semantic level. Related Articles | Metrics

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Relationship Between the Acuity of Approximate Number System and Mathematics Ability 2016, 39(3): 580-586.  Abstract ( )   PDF (328KB) ( )   Number symbols play an very important role in our daily life, we use them to counting, label, rank, and we rely on them to develop superior mathematical skills. But there exits wide variety in the levels of mathematical difference among us. Over the past decades, evidence from cognitive development, comparative cognition, cross-culture cognition and neurobiology has proved numerical skills or number symbols we used in our daily life build on the Approximate Number System(ANS), which represents numbers in an nonverbal and noisy way. It encodes the numerosities of discrete objects or events as analog magnitudes that can be modeled as overlapping Gaussian distributions of activations. Recent years, evidence from the normal people of different ages or children with mathematical learning disability has revealed that the acuity of ANS maybe a more important factor to determine the individuals’ difference in mathematics ability compared with general cognitive ability during our life span. These studies holds that the ANS is instrumental in the acquisition of symbolic numerical skills like arithmetic. People with greater precision in the ANS are more likely to acquire the counting sequence and other subsequent symbolic numerical skills more easily in their childhood, and this may leading to a better symbolic number representations. This article first reviewed the studies about the relationship between the acuity of approximate number system and math ability, including cross-sectional studies, longitudinal studies, training studies and cognitive neuroscience studies. Then we analyze factors that impact this relationship, including age, math ability, inhibitory control. But from these studies we could not conclude when and how ANS representations integrate with math ability. So we then summarize various different hypothesis to explain this relationship. The first hypothesis is that better precision of the ANS representations may lead to increased engagement in number-related activities, which may lead to an decrease in math anxiety and a increase in math ability. The second interpretation of this relationship is that participation in mathematical tasks allows children an opportunity to engage their ANS in a context in which the ANS is likely to be of particular benefit, participating in mathematical activities that engage the ANS may facilitate further development of the ANS and increase the likelihood that children rely on their ANS to learn new mathematical concepts. The third hypothesis holds that the number symbolic number knowledge mediates the relation between ANS acuity and arithmetic competence, these symbolic number knowledge including the mapping of symbolic number, numerical ordering ability and so on. Though many kinds of evidence had been proposed to support these hypothesis, they could not have a conclusion about which one is right. Future research need to investigate not only the relationship between the acuity of approximate number system and different dimensions of mathematics ability on the basis of more reliable and valid paradigm, but also to clarify the theoretical explanation behind this relationship by using other kinds of experiment design like training study. Besides, apply research conclusions to math teaching and the intervention targeting children with mathematical learning disability. Related Articles | Metrics

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Effects of Spatial Working Memory Load on the Contextual Cueing in Real-World Scene Search 2016, 39(3): 534-540.  Abstract ( )   PDF (855KB) ( )   Investigators have previously examined the effects of visuospatial working memory load on visual search using dual-task paradigm in which participants performed a visual search task concurrently with either a spatial working memory (SWM) task or an object working memory (OWM) task. It has been found that SWM load impairs the expression of the contextual cueing, not the learning of contextual cuing. In addition, the OWM load does not affect the learning and expression of contextual cueing. Meanwhile, some experiments have revealed that only SWM load affects the search efficiency in traditional visual search and real-world scenes search. The present article extended traditional visual search to real-world scenes search and investigated how the SWM load affected the learning and expression of contextual cueing in real-world scenes by employing dual-task paradigm. In the present study, the participants performed a single task or dual tasks. In the single task, participants were asked to search a specific target (“┫” or “┣”) from a series of displays, in which 50% displays were repeated and the other 50% displays were updated constantly in order to elicit the contextual cueing. In the dual tasks, participants were asked to perform a search task during the delay interval of spatial working memory task (remembering four spatial locations which were presented one by one). In Experiment 2a, sixteen participants performed a dual task and single task in the learning phase and the test phase separately. Conversely, in Experiment 2b, sixteen participants performed a single task and dual tasks in the learning phase and the test phase separately. However, in Experiment1, sixteen participants only performed the single task in both learning phase and test phase. Finally, we analyzed the results of each experiment and compared the standardized context cueing score (CC) of Experiments 2a and 2b with that of Experiment 1 respectively. The main findings were as follows: (1) In Experiment 2a, search advantage for repeated displays was observed in the presence of concurrent spatial working memory load. This advantage was observed in both the learning and test phases. And compared to the non-loads condition in Experiment 1, the CC were higher in both the learning and test phases; (2) In Experiment 2b, search advantage for repeated displays was only observed in the learning phase. The advantage disappeared in the presence of concurrent spatial working memory load in test phase. And compared to the non-loads condition in Experiment 1, the CC were only significant in the test, specifically the CC was decreased, but no difference in the learning phases. These findings suggest that the effects of spatial working memory load on the contextual cueing in search of real-world scenes are not same as those in the traditional visual search. Spatial working memory load would improve the learning, but impair the expression of the contextual cueing in search of real-world scenes. In other words, the spatial working memory load affects the learning and the expression of contextual cuing simultaneously. Meanwhile, the current study also suggests that spatial working memory load do not affect the nature of explicit learning of contextual cueing. Related Articles | Metrics

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Review of Fast Priming Paradigm in Reading Guo-Li Yan Zhu MENG 2016, 39(3): 587-592.  Abstract ( )   PDF (484KB) ( )   To investigate the time course of instant foveal priming during reading, Sereno & Rayner (1992) designed the fast priming paradigm. The present paper introduced the fast priming paradigm in terms of basic principles, design backgrounds, application fields and matters needing attention. Furthermore, the application prospects of fast priming paradigm in Chinese reading are also discussed. As a kind of eye movement research paradigm, fast priming paradigm is also based on eye-movement contingent display-changes technology. In this paradigm, a string of random letters initially occupies a specified target word location as a participant reads a sentence. When the reader's eye crosses an invisible boundary located at the left boundary of the target area, the random-letter string is replaced by a prime word for a specified and brief duration. During the fixation on the target region, the prime word is replaced by the target word, which remains in place while the subject finishes reading the sentence. Thus the fixation time on the target word was considered as a function of the relation between the prime and target. The duration of the prime was varied to determine the optimal level of priming. Indeed, fast-priming paradigm is similar in general to masked priming paradigm (Forster & Davis, 1984). The major advantage of this paradigm is that it can be used to study word identification in the silent reading of text with minimal disruption of normal reading. A second advantage is that the fixation times obtained are appreciably shorter than manual or vocal latencies. By precisely manipulating prime types and prime durations, fast priming paradigm can examine the time course of priming for lexical information (e.g., word frequency, word length) and sublexical information (e.g., phonological, semantic and orthographic codes) during word recognition. Thus it provides a valuable new tool for verifying and improving related theories of lexical structure and lexical processing and a feasible new approach to investigate special research questions such as lexical ambiguity. However, it is necessary to firstly identify the factors that constrain the presentation of fast priming. Firstly, the prime duration must be brief. Secondly, both the predictability of target words and spillover effect should be controlled. Thirdly, the prime and also the target words should be relatively short to minimize the number of multiple fixations on the target. Fourthly, as there are two changes of stimuli on the target word location, the refresh rate of display screen must turned high. Besides, the standands of data processing are also worthwhile to note. It has been more than 20 years since the fast priming paradigm was designed. The studies using this paradigm are limited, especially in Chinese reading, though the application prospect is really broad. For example, to extend the concept of sublexical information to Chinese, the roles of semantic radicals and phonetic radicals in recognizing the character can be examined. Besides, we can also investigate the distinction between onset and rime in Chinese syllable. In summary, a better understanding of the fast priming paradigm must provide researchers an effective approach and some new ideas for research questions. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Influence of Background Color on Emotion Recognition from Facial expression: From the Perspective of Metaphor 2016, 39(3): 541-546.  Abstract ( )   PDF (428KB) ( )   Colors are everywhere in our daily life, which will affect an individual’s emotional understanding of other emotional expressions and further influence the interpersonal communication. Thus, it is very important for examining the effect of color as emotional cue on emotional recognition. The purpose of the current study is to investigate the effect of background colors on emotional recognition of facial expression, and further explore the characteristics of time course in this effect. In the present study, we conducted 2（background colors: cool/ warm）×3（presentation times：100/500/1250 ms）mixed experimental design to examine the recognitions on the type and degree of happiness of neutral faces made by 110 participants of college students, with the background color and the showing time of face pictures as independent variables. In the experiment, the black fixation was presented firstly the screen, the time of presentation is 1000ms. Then, the background color and the neutral face were presented on the screen simultaneously, the time of presentation consists of three levels: 100ms, 500ms, and 1250ms, which were presented to the participants randomly. After that, the participants were required to recognition the emotion of neutral face made by the alternative way. If the participants recognized the neutral face as happy, they were asked to press “F” with the left index finger. If the participants recognized the neutral face as unpleasant, they should press the “J” with the right index finger. When the press was completed, participants were required to report their emotional experience to neutral faces on a Likert 5-point scale (1 represent extremely unpleasant and 5 represent extremely pleasant), higher scores indicate a higher level of pleasure. In order to counter balance the interference between background colors, the interval among trials is between 800ms and 1500ms, during which were presented blank screen. The whole experiment consists of 24 trials, the picture of neutral face was only presented on the cool and ward color once, respectively. Each block includes 12 trials. The sex of neutral face, the press of face recognition, the background color presented, which all were presented by the way of counter-balance. The present results showed that: (1) When the background color was orange, the percentage of happy and evaluate score tended to be higher compared with blue, when judge the expression of neutral face; (2) There are not significant difference in different showing time; (3) The interaction of color and time was also not significant. The findings indicate that the perception of background color affect emotion recognition of neutral face, and this effect is stable in different time course. Accordingly, the present conclusions are as follows: (1) background color have an effect on the emotional recognition of neutral face, individuals are more likely to recognize neutral emotion as happiness under the warm color condition than in the cool color; (2) The effect of background color on the emotional recognition of neutral face shows cross-time consistency. These conclusions have extended the empirical researches of color as emotional cue. Furthermore, the conclusions show clear practical implications for the effect of color on interpersonal relationships. Related Articles | Metrics

