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ISSN 0439-755X
CN 11-1911/B

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    25 August 2014, Volume 46 Issue 8 Previous Issue    Next Issue

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    The Effect of Causal Diagrams on Expository Texts Reading for Individuals with Different Cognitive Styles
    LI Shouxin;ZHANG Dexiang;ZHANG Jianpeng
    2014, 46 (8):  1043-1051 .  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2014. 01043
    Abstract ( 730 )  

    Expository texts are mainly characterized by presenting abstract categories and embodying abundant inter-related concepts and relational information. The design of expository texts is in a way to prescribe a fixed processing route. However, it becomes difficult for a reader to encode multiple concept relations simultaneously, which, consequently, according to cognitive load theory, imposes heavy cognitive demands on working memory. Causal diagrams as a form of external adjunct aids have been largely examined in recent years as a potential breakthrough in easing out the problems associated with comprehending expository texts. The main purpose of the current study was to examine whether the effect of causal diagrams on expository texts reading could be different to individuals with different cognitive styles. Three experiments were designed to examine the effect of causal diagrams on expository text for different cognitive style individuals. ExperimentⅠexamined whether causal diagram could facilitate expository texts reading for individuals with different cognitive styles by comparing their reading under the condition of a text with or without a causal diagram. ExperimentⅡexamined the difference of process effort and performance for individuals with different cognitive styles by comparing their reading under the condition of causal diagram + text and text + text. Using think-aloud protocols, Experiment Ⅲ examined the influence of causal diagram on readers’ comprehension strategy for individuals with different cognitive styles by comparing their reading under the condition of a text with or without a causal diagram. The results were that, compared to a single text, field independent (FI) individuals’ reading scores were improved while the reading time was not increased when presented with a text with a causal diagram; furthermore, more causal-bridging inferences and questioning strategies were generated. However, field dependent (FD) individuals’ reading scores and reading time were significantly improved, while their comprehension strategies were not changed when presented with a text with a causal diagram. The results revealed that causal diagram could improve reading performance of the expository text for both FI and FD. FI individuals didn’t increase more processing effort when presented with a causal diagram, and they improved their reading efficiency by adjusting the comprehension strategies, while FD individuals improved their reading efficiency by increasing more processing effort, and their comprehension strategies were not changed.

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    The Representation of Partial Exemplars in Classification Learning
    WANG Ruiming;LIN Zheting;LIU Zhiya
    2014, 46 (8):  1052-1061.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2014.01052
    Abstract ( 550 )  

    Previous researches have showed that category learning by inference way can represent diagnostic information and nondiagnostic information, but learning by classifying way only can represent diagnostic information such as exemplar features information. However, recently studies show that learning partial exemplars by classifying also can represent nondiagnostic information (Taylor & Ross, 2009). Taylor & Ross (2009) offered an explanation of selective attention that there are comparably loose of attention resources in partial condition than entire condition. They left out the possibility that the subject might inference the missing features in the partial condition. In the real world, exemplars often appear with occluded features, but in laboratory research, they are almost always presented in their entirety. Two experiments were conducted to explore how partial classification leads to nondiagnostic features learning. Experiment 1 replicated the Taylor & Ross (2009) finding that learners who classified exemplars with missing features (the partial condition) processed nondiagnostic features. Experiment 2 explored how partial exemplars of classification learning could represent nondiagnostic (prototypical) information. Linearly separable category structures were used in this study. Experiment 1 used the “6 dimensions category” and experiment 2 used the “7 and 5 dimensions category”. During learning phase, an individual exemplar was presented, the participant was asked to infer and indicate which category (Deeger or Koozle) the exemplar belonged to, and feedback as to whether the subject was right or wrong was provided. After a number of such trials of inference and feedback, participants reached the learning criterion and were considered to have formed new category knowledge. During the transfer phase, different prototypical and diagnostic exemplars were presented, the participant was asked to estimate their categorical typicality. Experiment 1 replicate the finding of Taylor & Ross (2009) that the entire and the partial conditions both can represent diagnostic information, but only the partial condition can represent prototypical information. In other word, the entire condition only can represent diagnostic information, but partial condition not only can represent diagnostic information but also nondiagnostic information. The results of experiment 2 support the previous prediction that subject inference the missing features automatically but not adjust their attention in the partial learning condition.

