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The relationship between appraisal, coping, depression and anxiety during COVID-19: A multivariable multilevel mediation model. 2022, 45(3): 695-701.  Abstract ( )   PDF   Purpose: As a global public health event, COVID-19 has become a major source of stress. Under the influence of COVID-19, people’s psychological adjustment is worthy of attention. As proposed by previous researchers, appraisal and coping played an important role in potential stressful event like COVID-19. To understand people’s cognitive and behavioral reaction during this special period, as well as the psychological influence caused by COVID-19, this study investigated the feature of and the relationship among controllability appraisal, forward focus coping, trauma focus coping, depression and anxiety. Based on previous studies and theories, a multivariable multiple mediation model was established, in which coping was supposed to mediate the relationship between controllability appraisal and depression/anxiety. Methods: Researchers collected 1372 online questionnaires from 13 provinces on February 7th. Apart from demographic information such as age and gender, the Stress Appraisal Measurement scale, the Perceived Ability to Cope with Trauma scale, CES-D 11 and GAD 7 were used to measure target variables. SPSS 23.0 was used to analyze descriptive statistics, the Cronbach α coefficient and the multiple collinearity. A latent variable structural equation model analysis was conducted through Amos 21.0 to testify the purposed multivariable multiple mediation model. Results: The proposed multivariable multiple mediation model was approved statistically: X2/df = 6.31, RMSEA = 0.06, IFI = 0.93, CFI = 0.94, GFI = 0.94. The results showed that: (1) Controllable-by-self negatively predicted depression and anxiety, but controllable-by-others did not predict depression/anxiety; (2) Controllable-by-self positively predicted forward focus coping, but did not predict trauma focus coping; (3) Controllable-by-others positively predicted both forward focus coping and trauma focus coping; (4) Forward focus coping negatively predicted depression/anxiety while trauma focus coping presented a positive prediction. (5) Forward focus coping was a mediator between controllable-by-self and depression/anxiety; (6) Trauma focus coping was a mediator between controllable-by-self and depression/anxiety as well as between controllable-by-others and depression/anxiety. Conclusion and Discussion: To summary, the proposed multivariable multiple mediation model was partially support and revealed a complicated pattern among variables. This study explored and discussed the complex mechanisms and effects of controllability appraisal, coping and psychological adjustment during COVID-19. Future research may focus on the dynamic process of appraisal, coping and adjustment through lunching longitudinal studies. The quantitative and objective measure of coping flexibility is also of vital importance in order to understand the mechanism and influence of different coping strategies. The antecedent variables of appraisal should also be inquired to understand the psychological effects caused by COVID-19 comprehensively. Related Articles | Metrics

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Does prolonged time spent with parents increase parent-child conflict 2022, 45(3): 687-694.  Abstract ( )   PDF   Due to the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019, the winter vacation of China in 2020 has been extended by more than three months compared to the normal Spring Festival winter vacation. Compared with the previous winter vacation, in this long winter vacation, in addition to the students being forced to stay at home and unable to go to school, their parents are also forced to stay at home, unable to go to work or work. For students, holidays are extended, staying at home for a long time and reducing going out, normal school learning and social activities are restricted, which may affect their studies and increase anxiety and depression; for parents of students, it is impossible to carry out normal activities. Social work and work may also affect the family’s income and produce negative psychological reactions. Adolescents stay at home with their parents for a long time, and they are often accompanied by anxiety, depression, and high pressure in academic, economic, and health aspects. What kind of changes may these factors change the characteristics of parent-child conflict in the family? The long vacation caused by the epidemic provides a special space-time field for the study of parent-child conflict. Therefore, a combination of big data technology and qualitative analysis methods is used to explore the characteristics of parent-child conflict during the epidemic. Use Python3.8 to write a program, and enter keywords and time in the program before the program runs. In order to make keywords more accurately reflect the content of "parent-child conflict", the researchers searched the China National Knowledge Network (CNKI) for documents with the theme of "parent-child conflict". A total of 1812 documents were retrieved, and different keywords were calculated. The frequency of occurrences in all the papers is finally determined as the high-frequency keywords: parent-child conflict; junior high school students; high school students; adolescents; parental conflicts; parents; conflicts. These seven keywords are cross-matched and used as keywords for crawling the Weibo platform to obtain the original data. The time interval is from January 23, 2020 to February 23, 2020, which is one month after Wuhan is closed. After entering the keywords and time interval, the original information was crawled out, and the Weibo content that was irrelevant to the research and repetitive was deleted, and finally 286 Weibo texts with a total of 104,993 words were determined. Then, perform qualitative analysis on the original data extracted by crawling, that is, perform three-level coding, which are open coding, main axis coding and selective coding. Finally, the validity test is performed on the encoded results. Results: During the epidemic, parent-child conflicts mainly have four characteristics: conflict triggers, conflict types, conflict areas, and conflict management strategies. Conclusion: In terms of the causes of parent-child conflicts, this study found that family relationships, social culture, and individual psychophysiology are the causes of parent-child conflicts among adolescents; in terms of parent-child conflict types, this study found that adolescents and their parents are most likely to have emotional conflicts during the epidemic, followed by Conflicts of ideas, speech and behavior; this study found that although teenagers have more conflicts with their parents, both parents and children still adopt active management strategies to solve problems, but there are still some teenagers who have conflicts with their parents and both sides adopt negative management strategies. Problem-solving management strategies; in the field of parent-child conflict, this study found that teenagers and their parents often occur in entertainment activities, living habits, studies, and interpersonal relationships. Finally, based on the above conclusions, this study believes that parent-child conflicts during the epidemic are due to minor events in parent-child life that cause family dysfunctions, and adolescents’ cognition of parent-child conflicts is restricted by the parent-child attachment relationship and parent-child emotional intensity. Active problem-solving strategies can help establish a good parent-child relationship. Related Articles | Metrics

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Higher rank, greater responsibility: the impact of endowment source and quantity on third-party punishments in a public-goods dilemma 2022, 45(3): 665-671.  Abstract ( )   PDF   In order to maintain positive social interactions, uninvolved third-parties tend to punish free riders who contribute less than their fair share in a public-goods dilemma. Previous research showed that the quantity and source of endowments can modulate behavior in this situation. The present study combined behavior with Event-related Potentials to examine how the quantity and source of endowments modulate associated brain activity of third-party evaluation of the member contributions and the punishment choices. Twenty-six participants participated in the experiment. We used a within-subjects design with Endowment Source (effort-based or randomly assigned), Endowment Quantity (low or high), and Contribution (low, equal, or high) as factors. Participants joined the study as third-party punishers and were presented with information about other participants' performance from a classical public-goods game (PGG), including the quantity and source of endowment and their contribution. Participants were instructed to decide whether and how much they would like to cost their own money to punish a given member. Furthermore, the event-related potentials were recorded while participants were making their evaluations. Behavioral results showed: (1) Participants punish those members with high endowments stronger than to those with low endowments (p<.001); (2) This effect was greater when endowment amount was randomly assigned than when it was gained through effort (p<.05); (3) The effect was greater when the member's contribution was low than when it was high (p<.001). ERP results showed that the quantity and source of endowment modulated ERP components: Feedback-related negativity (FRN) and P3 that is typically associated with the evaluation process. When the initial endowment was high (i.e., 100 RMB), FRN magnitude was more negative when the endowment was assigned randomly than when it was gained with efforts (p<.05). Whereas when the initial endowment was low (i.e.,10 RMB), this difference was not significant. P3 magnitude was smaller when the quantity of initial endowment was high (p<.05). Besides, we found that the difference in the amplitude of FRN between the two sources (i.e., randomly assigned vs. effort-based) was significantly correlated with the difference in punishment strength (p<.05). These results suggested that the neural reactivity (i.e. the FRN) and the overt behavioral index (i.e. the punishment) were closely connected. The present study offer insights into how social norms held by third parties can modulate punishment given to the free-riders in a PGG. The present findings prove that the punishment meted out by third parties in a PGG is influenced by the noblesse oblige effect, that is, the third-party will evaluate the contributions of members according to the quantity and source of their endowments. When the member's contribution does not meet the third-party’s expectations, the third-party would experience unpleasant feelings, as reflected in the FRN at the evaluation stage, and these feelings further drive subsequent punishment. This finding helps understand why people expect high-income, high-social status individuals to make more contributions and when their contributions do not meet the public’s expectations, there will show strong negative emotions towards it. Related Articles | Metrics

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Self-defense or Self- presentation? The Mechanisms of How Workplace Negative Gossip Affects Targets’ Behaviors 2022, 45(3): 672-678.  Abstract ( )   PDF   The term “negative workplace gossip” refers to informal and negative talk from one member of an organization to one or more members of the same organization about another member of the organization who is not present to hear what is said. Most previous studies on negative workplace gossip argue that negative workplace gossip can trigger targets’ deviant behaviors. Drawing on social cognitive theory of self-regulation, we attempt to explore the mechanisms of how negative workplace gossip affects targets’ behaviors by developing a model inking perceived negative workplace gossip about the self to self-defense behaviors (i.e., workplace ostracism) and self-presentation behaviors (i.e., impression management) via shame, with perceived negative workplace gossip about coworkers as a first-stage moderator. To test the hypotheses in our model, we conducted a survey on 214 employee-supervisor dyads from several companies. The survey was conducted in three waves. In the first wave, employees were asked to complete a questionnaire, including demographic information, perceived negative workplace gossip about the self, and perceived negative workplace gossip about coworkers. In the second wave, employees reported their feeling of shame. In the third wave, employees reported their impression management behavior, and their supervisors were required to rate the employees’ workplace ostracism. We examined our hypotheses with MPLUS 8.0. Empirical results showed that: (1) perceived negative gossip about coworkers moderates the positive relationship between perceived negative gossip about the self and targets’ feeling of shame. Specifically, the positive relation between perceived negative gossip about the self and targets’ feeling of shame is stronger when perceived negative gossip about coworkers is low. (2) targets’ feeling of shame has positive effects on their impression management and workplace ostracism, and (3) perceived negative gossip about coworkers moderates the positive and indirect effect of perceived negative gossip about the self on their impression management and workplace ostracism. This study contributes to the literature in the following ways. First, we extend previous studies on negative workplace gossip by demonstrating that negative workplace gossip can trigger both self-defense behaviors and self-presentation behaviors. The verification of the emotion mechanism for targets’ negative workplace gossip significantly extends our understanding of the unique features of their behaviors. Second, our findings deepen our understanding of the emotion mechanism by integrating the target perspective and bystander perspective under a general theoretical framework. Finally, our work uses social cognitive theory of self-regulation to build a comprehensive frame work for understanding the consequences of negative workplace gossip, thus providing a uniquely generative frame work for future research. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Relationship between Social Exclusion and Impulsive Buying of College Students: The Mediating Role of Celebrity Worship and the Moderating Role of Self-Control 2022, 45(3): 657-664.  Abstract ( )   PDF   According to the statistical report of China Internet Network Information Center (2020), as of December 2019, the number of online shopping users in China has increased year by year, reaching 782 million. Many marketing strategies also aims at college students in late adolescence. Buying has become a daily behavior of college students, which has aroused wide attention of the society. With the continuous progress of science and technology, it is more and more convenient for college students to buy, but it has brought serious social problems of impulsive buying to college students. Impulsive buying not only brings immediate satisfaction to college students, but also brings a series of problems such as debt burden and the sense of guilt. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the psychological mechanism of impulsive buying of college students. In order to prevent and intervene impulsive buying better and avoid the negative effects of impulsive buying, this paper puts forward a moderated mediation model based on previous studies to explore its internal psychological mechanism. Therefore, this study aimed at exploring the impact of social exclusion on impulsive buying, as well as the mediating role of celebrity worship and the moderating role of self-control. Based on perspective of cognitive-affective system theory, the social exclusion theory and the self-control theory and other theories, we used social exclusion scale, celebrity worship scale, self-control dual system scale and impulsive buying scale to investigate 811 college students in the late adolescence. The macro program PROCESS of SPSS 23.0 was used to process and analyze the data. By estimating the three equations, we tested the impact of social exclusion on impulsive buying, the mediating role of celebrity worship and the moderating role of self-control. The results indicated that: (1) After all the predictors were standardized and controlling for gender, age, family monthly income and monthly living expenses, social exclusion could significantly positively predict impulsive buying; (2) Social exclusion predicted impulsive buying through the mediating role of celebrity worship; (3) The mediating role of celebrity worship and the direct influence of social exclusion on impulsive buying were moderated by self-control. Specifically, in terms of direct effect, compared with high self-control college students, low self-control college students' social exclusion had a greater predictive effect on their impulsive buying. The moderated mediation model was well proven. As a positive factor, self-control could buffer the adverse effect of social exclusion on impulsive buying. On the mediating path, self-control could moderate the influence of social exclusion on celebrity worship, and the protective effect of self-control was more obvious in the situation of weak social exclusion. The results helped to reveal the formation mechanism of college student impulsive buying, and had a certain guiding significance for the prevention and intervention of impulsive buying. In a word, this study constructed a moderated mediating model to reveal the internal psychological mechanism of impulsive buying, and helped us understand how social exclusion affects college student impulsive buying. In addition, the results of the study also provided some enlightenment for the intervention and prevention of impulsive buying. For example, educators could improve college students' self-control ability through certain course training and physical exercise, or guide them to correctly understand their attachment to celebrities, so as to avoid pathological infatuation, or administrators should formulate reasonable management measures to create a good social environment which could reduce the possibility of social exclusion. There are also some deficiencies in this study. First, there may be other mechanisms behind these relationships. Future research can explore other psychological mechanisms besides celebrity worship. Second, as a cross-sectional study, the causal relationship between variables could not be well inferred. Future research can improve this by focusing on longitudinal research or on methods of experiments. Third, the research objects of this study are mainly concentrated in three universities in Guangzhou, so the generality of the research results is limited by the sample to a certain extent. Future research should expand the sample size and select research objects from other regions. Related Articles | Metrics