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Visual Working Memory Capacity for Own- and Other-race Faces: The Effect of Face Features Yongna LI Yan Dong 2016, 39(3): 547-552.  Abstract ( )   PDF (381KB) ( )   The current experiment examined how set size of study array, face feature types (internal feature only vs. both internal and external features) and race played a role in a Delayed Match-to-Sample Probe Recognition Task. In this task, participants first studied a set of faces (two or four faces with either only internal features or both internal and external features) for 900 ms. And then a face with the same type of feature as in the study array appeared in the center of the screen. Next, participants had to press a key to judge whether or not the probe was a face that appeared in the study array (50% of trials). The probe remained on the screen until a response was detected. In this study, visual working memory capacity was estimated by calculating Cowan’s K for each participant in each condition based on the formula of Cowan (2001): K = L × (H - FA), where K is an estimate of the number of remembered faces in visual working memory, L is the number of faces presented in the study array (two or four faces), H is the hit rate and FA is the false alarm rate in the match-to-sample probe recognition task. Mean K-values were submitted to a repeated-measures ANOVA considering set size (two vs. four), face type (face with internal features vs. face with both internal and external features) and race (Chinese vs. Caucasian) as within-subjects factors. The results indicated visual working memory capacity estimated by Cowan’s K increased for four faces than two faces were displayed, and participants had larger working memory capacity for faces with both internal and external features than for faces only with internal features. These results suggest that the set size and face features may increase visual working memory capacity. However, there was no difference between own race faces and other race faces were displayed. People can retain the same amount of information in visual working memory for own- and other-race faces. Furthermore, results indicated interactions of race, set size, and feature type. For own-race (Chinese) faces, visual working memory capacity estimated by Cowan’s K increased for faces with both internal and external features in two faces condition, but no effect for four faces condition. For other-race (Caucasian) faces, visual working memory capacity increased for faces with both internal and external features in both two- and four-face conditions. Therefore, these results suggest that the processing of own- and other-race faces in visual working memory still differs although the visual working memory capacity is the same for own-and other-race faces. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Influence of Empathy on the Attention Process of Facial Pain Expression: Evidence From Eye Tracking zhiqiang yan Fu-xing WANG Yanjie SU 2016, 39(3): 573-579.  Abstract ( )   PDF (758KB) ( )   Pain function paradox has aroused researcher’s attention. Pain itself not only is an unpleasant emotional experience for the individuals, which signals a potential threat in the environment and urges observers to escape the source of pain, but it also signals that someone needs help. This evolutionarily primitive process of pain, such as avoidance from the threat of pain seems to conflict with the emergence of empathic concern. In our opinion, the paradox may have two reasons, one is that researchers observe it at one time point, because we only collect subject's reaction time, it’s not a very sensitive index; the other one is that researchers ignore personality variables (such as empathy), and many studies have found that it is very important for emotion and recognition. Empathy for pain is a hot topic in the field of social cognition. However, few studies investigate pain function paradox and the relationship between the observer’s empathy and the attention to the pain facial picture. Method: Current methodology does not permit assessment of continuous attentional processes, and it does not allow distinction between initial attentional allocation and subsequent maintenance of attention to stimuli, but this distinction is theoretically and clinically important. Eye-tracking technology provides an intuitive and ecologically valid method to directly examine attentional processes over time. It can help us to solve these issues. This research attempts to combine the visual dot-probe paradigm and eye movement technology to explore the relationship between the observer’s empathy and the attention to the facial pain expression. The present study uses pain facial picture and neutral facial picture as experimental material. Some researchers have found that observer pain catastrophizing thoughts and personal pain experience may affect the experimental effect, so we controlled observer pain catastrophizing thoughts and personal pain experience as possible covariates. On the basis of dot-probe paradigm, 47 participants were recruited for this experiment, we only recorded 33 undergraduates’ eye movements successfully as a direct and continuous index of attention allocation. We use interpersonal reactivity index (IRI) to divide high\low empathy group. To compare the results with previous studies, initial orienting of attention was measured as latency of first fixation; attention maintenance was measured by fixation count and total fixation duration; attention bias was measured by the difference of pain facial picture and neutral facial picture results. Result: On the attention orientation stage, observers directed their attention more quickly to pain facial picture than neutral facial pictures; On the attention maintenance stage, observers have more fixation count and longer total fixation duration to the pain facial pictures than neutral facial pictures, and the observers of high-level empathy have longer total fixation duration on pain and neutral facial pictures, sub-group analysis shows that only high-level empathy observer have more total fixation duration on pain facial picture; There is no difference in reaction time. Conclusion: Observers have pain attentional bias; on the attention maintenance stage, observers’ attention may be influenced by their empathy level. Related Articles | Metrics

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Effect of Context on Spatial Representation of the Ordinal Number Fu-Qiang QIAO En-Tao ZHANG Gong-Xiang CHEN 2016, 39(3): 566-572.  Abstract ( )   PDF (563KB) ( )   Number is the crystallization of human wisdom. It is an important tool for human to understand the nature of things. The course and essence of number cognition have aroused the interest of researchers for decades. The discovering of mental number line and spatial-numerical association of response codes (SNARC) effect have provided evidence for understanding the cognitive process and representation types of number. Researchers have claimed that there was an imaginative and virtual number line in the human brain. It was used for people to work on operation and judgment task. Afterwards, the SNARC effect was found with the method of timed odd-even judgments task. That is, the left hand has faster reaction time to the smaller number, and the right hand has faster reaction time to the larger number. These results have verified that the direction of representation of mental number line was from left to right. Besides, some researchers have claimed that mental number line had good stability in horizontal dimension. The most representative number was positive number, whereas the spatial representation of negative number had the nature of dynamic and scene dependence. However, there was few study focusing on the representation of ordinal number so far. The impact of context on the representation of mental number line was still an open question. The present study aimed at investigating the influence of context on spatial representation of ordinal number with the timed odd-even judgment task. Three kinds of experimental stimulus were presented on the computer screen: only ordinal number, first, second, eighth, and ninth; floor context, the first floor, the second floor, the eighth floor, and the ninth floor; family tree context, the first generation, the second generation, the eighth generation, and the ninth generation. People were familiar with the floor context and had the experience of taking elevator or walking upstairs. In floor context, the higher floors, the larger numbers should be used to denote them. Family tree context was a relatively abstract context. Generally, the earlier forefathers located at the top of the family tree, and the nearer forefathers located at the bottom of the family tree. That is, the smaller number was on the top and the lager number was under below in family tree context. In the present study, subjects were asked to press the up key or the down key according to the odd-even property of numbers as soon as possible. Results of three experiments showed that, in only order number context, the reaction time was not significant different between up and down responses to small numbers and that to large numbers. In floor context, participants acted faster for down than up responses to small numbers and they acted faster for up than down responses to large numbers. In family tree context, the results were opposite to that in floor contexts. These results demonstrated that the spatial representation of ordinal number in vertical dimension affected by the contexts, providing support for the dynamic nature of the spatial representation of mental number line. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Effect of Optimistic Bias: A Construal Level Perspective Yan-Yuan CEN 2016, 39(3): 553-558.  Abstract ( )   PDF (414KB) ( )   Optimistic bias means that people tend to believe that they are more likely to experience positive events and less likely to experience negative events, which is divided into two sub types: one is the bias point to positive events and another is the bias point to negative events. Egocentrism and fatalism are the main psychological cognitive mechanisms to cause optimistic bias. Construal level theory (CLT) is a cognitive theory which could account for psychological distance affects judgment and decision making. Many researches have shown that people tend to construal psychological distant objects in terms of high level, abstract representation, whereas construal the same object in term of low level, detailed representation if the object is psychologically near. Does the Construal level theory affect the individual's optimistic bias? This study tries to investigate the degree of optimistic bias in different psychological distant. Based on Construal Level Theory, this study explored the influence of psychological distance on the optimistic bias effect. The study examined the effects of psychological distant on optimistic bias effect by conducting the single factor- two levels experiment from three dimensions (event probability, time distant, and space distant) of psychological distance. Through the open questionnaire survey, and 94 subjects were pre - measured, a total of 24 future events as a formal experiment of the material use. In this study, the indirect comparison method was used to evaluate the possibility of the future event occurring in themselves and others. The event probability in the questionnaire expressed as a percentage. The formal participants were recruited from the students of university, and the ratio of participants’ gender distributed to each dimension is balance. We collected 677 valid subjects finally by every participant finishing one of the situational questionnaires randomly. The results showed that: judgment of participants for future life events in all dimensions showed optimism bias. The psychological distant of participant affects the whole optimistic bias effect. Specific performance is: The overall optimistic bias of the small probability event was significantly higher than the large probability event of the optimistic bias, t (220) =-10.28, p<0.001, d=-1.06; the overall optimistic bias of the far time distance is significantly higher than that of the optimistic bias of the near time, t (222) =-7.45, p<0.001, d=-1.16; and the overall optimistic bias of the far space is significantly higher than that of the optimistic bias of near space, t (230) =-5.73, p<0.001, d=-.75. But in the positive event dimension, only the small probability event and the far space dimension show optimistic bias effect. From the construal level perspective, through integrating of the three dimensions of psychological distance, the study examines systematically the influence of psychological distance on the optimistic bias. The effect of optimistic bias was more significant in the far psychological distant conditions (including high probability, more distant time, and more distant space) than in the near psychological distant conditions. In addition, the optimism bias on negative events of probability and time distant dimension has not consistent with the overall optimism bias. The result supported the hypothesis reliability. Future study should pay attention to the multi-paradigm and interaction. Related Articles | Metrics