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    An Eye-tracking Research on Featural, Configural and Holistic Processing Strategies in Face Perception
    FAN Qian;SUI Xue;FU Yongchuan
    2014, 46 (8):  1062-1071.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2014.01062
    Abstract ( 980 )  

    There were two main hypotheses attempting to explain the mechanisms of face perception. One was the holistic approach which claimed that faces were stored as relatively undifferentiated wholes, without explicitly representing the facial parts. The other was the dual-code view which claimed that faces were processed on the basis of featural and configural information and that the respective representations were stored in isolation. Indeed, neither of the two approaches could provide a detailed explanation of the mechanisms of face perception. Therefore integrated approaches were proposed. The present study in favor of these integrated systems aims at exploring featural, configural and holistic strategies during face perception. The presence of different eye movement patterns would imply how important information is extracted from facial stimuli. In the two experiments we explored the scanning behavior during face perception. In experiment 1, modified faces with primarily featural (scrambled faces) or configural (blurred faces) information were used as cue stimuli so as to manipulate the way participants processed intact faces which were presented soon afterwards. In a series of matching-to-sample tasks, participants decided whether the identity of an intact test face matched a precedent scrambled or blurred cue face. Analysis of eye movements for test faces showed more interfeatural saccades when preceded by blurred faces, and longer gaze duration within the same feature when preceded by scrambled faces. In experiment 2, a similar paradigm was used except that test faces were cued by intact faces, low-level blurred faces, or slightly scrambled faces. The results suggested that in the intact condition participants performed fewer interfeatural saccades than in low-level blurred condition and had shorter gaze duration than in slightly scrambled condition. Moreover, a few fixations in the center of the face were performed to grasp the information from the whole face. The results suggest a differentiation between featural, configural, and holistic processing strategies, which can be associated with specific patterns of eye movements. By inducing different processing strategies in experiment 1, we provided further evidence that faces can be recognized on the basis of both featural and configural information. In experiment 2 a holistic strategy characterized by the grasp of the whole face was applied, while in experiment 1 a configural strategy was adopted when the information from different locations was integrated by performing a high number of saccades between different features. In conclusion, the present study shows that three modes of face processing strategies coexist in face perception.

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    Cross-category Face Adaptation of Feature Association
    JIANG Chengming;JIAO Changyong;DONG Huahua;ZUO Wuheng;XU Lian;HU Fengpei
    2014, 46 (8):  1072-1085.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2014.01072
    Abstract ( 859 )  

    Most previous studies only consider face adaptation when the adaptors are faces. No face adaptation effects are observed when the adaptors and test faces do not belong to the same category. This condition implies that face adaptation is category-selective, suggesting that the adaptation occurs at the sensory processing level. The present study attempts to verify the existence of cross-category face adaptation and examines the perceptual results, conditions, and the mechanism of cross-category face adaptation. A total of 43 college students participated in the study. Among the participants, 12 participated in Experiment 1, 12 in Experiment 2, and 19 in Experiment 3. Experiment 1 explored whether cross-category face adaptation and the effect of duration (50, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, and 3200 ms) of adaptors exist. Participants were presented with photographs of the objects with gender feature as adaptors, then they identified the gender of a series of faces that were chosen from a morphing spectrum between some male and female faces (the tasks in Experiments 2 and 3 are similar to Experiment 1), whereas behavioral and electrophysiological aftereffects were recorded as indicators of cross-category face adaptation. In Experiment 2, we explored whether the cross-category aftereffects in Experiment 1 were caused by adaption to the feature based on gender. Photographs with items associated with gender, the corresponding names of these items, and the words to describe gender (i.e., “male” and “female”) were used as adapters. In Experiment 3, we explored whether awareness of adaptors affects cross-category face adaptation by varying degrees of attention load on adaptors (high, low, or no loads). In Experiment 1, all conditions, except for 50 ms duration of adaptors demonstrated aftereffects, and the aftereffects were inverted U-shaped that reached their maximum when the duration of adaptors was 400 ms. Results of Experiment 2 showed that all three kinds of adapters produced cross-category face adaptation. Therefore, cross-category adaptation occurs when the adaptors and test faces share the same properties in terms of the nature of task. Results of Experiment 3 showed that the magnitude of adaptation effect was greater for the no attention than low attention load conditions, which consequently was greater than the high attention load condition. The adaptation effects between the baseline and high attention load conditions were not significant. Therefore, awareness of adaptors is necessary for cross-category adaptation. In summary, the current study proved that high-level cross-category face adaptation could occur when properties or features of adaptors can be automatically inferred from the adaptors, and the adaptors and test faces share the same properties (in this study, it was gender) in terms of the nature of task.