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Better quality, more patience: The influence of different quality goods of the same kind on intertemporal choice quan HE Lina Chen 2022, 45(3): 679-686.  Abstract ( )   PDF   Previous studies have concentrated on intertemporal choice with monetary outcomes and only a few of research investigated that with non-monetary outcomes. These studies found that people show goods-specific discounting rates. In daily life, people often make decisions among commodities of different qualities of same kind that occurs at different times, which is scarcely investigated. Based on the multi-attribute theory and the attribute-based intertemporal theory, the present study proposes that individuals are more patient when facing commodities of different qualities than facing monetary outcomes. This is because that the difference perceptions between these different quality commodities are greater than that of corresponding monetary outcomes. Further more, we suppose that the psychological process of intertemporal choice with different quality commodities is based on the dimensional difference-comparing process, which is the same as those with monetary outcomes. Three experiments were performed to test these hypotheses and all were conducted with between-subjects designs. In experiment 1, participants (322 adults, 118 men) were shown 4 paired options with one sooner-smaller outcomes (SS) and the other later-larger outcomes (LL). Half of the participants indicated their preference for monetary outcomes (money condition) and the other half the different corresponding commodities of same kind (quality condition). This was to examine whether individuals are more patient in the quality condition than in the money condition. Experiment 2 was to test whether the perceived difference between these different quality commodities are greater than that of corresponding monetary outcomes. Participants (428 adults, 196 men) were randomly assigned to two conditions and firstly made choice between SS and LL, then they were asked to indicate their perceived difference on the outcome dimensions. Experiment 3 was to figure out whether one’s preference was mediated by the dimensional difference-comparing process. Participants (424 adults, 194 men) were asked to indicate their preferences and to compare the differences on the delay dimension with that on the outcome dimension. The results of Experiment 1 and Experiment 2 showed that more individuals preferred later but larger outcomes in quality condition (vs. money condition) in intertemporal choice. In other words, they tend to be more patient in quality condition (vs. money condition) in intertemporal choice. Furthermore, compared with money condition, individuals felt greater perceived difference on the outcome dimension in quality condition. And this perceived difference on the outcome dimension mediated the preferences between two conditions. The results of Experiment 3 showed the perceived difference between the outcome dimension and the delay dimension is larger in quality condition than in money condition, to be specific, participants felt the outcome dimension is larger than that on the delay dimension in quality condition, which mediates the choice results. To be a conclusion, the results of the three experiments show that individuals are more patient when facing different quality commodities of the same kind than when facing monetary outcomes. The reason of which is when facing with quality commodities outcomes, participants felt greater perceived difference on the outcome dimension than monetary outcomes. Furthermore, this study finds that the psychological process of intertemporal choice of quality outcome is consistent with that of monetary outcome, it also follows the dimensional difference-comparing process. These findings enrich the research of intertemporal choice and have significant implications for attribute-based intertemporal choice models. Related Articles | Metrics

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A Dual Process Perspective of Embodied Cognition: Boundary Conditions for Embodiment Effects Jiang-Qun LIAO 2022, 45(3): 761-767.  Abstract ( )   PDF   The theory of “embodied cognition” stresses the roles of the body and the environment in cognitive processing, and prior studies have shown that thoughts, sensations, and behaviors are rooted in interactions between the two. However, it has also been found that several empirical embodiment effects cannot be replicated, or that the replicating effect sizes are far smaller than those of the original effect. Moreover, the significance of an embodiment effect is not always clear. Following a review of the boundary conditions of embodiment effects, the present article proposes a dual process perspective of embodied cognition. The dominating embodied theories incorporate embodied metaphor theory, perceptual symbol systems, embodied simulation theory, enactive cognition theory, and somatic marker theory. They have used conceptualizations such as “mapping,” “simulators,” “sensorimotor simulating,” “perception–action circuits,” and “somatic circuits” as integrating mechanisms with which to link the environment, the body, and cognitive processing. We posit that an embodiment effect is influenced by the relative robustness of these integrating mechanisms. In the early stages of integration, such links are weak; cognitive processing can be influenced through manipulation of the embodied variables, but the effect is unstable and can be easily altered by other stimuli. In the later stages, link strength is enhanced and the effect becomes robust, yet the effect size is reduced. Thus, cognitive processing may be less influenced by embodied variables, but the effect is robust and cannot be easily changed by other stimuli. Alongside variations in embodiment effect size and robustness, dual process types are also developed, and we hypothesize that a dual process could moderate an embodiment effect. Empirically, there is evidence to support this perspective. First, embodiment effects are moderated by age, in that the effect size in adults will be smaller than in children, and smaller in older adults than in younger ones. Second, embodiment effects are moderated by the individual’s processing state, insofar as effects are significant when participants are unconsciously processing the embodied variables, but non-significant when they are consciously processing them. Third, embodiment effects are moderated by whether sufficient cognitive resources are available: when cognitive resources are depleted during an experimental task, the embodied variable cannot be accessible to cognitive processing, and the embodiment effect would be non-significant. Fourth, embodiment effects are moderated by the potential psychological conflict between embodied variables and cognitive processing; if such conflicts are resolved by contextual factors, cognitive processing will not be affected by embodied variables. In our paper, these postulations collectively are advanced as a dual process perspective of embodied cognition, through reference to which we provide several recommendations for future manipulations of embodied experiments, as follows: (a) embodied research requires larger sampling sizes than non-embodied research, since embodiment effect sizes are usually smaller than preceding non-embodiment effect sizes; (b) embodied variables should be well covered to ensure being processed by the intuitive Type Ⅰ process, because, if they were processed by the deliberate Type Ⅱ process, the embodiment effect would be eliminated by cognitive control; (c) the difficulty of the embodied task needs to be properly designed, given that, if it is too difficult, cognitive resources will be depleted and the embodiment effect would be non-significant; (d) psychological conflict between embodied variables and cognitive processing should be retained in the experiment’s procedure, as, thereby, the cognitive processing will be adjusted, following a change of embodied variables, to keep mental processes consistent. Related Articles | Metrics

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How to analyze fMRI data with open source tools: an introduction to supervised machine learning algorithm for multi-voxel patterns analysis 2022, 45(3): 718-724.  Abstract ( )   PDF   Analyzing neuroimaging data with open source tools: supervised machine learning algorithm application based on multi-voxel pattern Abstract Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) constitutes a powerful tool for addressing some basic cognitive questions in cognitive neuroscience. However, conventional fMRI analysis methods try to average across voxels that show a statistically significant response to the experimental conditions, which renders the information like the signals carried by the voxels showing a weaker response to the particular condition unavailable though it can reduce noise. Therefore, it is necessary for researchers to apply more powerful pattern classification algorithms to decode the information represented in multi-voxel activity patterns. This method is called multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA). At present, MVPA is increasingly used for neuroimaging data analysis, and it has become a trend to employ pattern classification and other algorithms in the field of machine learning in neuroimaging data analysis in recent years. However, the principles and applications of these tools are complex, and the neuroscience problems may not be fully considered in their development, so researchers have encountered some difficulties in solving neural representation problems with these tools. In this paper, the gap between machine learning and neuroimaging was filled in by demonstrating how a general-purpose machine learning toolbox could provide state-of-the-art methods for neuroimaging data analysis while keeping the code simple and understandable by both worlds, and the analysis process of the supervised machine learning algorithm by using open data in combination with Nilearn library and scikit-learn library tools was introduced Firstly, the basic concept of machine learning and the process of data analysis, including the principle of supervised learning algorithm, was introduced in detail. Then, the use of machine learning toolbox and the selection of algorithms (including the corresponding code) matching with the software package were described to simplify the use of machine learning library and make the code simple and easy to understand through examples. We tried to make it easier for researchers to understand how to approach cognitive problems with decoding by showing how to use the SVM classification algorithm of machine learning to solve a neural representation problem. To provide some tips about programming and parameter selection, the efficiency of different algorithms in multivariate classification was compared, and the applicability of each estimator was briefly described. This paper concluded that no estimator could perform well in all conditions, and its noteworthy that what was done to the data before applying the estimator was often more important than the choice of estimator. Typically, standardizing the data was important, smoothing could often be useful, and confounding effects, such as session effect, must be removed. In brief, the Python code accompanying the machine learning tasks was straightforward, while proper data preprocessing, the choice of the right model for the problem, and result interpretation were difficult. Tackling these difficulties and providing the scientists with a simple and readable code required building a domain-specific library (such as Nilearn) that was dedicated to applying scikit-learn to neuroimaging data. These abundant machine-learning technologies could solve high-dimensional statistics problems and foster advance in new cognitive neuroscience. Related Articles | Metrics