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An Explanation about Reversal Effect of Affective Priming in Chinese Character: The Interaction between Task Paradigm and Frequency Ning Fan 2016, 39(3): 559-565.  Abstract ( )   PDF (838KB) ( )   The affective priming effect is a hot research field of psychology and many studies have confirmed the existence of this effect in recent decades. Researchers found that if the emotional valences of the prime words and the target words are same, the cognitive processing of the second stimulus will be sped up. This is named congruent effect of affective priming. In recent years, several researches find the existence of the reversal effect of affective priming, namely the response time becomes faster when the target word’s emotional valence is contrary to the prime word’s valence. Most of the existing studies focus on judging the target words’ emotional valence. Under this task paradigm, the consistent emotional valence of the prime and target word, especially of the high-frequency words, may tend to occur a conflict of reaction. However, the reversal effect is instability and is influenced by this task paradigm, characteristics of stimuli , performance instruction, word’s length, word’s frequency, presentation parameter, etc. In order to further test the cognitive mechanism of the affective priming effect and the response competing model, the present study tries to explore the differences between emotional valence categorization task and lexical decision task of Chinese character’s affective priming effect. The two experiments were both adopted words-words affective priming paradigms. Exp.1 was to perform the emotional valence categorization task in which subjects were asked to judge whether the target Chinese character was positive or negative by pressing button. As the volunteers, 20 college students participated in Exp.1, which used 2(prime word emotional valence: positive and negative)*2(target word emotional valence: positive and negative)*2(target word frequency: high-frequency and low-frequency) three factors’ within subject design. The same design was used in Exp.2, but changed to the lexical decision task. Other 20 college students were asked to determine whether the target Chinese character was a real character or a pseudo-character by pressing button. The results of Exp.1 showed that high-frequency target word revealed reversing effect of affective priming. Consistent condition’s RTs were significant longer than inconsistent (positive-negative or negative-positive) condition’s RTs. Moreover, inconsistent condition evoked higher P200 and more positive N400 than consistent condition. In contrast, low-frequency target word revealed the affective-congruent effect. Consistent condition’s RTs were significant shorter than inconsistent condition’s RTs. The differences also manifested in the changes of the mean amplitude of the early attention ERP component, namely P200, as same as several late components, for instances the N400. In Exp. 2 the results showed that both high-frequency target words and low-frequency target words revealed the affective-congruent effect. The RTs of consistent condition were significant shorter than those of inconsistent condition, especially in low-frequency target words. Besides the behavioral data, those effects also displayed in the differences of the N400 component’s mean amplitude values of high-frequency positive words. Integrating the above results it can be confirmed that the reversal effect of affective priming comes from the Top-Down attention guidance (eg. emotional valence categorization task) and the easy accessible stimuli (eg. high-frequency word). The reversal effect derived from the response competition between priming stimuli and probe stimuli. Related Articles | Metrics

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The individual and cultural differences in the ultimatum game 2016, 39(3): 693-699.  Abstract ( )   PDF (371KB) ( )   The ultimatum game (UG) is a well-studied game used extensively by behavioral economists or psychologists to study people’s fair decision-making. In this game, two players are given an opportunity to split a sum of money. One player (i.e., the proposer) decides how to divide up the money between him- or herself and another player (i.e., the responder). If the responder accepts, the split takes place as proposed; however, if the responder rejects, neither of the two individuals receives any money. Game theory predicts that the proposer will offer the smallest amount and that the responder will accept it. However, once again, this prediction is at odds with observed behavior across a wide range of societies. With the rise of UG, the individual and cultural differences in UG enter into the eye of researchers gradually. Thus current paper gives a review about those differences. Based on this review, several suggestions regarding to the direction for future research are given. So far, the researches on age differences consistently found an age-related change in UG. Specifically, some researches show that the older children offer more than the younger groups as proposer. And the relationship between age and rejection is positive. Those findings are mostly explained with reference to theories of socialisation and the development of the ability of impulse control. Then, in the gender differences the current results agree on some findings: there is little overall difference in the mean offers between men and women, while women are more likely to reject. The current studies attribute the gender differences to the contributions of cultural factors and biological differences between men and women. Next, there are fruitful researches about the differences of psychological characteristics. The first aspect is emotional control. The second aspect is Social Value Orientation. Current paper also gives a review about the need for cognition as well as personality. Finally, the experiments during the last 20 years demonstrate that decision-making may be heavily influenced by cultural differences. The behavior in the UG is systematically related to the continents in which the experiment was conducted. In details, the rejection in Asian is highest, and participants in eastern are more prone to fair outcomes. The UG results between agricultural society and industrial society are substantially different. And there is also a difference in the mixed-race groups. While recent studies have shed light on the existing differences in UG, less is known about the mechanism behind the behavioral differences. In order to get a full understanding of the UG, further research is expected to integrate existing findings and related theories. In addition, further research could link all sorts of differences to the specific biochemical or neural mechanism, which can contribute to a deeper understanding of the behavioral differences in UG at the level of molecular genetics and neuropsychology. How to improve the UG paradigm and how to deal with the money effect also have brought challenge and expectation for future researchers. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Differences of Humor Processing between Introvert and Extrovert: An ERP Study CHEN ZHIXIA Fan YANG 2016, 39(3): 651-658.  Abstract ( )   PDF (933KB) ( )   Humor refers to the phenomenon that can make people laugh. To understand the humor processing will help improve the social function of humor and have a significant effect on promoting the humor processing theory. In the literature,behavioral results and fMRI results have showed that there are differences between introvert and extravert on the humor processing. However, little work about ERP study has been done to investigate the humor processing and the differences of humor processing between introvert and extravert.To fill in this gap,the current study set out to exploring how introvert and extravert performance on the process of humor.Based on previous studies,we hypothesized that:(1)in incongruity detection phase of humor processing,we would expect to observe a smaller N400 amplitudes for congruent unfunny condition than for incongruent funny condition and incongruent unrelated condition.(2)in incongruity resolution stage of humor processing,we would expect to observe a smaller P600 amplitudes for incongruent unrelated condition than for incongruent funny condition and congruent unfunny condition.(3)in emotional processing stage,we would expect to observe a larger positive amplitudes for incongruent funny condition than for incongruent unrelated condition and congruent unfunny condition.(4)there are differences between intravert and extrovert on the humor processing. 30 participants took part in the study. A total of 180 trials were presented in 6 experimrntal blocks.Each block consisted of 30 trials, which contained 10 incongruent funny jokes,10 congruent unfunny jokes and 10 incongruent unrelated jokes. Each trial started with a fixation(+)of 300ms followed by setup sentences, which made participants have some prediction about the ending. The word remained on the screen until the participant understood it and pressed the blank space key. After a pseudo random delay of 200 or 600ms,participants were asked to browse the punchline of 2000ms and then assessed the relationship between setup sentences and punchline.Participants were instructed to respond as quickly as possible by pressing one of three keys labeled “1”“2”or“3”on the keypad.Then another pseudo random delay of 600 or 1000ms presented to next trial.The electrophysiological date and behavior date will be recored. The behavioral data show that introverts reaction time significantly faster than extraverts. Besides, the reaction time of incongruent unrelated condition significantly faster than the incongruent funny condition and congruent unfunny condition.ERP results supported that the humor processing includes incongruity detection stage,incongruity resolution stage and emotional processing stage.Moreover, the N400 amplitude of incongruent unrelated condition was significantly bigger than congruent unfunny condition;The P600 amplitude of incongruent unrelated condition was significantly smaller than incongruent funny condition and congruent unfunny condition;After 800ms,incongruent funny condition triggered bigger positive amplitude than incongruent funny condition and incongruent unrelated condition. The differences on the humor processing process of introvert and extravert were mainly manifested in the earlier stage of the humor processing. Compared with introvert, extravert used less cognitive resources in the incongruity detection stage of humor processing. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Effects of Career Calling on Study Engagement: The Perspective of Social Cognitive Career Theory 2016, 39(3): 659-665.  Abstract ( )   PDF (740KB) ( )   More recently, work engagement is expanded into the field of study, and the concept of study engagement is proposed. It was maintained that from a psychological point of view, students’ core activities can be considered as ‘work’. Namely, like employees, students are involved in structured, coercive activities (e.g., doing assignments, attending class) that are directed toward a specific goal (e.g., passing exams, acquiring a degree). Hence, students could also experience engagement regarding their studies. Analogous to work engagement, study engagement is characterized by feeling vigorous, being dedicated to one’s studies, and being absorbed in study-related tasks. Empirical studies found study engagement has positive effects on academic achievement, study strategies and career competencies. Given the importance of study engagement, its antecedents come into the view of scholars. In the extant literature, the antecedents studied could be divided into three categories: demographic factors, individual characteristics and environmental factors. Career calling is a transcendent summons, experienced as originating beyond the self, to approach a particular life role in a manner oriented toward demonstrating or deriving a sense of purpose or meaningfulness and that holds other-oriented values and goals as primary sources of motivation. Calling is closely related to the population of teacher. But in the extant literature about engagement, career calling is ignored. Drawing on the social cognitive career theory, we examined the effects of career calling on study engagement of normal university students. To reduce common method bias, three-wave investigation procedure was carried out. In total, 476 questionnaires were initially distributed to normal university students recruited from a normal university located in central China. The final sample consisted of 436 valid questionnaires, 21.56% were freshmen (n= 94), 19.54% were sophomores (n= 84), 17.29% were juniors (n= 119), 31.19% were seniors (n= 136). On average, the participants were 22.01 years old (SD=1.23). Most of the participants were females (n=310, 71.10%). The instruments used in this study included 12-Career Calling which measured career calling, Professional Identity Scale for Normal Students which measured career outcome expectations and career self-efficacy, Career Satisfaction which overall assessed satisfaction with teaching profession, Utrecht Work Engagement Scale-Student which assessed personal engagement in the study-related tasks. The SEM analysis was used to test the proposed hypotheses. The results showed: (1) career calling positively and significantly predicted study engagement, (2) career outcome expectations and career self-efficacy partially mediated the positively relationship between career calling and study engagement, and (3) career calling could predict career satisfaction which positively related to study engagement. But, the positive relationship between career calling and career satisfaction was fully mediated by career outcome expectations and career self-efficacy. In the end, the practical implications and research limitations are discussed. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Female Bias in Processing Novel Events: an ERP Study 2016, 39(3): 666-672.  Abstract ( )   PDF (600KB) ( )   Novel events are unpredictable and accidental. The ability to detect and cope with unpredictable events is fundamental for adapting to a rapidly changing environment and ensuring survival of the organism. In life and laboratory settings, novel events are usually infrequent but emotionally relevant, and thus accompanied by affective responses such as interest or surprise. Behavioral and neuroimaging studies have reported gender differences in brain responding to emotion–relevant infrequent stimuli. Novel events, whether emotionally salient or neutral, are biologically important, because the occurrence is sudden, with unpredictable meaning and perceptually salient. Although females are known to show enhanced sensitivity to emotional stimuli and infrequent stimuli (both of which are biologically significant), it remains unknown whether females and males differ in their processing of emotionally neutral, novel stimuli. The present study used modified three–stimulus oddball tasks and event related potential to investigate neurophysiological mechanisms of possible gender effect in neural processing of novel events. To maximize ecological validity and to test whether this enhanced processing of novelty in females was independent of the established brain sensitivity of females to infrequent stimuli, the study matched the novel and standard stimuli in onset frequency, and both of them were task–irrelevant. In this experiment, the target stimulus (20%, a natural scene of a cup) and the standard stimulus (40%, a natural scene of a bench) were kept constant, whereas a set of emotionally neutral, non–repeated pictures were used as the novel stimuli (40%). Subjects were required to press a key for a target stimulus. The distracters included a non–novel standard stimulus and a set of novel stimuli. The standard and novel stimuli were matched for physical attributes, different only in novelty. 18female (19–23years; mean = 21.11 years) and 18 male (19–25 years; mean = 21.25 years) college students participated in the experiment as paid volunteers. This experiment examined stimulus (standard, novel) by gender (male, female) interaction effects for the averaged amplitudes in 130–700 ms time window, by conducting a repeated measures ANOVA (stimuli as the repeated factor while gender was the between–subjects factor).ERP results demonstrated there was significant novelty effects in the early phase (130ms). Whether males or females, the novel stimulus induced the larger late positive component (LPC) amplitudes of the 300–300ms than the standard stimulus. Most importantly, females displayed a sustained novelty effect in the late positive component (LPC) amplitudes of the 500–700ms, but not males. Thus, the analysis results showed enhanced processing of stimulus novelty in females than in males in the 500–700ms of the LPC time window. Therefore, the current experiments revealed both of males and females processed the novel stimulus, but females might spend more time to process the novel stimuli than male. There may be a female advantage in ruminating salient events. Related Articles | Metrics