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    The Effects of Activation Levels of Visual Long-Term Memory on Visual Short-Term Memory
    BAO Xuhui;JI Ming;HUANG Jie;HE Liguo;YOU Xuqun
    2014, 46 (8):  1086-1093.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2014.01086
    Abstract ( 1341 )  

    It is a fundamental question that whether visual short-term memory (VSTM) and visual long-term memory (VLTM) are two separate stores or two different states of the same representation. Previous researches focused on whether VSTM could be facilitated by VLTM, however, existing studies on this topic yielded conflicting results. Most neurophysiological or behavioral studies adopted faces as stimuli, and have arrived at the conclusion that VLTM could facilitate VSTM. It ought to be noted that in studies that found no facilitation, the exposure of the experimental materials was not sufficiently to activate VLTM. Therefore, it was hypothesized that only a highly activated VLTM could facilitate VSTM. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of activation level of VLTM on facilitating VSTM within the change-detection paradigm. In Experiment 1, participants were instructed to memorize a study image including 6 geometric figures (6 random shape-color bindings from a pool of eight shapes and eight colors), and then after a random inter-stimulus interval (1, 1.5, or 3 s), either the same image or an image with one shape or color changed was presented, and participants were asked to judge whether they detected a change. In Experiment 2, a total of 8 geometric figures with fixed combinations of color and shape were used to substitute all the random combinations of experiment 1. The experimental procedure and design was identical to experiment 1. One hour after the experiment, participants were asked to participate in a post-experiment to examine whether the study stimuli were stored in VLTM. In Experiment 3, participants were asked to visually study the 8 figures in experiment 2 for a week (at least 10 min a day). Then, they took part in a pre-experiment (the same as the post-experiment in experiment 2) to test whether a highly activated VLTM was obtained. At last, the experimental procedure as described in Experiment 2 was performed. The results showed that although VLTM was formed in experiment 2, there was no significant increase in d' or K value of VSTM, indicating no facilitation of VLTM in this case. However, in experiment 3, VLTM was highly activated, and a better performance was observed as compared with experiment 1 and 2. In addition, the effect size of ISI decreased as the activation level of VLTM increased from experiment 1 to experiment 3. The results suggest that whether VLTM can facilitate VSTM is mainly depend on the activation level of VLTM, only a highly activated VLTM can facilitate VSTM, and can inhibit the rapid fading of VSTM traces. On this basis, we conclude that VSTM and VLTM are more likely to be two states of the same representation.

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    The Moderating Effect of Perspective Taking in Implicit Emotional Processing
    XIA Ruixue;ZHOU Aibao;LI Shifeng;XU Kepeng;REN Deyun;ZHU Jing
    2014, 46 (8):  1094-1102.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2014.01094
    Abstract ( 973 )  