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Moderation Analyses of Two Frequently-Used Types of Categorical Variable Jie Fang Zhong-Lin WEN 2022, 45(3): 702-709.  Abstract ( )   PDF   Moderation analysis is frequently applied to the studies of psychology and other social science disciplines. Empirical researchers working on experiments as well as questionnaire surveys are often interested in moderation effect because it can help explain how the direction and strength of the relationship between the independent and dependent variables will change. Given that the categorical variable is frequently encountered in social science researches, how to analyze moderation models with the categorical variable becomes a noteworthy issue. In the present study, we consider two scenarios: one is in a questionnaire survey, known as a cross-sectional or between-participant design; the other is in a longitudinal study at two time-points, or a two-condition experiment with the within-participant design. A procedure is proposed and recommended to analyze the moderation effect when the data is collected from the between-participant design and independent variable or moderator is a categorical variable. The first step is to examine whether the moderation effect is statistically significant by testing R2 change with and without the moderation term. If the moderation effect is not significantly different from zero, stop the moderation analysis. In the second step, the omnibus test is used to examine whether the k-1 simple slopes are zero, where k is the number of the categories. If the omnibus effect is not statistically significant, stop the moderation analysis. In the third step, the pairwise test is used to determine which of the k-1 simple slope is statistically significant. There are two pairwise test methods, namely the pick-a-point approach and Johnson-Neyman (J-N) approach. An example is given to illustrate how to conduct the proposed procedure by using SPSS macro PROCESS software. When the data is collected from the two-condition within-participant design, we may presume that every participant is assigned to both experimental treatments (X), and the dependent variable (Y) is observed under each condition. According to the general data input format (such as in SPSS), there is no X variable, and Y have two columns of values. So the above moderation analysis procedure is not suitable for this design. Then, another procedure is proposed and recommended for such kind of data to analyze the moderation effect, in which the only X is a categorical variable. The first step is to regress the difference in the repeated measured dependent variable Y2-Y1 on moderator Z. If the regression coefficient is not statistically significantly different from zero, stop the moderation analysis. In the second step, a simple slope test is conducted by the pick-a-point approach or Johnson-Neyman (J-N) approach. A second example is given to illustrate how to conduct the proposed procedure by using SPSS macro MEMORE software. Directions for future studies on categorical moderation are discussed at the end of the paper. The above methods and steps could be expended to more complicated moderation models, such as the moderated mediation model with a multi-categorical independent variable or moderator, the additive moderator model, and the multiplicative moderator model. Related Articles | Metrics

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Using Information Matrix-based Method to Detect Differential Item Functioning with Multiple Groups in Cognitive Diagnostic Test 2022, 45(3): 710-717.  Abstract ( )   PDF   Cognitive diagnostic assessment (CDA) has received much attention in educational and psychological measurement recently. During the CDA, cognitive diagnostic test is the key component to examine whether or not individuals master the attributes that the test intends to measure based on his/her item responses. Lots of factors can affect the quality of the cognitive diagnostic test, among which differential item functioning (DIF) is one of the most important factors. Recently, researchers have developed lots of methods to detect DIF items, such as Mantel–Haenszel (MH), simultaneous item bias test, logistic regression (LR), and Wald statistics. These methods have been mainly designed to compare two groups, named the reference group and the focal group, respectively. However, there are more than two groups in practical situations, such as different classrooms within a school or different schools within a district. As we notice, a few studies have extended the DIF detection methods to multiple groups, for example, Li and Wang (2015) used the Wald statistic to detect DIF items for three groups. However, during the calculation of the Wald statistic, the information matrix is itemwise-based, which yields inflated Type I error rate. Meanwhile, both MH and LR methods can be used to detect DIF items for multiple group by using total score as the match variable. However, the results are worse than the itemwise-based Wald statistic for most conditions, therefore, the Wald statistic will be considered in this study. Currently, we attempt to extend the improved Wald statistics to more than two groups to control the Type I error rate as well as improve the power rate. A simulation study is conducted to investigate the performance of two improved Wald statistics for DIF detection with more than two groups in CDA. Six factors are manipulated in the study, which are DIF type, DIF size, sample size, test length, proportion of DIF items, and method of DIF detection. In addition, five factors are fixed in the study, include number of groups, number of attributes, correlation among attributes, model that used to generate response pattern, and distribution of item parameters. Type I error rate and statistic power are used to evaluate the performance of three DIF detection methods, the nominal level of Type-I error rate is setting as .05. In order to reduce the sampling error, 50 replications are used for each condition. Results show that (1) For all conditions, the itemwise-based (IW-based) Wald statistic, which leads to inflated Type I error rates, produce larger Type I error rates than the two improved Wald statistics— the cross-product information-based (XPD-based) Wald statistic and the observed information-based (Obs-based) Wald statistic. (2) When the DINA model is used to estimate the item parameters, the Type I error rates of the two improved Wald statistics close to the nominal level for most of conditions. (3) The IW-based Wald statistic yields the highest power for all conditions, the Obs-based and the XPD-based Wald statistics produce similar power rate in most conditions. The differences are diminished among these three Wald statistics when sample size and DIF size are relatively larger. Related Articles | Metrics

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Effects of Upright and Slumped Postures on Emotional Conceptual Processing 2022, 45(3): 523-529.  Abstract ( )   PDF   Body postures not only have functions of emotional expression and signal transmission, but also have an impact on emotions, cognition and behavior. Appling the dual task paradigm to investigate the influence of postures on cognitive tasks is the focus of posture effect research, which can help people to improve learning and work efficiency. The embodied cognition theory believes that a specific posture can directly produce embodied effect, and promote the task processing which has the same attributes with the posture. The dual-task paradigm of "posture-conceptual processing" was used to explore the effects of upright and slumped postures on emotional conceptual processing. The upright posture with the positive emotional association and the slumped posture with the negative emotional association were chosed as posture variables, meanwhile, we adopted two kinds of emotional conceptual processing tasks (“judge the valence of emotional words” and “assess the valence of emotional words”) which are diverse in processing degree in two experiments separately. There were 134 participants who are college students took part in the research including 67 participants in experiment 1 and 66 participants in experiment 2. In two experiments, the mixed design of posture (upright, slumped) and conceptual valence (positive, negative) were utilized. The results of experiment 1 showed that when performing the valence judgment task of emotional words with a low degree of cognitive processing, there is no significant difference between the two postures, neither in judging positive words nor in judging negative words; In experiment 2, the scores of assessing negative words in slumped posture were significantly lower than that in upright posture, and there was no significant difference between postures in scores of assessing positive words. We can conclude that the slumped posture can produce embodied effect and the effect is affected by the degree of cognitive processing in emotional concept processing. The deeper the processing, the more the embodied connection can be stimulated. The embodied effect of upright posture was not clear in this study, because the effect of the upright posture displayed in experiment 1 maybe was just because of the processing bias of positive words. however, We can't deny the existence of the embodied effect of upright posture, because it is affected by many factors which result in the effect can't appear in the experimental tasks. In the emotional self-assessment of the two experiments, it was not found that the two postures induced explicit receptive differences. According to the two experiments, it was demonstrated that postures can affect the processing of emotional concepts, however, the effect was not directly and fixedly which was affected by many factors. When and how posture effect comes into being, and its application in localized situations need to be further discussed. Related Articles | Metrics

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Art expertise modulates Aesthetic consistency of Chinese paintings: A fNIRS Study 2022, 45(3): 514-522.  Abstract ( )   PDF   Abstract During aesthetic of art paintings, art experts perceive more information from the painting than novices do base on their specific art experience and knowledge. Previous studies have already been demonstrated obvious differences between art experts and novices when it comes to appreciating artistic works. However, to date, there has not yet been systematic research on whether art expertise modulates aesthetic processing of traditional Chinese paintings, especially the neural mechanisms was lacking. The current study set out to investigate whether the aesthetic evaluation of Chinese paintings was modulated by art expertise. The aesthetic consistency was used as a measure of aesthetic ability in the present study. To this end, thirty participants, 15 art major students and 15 non-art major students (mean age = 22.3 ± 2.46 years old) were enrolled in the experiment, to assess 20 Chinese paintings. The art major students were undergraduate or graduate students who receiving professional art education range from 5 to 10 years, appreciating and evaluating the art paintings is an important part of their professional training. In contrary, non-art major students were undergraduate or graduate students who were without any art training. The two groups were matched in age and education. Participants were asked to rate Chinese paintings on two dimensions of “Beauty” and “Liking”. Ratings were done on a 5-point Likert scale. The oxygenated hemoglobin concentration (HbO) responses were recorded in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and right temporo-parietal junction (r-TPJ) by functional near-infrared spectroscopy(fNIRS). The aesthetic rating consistency on behavior ratings as well as neural activity consistency (the inter-subject correlation, ISC) were calculated in the art major students and non-art major students in free appreciating the paintings. Behaviorally, although no significant differences on the evaluation of beauty and liking aesthetic ratings between the two groups, in aesthetic behavior rating consistency, the result showed the main effects of the level of expertise. Specially, the art major group showed significant higher rating consistency than non-art major students (p < 0.05). Furthermore, a significant interaction effect showed the higher rating consistency in the art major students group than non-art students group was only on the beauty rating (p < 0.05), but not on the liking rating (p > 0.05). In neural activity consistency, the art major group showed significant increased neural activity consistency than the non-art major group during the aesthetic processing of Chinese paintings, roughly in the right supramarginal gyrus (CH16) and right superior parietal gyrus (CH24) (all ps < 0.05). Notably, our results showed that the neural activity consistency negatively correlated with the art major group beauty ratings, however, this effect was not found in the non-art major group. These findings revealed that art major students’ neural activity consistency allows to judged the Chinese paintings as more aesthetic nor or as unaesthetic, but non-art major students’ neural activity consistency cannot. Together, our results further extend the art expertise knowledge helps to aesthetic of Chinese paintings and this finding was confirmed by the aesthetic consensus from behavior and neural indices of aesthetic processing. The present study provides energetic support for the popularization of Chinese traditional art knowledge which was necessity for understanding and appreciating the Chinese paintings. Related Articles | Metrics