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The influence of three types of significant other’s negative moral incidents on Chinese rural migrant workers’ feelings of face 2016, 39(3): 673-678.  Abstract ( )   PDF (424KB) ( )   “Face” is a traditional Chinese concept, and scholars have called for the examination of it. Face-sharing is one of the derivative concepts that founded by such research area. Face-sharing is a phenomenon when a significant other such as father, friend, etc., violates moral rule, an individual may feel the losing of his/her own face. Face-sharing is a very common phenomenon among Chinese people. In Confucian culture, family ethics and negative obligation are two types of moral rules that an individual is expected to oblige to abide by them. If an individual violates these two types of moral rules, not only she or he may experience a high intense feeling of losing face, intimacy others related with she or he may also share the feeling of losing their own face. Farmers in China are more inclined to hold traditional Chinese social values. They are more concerned with losing face. The purposes of the study was to investigate whether a rural migrant worker in modern China sharing face with specific others who involving in two particular types of negative moral events, violating family ethics or negative obligation. Six different scenarios designed by the researchers to measure respondents’ face-sharing and face-losing when three different person-in-relations (father, fellow-townsman, friend), violated family ethics or negative obligation. Data (N=1,778) for this study were collected with the six scenarios from rural migrant workers in six different provinces in China. Using 2 (moral events: family ethics, negative obligation) ×3 (relationships: father-child, fellow-townsman, fellow-worker) between subject design, six different scenarios were tested by six different groups. Valid number of participants in each group was 299, 296, 297, 298 and 292, respectively. Each participant should read one of the six scenarios first and then answer five questions about how they feel about face lost and face-sharing. By comparing relationships among “father-child”, “fellow-townsman” and “fellow-worker”, the study examines the influences of related dyad other’s violating “family ethics” or “negative obligation” on individual’s feeling of face-sharing. Results indicated that, 1) Two types of moral scenarios were evaluated violated moral code in a large extend. 2) When dyad others violated family ethics, subjects believed that the other party should feel face-losing, and they themselves also felt face-losing, that is face-sharing, but subjects shared face only with family members, but not with the outside family members. 3) When the other party of the relationship violated negative obligation, participants experienced different level of face-sharing, depending on the closeness of relationship, the strongest face-sharing occurred between father-child relationships, decreased along with fellow-townsman and fellow-worker relationships. Conclusions: when dyad others violated family ethics or negative obligation, rural migrant workers experience different intensity of face-sharing, due to the closeness of relationships, the strongest face-sharing lies in father-child relationships. Face consciousness not only affects the moral behavior of Chinese people deeply, it is also one of the most important moral standards. In a century, clarifies to it not only from philosophical reflection, but also from theory construction by a large number of scholars. The study adopted scenario approach and obtained results which used to be our common knowledge and experience. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Effects of Interpersonal Justice on Followers’ Job Satisfaction and Organizational Citizenship Behavior: The Roles of Trust in Supervisor and Supervisory Power Mian-Lin DENG Lijuan Cui 2016, 39(3): 679-685.  Abstract ( )   PDF (689KB) ( )   A great deal of previous research has showed that interpersonal justice demonstrated by supervisors generally has positive effects on employees’job satisfaction and citizenship behaviors that are directed at individuals (OCBI). To figure out how and when these effects happen, the current study examines the relationship between employees’perceptions of interpersonal justice and job consequences by focusing on the mediating role of employees’ trust in supervisor as well as the moderating role of supervisor’s power. As social exchange theory notes, employees build a social exchange relationship with their leaders. This type of relationship requires the exchange parties to trust and affiliate with each other. Employees’trust can be motivated by interpersonal fairness demonstrated by their supervisors. We hypothesize that employees’trust in their supervisors mediates the relationship between interpersonal justice and job satisfaction and OCBI. Moreover, according to fairness theory, a supervisor’s power is associated with accountability for the (un)fairness. High supervisory power means disproportionately possessing more resources, which enables a supervisor could treat others differently. This implies high-power supervisors are more accountable for their own interpersonal justice, while low-power supervisors are less likely to be responsible for the interpersonal justice because they may not be considered as actually controlling but instead as just following orders from higher bosses. Trust as a result of interpersonal justice is expected only when a supervisor has high power. Therefore, we predict a moderated mediation model in which for high-power supervisors, interpersonal justice has indirectly (via employees’trust in supervisor) impact on followers’job satisfaction and OCBI, but for low-power supervisors, these effects do not exist. In this study, measurements of employees’perception of interpersonal justice, trust in supervisor, supervisor’s power, job satisfaction and OCBI were obtained by means of a survey. 237 working adults (109 males, 128 females) from various fields who have a stable supervisor filled out the questionnaire. The average age was 31.09 years (SD = 6.91), and the average time spent on co-working with their own supervisor was 2.78 years (SD = 1.86). Using hierarchical linear regression analysis, we examined an integrative model that combined employees’ perception of interpersonal justice, trust in supervisor, supervisor’s power, job satisfaction and OCBI. The results show that (1) employees’trust in their supervisors partially mediates the relationship between their perception of interpersonal justice and job satisfaction, and completely mediates the linkage between interpersonal justice and OCBI. Moreover, (2) supervisor’s power moderates the mediating effects, specifically, supervisor-focused interpersonal justice has more impact on followers when supervisors have high (vs. low) power over their followers. The study seeks to extend the literature integrating interpersonal justice and power in a numbers of ways. First, few prior work has concerned with the joint effects of supervisor-focused interpersonal justice and supervisory power. Current study demonstrates how supervisory power moderates interpersonal justice effects. Based on fairness theory, we suggest that employees’trust for a supervisor is a function of how much they think the supervisor should take responsibility for the interpersonal fairness. Specifically, high-power (vs. low-power) leaders are more accountable for their own justice effects. Second, we develop a moderated mediation model to demonstrate how the interaction between interpersonal justice and supervisory power exerts influence on employees’ job satisfaction and OCBI. It is through the mediating role of trust in supervisor. Related Articles | Metrics