    Perspective taking plays an clear role on processing emotional information. Existing studies have shown that emotional negativity bias and perspective taking’s roles as moderators in pain empathy could be observed in the controlled processing stage (370~420 ms). However, emotional negativity bias only explains the differences in processing information of different emotional valence. Due to researchers’ lack of concerns on perspective taking, the existing research could not explain how human beings understand their own emotions and other’s emotions differently. Meanwhile, the findings of pain empathy did not effectively explain people's unconscious processing of negative emotion because most of the existing research only employed explicit experimental tasks. The effect of perspective taking on the implicit emotion empathy is unclear. The aim of this research is to explore the moderating effect of perspective taking in implicit emotional processing. In the present research, a 2 (perspective taking: self-perspective, others-perspective) × 2 (emotional valence: negative, neutral) within-group design is employed. The task of the participants was to judge the shapes of the pictures with different emotional valance. Eighteen college students participated in the experiment with the data of 16 valid cases were achieved. The electroencephalogram (EEG) was continuously recorded from scalp electrodes using the 256-channel HydroCel Geodesic Sensor Net (Electrical Geodesics, Inc., Eugene, OR) while subjects were performing the tasks. Component analysis and spectral analysis are used to explore on negative emotion empathy in an implicit emotional processing task. The extracted mean amplitude and power data were then analyzed with repeated measures ANOVAs. The results showed that negative stimulus elicited an increased amplitude of N200 (180~220 ms) in the frontal and central electrodes and LPC (267~567 ms) in the central-parietal area under the self-perspective, but not the other-perspective condition. The result of phase-locked wavelet analysis showed that under the self-perspective condition, negative stimulus induced a signi?cantly higher power of the theta rhythm (4~8 Hz) in the time-window from stimulus presentation to 300ms. Evidence from component and wavelet analysis showed that a priming effect could be observed when the subjects were processing negative information under the self-perspective condition. However, other-perspective inhibited the processing of negative information. Both findings supported that perspective-taking played a robust moderating effect on implicit emotion processing. Moreover, this moderating effect appears during the early stage of information processing. The findings of the present study showed that human not only can identify risk information in the environment, but also can distinguish self from others by perspective-taking.

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    The Enhancement of Self-orientation on Counterempathy
    DENG Lin;LUO Pinchao;WANG Junfang;FANG Juncong;ZHENG Xiaochun;LI Yue;ZHENG Xifu
    2014, 46 (8):  1103-1111.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2014.01103
    Abstract ( 746 )  

    The biological predisposition to resonate emotionally with another person is regarded as a critical aspect of social interaction. However, the emotional responses to others are often discordant with the object’s (target’s) emotional experience. The discrepant emotional responses are called “counterempathy”. Based on the research of the two-stage process of emotion sharing proposed by Decety, and “self-oriented” and “other- orientated” emotional responses proposed by Goubet, we built the counterempathic emotion sharing process model under a competitive environment. Here we propose that in the counterempathic emotional sharing process, the individuals tend to generate stronger “self- oriented” emotional response compared to the "other-oriented" emotional response. The experiment was designed to test the enhancement effect of self- orientation on counterempathy by manipulating the orientation (self vs. other-orientation) and competitor’s facial expressions (frown vs. smile). Participants (10 men; 19 women) were convinced that they were playing a card game with another player seated in the adjoining room. They were requested to make judgment of the participants’ own win/lose and generate “self- oriented” emotional response through the competitor’s facial expressions (smile/frown) presented on the computer screen, similarly, to make judgment of the competitor’s win/lose and generate “other-oriented” emotional response. Reaction time, accuracy were collected during the tasks. To assess the manipulating effect of orientation, participants were required to complete emotional self-assessment scale at the end of each manipulating phase; and we analyzed the results using repeated-measures analyses of variance (ANOVAs) with Orientation (self vs. other- orientation) and Facial Expressions (frown vs. smile) as within-subjects variables. We observed a clear enhancement effect of self-orientation on counterempathy. Participants responded with an asymmetric emotion towards the competitor automatically both in the “self-oriented” and “other-oriented” condition. Participants had a higher accuracy and showed stronger asymmetric valence ratings to the competitor in the “self-oriented” condition compared to “other-oriented” condition; besides, they responded slower and showed more negative valence ratings to the competitor's winning in the “self-oriented” condition. The results of the study support the enhancement effect of self-orientation on counterempathy. The results indicate that individuals could respond with asymmetric emotion towards their competitors automatically not only in the “self-oriented” condition, but also in the “other- oriented” condition, suggesting that the individuals tend to generate stronger “self- oriented” emotional response, while Decety only mentioned the “other-oriented ”emotional response which induces empathic concern in the conscious emotional sharing process. Moreover, “self-oriented” condition strengthens individuals’ asymmetric emotional response compare to “other-oriented” condition, especially for the competitor's winning.