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The cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying mental set effects in problem-solving behaviors 2022, 45(3): 561-566.  Abstract ( )   PDF   Mental set represents a form of rigidity in which an individual behaves or believes in a certain manner. In the field of psychology, this effect has typically been examined in the process of problem solving and specifically refers to the brain’s tendency to stick with the most familiar solution and to stubbornly ignore alternatives, or people cannot quickly switch rules and tasks according to the situation or demands. One of the most famous examples is the so-called water jar problem, which was originally developed by Luchins. Eye tracking technology revealed that the cognitive mechanism underlying this phenomenon was attentional bias. Previous knowledge likely directs attention toward relevant information and away from irrelevant information. Thus, the familiar solution that is consistent with the already activated knowledge is more likely to be chosen. According to which kinds of knowledge affected the problem-solving activities, we can distinguish the mental set derived from declarative knowledge and the mental set derived from procedural knowledge. For the mental set that is driven by prior knowledge, particularly expertise in a domain, both prior knowledge and a similar problem were generally considered the necessary factors to the perseveration of the mental set. Mental set always occurs when people are confronted with a problem situation that is similar to previously experienced problems. If a problem situation is different from previous experiences, then no cues will elicit retrieval of previously acquired knowledge and no attentional bias will occur. However, the mental set is also likely strengthened by repeated practice in a short time and can be interpreted as a temporary by-product of procedural learning. In particular, when a solution is used to solve the first problem successfully, it gains activation and, as such, is more likely to be used to solve the second problem in the set, in turn gaining additional activation, and so on. After repeated practice, the solution that is satisfactory for all of the practice problems gradually realizes mechanization and is likely to be automatically activated in similar consecutive problems. Consequently, problem solvers tend to solve similar problems in a fixed way and become faster and faster in behavior performance. Meanwhile, mechanization of a particular solution decreased cognitive flexibility, which likely increased the switching costs from the practiced problems to a totally different problem. Therefore, perseveration of the mental set was independent of the similarity between the problems. Regardless of whether the next problem is similar to the previously practiced problems, problem solving will be hindered when people try to explore alternative solutions rather than using the repeatedly reinforced solution. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Effects of Background Stress on Spontaneous Neural Activity in Resting-state 2022, 45(3): 530-537.  Abstract ( )   PDF   Psychological stress refers to the process in which the body produces a series of physiological, psychological and behavioral responses to cope with internal and external challenges and maintain the homeostasis of the body when individuals are confronted with social psychological challenges or threats. Although the functions of stress response systems can maintain stability to a certain extent, studies have found that the functions of these systems may also be affected by factors such as previous stress experiences, thus showing individual differences in stress regulation. Therefore, researchers put forward the concept of background stress, which refers to the frequent or/and long-term stressors experienced by individuals in the social life environment, to explore the impact of these accumulated stress experiences on the individual's stress response system and physical and mental health. A large number of studies focused on the influence of background stress on the function of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA axis) and found that higher level of background stress is related to a higher level of HPA axis activity. The brain is a core organ in stress processing. The brain defines stressors, which determine what is threatening to an individual. At the same time, the brain orchestrates physiological and psychological mechanisms to respond to stressors. In addition, the brain and the experience of stress have a wide range of two-way effects, with the brain changing both structurally and functionally as a result of the experience. Studies have found that individuals’ stress responses are mainly regulated by the brain region of the limbic system like hippocampus and the structure and function of these brain region are affected by background stress thus exhibiting a high degree of plasticity. Although studies have shown that high background stress leads to changes in the activity of the HPA axis, and the activity of the HPA axis is highly regulated by the brain regions related to the limbic system, it is still unknown whether the effect of background stress on the HPA axis can be reflected in the stress related neural activities, especially in the spontaneous neural activity. To this end, the daily life stress was quantified as an index of background stress. And the spontaneous neural activity in resting state was collected, and the regional homogeneity (ReHo) was quantified as an index. Results revealed that a higher level of background stress was associated with higher level of ReHo in right hippocampus (extending to thalamus and brainstem). Considering the function of these brain regions in stress regulation, we speculate that the higher level of ReHo in right hippocampus caused by the high level of background stress may reflect a stronger negative feedback regulation of hippocampus on the activity of the HPA axis. Furthermore, the higher level of ReHo in the right thalamus and brainstem may reflect a heightened alertness to the external threat information. Taken together, the present study suggests that higher level of background stress leads to a continuous active state of the spontaneous neural activity in the limbic brain region. These results not only help us to understand the effects of background stress on the function of the stress response system through evidence of neural mechanisms in the brain, but also help to understand the biological mechanisms by which background stress "penetrates the skin" to affect health outcomes. Related Articles | Metrics

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The boundary conditions of activation of the spatial representation of power 2022, 45(3): 538-544.  Abstract ( )   PDF   Metaphor has always been seen as a literary figure of speech. Conceptual metaphor theory (CMT) put forward by Lakoff and Johnson (1980) however sees it differently. CMT suggests that metaphor is a way through which we communicate and understand abstract concepts by transferring the meaning and structure of source domain to target domain. Some researchers indicated that concrete concepts are activated automatically when people process abstract concepts. In contrast, some other studies showed that the activation of metaphoric associations do not occur automatically. It has limits and depends on task context. The present study investigated the limits of activation automaticity and found the boundary conditions of this activation from two aspects: target concept-power and source concept-vertical space. On the basis of Schubert (2005)’s experiment 2, the first experiment included unrelated group label pairs that differ in power while have no direct power relations, such as “princess-clerk”. So, we could contrast the metaphysical congruency effect of these pairs with related pairs. This was meant to find out the activation of metaphorical representation whether is constrained to direct power relation or extends to a more general hierarchical relation. The results showed that metaphorical representation was activated in both Schubert (2005) condition and unrelated group labels condition. Experiment 2 used relatedness judgement task to further investigate the modulation of metaphorical congruency effect of power words. Participants did not need to compare the power of two group labels in this task. Space-power congruency was found with related group label pairs, but disappeared with unrelated group pairs. In sum, experiment 1 and 2 explored the boundary condition of metaphorical representation from a perspective of power relation. Combining the results of two experiments, it was clear that neither experimental task nor the relationship between word pairs alone could decide the activation of metaphorical representation. Namely, they were not the critical conditions for the activation of metaphorical representation. Unrelated group pairs under relatedness judgement task was the only condition that didn’t show metaphysical congruency effect. The difference between this condition and others was that participants didn’t construct power relation between group pairs under this condition. Therefore, understand the power relation between two words is necessary for the activation of metaphorical representation. Experiment 3 was similar to experiment 1, with the exception that word pairs were presented diagonally on the screen instead of vertical up and down. Thus, horizontal difference would be an interference information for metaphorical representation to retrieve vertical clues. Besides, we asked participants to respond to the horizontal position of the target words so their attention was caught horizontally. Results of Experiment 3 also showed metaphorical congruency effect indicating that the activation of metaphorical representation is independent of special clues from perceptual information. Still, it’s worth noting that conceptual metaphor theory is not the only explanation for the congruency effect in current study. A prominent alternative is polarity correspondence principle put forward by Proctor and Cho (2006). This explanation would expect a congruency effect between power and horizontal space in experiment 3. But no such congruency had been found. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Role of Articulation Movement and Sound in The Production Effect: An fNIRS Study 2022, 45(3): 545-552.  Abstract ( )   PDF   The production effect indicates that the items could be better remembered in loud reading compared to silent reading. MacLeod et al (2010) put forward the distinctiveness account to explain this effect, suggesting that items read aloud are particularly distinctive compared to items read silently, pronunciation improves memory. The distinctiveness account has been supported by many studies. In loud reading, articulation movements and sound whilst such do not exist in silent reading. In other words, loud reading involves explicit articulation movement and sound compared with silent reading. However, the effect of articulation movement and sound on the production effect is still not clear. In the present study, we recruited 32 right-handed healthy university students (14 boys, 18 girls, Mage±SD=21.56±1.32years). They are all Chinese native speakers. The participants were asked to complete reading tasks in three reading modes: loud reading; silent mouthing (read silently while “mouthing” the words); silent reading (read silently without mouth movements). Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to examine the brain cortical oxygenation changes during the tasks. Specifically, fNIRS data was acquired using the LABNIRS/16 (Shimadzu Corporation, Kyoto, Japan), with a 5×6 multichannel probe frame including 15 sources and 15 detectors, 49 channel montage, and the main areas of interest including the Primary Motor Cortex, Broca area, and Wernicke area. Before the official experiment, the participants practiced three reading modes. fNIRS caps were placed on the participants’ heads after the training was completed successfully. During the experiment, each participant completed three reading blocks, with each block containing three, one-minute reading passages (loud reading; silent mouthing; silent reading). Within the blocks, each reading task was intermixed with a 12s inter-stimulus interval (ISI) with a fixed cross-presenting on the screen. Sixty-second rest periods were placed before each block and after the final reading block. During the rest periods, the participants were instructed to look at a fixed cross in the middle of the monitor and to relax. The order of three different passages was presented randomly to each participant. There were no unfamiliar words in all passages, and they were homogeneous in difficulty and familiarity. After reading all passages, a recognition memory test was conducted immediately, and the whole experiment lasted around 20 minutes. The results indicate: (a)The memory performance of loud reading (p<0.001) and silent mouthing (p<0.001) was significantly better than that of silent reading, and there was no significant difference between that of loud reading and silent mouthing (p=0.21); (b)The Primary Motor Cortex (p=0.013), Broca's area (p=0.007) and Wernick's area (p<0.001) showed significantly higher activations in cortical oxygen levels during loud reading than silent reading; the Primary Motor Cortex (p=0.016), Broca's area (p=0.008) and Wernick's area (p<0.001) were significantly higher activated during silent mouthing than silent reading; (c)Wernick's area showed greater activation during loud reading than silent mouthing (p=0.005). Our results suggested that articulation movement plays a more important role in the production effect than sound. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Longer the Retrieval Process, The Better the Memory Retention? The Moderating Effect of Material Difficulty 2022, 45(3): 567-573.  Abstract ( )   PDF   Research has revealed that retrieval duration is a key factor of Retrieval Practice Effect (RPE). Appropriately extending the retrieval duration can generate more retrieval efforts and thus effectively improve memory performance and retention, especially for items being successfully retrieved in initial tests. However, when considering learning practice, conditions become more complicated. Furthermore, according to studies on study-time allocation, material difficulty will affect the monitoring and control of the learning process. Learners tend to adjust the choice of learning content according to the difficulty of the learning materials, which in turn leads to different learning outcomes. Besides, based on the Desirable Difficulty Hypothesis of RPE, compared with easier retrieval activities, learners will pay more effort to retrieve difficult items. Once retrieved successfully, those items’ storage strength can be improved, and so does the long-term retention. The Elaborative Retrieval account and the Episodic Context Account of RPE also predict that when learning items are relatively difficult, learners may reconstruct and update learning backgrounds, generating more retrieval clues during retrieval processes, and increasing the possibility of successful retrieval in the future. The current research attempts to examine how material difficulty moderate the relationship between retrieval duration and RPE, and to find a theoretical framework to account for it. Experiment 1 is a 2 (retrieval duration: 8 seconds, 13 seconds) × 2 (material difficult: easy, difficult) mixed design. Sixty-one college students studied 20 pairs of the difficult material (weak cue related, e.g. farmer-tea) and easy material (strong cue related, e.g. lawyer-judge) respectively, and then retrieved the relevant target words based on the cue words for 8 or 13 seconds. Participants took final test to assess their learning performance (test scores and retention rates) after 5 minutes. Experiment 2 took a similar design, except that the final test was extended to 24 hours to examine material difficulty and retrieval duration on RPE in a delayed test. The results showed that in both immediate and delayed test conditions, extending retrieval time led to better memory performance and retention rate. In the immediate test condition (Exp 1), there was no significant memory performance difference between different material difficulty levels when retrieval time was short. However, we observed that the memory performance of difficult materials was higher than that of easy materials when retrieval time was extended to 13s from 8s. And participants’ memory retention rate of difficult materials was always higher than that of easy materials no matter retrieval time was relatively long or short. When the final test was given 24 hours later (Exp 2), we observed that the memory performance and retention rate of the difficult materials were higher than that of the easy materials regardless of the retrieval durations. These data suggest that extending the retrieval time can promote individuals’ memory retention, but this effect is moderated by the material difficulty levels. We discussed the results with respect to the Episodic Context Account and the Hypothesis of Desirable Difficulty. Retrieval practice involves attempting to reconstruct a prior learning context, and when the learning tasks are difficult, it may improve learners’ storage strength, meanwhile the representation of context is updated to include features of retrieved contexts and the current context, which thus enhances future retrieval. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Multiple object awareness paradigm explores the capacity of visual consciousness 2022, 45(3): 553-560.  Abstract ( )   PDF   Whether the capacity of visual consciousness is rich or sparse is a foundational issue in consciousness studies. The controversy originates primarily from the separation between the subjective experience and the objective performance of observers. For example, if an image flashes by, we can experience a rich and detailed visual scene, but a little can be reported. The disconnect between subjective experience and objective observations can be verified as a question to be explained. For example, observers believe that the rich visual experience is largely uncertain. Specifically, visually conscious content may exist in probability and may not necessarily be full of detail. However, it is subjectively considered as rich. Most studies on visual consciousness follow binary alternative-forced chosen procedures, limiting the likelihood that participants report probability consciousness. Therefore, we used a new Multiple Object Awareness Paradigm to allow participants to be multi-responses. An array containing eight stimuli arranged in a circle was presented quickly (the stimuli’s positions are randomly distributed in each trial). Then all stimuli were covered by gray circles, and a target stimulus was placed at a distance of 7° above the cross. The target of each trial was randomly generated. Then, participants were instructed to click on gray circles where they had seen the target appear until they got it correct. Importantly, participants needed to find the target with as few clicks as possible. Thus, even if participants did not find a target on the first click, they could try the second, third, or more until they found the target. Once the target was found, feedback was provided. We calculated the visual consciousness capacity via three methods. First was the traditional estimation method, which was based on the first click was correct or wrong. The second and third were based on total clicks, which were guessed from N stimuli randomly and guessed from N-K stimuli randomly when participants did not find targets on the first click. Results showed that the capacity estimated by the clicks guessing from N was significantly greater than that estimated by the first-attempt accuracy; however, the clicks guessing from N-K were significantly smaller than that estimated by the first-attempt accuracy. Further analysis found that if observers could not locate the target in their first attempt, they were more likely to click closer to the target. In addition, we found that even when observers used the same number of clicks to find a target (2 or 3 clicks), the average distance was shorter when observers reported high-level subjective visibility. This study provides evidence for the controversy of whether visual consciousness capacity is rich or sparse. These results fit the visual ensembles and summary statistics hypothesis. In this view, we have a rich visual experience that is somewhat uncertain or imprecise, as the content of visual awareness may be probabilistic or not necessarily full of details. In summary, we were less concerned with the participants’ correct choices and more concerned with how much information was obtained from their “wrong responses.” Driven by methodological advances in measuring, we can increasingly recognize the flexibility of our visual system. Related Articles | Metrics