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The studies on facial width-to-height ratio from the Psychological perspective 2016, 39(3): 707-713.  Abstract ( )   PDF (534KB) ( )   Facial width-to-height ratio (fWHR)is measured as the distance between the left and right zygion(bizygomatic width)relative to the distance between the upper lip and the highest point of the eyelids(upper facial height).Recent research has demonstrated that individuals with higher fWHR are associated with socially undesirable behaviors, including more aggression, less trustworthy, less cooperative in the context of intra-group competition, and more prejudiced, particularly in men. Research has also identified positive correlates of fWHR—men with greater fWHR are more cooperative in the context of inter-group competition, are better negotiators in competitive bargaining ,and firms whose male CEOS have wider face achieve superior financial performance, and are better performance in athletes. The initial seminal paper that higher fWHR was linked to aggression in men is Carré and McCormick(2008). Similarly, relationships have been found between male dominance, cheating, deception, but also more positive behaviors such as achievement striving, less likely to die from contact violence, and self-sacrifice towards the in-group. Researchers have generally pointed to evolutionary selection pressures as the underlying mechanisms explaining these relationships. Although early work such as Weston, Friday, and Lio(2007) described the fWHR, a sexual dimorphism in the structure of the face that was independent of body size, from a morphometric analysis of an ontogenetic series of skulls. They pointed that intersexual selection mechanisms may have formed the links between fWHR and behaviors. Recently more research has supported an intrasexual selection persective, with growing evidence suggesting that men’s facial structure is an important cue to their ability to obtain resources from others. One perspective is that men’s fWHR serve as proxies for other psychological or biological characteristics that lead men with various facial structures to act differently. For instance, researchers have theorized that testosterone exposure at puberty may underlie intra-sex differences in fWHR. A second perspective on the relationship between fWHR and behavior is that men are treated differently by others as a result of their facial characteristics. According to this view, men’s facial structure may not have an inherent relationship to their aggressive behavior, but rather serves as a social cue that shapes their interactions with others over time. Despite numerous researchers have explicitly built directly on this previous work, several articles have failed to find a statistically significant relationship between fWHR and behavior or sexual dimorphism. Future research should examine the fWHR and behavior’s link with employing multi-method, various samples and the mediate or moderate factors, such as cultural differences. Related Articles | Metrics

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“Opposition after Support” vs. “Support after Opposition”: The Effect of Feedback Presentation Order in Dynamic Construction of Decision Confidence 2016, 39(3): 686-692.  Abstract ( )   PDF (723KB) ( )   Decision confidence is a person’s strength of belief about the optimization or correctness of a prediction, judgment, or choice. It provides a graded scale which allows us to translate internal convictions into suitable actions in the physical world. Simultaneously, decision confidence can affect a variety of cognitive functions: how we learn and improve subsequent actions, and how we justify our choice to others. Previously, many studies were performed based on the single assessment of decision confidence, but it is known to all that individual’s confidence constructed in a dynamic way. According to the Two-Stage Dynamic Signal Detection Model (2DSD), a judge doesn’t simply shut down the information accumulation process after making a choice but continues to accumulate information to make a confidence rating. In other words, the confidence rating is a function of the information collected at the time of the choice plus the information collected after making a choice. From this point of view, feedback information is vital to the dynamic construction of decision confidence after a decision was made. Several studies have indicated that individual’s confidence rating will increase after receiving supportive feedback information, and individual’s confidence rating will decrease after receiving opposed feedback information. However, it is still inconclusive how the presentation order of feedback influenced the dynamic construction of decision confidence when different types of feedback presented successively. In the present study, sensory discrimination task was used to probe into this issue. Related Articles | Metrics

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Relative deprivation: wanting, deserving, resentment for not having 2016, 39(3): 714-719.  Abstract ( )   PDF (469KB) ( )   Karl Marx wrote : “A house may be large or small, as long as the surrounding houses are equally small, it satisfies all social demands for a dwelling. But if a palace arise beside the little house, the little house shrinks into a hut.”This observation vividly describes an important psychological construct- relative deprivation. Modern theorizing about relative deprivation dates from World War II. Samuel Stouffer and his colleagues first used the term relative deprivation in their study. Relative deprivation indicates a judgment that one or one’s ingroup is disadvantaged compared to a relevant referent, and that this judgment invokes feelings of anger and resentment. Relative deprivation includes individual relative deprivation and group relative deprivation. Individual relative deprivation is an interpersonal comparison between the individual and another, or a comparison between an individual’s current situation and his or her past or future situation. In contrast, group relative deprivation is an intergroup comparison between an individual’s group and another group, or between the group’s current situation and that group’s past or future situation. Crosby views relative deprivation as an intervening variable rather than a hypothetical construct. Crosby claims that an individual feels relative deprivation, five preconditions must to be met. The person who lacks X must see that someone else (other ) possesses, want X, feel entitled to X, think it feasible to obtain X, and lack a sense of personal responsibility for not having X. Smith and Huo construct a model of relative deprivation, including individual’s or ingroup’s position in local environment, comparison type, emotional reaction, opportunity for change and behavior reaction. If the individual’s situation is undeserved compared to another person or self at another point in time, or the group’s situation is undeserved compared to another group or own group at another point in time, the individual will become anger or resentment. This moment, if the system is open and there is opportunity for change, individual will use normative ways to improve personal situation(e.g., moonlighting and professional development), group will use normative forms of protest(e.g., sign petitions, attend rallies). If the system is closed and there isn’t opportunity for change, individual will use non-normative ways to improve personal situation(e.g., theft, vandalism), group will use non-normative forms of protest(e.g., block road illegally, damage property). Research indicates that some factors have an important influence on individual relative deprivation or group relative deprivation, including age, education, family income, subjective social class, ingroup identification, intergroup contact, speed and direction of social change, etc. Moreover, individual relative deprivation has an important influence on personal mentality and behavior, including personal well-being, depression, self-esteem, morbidity, premature mortality, participation in development activities, gambling behavior, and so on. Group relative deprivation has an important influence on group’s attitude and behavior, including collective self-esteem, intergroup discrimination, prejudice, intergroup destructive competition, protest, political mobilization, etc. However, there are still several limits in the domain of psychological inquiry of relative deprivation. According to these limitations, we suggest that the direction of future research are as following. First, future research is needed to better understand the difference between relative deprivation theory and justice theory. Second, social comparison includes interpersonal level and intergroup level, when and whom will someone or some group choose to compare themselves, why certain dimensions of the referent are selected for comparison and others not, these questions need to be researched comprehensively. Third, research indicates that relative deprivation has an important influence on mentality and behavior, future research is needed to explore the mechanism of relative deprivation. Related Articles | Metrics

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Is there a Noun Bias for Mandarin-speaking Infants: from the Perspective of Vocabulary Size 2016, 39(3): 600-605.  Abstract ( )   PDF (737KB) ( )   Most previous studies found that nouns were acquired predominantly by infants in many languages, thus noun bias was considered to be universal in children's early word learning. On the contrary, verbs were more difficult for children to learn, as they were less concrete and more relational than nouns. However, whether Mandarin Chinese is a verb-friendly language for children or not is still in hot debate. Evidences from natural observations and laboratory investigations were conflict. Researches that used vocabulary checklist found that Mandarin-speaking infants learnt many more verbs than their English-speaking peers did (Tardif, 1996). In the meanwhile, some experimental study found that Chinese children met more difficulties in verb learning tasks than English and Japanese children even in preschool years (Imai, et al., 2008). To further explore the noun/verb bias problem in Mandarin-speaking infants, it is proposed that the ratio of nouns and verbs should be carefully examined in the present study. As it is possible that the ratio of nouns and verbs might vary with children's age. In this study, Mandarin-speaking infants' expressive vocabulary size was examined to explore the ratio of nouns and verbs in a 6-month longitudinal study. In the first investigation, a sample of 110 infants were divided into three age groups, 18-, 24- and 30- month olds. All infants were tested using PCDI (Chinese Communicative Development Inventory - Putonghua Version) and a self-designed questionnaire for parents. The 18- and 24- month olds were re-tested after 6 months, using PCDI. In the present study, the Noun Bias Effect was defined as "(noun vocabulary size - verb vocabulary size)/whole vocabulary size", the result of this calculation was labeled as k. The results indicated that the noun bias effect was small in 18 month old group (k = .07), but it soon enlarged in 24- and 30- month olds (k = .11~.19). In the individual level, we defined the Noun Bias Infants as they learned more nouns than verbs. The results showed that the noun bias infants and the verb bias infants respectively constituted 50% of the whole sample in 18 month old group (p > .05). However, with the increase of age, most (81~100%) of the infants in 24- and 30- month old groups showed noun bias. In summary, the results in the present study indicated that the noun bias effect increased with age in Mandarin-speaking infants. Verb bias infants were more likely to be found in infants who were less than 18 month old, and noun bias infants were more predominant in 24 month old or older children. It was suggested that previous divergence about noun/verb bias in Mandarin-speaking infants might result from the change of noun bias itself. Future studies may focus more on how and why noun bias changes with age in early word learners. Related Articles | Metrics

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Many-Facet Rasch Model analysis of Rater Bias in the Measurement Quality of the Early Childhood Program 2016, 39(3): 628-636.  Abstract ( )   PDF (1012KB) ( )   The measurement quality of the early childhood program is of great importance for the children’s development. 155 classrooms sampled from the eastern part of China, were observed and assessed by 28 raters. The scale in the study which is called Chinese Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale(CECERS) is made up of 46 items, 8 subscales, they are Space and Furnishing, Person Care Routines, Curriculum Planning and Implementation, Whole-Group Instruction, Activities, Language-Reasoning, Guidance and Interactions, Parents and Staff. Usually, one classroom was observed and assessed by 2 or 3 raters alone at the same time. In this measurement situation, rater severity, inter-rater reliability, the bias between the rater and the class, and bias between the rater and the item were analyzed from three facets, they are the class, the rater and the item respectively. Facets software (MFRM3.68.1) were adopted in this study. The results of the analysis show that: there were significantly different among the 28 raters; the consistency from the 3 raters was high, at the same time, the internal consistency was stable from the rest of 25 raters; a further analysis of the unexpected responses from the three raters showed that, there was no common attribute of the classes and the same of the items；the interaction between the rater and classroom was not different significantly, the ratio of the significant bias is 8.02%, the further analysis based of the significant bias showed that, there were no common attribute among these classes；the interaction between the rater and the item was significantly different, the items with significant bias was computed, it found that there was a large deviation in the item 45 and item 13;the deviation was less in the items such as item 22, 25 and so on, which were more familiar for the raters. All of these provided the psychometric basis for the training, the standards and the constructing of the rater bank from the perspective of IRT. Related Articles | Metrics