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    The Contribution of Dynamic Assessment to Screening Children with Mathematics Learning Disabilities
    ZHANG Lijin;ZHANG Zhenfeng
    2014, 46 (8):  1112-1123.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2014.01112
    Abstract ( 766 )  

    The commonly used grade-level discrepancy assessment, which relies on achievement test scores to identify children with mathematics learning disabilities (MLD or MD), can be biased and its effectiveness varies across children’s cognitive levels, educational backgrounds of families, school contexts, and children’s learning styles. As a consequence, the identification of children with MD often lacks accuracy. With an integration of interventions and interactive evaluation, dynamic assessment is developed to identify children’s potential for learning which is less influenced by their family and school backgrounds mentioned above. Unlike traditional achievement tests, dynamic assessment applies new criterion on MD that focus on children’s potential for learning mathematics and can reduce above-mentioned unfavorable effect to some extent. The current study attempted to demonstrate that the addition of dynamic assessment to traditional achievement tests can help identify MD children and the subgroups of MD children with increased accuracy and objectivity. Dynamic assessment has a unique effect on rapid and accurate identifying children with mathematics learning disabilities. Following the standard orientation model proposed by Proctor and Prevatt (2003), the treatment group included 30 fourth-grade children with mathematics learning disabilities, while the control group consisted of 30 children who were matched on Raven intelligence test scores. Four subtests (Rhyming Words, Auditory Digit Sequence, Visual Matrix and Mapping and Directions) of the “Swanson Cognitive Processing Test (S-CPT)” were administrated to assess children’s working memory. The assessment included initial score, gain score, maintain score, difference score, stable score, guide score and strategy score, collected in four phases: pretest, intervention, posttest, and delayed posttest. The differences in work memory task scores before and after the dynamic interventions, were used to categorize the 30 children in the treatment group into different subgroups. The results of factor analyses revealed two factors (original cognitive abilities and potential cognitive abilities), with the factor of potential cognitive abilities explained additional 19% of variance in children’s mathematics achievement. By integrating the factor of potential cognitive abilities as a core criterion, the initial group of 30 MD children can be further categorized into two subgroups: insufficient development group (n = 11, 37%) and developing deficit group (n = 19, 63%). The insufficient development subgroup differed from the developing deficit subgroup in several ways, including higher gain score, maintain score, stable score, difference score and guide score scores that were comparable to normal children and improved mathematics achievement test scores after one year. These findings point to the benefit of using dynamic assessment to identify subgroups of MD children, in comparison to traditional achievement tests which failed to distinguish the insufficient development subgroup from the developing deficit subgroup. In conclusion, by integrating interventions and interactive evaluations, dynamic assessment provides a unique way to explore children’s potential for learning that cannot be captured by traditional achievement tests. In addition, dynamic assessment complements traditional achievement tests by identifying subgroups of MD children: the insufficient development subgroup and the developing deficit subgroup; the first subgroups may otherwise be mis-labeled as learning disable children when using traditional achievement tests alone. The identification of subgroups of MD children can also lead to diversified intervention effort that may be more effective for one subgroup but not the other.

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    Does Organizational Politics at the Workplace Harm Employees’ Job Performance? A Person-Organization Fit Perspective
    GAO Zhonghua;ZHAO Chen
    2014, 46 (8):  1124-1143.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2014.01124
    Abstract ( 1745 )  