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The association between language use of LIWC and treatment outcome in psychotherapy rong tao REN ZhiHong 2022, 45(3): 747-753.  Abstract ( )   PDF   Language in psychotherapy provides important information about the process and outcome of counseling. Qualitative coding is a traditional and commonly used method for process and outcome research. However, it costs much time and money, and it is hard to deal with a large scale of psychotherapy data. Considering the limitations of qualitative coding, Language Inquiry and Word Count(LIWC) has become an alternative and convenient method to explore the relationship between language use and psychological status. Evidence showed that LIWC words revealed people’s mental health and thinking styles. The present study analyzed the association between clients’ language use during psychotherapy and their symptoms in a Chinese context, to identify the possibility of predicting clients’ improvement by analyzing natural language. Methods: The recordings of psychotherapy and the outcome questionnaires of 28 clients were collected. Most of participants were female because data was collected in the mental health center of a normal university where male to female ratio was 1:8. Each client received 5.5 sessions of counselling averagely. 13 therapists took part in the study and all of them were trained. 10 recordings were not included in the analysis due to loss of data. The remaining 144 recordings were transcribed into texts by research assistants word by word. After checking mistakes, data cleaning was conducted including cutting words, cutting off talk turns. And then the LIWC words frequencies were calculated by scripts written in python 3.6. According to previous study, raw word frequencies were transformed into Z score. The principal component analysis was conducted to find out the main factors of LIWC features associated with clients’ symptoms. Moreover, the main factors of LIWC features were used to predict the clients’ improvement across sessions in a multilevel model. Results: Results showed that 31 categories of LIWC features were associated with clients’ symptom level significantly. Results of principal component analysis revealed that 8 factors interpreted 75.11% of the variance, including biological feelings words, social relationship words, time words, cognition words, function words, emotion words, superfluous words and filler words. Among the factors, frequencies of biological feelings words, function words, emotion words, cognition words and filler words could predict the symptom level of clients in a general linear regression model. To determine the associations between the change of LIWC words across sessions and the change of clients’ symptom level. In a multilevel model, it was promising to find that biological feelings and emotion words can be used to predict the outcome of psychotherapy controlling the time variable. Conclusions: As a preliminary research applied text analysis in psychotherapy, the present study revealed that the words in psychotherapy have potential to predict clients symptoms. Although there are some limitations such as limited participants, rough LIWC features and simple algorithm, the present study gives us some implications as following. With the development of artificial intelligence, more sophisticated text analysis tools even audio analysis could be applied in monitoring the process and outcome of psychotherapy automatically which would help clients and therapists a lot. Future work can focus on a more accurate monitoring model of psychotherapy by combing more useful features and algorithms. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Impact of Testosterone on the Computation of Value: A Pharmacological Study Based on the Cumulative Prospect Theory Framework Jia-Jun LIAO Hong LI Yin Wu 2022, 45(3): 725-731.  Abstract ( )   PDF   Decision making is a cognitive process during which individuals make a choice after considering all factors in all alternatives. The development of decision theory has gone through several stages: based on expected value; expected utility theory and prospect theory. In the field of psychology, there is increasing interest in the effects of hormones on human decision-making. Testosterone is one of the steroid hormones which plays an important role in human behavior. There is a positive association between testosterone level and risk-seeking behavior in economic decision-making, but the evidence is mixed. In the present study, we aimed to investigate how testosterone affects risk-taking behavior and the computation of value based on the cumulative prospect theory framework. One-hundred and twenty healthy male participants were recruited in our study and engaged in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, between-participant design. Participants in the experimental group received a single dose of 150mg testosterone gel, while the control group received a colorless hydroalcoholic gel (placebo). The decision-making task commenced 3h post-dosing to ensure the effect of testosterone reached peak level. We used a dynamic experiment for estimating preference (DEEP) task consisted of 60 trials where participants made choices between two risky options presented on the screen to measure their risk preference adaptively. Using the hierarchical Bayesian estimation, we fit the data of the experimental group and the control group separately to generate the three characteristic parameters {α,σ,λ} (utility curvature, σ; probability distortion, α; and loss aversion, λ). We also calculated: 1. the proportion of choosing risky option (the options with higher variance); 2. the proportion of choosing options with higher expected value. The participants from control groups showed the tendency of risk seeking as their proportion of choosing risk options were higher than chance level (i.e. 50%); but there was no statistical difference between testosterone and placebo groups. Both groups were more likely to choose higher expected value options, though there was no group difference. For the characteristic parameters, testosterone group was less distorted in probability weighting function (α), suggesting their subjective probability was closer to the actual probability compared to the control group; Testosterone group showed stronger loss aversion (λ) than control group, indicating they were more sensitive to loss and were more likely to avoid loss; Both groups demonstrated identical pattern of utility curvature(σ), suggesting that they were equally sensitive to rewards. Besides, we conducted the model comparison between models based on prospect theory and expected utility theory respectively. Result showed that both groups were better explained by prospect theory model. For the present study, testosterone was not associated with risk taking based on the proportion of choosing risk options. The possible explanations are: 1. Testosterone doesn’t affect risk taking in isolation, it may interact with other factors (sex, cortisol, estradiol, etc.) 2. Different tasks with different decision theory (or paradigms) may lead to inconsistent results. However, it is clear that testosterone influences the computation of value. The neural circuit of reward consist of OFC, ACC, Amygdala, VS and NAcc, testosterone may affect this neural circuit to interfere with value processing. Future studies are needed to investigate the neural mechanism by which testosterone influences risk preference and value processing by using fMRI. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Trajectory of Depression among the Elderly and the Effect of Social Participation: a Comparative Study of Empty-Nest and Non-Empty-Nest Elderly 2022, 45(3): 740-746.  Abstract ( )   PDF   Purposes: Among the growing population of the elderly in China, the percentage of empty-nest elderly increases over time. The empty-nest elderly lack companionship after their children's departure from home, and they often react with feelings of loneliness and depression. The incidence of depression in empty-nest elderly is significantly higher than that in non-empty-nest elderly. Studies have confirmed that social participation has a positive effect on mental health of the elderly, and it is necessary to further investigate the influence of social participation on the developmental trajectory of depression among the elderly, especially the empty-nest elderly. Based on longitudinal data, the current study compare the developmental trajectories of depression between empty-nest and non-empty-nest elderly and investigate the impact of social participation on their depression trajectories by applying a multi-group latent growth model. Method: The current study selected data from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS) from 2002 to 2014. Valid data from 1681 participants, including 799 males (47.53%), with an average age of 72.8 years (SD = 6.72), was analyzed. Participants were divided into empty-nest and non-empty-nest elderly based on one of the items from the survey. Then the data was fitted in a multi-group latent growth model to compare the developmental trajectories of depression between empty-nest and non-empty-nest elderly. Furthermore, social participation was incorporated into the model as a covariate in order to investigate its impact on the depression developmental trajectories of the empty-nest and non-empty-nest elderly. Results: (1) The overall trajectories of depression in the elderly followed a two-stage piecewise linear path, as revealed by a turning point on the trajectories. But there were differences between the trajectory of empty-nest and non-empty-nest elderly. The initial level (intercept) of depression of empty-nest elderly was higher than that of non-empty-nest elderly (empty-nest elderly: = 6.53, non-empty-nest elderly: = 6.28). At the first stage, the depression of non-empty-nest elderly, with a larger first-stage slope value, increased faster than that of empty-nest elderly (empty-nest elderly: = -.03, non-empty-nest elderly: = .09). At the second stage, the depression of empty-nest elderly increased faster than that of non-empty-nest elderly, as revealed by a larger second-stage slope value of depression trajectory of empty-nest elderly (empty-nest elderly: = .15, non-empty-nest elderly: = .06). (2) Social participation reduced the initial level of depression of the elderly (empty-nest elderly: = -.56, non-empty-nest elderly: = -.40). For empty-nest elderly, social participation could also slow down the growth rate of depression at both stages ( = .47, = -.16). For non-empty-nest elderly, social participation had no impact on the growth rate of depression. Conclusion: (1) There is a turning point on the depression development among empty-nest and non-empty-nest elderly. The depression of empty-nest elderly has no obvious change before the turning point, and it increases rapidly after the turning point. (2) The depression trajectories of empty-nest and non-empty-nest elderly are different. Empty-nest elderly are at high risk of depression, and have higher level of depression than non-empty-nest elderly. The growth rate of depression of empty-nest elderly is higher than that of non- empty-nest elderly at older ages. (3) Social participation is an important way to reduce and relieve depression among the elderly. Related Articles | Metrics