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Age Difference and its Neural Mechanism in the Episodic Future Thinking 2016, 39(3): 637-643.  Abstract ( )   PDF (336KB) ( )   Episodic future thinking (EFT) is a projection of the self into the future to pre-experience an event. It plays a significant role in our daily life, especially in the process of planning, problem solving and delay of gratification. The present study explored the age difference and its underlying neural mechanism in EFT. The former part is focused on the occurrence and development of individual and phenomenological characteristics in age-related changes. Specifically, the occurrence of individual EFT was about four years old when children happened to imaging future and showed appropriate behavior according to possible future situations. The ability of individuals’ EFT improved as they grew older. For example, compared with children, adolescents created more episodic and semantic details when imagining future events. The age difference of phenomenal characteristics associated with projecting oneself forward into the future mainly includes the kind of details, the valence and intensity of emotion, temporal distance, novelty and vividness of events. Specifically, for the details, young adults produced more details, whereas children and the old presented more general but not special ones; for emotional valence, old adults showed more positive effect. However, it needs further research to explore whether the effect exists in EFT; for emotional intensity, the old scored higher than youth; for the temporal distance, former researches showed that children and adults generated more specific simulation of the near-future events; For the novelty and vividness of events, the age difference of EFT existed in the number of vivid images that the young produced more vivid image compared to the old. To conclude, there were some age differences in phenomenological characteristics of EFT. Generally speaking, the development of EFT showed an inverted U function, which peaking at adulthood. The latter referred to the brain-related activation of the age difference, which mainly include brain areas such as temporal lobe, precuneus, hippocampus, and frontal lobe. First of all, different cognitive process activate different brain areas. Neuroimaging study showed that the episode of the Old’s EFT depended on frontal lobe and temporal gyrus, which emphasizes specific scene. Secondly, different age groups showed different activation model of hippocampus in EFT. The old tended to activate the right anterior hippocampus, whereas the young activated the left part. It could be speculated that in EFT the elderly occupied more cognitive processes such as spatial memory and visual mental imagery. The youth called for more specific and episodic details about the cognitive processes, which to some extent explains the differences between the two populations’ EFT. Thirdly, age difference existed in frontal lobe in different tasks in EFT. The whole-brain interaction analysis founded the activation of the lateral prefrontal cortex when doing EFT, indicating the role of LPFC. To sum, in EFT the youth and the old activated similar brain areas (e g. temporal lobe, precuneus, hippocampus, and frontal lobe) but differed in the intensity of activation. Future researches should enlarge the age span both normal and special people, pay more attention to the research angle, longitudinal crossover studies of age difference as well as the underlying elaborate neuro-mechanism, which needs combine internal and external factors and would be of vital social implication in the research of cognitive aging. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Effect of Personality Traits on Test Anxiety: Analysis of the Multiple Mediating Effects 2016, 39(3): 614-620.  Abstract ( )   PDF (566KB) ( )   Theorists have proposed and research has confirmed that personality traits and most anxiety disorders are strongly related. Specially, several researchers have proposed hierarchical models for the vulnerability of anxiety, and such models imply that personality traits should be regarded as a higher order vulnerability factor, while there are more specific second-order factors that intermediate between basic personality traits and various manifestations of anxiety. Intolerance of uncertainty(IU in abbreviation ), a dispositional characteristic which results from a set of negative beliefs about uncertainty and its implications, appears to be a transdiagnostic vulnerability factor for most anxiety disorders and then is included as a second-order factor. Considering the other two second-order factors of self-esteem and fear of negative evaluation and the possible effect they have on IU, this research tends to explore the link between personality traits and test anxiety and the mediation of self-esteem, fear of negative evaluation and IU herein, and then proposes a hypothesized model on the basis the literature analysis. In the present study, a series of questionnaires including a brief version of Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, Test Anxiety Scale, Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale, shortened version of Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale and Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale were distributed to measure 410 senior high school students and college students at campus. All the questionnaires have been proved to have acceptable reliability and validity in the past researches. Correlation analysis , regression analysis and structural equation modeling were applied to analyze the data. Results proved that personality traits including neuroticism, psychoticism and extraversion, acting as general vulnerability factors, were significantly associated with test anxiety just as expected. Neuroticism as a higher order vulnerability factor had a robust effect on test anxiety, and psychoticism and extraversion, to a lesser extent, also exerted a significant effect on test anxiety. Results of the mediation analysis of self-esteem, fear of negative evaluation and IU were generally consistent with the hypothesized theoretical model and the important mediating role of IU was comfirmed. Specifically, except for a direct significant effect neuroticism and psychoticism had on test anxiety, they also had an indirect significant effect on test anxiety through the serial mediation of fear of negative evaluation and IU, and meanwhile, neuroticism and extraversion influenced test anxiety indirectly through the serial mediation of self-esteem and IU. Besides, IU could also mediated the relationship between neuroticism and test anxiety. Overall, the hierarchical model of test anxiety were supported in the study, and factors mediating the relations between personality traits and test anxiety had been investigated , serving as a descriptive framework for understanding this anxiety subtype and other anxiety disorders and probably providing a basis for developing more specific treatments for test anxiety. To conclude, personality traits had a significant effect on test anxiety directly or indirectly, and self-esteem, fear of negative evaluation and IU played a mediating role between personality traits and test anxiety. Related Articles | Metrics

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Use IRT to Analyze Longitudinal Data Measurement Invariance-----the Case of 4-5 Children’s Cognitive Ability Test 2016, 39(3): 606-613.  Abstract ( )   PDF (716KB) ( )   Cognition is the core of intelligence, also an indispensable ability of children to develop and mature. Preschool period is an important time for the development of children’s cognition. As they mature, their understanding of the world get deeper and wider, and the cognition ability also grow rapidly. The most suitable method to analyzing cognitive development trend is longitudinal study, which can shows the development track of children. When researchers analyzing longitudinal data, changes in variables are the emphasis of research. But the longitudinal data can only be interpreted if important psychometric features of the measured variables are assumed invariant across time. The definition of measurement invariance is that the psychometric features of an instrument remain stable in different situation or time point. However, in previous studies, few researchers considerred or test the measurement invariance of the instrument. This will lower the validity of instrument as the result may be biased or even misled. The methods to test the measurement invariance include traditional confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and newly developed item response theory (IRT). Previous researchers always used CFA to analyze measurement invariance. However comparing to newly developed item response theory (IRT), the CFA method has some limitations as the linear assumption of the relationship between observable variables and latent variables, and IRT non-linear assumption is more suitable for reality and psychology issues. Also, CFA method can only test whether the factor variance and covariance remain stable or not in different situation. But the IRT method can provide the measurement invariance information in item level, which is more useful for future revising of instrument. Thus, we choose IRT method to systematically analyze the measurement invariance of Children’s Cognitive Development Test. In this study, we choose 882 48-mouth-old children from the country, testing in first year and second year. After model comparison and considering the instrument construct, we choose 2-tier multidimensional item response model for further investigation of measurement invariance. The testing of measurement invariance includes two parts: integral testing and item-level testing. The result indicates that the instrument is partially invariance, but the high correlation between the primary factors indicating the construct of the instrument remains stable over time. Item-level test result shows that the discrimination parameter and difficulty parameters of item “direction” do not satisfy invariance condition, which could be considered to deleted or revised. The possible reason is that children’s conception of direction developed rapidly from 4-5, and previous studies shows most 4-year old children hardly distinguish “left” and “right”. Therefore, the item is difficult for 4-year old children since the ability of direction grows rapidly, the corresponding task may be too easy for 5-year old children. Moreover, the difficult parameters of the other four items do not satisfy the measurement invariance condition. This phenomenon is caused by the testlet design of this measurement, children accomplish different level of cognitive tasks in two time points. The float of difficult parameters can be tolerated, but the difficult of these items need to be revised in order to be more suitable for corresponding age of children. Additionally, model estimation results indicate children’s cognitive proficiency grow rapidly and significantly from 4 to 5. Related Articles | Metrics