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Psychological crisis in Chinese adolescents: Using a classification tree approach to combine the three-dimensional psychological pain model 2022, 45(3): 732-739.  Abstract ( )   PDF   Related Articles | Metrics

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Neurophysiological Mechanism of Creativity Influenced by Stress 2022, 45(3): 754-760.  Abstract ( )   PDF   A great deal of creative ideas are generated under stress. An in-depth understanding covering the relationship between stress and creative problem-solving ability could help people better accomplish creative activities under stress. With the activation of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) axis and the hypothalamus-pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis, stress from unpredictable, uncontrollable, and threatening situations can trigger homeostatic disruption, and require an adaptive compensatory response. Previous research on the effects of stress on creative thinking presents a complex and inconsistent picture: (1) stressors sometimes decrease creative performance (2) stressors sometimes increase creative performance and (3) stressors are sometimes related to creative performance according to an inverted-U-shaped function. The present study intends to sort out the potential regulatory role that the catecholaminergic system (the dopaminergic system and the noradrenergic system) has played in how stress affects creative problem-solving from the neuroendocrine perspective which may further provides a new explanatory path concerning the relationship between stress and creativity. From the neuroendocrine perspective, dopaminergic modulation of fronto-striatal brain circuitries and the activity of locus coeruleus–norepinephrine may exert significant effect on the creative cognition under stress. Stress can lead to an increase in the dopaminergic system, but whether the increase in the dopaminergic system promotes or blocks the creative performance is affected by both the baseline dopaminergic level and the fronto-striatal dopaminergic increase. In particular, an increase in the fronto-striatal dopaminergic pathway of individuals at high baseline dopaminergic levels may impede creative performance, while an increase in the fronto-striatal dopaminergic pathway in individuals at low dopaminergic baseline levels may promote creative performance. When facing the unexpected stressful stimulus, the disruption of homeostatic balance may lead to the formation of a new steady state, but the direction and stability of this change are different. The regulation of neuromodulation may change or adjust the baseline level, resulting in a directional change on the individuals’ creative performance. With regard to the individuals with low neural network recombination ability, stress may bring about the temporary explosion or attenuation on the individuals’ creative performance. However, with regard to the individuals with higher neural network recombination ability, stress may promote rapid reorganization of individuals, re-establish a new homeostatic balance, and remain a high stability. Several directions in the future studies have also been proposed. On the one hand, future research needs to take into account the biochemical indicators in the HPA and SNS pathways of the stress response from the perspective of the dynamic balance mechanism of the neuroendocrine system, and investigate the effects of changes in the individual hormone levels on the executive function during the process of creative cognitive processing under stress which could further provide a more systematic explanatory path for revealing the mediating mechanism of stress affecting creativity. On the other hand, future research could combine with the multimodal means such as neuroimaging and biomarker measurement technology by introducing the brain network modelling and dynamic analysis and simulation to provide a comprehensive framework of behaviour-neurological molecular level-brain network on how stress affects creative cognition. Comprehensive collection and integrated monitoring on different time windows can promotes the investigation on the impact of stress on creativity and its neurophysiological mechanisms from a multidisciplinary level. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Emotion Regulation Choice of Intensity and Valence in Adolescents with Different Depressive Symptoms 2022, 45(3): 574-583.  Abstract ( )   PDF   Emotion regulation (ER) refers to the process that a person uses emotion regulation strategies to modulate the experience and expression of emotion in order to meet the contextual demands. Based on this concept, the outcomes of emotion regulation depends not only on the effective use of ER strategies in certain contexts, but also on the appropriate selection of ER strategies in varying situations. Emotion regulation choice involves the process that individuals determine which emotion regulation strategies they prefer to use to achieve their primary goal in accord with the dynamic environment. Recently, a series of studies have demonstrated that emotional intensity and valence influenced the selection of certain emotion regulation strategies. Based on it, initial studies have preliminarily investigated the choice pattern of specific emotion regulation strategies (i.e., reappraisal and avoidance) when healthy adults confronted different emotional stimuli with high vs. low intensity and positive vs. negative valence. Main results showed that healthy participants were more likely to choose reappraisal instead of avoidance under low intensity emotional stimuli conditions, whereas more likely to choose avoidance rather than reappraisal under high intensity emotional stimuli conditions. As the most prevalent and disabling mood disorder, individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD) were considered to be difficult in regulating their negative and positive emotion, which primarily manifested as the two cardinal symptoms: elevated negative affect and diminished positive affect. Furthermore, taking the perspective of dimensional approach, according to the number and quality of symptoms, depressive state could be divided into non-depressed, subthreshold depression (Sub-D), and depression. It is worth noting that, although the symptoms of Sub-D were less than MDD, the functional impairments associated with Sub-D were either very similar to that of full MDD, or even higher than those with MDD. More importantly, mounting studies have revealed that, as a crucial development period, the rate of depressive state increased substantially and rose permanently during adolescence. Thus, compared to adults, the relationship between emotion regulation choices and depressed symptoms in adolescents should be paid more attention. However, to the best of our knowledge, no study has tested whether the choice pattern is compromised among adolescents with varying depressed states. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the preference to select between two emotion regulation strategies (reappraisal vs. rumination) when facing 20 daily emotion-eliciting events with varying emotional intensities (high vs. low) and valence (positive vs. negative) among youth with no depression (n = 505), subthreshold depression (n = 54), and depression (n = 58). Main results revealed that the emotional intensity and valence moderated the selection of reappraisal and rumination among groups. More specifically, under high-positive, low-positive, and low-negative emotion conditions, there were no significant differences between the three groups, while under high-negative emotion condition, subthreshold depression group and depression group chose significantly less reappraisal and more rumination than non-depressed group. These results indicated that, compared with healthy counterparts, teens with more depressive symptoms may not flexibly choose appropriate strategies in contexts with different intensities and valence, especially in high-negative emotion context. These findings might be beneficial to screening and intervention for teenagers higher in depressive symptoms. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Relationship between Campus Exclusion and Depression: Moderated Mediation Model 2022, 45(3): 584-590.  Abstract ( )   PDF   Among the adolescent population, the incidence of depression is as high as 8%~20%, which seriously threatens the physical and mental growth and social stability of adolescents. Junior high school students are in the stage of puberty development. Their physical development is relatively rapid and psychological development is also going through the transition period from childish to mature. They are more easily troubled by psychological problems. A massive literature documents the association between negative events and depression. Campus exclusion as a typical negative event of adolescent experience may be closely related to depression. However, the underlying mechanism of depression remains unknown. Based on the cognitive theory of depression, rumination is crucial in causing depression. Moreover, previous studies and theory of relationship causing depression suggest potential mediating role of rumination in the relationship between campus exclusion and depression. Meanwhile, according to individual-environment interaction model, dispositional mindfulness can be the protecting factor for depression. From the quality-stress model of depression , dispositional mindfulness may interact with campus exclusion and depression; and in line with explaining the causes of depression from the perspective of positive psychology, dispositional mindfulness may interact with rumination. To sum up, this study constructed a moderated mediation model to examine whether rumination mediated the relation between campus exclusion and neglect and depression, and whether dispositional mindfulness moderated this indirect mediating process as well as direct process. A total of 955 junior high school students aged 11~16 (Mage=13.20, SD=1.06; 458 boys and 537 girls) from Shenyang participated in this investigation. After given informed consents, they completed Adolescent School Exclusion Questionnaire, Ruminative Responses Scale, Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale and Mindful Attention Awareness Scale. First, common method biases were examined. Then correlation analysis was conducted to acquire the overall relationships between variables among the hypothesized model. Finally, the moderated mediation effects were tested by the PROCESS macro for SPSS. The correlation analysis showed that: campus exclusion was positively correlated with depression, rumination was positively correlated with campus exclusion and depression, while dispositional mindfulness was negatively correlated with campus exclusion, rumination and depression. The testing for moderated mediation model indicated that: after controlling for gender, grade and home situation, (1) Campus exclusion significantly contributed to depression(βdirect effect= .42, p<.001). Rumination played a mediating role in the relationship between campus exclusion and depression(βindirect effect= .17, 95%CI=[ .14, .21]); (2) Dispositional mindfulness moderated the direct path from campus exclusion to depression, with this indirect effect being much stronger for adolescents with lower dispositional mindfulness(simple slope= .40); (3) Dispositional mindfulness also moderated the mediated path through rumination, with the relationship being stronger for adolescents with lower dispositional mindfulness(simple slope= .43). Thus, both mediating and moderating effects existed in the association between campus exclusion and depression. The present study revealed how and when campus exclusion affected depression. These findings may contribute to the precaution and prevention of teenager depression. First, it is important to protect children from the harm of campus exclusion. Second, it is also helpful to decrease teenagers’ depression risk by learning appropriate cognitive patterns and forming stronger positive personal traits. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Relationship Between Mother’s Parenting Stress and Pre-school Children’s Social Adjustment and Its Gender Difference: A Cross-Lagged Analysis 2022, 45(3): 620-627.  Abstract ( )   PDF   Social adjustment refers to the individual who interacting with the social environment, by adapting to or changing environment, regulate itself, finally to achieve and maintain a harmonious social environment, balance the dynamic relationship.For pre-school children just enter kindergarten from family, social ability, the internalize and externalize problem behaviors are three important index of preschool children’s social adjustment. Preschool children's social maladjustment are are closely related to many behavioral problems and academic adjustment difficulties in the future.Therefore, to explore the influence factors of preschool children's social adjustment is very necessary and improtant. Previous researches have discussed the relationship between parenting stress and preschool children's social adaptation in different components under the background of the west,but lacked researches discusses the relationships between normal children’s mother parenting stress and children’s social adaptation, and sexual difference,under the background in Chinese culture. 202 preschool children (108 boys, Mage=48.67±2.56 months) and his mother took part in a one-year longitudinal study. At two time points mothers completed Parenting Stress Index (PSI) and Social Competence and Behavior Evaluation(SCBE). All the measures had good reliability and validity. We use Amos24.0 software to run cross-lagged model test.The results showed that: (1) for boys, parenting stress and children’s externalizing problem can predict each other, for girls, parenting stress and children’s externalizing problem behaviors can not predict each other; (2) mother parenting stress and preschool children's social ability can predict each other; (3) mother’s parenting stress can not positively predict children’s internalizing problem behaviors, but children’s internalizing problem behaviors can significantly predict mother’s parenting stress. In summary, mother's parenting stress and children's social adaptation have mutual predictive relationships .Mother parenting stress affected more boy’s externalizing problems, the boy's externalizing problems were also more likely to lead to a mother's stress experience.This study also suggests that, we should not ignore the adverse emotional experience of mother in nurturing and also should pay more attention to the negative effects of mother’s parenting stress on boy’s externalizing problem behaviors. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Effect of Negative Life Events on College Students' Depression: The Mediating Role of Internet Addiction and the Moderation Role of 5-HTT1A Gene rs749098 Polymorphism 2022, 45(3): 599-606.  Abstract ( )   PDF   With the rapid development of social economy and the increasingly fierce competition, college students which are lack of social experience and powerful self-adjustment ability have a higher risk of depression. The high incidence and harmfulness of depression make it an important research content of psychology, sociology and psychiatry to explore the influencing factors and mechanism of college students' depression. Some empirical studies have proved that negative life events are a risk factor for college students’ depression, but the mechanism (mediating and regulating effect) of negative life events on college students’ depression still needs further investigation. Studies have shown that when individuals are faced with negative life events, they are more likely to turn to the Internet to escape the frustration of life pressure and become addicted to the Internet, and Internet addiction is often significantly positively correlated with depression. The diathesis-stress model of depression suggests that individuals are more sensitive to stressful events in the environment because they carry certain vulnerability qualities, thus leading to depression. Therefore, we brought Internet addiction and 5-HTT1A gene rs749098 polymorphism into the currents and constructed a moderated mediator model to explore the mechanism of negative life events on college students’ depression. A total of 301 college students (74 boys and 227 girls) participated in this investigation. After given informed consents, they completed Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, Adolescent Self-rating Life Events Check List and The Chinese Version of the Internet Addiction Scale. Professional nurses extracted 2.5 ml venous blood in EDTA anticoagulant tube (blood: EDTA = 5:1) from the participants in the study, then placed it in the refrigerator (-70 ℃), and extracted DNA and parted after three months. All these data were analyzed by the software of SPSS24.0 and Amos 24.0. The result shows that: (1) Negative life events, Internet addiction and college students' depression were significantly correlated with each other; (2) Internet addiction plays a partial mediating role in the influence of negative life events on college students' depression;(3) 5 - HTR1A gene rs749098 polymorphism moderated the direct path and the indirect path from Internet addiction and college students' depression. Compared with C/G and G/G genotype individuals, negative life events of individuals with C/C genotype had a stronger negative prediction of depression. Furthermore, in low levels of Internet addiction circumstance, individuals with C/C genotype showed higher depression, and all genotypes showed high levels of depression in low levels of Internet addiction circumstance. The current research adopts the research paradigm of depression’ genes and the environment (G *E), with depression susceptibility quality 5 - HTR1A gene rs749098 and social psychological factors (negative life events and Internet addiction), and build a moderated mediation model. The current research enrichs the theory of depression development and is also the important practice prevention and intervention of college students' depression. Related Articles | Metrics

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Paternal Mind-Mindedness and Children’s Prosocial Behaviors: The Mediating Role of Children's Theory of Mind 2022, 45(3): 643-649.  Abstract ( )   PDF   Prosocial behaviors refer to behaviors that are beneficial to others or have a positive impact on society, including sharing, helping, cooperating and comforting. Children will build a good peer relationship if they conduct prosocial behaviors frequently while reducing social withdrawal, aggression and other problematic behaviors. Because the prosocial behavior of children has its social adaptation value, it is of great theoretical and practical significance to understand the factors that affect the development of early prosocial behavior of children. According to the theory of socialized-family system, parent-child interaction experience may affect the development of children's theory of mind, which in turn influences their prosocial behaviors. With the changing social structure and the developing concept of gender equality, more fathers are now involved in the process of parenting and playing a unique role in the development of children's personality and socialization. As one of the main caregivers, paternal mind-mindedness may influence children's prosocial behaviors. Fathers with a higher ability of mind-mindedness may treat the child as an independent individual, respect the child’s psychological uniqueness when interacting with the child, and ly and sensitively capture and respond to the child’s internal needs, which helps positive parent-child relationship. The establishment of social security may also promote their children's understanding of themselves and others, make children more likely to empathize with others in interpersonal communication, and have more prosocial behaviors. Thus, this study aims to examine the relationship between paternal mind-mindedness and preschoolers’ prosocial behaviors, as well as the potential mediating role of preschooler’s theory of mind in this relationship. In this one-year longitudinal study, 130 preschoolers (Mage= 63.15 months, SD = 4.37) were randomly selected from two public preschools in Shanghai. At Time 1, the fathers completed the interview of mind-mindedness. At Time 2, the mothers completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, and the children completed the false belief understanding task and Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test Revised (PPVT-R). Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS 23.0. Descriptive statistics were first obtained for variables of interest. Correlation analysis was subsequently used to examine the relationships among variables. SPSS PROCESS was used to examine the mediating role of children’s theory of mind. The major findings were as follows: (1) paternal mind-mindedness was significantly and positively correlated with preschooler’s prosocial behaviors and the theory of mind. (2) after controlling for preschooler’s gender, language ability, caregivers’ type, siblings, total number of paternal nonmental descriptions, preschoolers’ theory of mind had a significant mediating effect between paternal mind-mindedness and children's prosocial behavior. The direct effect of paternal mind-mindedness on children's prosocial behaviors was not significant. Thus, children’s mind-mindedness played a complete mediator role between paternal mind-mindedness and children’s prosocial behaviors. Present findings underscored the importance of paternal mind-mindedness in increasing preschoolers’ prosocial behaviors through heightening theory of mind. The study may have implications for practical work. For example, our findings suggest that parents, teachers, and professionals should pay attention to the improvement of children’s theory of mind in a targeted manner such as enhancing their fathers’ ability of mind-mindedness in the process of communication with their children. Related Articles | Metrics

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Child maltreatment and behavior problems: Relations, factors, and mechanisms 2022, 45(3): 650-656.  Abstract ( )   PDF   Child maltreatment includes all types of physical and/or emotional ill treatment, sexual abuse, neglect, negligence and commercial or other exploitation that results in actual or potential harm to the child’s health, survival, development or dignity in the context of a relationship of responsibility, trust or power. And child maltreatment has been a universal family education problems and worldwide public health issues, which may be a hot topic in international child protective field. Although a growing body of researches has conducted the study of child maltreatment several decades, the prevalence of child maltreatment is still high and children who live in Asian and Pacific area may have higher risk of maltreatment. Moreover, many previous studies have explored the relations between child maltreatment and child development, and the results showed that child maltreatment impaired the child development, including behaviors, emotions, and brain structures and functions. Behavior problems, including internalizing problems and externalizing problems, are one of the behavior markers of individuals’ maladaptation which may be an outcome of child maltreatment, and the relations between child maltreatment and behavior problems have been explored by many studies. The mechanisms of child maltreatment and behavior problems, however, are still not clear. Moreover, some new perspectives which explain the mechanisms linking child maltreatment and behavior problems have been presented in some studies, such as the perspective of molecular genetics. The current study, therefore, aims to review the studies which explored the relations and mechanisms between child maltreatment and behavior problems, and to give a whole picture of relations, factors, and mechanisms between child maltreatment and behavior problems, as well as provide a model of relations, factors, and mechanisms between child trauma and adaptation. The results based on the literature review showed that child maltreatment positively associated with individuals’ internalizing and externalizing problems, while these relations were influenced by several factors, including the characteristics of child maltreatment (e.g. timing, subtype, chronicity) and victims’ features (e.g. gender). Moreover, a new mechanism linking child maltreatment and behavior problems was found which based on the perspective of molecular genetics (gene-environment interactions), and monoamine oxidase A gene, serotonin transporter gene, catechol-O-methyltransferase gene and other important candidate genes might play important roles in the relations between child maltreatment and behavior problems. And the effects of interactions between child maltreatment and genes on behavior problems might influenced by gene types, characteristics of child maltreatment, and gender of victims. But these relations were inconsistent by different studies. For example, individuals with high activity gene type of MAOA when experienced child maltreatment may present much more depression systems than individuals with low activity gene type of MAOA, while other studies reported different results. In addition, the current study provided a model which explained relations, factors and mechanisms between childhood trauma and individuals’ development. Some limitations, however, were presented in this field, including research design, samples, data analysis, and perspectives. Future studies, lastly, may use animal models and longitudinal study designs to explore the roles of timing of child maltreatment in the relationships between child maltreatment and behavior problems and mechanisms linking these relations. Meanwhile, future studies may explore the protective factors of child maltreatment, such as resilience and coping styles, and future studies may explore the trajectories of effects of child maltreatment on child development, which may help practice workers to preventing child maltreatment. Future studies, if possible, may use neuroscience technologies, including ERP to explore the effects of child maltreatment on the development of brain structures and functions. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Embodied Representation of Abstract Verbs: the Effect of Motor Features 2022, 45(3): 614-619.  Abstract ( )   PDF   The way in which abstract concepts are represented has been discussed more intensely because of the emergence of the embodied cognition. According to the embodied theories, cognition is fully grounded in the body, and human concepts are “rooted” in perception, action and emotion systems. Accumulating evidence suggests that concrete concepts are closely linked to sensorimotor system, whereas researches on the role of the sensorimotor system for abstract words have not come to an agreement. The present study addresses the issue of whether the abstract concepts, specifically abstract verbs, are embodied or grounded in sensorimotor system. In most of the previous studies, abstract concepts have been considered as an unitary whole, which neglect the fact that different abstract words are linked to sensorimotor experiences differently. We thus hypothesize that it is the various proportion of the sensorimotor features in the abstract word stimuli that may explain the inconsistent results. Here we performed two behavioral experiments to test our hypothesis. The Action-sentence Compatibility Effect, a typical and powerful evidence of embodied theory, is adopted to indicate the involvement of sensorimotor system in semantic processing. In both experiments, participants were required to judge the word a verb or not. Experiment 1 investigated the ACE of the concrete and abstract verbs (e.g., “投掷” / “抛弃”), with the aim of examining whether individual two-syllable Chinese action verb meaning was processed through mental simulation. The repeated measurement design of 2 (action verb types: concrete/abstract verbs) × 2 (action congruency: the direction of the verb and the required movement is congruent/incongruent) was adopted. Forty-five participants volunteered in this study. Experiment 2 further classified the abstract verbs into two types according to the proportion ratings of the motor feature, and investigated the ACE of high and low motion abstract verbs (e.g., “承受” / “流露”), in order to elaborate the influence of motor features in the verb on the sensorimotor representation of abstract concept. The repeated measurement design of 2 (abstract verb types: high/low motion abstract verbs) × 2 (action congruency: the direction of the verb and the required movement is congruent/incongruent) was adopted. Forty-nine participants volunteered in this study. Results showed that ACE was only observed in the concrete verb processing of experiment 1(p<.05), and in the high motion abstract verb processing of experiment 2(p<.05), but not in the low motion abstract verbs(p>.05). That is, when the direction of the verbs and the required movement was congruent (i.e., both were toward or away from the participant), the reaction time of semantic judgement was significantly faster. Furthermore, in the experiment 2 the correlation analysis indicated the proportion ratings of the motor feature was significantly correlated to the magnitude of the ACE (i.e., difference between reaction times for incongruent and congruent trials) (r=.461, p<.001). In conclusion, the findings demonstrate that a role of motor system in semantic processing is not restricted to concrete words but extends to at least the abstract verbs in which the proportion of the motor feature are high. Specifically, the results suggest that 1) ACE is present in the two-syllable Chinese action verbs, so verbs are processed through sensorimotor simulation. and 2) motor system plays a role in the abstract verb processing, yet the proportion of the motor feature in the verbs could affect the involvement of motor system. Overall, the present study supports the embodied representation views indicating that sensorimotor system is involved in the abstract concept processing and sensorimotor features in the abstract words do matter a lot. Related Articles | Metrics