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Effect of Stress on College Students' Internet addiction Zheng-Qing ZHENG 2016, 39(3): 621-627.  Abstract ( )   PDF (539KB) ( )   As a new type of media and tools, the Internet has brought many conveniences to people's life，however, it has brought a lot of negative impact to people’s life at the same time. Among the negative effects the Internet has brought, Internet addiction is a typical one. Internet addiction greatly endangers college students’ health. It not only can influence college students’ cognitive function and physical function, but also can lead to serious college students’ psychological and behavioral problem (Deng, Fang, Wu, Zhang & Liu, 2013; Ozturk, Bektas, Ayar, Oztornac & Yagci, 2015; Zhou & Fang, 2015). The Internet addiction ratio of college student is quite high in our country. Therefore, researchers should pay more attention to college students' Internet addiction. It is very necessary to study the potential mechanisms of college students’ Internet addiction , so as to design prevention and intervention programs. Among many factors influencing college students’ Internet addiction, the role of stress has increasingly received attention from both practitioners and researchers over the past few years(Yan, Li & Sui, 2014; Lam & Wong, 2015).There is substantial literature documenting that stress has an important influence on college students’ Internet addiction, but little is known about the mediating mechanisms underlying this relation. Mediation tells us how the independent variable(stress) influence the dependent variable(college students’ Internet addiction), the present study constructed a chain mediation model to examine the effect of stress , anxiety and coping style on college students’ Internet addiction and the underling mechanisms. Specifically, the present study examined whether stress would be indirectly related to college students’ Internet addiction through anxiety and coping style. It is necessary to explore the mediation mechanism of the effect of stress on college students’ Internet addiction, the results can effectively prevent and control the Internet addiction of College students. To examine how stress influence college students’ Internet addiction, 341 college students(M=20.07 years，SD=1.58) of six schools were recruited in the study to complete self-report questionnaires. The self-report questionnaires were used in this study included stress scale, anxiety scale, coping style questionnaire and Internet addiction questionnaire.The questionnaire scale was used to assess with stress , the anxiety scale was used to assess anxiety. Copying style was assessed by the copying style questionnaire, college students’ Internet addiction was assessed by the Internet addiction questionnaire. The results indicated that: (1) anxiety mediated the effect of stress on college students’ Internet addiction; (2) coping style mediated the effect of anxiety on college students’ Internet addiction. The negative coping style served to partially mediate the association between anxiety and college students’ Internet addiction, but the positive coping style had no significant effect on the Internet addiction among anxiety and college students. Stress could directly influence college students’ Internet addiction, as well as through influence anxiety and the negative coping style, ultimately influence college students’ Internet addiction. Anxiety and the negative coping style played a chain mediating effect between stress and college students’ Internet addiction. The conclusion of the study had important reference value for prevention and intervention of college students’ Internet addiction. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Application, Characteristic and Inspirstion of Hopeful Thinking in Clinical Area 2016, 39(3): 741-747.  Abstract ( )   PDF (539KB) ( )   Abstract The cognitive theory of hope proposed that hope is a goal-driven positive thinking strategy which is composed of three components, goal, agency and pathway. Individuals with high level of both agency and pathway can only be considered as possessed of high level of hope. Emotion is accounted as the sequelae of the thoughts and activities of goal attainment. A substantial of studies at home and abroad have manifested, statistically and theoretically, the cognitive model of hope's existing and structure are worldwide, inter-age and cross-culture. As an attainable cognitive strategy, hopeful thinking can be trained and sustained by systematic practices to regain the feeling of hope and improve the strength of individual to deal with their problems and issues. Hence, the significance of hopeful thinking in clinical area has been extensively recognized and demonstrated. In the midst of adversity, hopeful thinking prevents individuals from psychological cost and promotes adaptive cope. Firstly, hopeful thinking is important to the treatment of physical and mental diseases. Researchers and doctors regard hope as crucial ingredient in the cure of cancer, stroke, chronic disease and other physical illness as well as mental illness like schizophrenia and emotional disorder. Patients with high level hope seek for treatments on their own initiatives and face the situation with more positive attitudes which will alleviate the feeling of depression and anxiety and at the same time increase the survival rate. Besides, the behaviors and emotion of paramedics and care-givers interacts with patients, hence, high hope is important to both the patients and paramedics and care-givers. Secondly, hopeful thinking has also been used to develop interventions that aims at the behavior modification of drug abusers, sexual offenders and at-risk youth. Thirdly, hope positively correlates with Resilience and Post-traumatic growth. Increasing hope could enhance individuals' psychological strength so that the subjective well-being and life satisfaction could be improved as well. Fourthly, when deal with stress, people with high hope level generate more pathways flexibly and benefit with the experience while their counterparts tend to avoid or be depressed. Some researches devoted to use the hope related interventions to help people cope with their pressures in a positive and benign way. The results indicated remarkable effects of those interventions. Finally, hopeful thinking plays an important role in the development of individuals. It's highly related to the academic?achievement and sport accomplishment. Researchers use horticultural and sandtray therapies to boost high school students' hopeful thinking and thus improving student's ability to battle?stress and promoting their psychological strength. The practice of hopeful thinking in clinical era not only shed lights on the alleviation of symptoms, but also conttributed to the positive development of individuals which offers a fine example for the practice of other positive strengths. In summary, the practice of hopeful thinking in clinical area have four general characteristics. The first one is it's wide applications for patients suffer from different diseases, people with misbehavior, citizens deal with great pressure and normal individuals long for better development. The second feature is it's easy to?master because it doesn't need long complex course of treatment. Thirdly, it can be attained by stand-alone systematic hope interventions like traditional check-list, discussion and story-telling. The intervention normally concludes four steps, the introduction of hope, the explore of personal goals, the generation of pathways to pursuit goals and the enhance of the motivation. The last characteristic is that the enhancement techniques of hopeful thinking can easily be incorporated evidence-support psychotherapies like Couple Therapy and Narrative?Therapy. To summarize to general process of the intervention of hopeful thinking, a Three-Stage Intervention Model was posited, paving path for the future studies and practices. Towards a better future, the following researches should make efforts on the discovery and utilization of the internal mechanism of hopeful thinking, at the same time focus on the deeper and broader practice of the indigenization of hopeful thinking in clinical setting. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Relationship among Social Support, Deliberate Rumination and Posttraumatic Growth: A Longitudinal Study of Adolescents after Wenchuan Earthquake 2016, 39(3): 735-740.  Abstract ( )   PDF (477KB) ( )   Posttraumatic growth (PTG) is the most common positive outcome after traumatic events. And, previous studies found that there are many factors have an effect on the developmental process of PTG. The model of PTG of Calhoun and Tedeschi (2006) suggest that social support and deliberate rumination were considered as two important promoting factors. In the fact, Calhoun and Tedeschi (2006) regarded PTG as an important mental result after traumatic experience.However, the PTG model of Hobfoll et al.(2007) and the Janus-face model of PTG (Maercker & Zoellner, 2004) emphasize that PTG also be possible a coping style after trauma, and can predict social support and deliberate rumination. Based on different theories, then many empirical studies found that social support and deliberate have a positive effect on PTG, and PTG also influence social support and deliberate rumination. The relationship among social support, deliberate rumination and PTG were unclear. The reason for it is that the theoretical perspective are different, and the participants of different studies can be different. More importantly, the limits of cross-lagged study on the causal relation can be an important attribution. Therefore, it is necessary to examine the relationship among social support, deliberate rumination and PTG from longitudinal perspective. The current longitudinal study examined the course and bidirectional relation between social support, deliberate rumination and posttraumatic growth (PTG). 245 secondary school students in the most severely affected area were investigated by self-report deliberate rumination, PTSD and PTG questionnaires at 3.5 year 4.5 year and 5.5 year after Wenchuan Earthquake. The cross-lagged structure equation analysis revealed that social support have non-significant effect on deliberate rumination and PTG from 3.5 year to 5.5 year after earthquake. Between 3.5 year and 5.5 year after earthquake, deliberate rumination predicted significantly PTG but not social support. Moreover, PTG predicted significantly deliberate rumination from 3.5 year to 4.5 year but not 4.5 year to 5.5 year after earthquake. In addition, the effect of PTG on social support is non-significant between 3.5 year and 5.5 year after earthquake. Related Articles | Metrics

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Can Music Improve Human Immunity? 2016, 39(3): 748-753.  Abstract ( )   PDF (337KB) ( )   Research into the health benefits of music has rapidly expanded over the last decades in an attempt to understand how music can be better applied in community, educational and, in particular, healthcare settings. Music has been shown to be able to elicit strong emotional and psychological reactions in humans, and thus it is often used to regulate mood and arousal in everyday life and to promote physical and psychological health in clinical settings. However, scientific inquiry into the effects of music on human immunity is still in its infancy. Recent psychoneuroimmunology research has given increasing attention to the relationship between immune systems and psychological processes aroused by music. We review how music improves health and well-being through the engagement of neurochemical systems for reward, motivation and pleasure, stress and arousal, and immunity. Stress has a wide variety of detrimental effects on immune systems, leading to a weakening of defenses against pathogens and an increase in systemic inflammation. The potential therapeutic effects of music have been largely attributed to its ability to reduce stress and modulate arousal levels. It is known that stimulating music could increase plasma cortisol, adrenocorticotropic hormone, prolactin, growth hormone, and norepinephrine levels. Recreational music counteracts the immune modulation that normally occur due to stress and aging. In general, music can boost the innate or non-specific immune system and has anti-inflammatory properties. Music-based treatments or interventions are inexpensive, and convenient and noninvasive with minimal or no side effects. However, these results are still preliminary and the effects of extraneous variables need to be controlled for in future studies. Nevertheless, the findings presented here are encouraging, and should provide impetus for further research in the use of music in minimizing the strain placed on the immune system. In addition, previous studies have also provided important insights into the mechanisms underlying the perception and processing of music, exploring the psychological process and cognitive neuroscience of music. This includes the neurological basis for music in inducing emotions, such as the neurobiology of certain aspects of music such as harmony and the neuroanatomy of music performance. The breadth of study has ranged from the perception of folksongs inside the womb to the performance of opera on concert platforms and the use of popular music in operating theatres. Music can also influence brains and bodies in different ways: aurally, via direct auditory perception; physically, via muscle movements and sensory experience of vibrations; socially, as musical activities can bring with them additional social experiences such as increases in confidence, social participation, self-esteem. Music will be appreciated differently by different individuals, depending to a large extent on their preference, familiarity with the style, and particular emotional connection. In future research, we should pay attention to the following aspects: (1) to clarify the role of the physiological and psychological role of music in human’s immune system; (2) pay attention to the causal research paradigm and try to avoid the use of biomarker as alternatives; and (3) to ascertain the relevant terms of psychoneuroimmunological effects of music and to establish a new research paradigm in this research area. Related Articles | Metrics