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The effect and its mechanism of classroom justice on learning engagement: Serial mediating model 2022, 45(3): 591-598.  Abstract ( )   PDF   Classroom justice is an important topic in educational psychology. Classroom justice refers to the perceptions of fairness regarding outcomes or processes that occur in the instructional context. Previous studies indicated that when students perceive that teachers are not concerned with justice, they are likely to engage in resistance or verbal aggressiveness, enact revenge, or communicate in a deceptive manner. However, when students perceive that their instructors do engage in classroom justice, they report that they are motivated and affectively engaged. In addition, past research on the school experience of justice has shown that the sense of being treated by one’s own teachers fairly is associated with students’ competence and motivation, positive attitudes towards institutions and authorities, and group cooperation skills. Moreover, in adolescence the feeling of being treated in a respectful manner contributes to the perception of being a valued group member, it promotes a sense of belonging, and reinforces the personal obligations to behave in compliance with the collective rules. On the contrary, the feeling of injustice in class leads to negative outcomes, such as a decline in learning motivation and a psychological disengagement from school life. Yet, although prior work on classroom justice has been fruitful in highlighting the effects of justice to students, scholars have not focused on how classroom justice influences the students’ learning engagement and its mechanisms. In order to investigate the relationship between classroom justice and learning engagement, as well as its underlying mechanism, a sample of 621 high school students were participated for the study. They were required to complete a battery of questionnaires, including Classroom Justice Questionnaire, Teacher-Student Exchange Relationship Questionnaire, the Learning Self-efficacy Questionnaire as well as the Learning Engagement Questionnaire. The results indicated: (1) The correlations between classroom justice, teacher-student exchange relationship, learning self-efficacy and learning engagement were significantly positive. Moreover, classroom justice significantly predicted teacher-student exchange relationship, learning self-efficacy and learning engagement; (2) The effect of classroom justice on students’ learning engagement was explained by three indirect paths: the simple mediating role of teacher-student exchange relationship, learning self-efficacy, respectively, and the serial mediating role of both teacher-student exchange relationship and learning self-efficacy. In sum, these findings highlight the complex mechanism underlying the relationship between classroom justice and learning engagement. Classroom justice predicts high school students’ learning engagement through mediating roles of teacher-student exchange relationship and learning self-efficacy. Individuals with classroom justice would maintain good teacher-student exchange relationship and strong learning self-efficacy, and finally have higher level of learning engagement. It may contribute to our better understanding of how classroom justice influences learning engagement from the teacher-students exchange theory and social cognitive theory. Related Articles | Metrics

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Promoting Effect of Play Training Integrated with teaching on Executive Function among Rural Older Preschoolers 2022, 45(3): 607-613.  Abstract ( )   PDF   This study conducted the pre-test and post-test experimental design to examine the promotion effect of various forms of play training integrated with teaching on executive function among rural older preschoolers for 3 months. In the intervention group (n = 50, M ± SD = 6.12 ± 0.44), the instructor guided children to perform three game activities training. The first is the “self-control storybook”, in which children were required to take the excellent qualities of the characters in the story as exemplars, and then would improve self-control in the real environment through learning from the situations and imitation or rejection to some typical characters. In this process, children were asked to remember the content of story games and suppress impulsive behaviors in campus activities by themselves or with mutual restraint. The second is the “Focus book” that children were required to master their behavior and focus on the task. The “Focus book” could train children to stay focused and resist distraction. It also requires them to switch their attention between different tasks and goals. The third is the “memory chess” that children were asked to remember the pattern of each piece. The memory chess games also require cooperative participation of working memory (WM), inhibition control (IC), and cognitive flexibility (CF). Routine teaching activities were carried out for children in the control group (n = 50, M ± SD = 6.22 ± 0.34). We used the three classical tasks, i.e., the Tapping Task for IC, the Dimensional Change Card Sort Task (DCCS) for CF, and the Color-naming Span Task for WM, to measure executive function before and after training. Results showed that: (1) No significant differences were depicted between the two groups in the pre-test of the three dimensions of executive function, but the performance of working memory (t = 1.98, p = .05, Cohen's d = 0.40) and cognitive flexibility (t = 2.32, p = .02, Cohen's d = 0.46) in the intervention group were significantly better than that of control group in the post-test. (2) After further dividing the intervention group into high and low executive function, it was found that children in the low executive function group got significant improvement in all the 3 aspects of executive function (tWM = 4.12, p = .001, Cohen's d = 0.99; tIC = 4.93, p < .001, Cohen's d = 1.03; tCF = 4.50, p < .001, Cohen's d = 1.18); but the high executive function group only improved on working memory (t = 3.72, p = .001, Cohen's d = 0.64). Research suggested that short-term game training can promote the executive function of rural older preschoolers, mainly on working memory and cognitive flexibility. Moreover, the promotion effect of game training on children with low executive function was more obvious. There are several important theoretical and practical implications in our study. First of all, the materials we used are economical and easy to obtain, the game is simple to operate, the demand for investment of time and quality of teachers is relatively less, and it is easier to implement and promote in economically backward areas. Secondly, the funny stories and games made children actively participate in activities in a happy atmosphere, and transformed the form of games to add the new and different challenge for the higher demand on executive functions. More importantly, early childhood educators should realize that these training methods and programs are relatively easy to learn and operate for teachers. With the assistance of appropriate toys and books, better training results can be achieved as long as these trainings are kept on. This is undoubtedly an encouraging message for ability improvement and teaching advancement of disadvantaged children. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Effect of Realistic Altruistic Behavior and Network Altruistic Behavior on Subjective Well-being of College Students: Multiple Mediation Effects 2022, 45(3): 628-634.  Abstract ( )   PDF   With the continuous promotion of quality education, people pay more and more attention to the mental health of college students, and subjective well-being (SWB) is an essential part of it. Besides, altruistic behavior, social support, and self-esteem are vital elements among the numerous factors affecting SWB. Additionally, the scene of altruistic behavior is divided into real space and cyberspace. Therefore, this study discusses the impact of realistic altruistic behavior and network altruistic behavior on SWB, and then further discusses the cross-effect of network behavior and real behavior. In this study, 1064 college students were investigated by using realistic altruistic behavior scale, Internet altruistic behavior scale, realistic social support scale, Internet social support scale, self-esteem scale, and SWB. Moreover, SPSS 24.0 and AMOS 24.0 were applied to analyze the data. The results are shown as below. (1) The total scores of altruistic level, real social support, network social support, self-esteem, and SWB of college students are all at the upper-moderate level, while the total score of the network altruistic level of college students is at the lower-moderate level. Furthermore, on the gender dimension, the subjective well-being of males is significantly higher than that of females. In terms of grade, the subjective well-being of sophomores is significantly lower than that of freshmen and juniors. For the major of liberal arts and sciences, the subjective well-being of science and engineering students is significantly higher than that of liberal arts students. (2) Besides, there is a chain mediation effect between actual altruistic behavior and subjective well-being. That is, actual altruism affects actual social support, then affects self-esteem, and then affects SWB. The chain mediation effect accounts for 26.22% of the mediation effect. (3) Moreover, the results of network altruism are similar to that of actual altruism. The chain mediation effect between network altruistic behavior and subjective well-being shows that network altruism affects actual social support, then affects self-esteem, and then affects SWB. The chain mediation effect accounts for 21.48% of the mediation effect. (4)Additionally, there is a cross effect between realistic altruistic behavior and network altruistic behavior on real social support and network social support. The realistic altruistic behavior can affect the network social support, then affect the self-esteem, and then affect the SWB. Besides, the network altruistic behavior can also affect the real social support, then affect the self-esteem, and then affect the SWB. The present results reveal the influence of reality and network environment on the SWB of college students. Most of the previous studies focused on the effect of altruistic behavior on SWB in real or online environments, however, few researchers paid attention to the effect of altruistic behavior. In addition, With the development of network technology, the Internet has become an important platform for teenagers to acquire knowledge, exchange ideas, and entertain themselves. Under the influence of the network environment, it is necessary to discuss the influence of online and offline behaviors on the development of teenagers. Finally, as a cross-sectional study, it is impossible to explore the impact of altruistic behavior on SWB of college students. Therefore, it is a future trend to improve this influence by using longitudinal studies. Related Articles | Metrics

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Self-other Decision-making Differences in high school students’ Subject Choice: The Role of Anticipatory Guilt 2022, 45(3): 635-642.  Abstract ( )   PDF   Subject choice has become an important decision the high school students faced, and most students are troubled by the conflict between subject difficulty and interest when making a subject choice. Previous studies have mainly focused on decisions for the self, paying less attention to decisions for others. However, individuals are not only faced with choosing subject for themselves, but also often giving the other people advice on how to make a subject choice, or directly make decisions on behalf of others. Therefore, the self-other decision-making differences in high school students’ subject choice gradually become one of the hot issues in the field of decision. The present studies aim to investigate self-other decision-making differences in high school students’ subject choice, and the role of anticipatory guilt in such differences. In study 1, 440 senior grade one students were recruited to participate in this study. Seventy-three participants were excluded from the analyses because they doubted the authenticity of the subject choice on the post-experiment self-report questionnaire. The remaining 367 participants were included in the analyses, including 178 participants in the self-condition and 189 participants in the other-condition. In the self-condition, participants were asked to rate the possibility that they chose four types of subjects. In the other condition, participants were asked to rate the possibility that a student who is wholly unfamiliar to them chose such subjects. Results revealed that self-other decision-making discrepancies were only observed in the subjects with high difficulty and high interest and the subjects with low difficulty and low interest. Participants were more inclined to choose a subject with low difficulty and low interest for themselves, whereas choose a subject with high difficulty and high interest for others. The study 2 aims to investigate the effect of social distance on self-other decision-making discrepancies in subject choice and the psychological mechanism underlying such an effect. 541 senior grade one students were recruited and randomly assigned to the self, friend, or stranger conditions. Due to 41 individuals doubted the authenticity of the subject choice, 35 individuals chosen extreme values and 21 individuals gave incomplete replies, and thus the remaining 444 participants were included in the analyses, including 144 participants in the self-condition, 151 participants in the friend-condition and 149 participants in the stranger-condition. Participants were required to give a response to which subject selected would make them feel more guilt, as well as the preference of subject choice. Results showed that individuals prefer to the subjects with low difficulty and low interest when deciding for themselves, whereas they prefer to the subjects with high difficulty and high interest when making decisions for a stranger, and the self-other decision-making differences were diminished when subject choice was made for close others (i.e., friends). In addition, study 2 demonstrated that anticipatory guilt was responsible for self-other decision-making differences in subject choice. To sum up, the present study provides the first evidence that there are self-other decision-making differences in high school students’ subject choice. Our findings not only expand the research scope of self-other discrepancies in decision making, but also provide scientific evidence for optimizing individual subject choice, and thus contribute to intensify the understanding of human social decision-making. Related Articles | Metrics