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A New Method:LP and Its Comparision With Three kinds of Commonly Detect Procedure of DIF 2016, 39(3): 720-726.  Abstract ( )   PDF (1161KB) ( )   With the development of psychology metrology and wide application of psychological and educational tests, the fairness of test has been concerned by educators and psychologists, and more in-depth study on the differential item functioning has become the fact. Detection of differential item functioning (DIF) has been widely employed in the analysis of routine items, and a number of methods have been developed to detect DIF, such as Mantel-Hansel(MH) Procedure, Standardization(STND), Simultaneous Item Bias Procedure(SIBTEST), Likelihood Ration (LR) Test, Lord’s Chi-Square, Raju's Area Measures, MIMIC Method, etc. in most of those which there exist either a low power of test or a high type I error rate. Therefore it's necessary to find out one more effective method to detect DIF. Proposed in the paper for detecting differential item functioning (DIF), LP(Likelihood Procedure) is an IRT-based method with item-detection under the condition of two parameter logistic model (2PLM) as a representative. The performance of LP was compared with that of MH method, Lord chi-squared and Raju Area Measurement. DIF size, Test length, Sample size, the difference distribution of abilities between the focal group and reference group were also considered. Three levels of DIF size are 0.3, 0.5 and 0.8. Two levels of test length are 40 and 100. Three levels of sample size are 500 examinees, 1000 examinees and 2000 examinees. There are two distributions of abilities between the focal group and reference group, One fits in with standard normal distribution individually, the other says that distribution of abilities in reference group fits in with standard normal distribution while those in focal group fits in with normal distribution in which the mean is -1 and the standard deviation is 1. In this simulation study, data was generated using two parameter logistic model. The DIF item’s difficulty value in the study is corresponding to those in the focal group, or discrimination value is greater than those in the reference group. There are six DIF items in each group totally under the condition of uniform DIF and non-uniform DIF, including corresponding ones of three true-value DIF item. The simulation research indicates the following results: (1) LP has a high power of test and low and stable type I error rate. (2) As a whole the power of LP is higher than Lord chi-squared method and far higher than Mantel-Hansel(MH) method; and the type I error rate of LP is lower than Lord chi-squared method, when the test length is 100, MH method’s type I error rate is far beyond the range of stability scope. (3) LP is no better than Raju Area Measurement method in power of test, but the type I error rate of the later is so high that it’s above 0.1 and far beyond the range of stability scope under a variety of conditions. Generally speaking, LP has the following advantages: (1) LP is more sensitive and stability compared with MH. (2) LP is more reasonable used for checking DIF compared with Raju Area Measurement. (3) LP's power increases with the participants sample size or true DIF value. (4) Compared with the condition of same abilities, LP's power is lower When focal group and reference group behave diffierent abilities. (5) LP's power is high for both uniform DIF and non-uniform DIF, and the power is higher for the former. Finnally, LP is not only applicable to two parameter logistic model, but single parameter and three parameter logistic model as well. In addition, It’s easy to be applied extensively to multidimensional and multicategory scoring item. Related Articles | Metrics

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A Log Skew Normal Model for Item Response Times meng xiangbin 2016, 39(3): 727-734.  Abstract ( )   PDF (1752KB) ( )   The use of computerized testing has enabled us to routinely record the response times (RTs) of test takers on test items. It has long been known that RTs are an important source of information on test takers and test items. For instance, RTs can be used to evaluate the speed of a test, to detect cheating behaviors, to improve the selection of items in a computerized adaptive testing (CAT) and to design better test. However, to make full use of the information contained in RTs, an appropriate statistical treatment of the RTs is required. The log-normal (LN) distribution has been most widely used to model the RTs from various tests. It permits the use of the nice statistical properties of a normal model for the log-transformed RTs. But the log transformed RTs do not always satisfy the normality assumption. Therefore, a more general approach for describing RT distribution would be preferred. One example is the Box-Cox normal (BCN) model proposed by Klein Entink, van der Linden, & Fox (2009), in which a power parameter is introduced to represent a number of different transformations. But the transformation parameter in the BCN model must be restricted to be common to all items in the test. Otherwise, things are different for item-specific transformations, that is, transformations result in item-specific scales. As a result, it is impossible to interpret differences between the item parameter estimates directly as differences between item characteristics. To do so, a more general model for RTs is required. Typically, RTs are non-negative, so their distribution is positively skewed. The skew normal distribution has been shown beneficial in dealing with asymmetric data in various theoretic and applied problems. And, to the author’s knowledge, it has not found application in the psychometric literature of RT modeling. Therefore, a log linear model for RTs is developed based on the skew normal distribution in this paper. The log skew normal (LSN) model is more flexible than BCN model, it permits researcher to choose an appropriate item-specific skewness parameter to describe the distribution of RTs for each item. Furthermore, the new model is embedded in a hierarchical framework in order to model responses and times simultaneously. A Bayesian approach with Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) computation enables straightforward estimation of all model parameters. The deviance information criterion (DIC) and the Bayesian residual analysis methods are developed to compare the model fit between models with different parameter structure. Two simulation studies are constructed to explore the excellence of the LSN model and the performance of the proposed MCMC sampling algorithm. The results obtained in the simulation studies indicated that the LSN model is better than the BCN model and the LN model. The flexibility of the RT model can be improved by using the skew normal distribution, which can give researcher more freedom to fit different distributional shapes to the RT data. Furthermore, it was found that the MCMC algorithm performed well and enabled simultaneous estimation. Finally, our approach is empirically studied by a real-data example in the personality measurement, and the obtained results also indicated that the LSN model as RTs model presented best fit. Related Articles | Metrics

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From wishes to action: The explanatory power of the Rubicon model and its application 2016, 39(3): 754-760.  Abstract ( )   PDF (388KB) ( )   How can we understand and explain the dynamic process of human motivation from wishes to action? The Rubicon model, or the phase model of motivation, originates from the motive to address this important question. In the initial phase of model building, the Rubicon model differentiates the long process from wishes to action into 4 phases: predecisional, preactional, actional, and postactional; these phases are classified as either a motivational process (the first and last phases) or a volitional process (the second and third phases). The model postulates that different thought contents are more predominate in different phases. The critical transition point from the predecisional to the preactional phase is termed a “Rubicon.” After crossing the Rubicon, individuals move into the preactional and actional phases, which are characterized by volitional commitment. The conceptualization of 4 different mind-sets that correspond to the 4 phases of the Rubicon model, defined as deliberative, implemental, actional, and evaluative, gave momentum to a series of empirical works. Substantial evidence was found regarding the difference between a deliberative and an implemental mind-set. Individuals with a deliberative mind-set tend to have wide-ranging and unbiased thoughts because they intend to evaluate all the possibilities before making a decision. However, individuals with an implemental mind-set want to focus on their choices and are therefore more narrowed-sighted, selective, and biased. It is worth noting that three kinds of intentions, namely goal intention, implementation intention, and evaluation intention, are postulated as bridges linking each adjacent phase. The important role of implementation intention in triggering human action has been demonstrated in numerous empirical studies. The formulation of the action-phase model of developmental regulation and its related empirical findings further enrich the original Rubicon model. In this new model, the use of specific control strategies in different phases is postulated. After crossing the Rubicon, individuals would use selective primary control to monitor the environment (e.g., invest effort, abilities, and time) and selective secondary control to monitor their thoughts (e.g., enhance goal values, devalue competing goal) when a task is not urgent. In the case where a deadline is approaching, the above-mentioned control strategies would be intensified and compensatory primary control in mobilizing external resources (e.g., help of others, technical aids) would additionally be applied. After the deadline has passed, compensatory secondary control (e.g., changing goals, downward comparison) would be used to alleviate the negative influences in a failure condition. A new round of motivational and volitional processes would start in goal attainment situations. Apart from reviewing the empirical studies designed to test the model directly, the latest application of the Rubicon model in consumer psychology and health psychology are also discussed. Measured against the yardsticks of being testable, coherent, economical, generalizable, and explainable, and contrasted with the limitations of existing motivational theories, the Rubicon model appears to possess the qualities of a good theory. Its unique contribution lies in differentiating the motivational and volitional processes in human activities, on the basis of which the complexity of human activities could possibly be captured in a comprehensive way. To further develop and refine the model, a series of new research questions are raised to address the aspects neglected in previous studies. Related Articles | Metrics

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Creativity Could Have Dark Side 2016, 39(3): 761-766.  Abstract ( )   PDF (323KB) ( )   Creativity is an ability to create something both novel (original and unexpected) and effective (appropriate and useful). Creativity may be applied for both good and bad purposes; it could have a dark side in its nature. The dark side of creativity means the negative aspects related to creativity, including the negative application of creativity, and the negative characteristic or factors accompanying with creativity. Based on the “4P” theory of creativity research (i.e. product, person, press, and process), this study explored the possibly negative aspects of creativity in the first three dimensions. First, malevolent creativity (MC) may generate products that do harm to people and society. MC is defined as creativity that deliberately leads to harmful or immoral results. The products of MC mostly appear in terrorism and crimes, such as the "9/11". However, common people also have more or less MC. Some situational factors (e.g. dissatisfaction to current society), poor ability to regulate emotion (i.e. low emotional intelligence), some negative personality traits (e.g. high physical aggression) may be related to the MC of individuals. Second, high creativity tends to accompany with various negative characteristics. For instance, the offspring of individuals with high creativity may have a high susceptibility of mental illness than those normal ones. Besides, creativity has complicatedly bidirectional relationship with dishonesty, which partly due to their overlapping characteristic of “break rules”. On one hand, creativity performance may make individuals more dishonest. On the other hand, individuals who cheated may gain higher performance in following creativity tasks. Third, high creative performance tends to be related to some negative situations. People perform better on creativity tasks when they are primed for distrust (vs. trust), especially in the private situation. Feeling the sense of interpersonal conflict or threat may be beneficial to creativity. For example, compared to "non-threat pictures", the stories written by people based on "threat pictures" have higher novelty scores. Mortality salience and social rejection could help improving the creativity of certain person. For example, even slight rejection (e.g. be told not to be selected in a group), could improve the creativity of individuals with independent self-concept. Future research should solve the following problems. First, it’s necessary to improve the method of inducing MC. To induce MC effectively, participants could be told clearly to "generate novel and harmful ideas or solutions". Second, it’s necessary to improve the arithmetic of assessing MC. When it comes to subjective assessment, "snapshot" is a good method. That is, the ideas of each subject are first put together, and then raters give a global score of the malevolent creativity of these ideas in a short time. In addition, classic objective scoring process could be used to assess MC. Third, it’s necessary to expand methodologies of studying MC, such as, to explore the cognitive and neural mechanisms by means of EEG, fMRI, and tDCS. Fourth, it’s necessary to pay much attention to how improve benevolent creativity and reduce malevolent creativity. Related Articles | Metrics