    Organizational politics is defined as a social influence process in which organizational members engage in opportunistic behavior for purposes of self-interest maximization. It is typically not recognized by the formal rules and regulations in organizations, but is prevalent in the workplace. Previous studies have argued that employees’ perceptions of organizational politics lead to a variety of negative outcomes for organizations, including low levels of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, task performance, and organizational citizenship behaviors, yet recent studies have suggested that there could be a positive relationship between perceived politics and individual outcomes. Bozeman et al. (2001) have shown that individual reactions to perceptions of organizational politics are largely dependent on how the phenomenon is construed by individuals. However, there has been limited theoretical work that identifies the boundary conditions of the relationship between employees’ perceptions of organizational politics and individual outcomes. In this study, we develop a theoretical model based on the theory of person-organization fit. In this model, we identify the possible boundary conditions of the relationship between employees’ perceptions of organizational politics and their job performance, as well as the psychological process linking these two constructs. First, Machiavellianism is examined as a moderator. We predict that when Machiavellianism is high, the negative relationship between perceived organizational politics and job performance tends to be attenuated because high Machiavellianism seems to fit the high level of perceived organizational politics. In contrast, the negative relationship between perceived organizational politics and job performance tends to be stronger when Machiavellianism is low because of a lower fit. Second, organizational identification—a psychological process—is examined as a mediator. We propose that organizational identification not only mediates the relationship between employees’ perceptions of organizational politics and job performance, but also mediates the moderating effect of Machiavellianism on this relationship. To test our hypotheses, we collected paired data from 286 subordinates and their direct supervisors from five companies in the hospitality and tourism industry located in Beijing and the Henan Province. Two sets of structured questionnaires–one for the subordinates and another for their direct supervisors–were administered to avoid common method bias. In the subordinate questionnaire, we measured perceived organizational politics, Machiavellianism, and organizational identification. Specifically, perceived organizational politics was measured by 9 items adjusted from Vigoda (2001). Machiavellianism was measured by 16 items adapted from Dahling, Whitaker, and Levy (2009). Organizational identification was measured by 5 items adapted from Smidts, Pruyn, and Van Riel (2001). In the supervisor questionnaire, we measured subordinates’ task performance and organizational citizenship behavior-individuals (OCBI) using 6 items from Williams and Anderson (1991). Cronbach's alpha coefficients for these measures range from 0.71 to 0.84, above the recommended value of 0.70. This indicates acceptable reliabilities for all of the measures in this study. Results from a hierarchical regression analysis show that employees’ perceptions of organizational politics have significant negative effects on both task performance and OCBI. Machiavellianism moderates the above relationship such that the higher employee’s Machiavellianism, the weaker the negative effects of perceived organizational politics on both task performance and OCBI. In particular, the negative effect of perceived organizational politics on task performance turns positive for employees who are high on Machiavellianism. Organizational identification mediates the relationship between employees’ perceptions of organizational politics and job performance such that perceived organizational politics exerts influence on both task performance and organizational citizenship behavior through organizational identification. Results from a moderated path analysis reveal that organizational identification also mediates the moderating effect of Machiavellianism such that the interaction of Machiavellianism and perceived organizational politics exerts influence on both task performance and OCBI through organizational identification. In sum, in this study, we uncovered the relationship between perceived organizational politics and employees’ job performance by identifying a possible boundary condition and the psychological process. Our research helps to extend our understanding of the mechanisms of organizational politics at the workplace. Finally, we discuss the theoretical and managerial implications, as well as the limitations of this study.

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    A Comparison Study of Role Overload, Work-Family Conflict and Depression between China and North America: The Moderation Effect of Social Support
    JIN Jiafei;XU Shan;WANG Yanxia
    2014, 46 (8):  1144-1160.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2014.01144
    Abstract ( 1629 )  

    The issues of work-family relationship have been widely studied for almost thirty years. Previous researches focused on the antecedent and outcome variables of such relationship model. Many researchers substantiated that the role overload and support which come from work and family domain have significant effects on the work-family relationship and depression as well. Based on the Boundary theory and Conversation of Resources theory, a number of studies explained the effects of role stress (such as role overload) on work-family conflict in two ways. One was the direct effect and another was interdomain transition effect. However, most of those results were proved in the Western samples, far too little attention was paid to cross-cultural comparison. In the limited cross-cultural studies, researchers used different countries to represent different cultures without considering the effect of specific aspects of culture on the difference between two distinct samples. In addition, the resource scarcity cannot account for the differences caused by culture. Thus, it would be worthwhile to examine the relationship between work and family across two heterogeneous samples, providing a fresh perspective demonstrating their differences by treating support level as one trait of culture. The purpose of this study was to make a comparison between American and Chinese employees in a common point of the mediation effect of conflict on the relationship between role overload and depression, and in a difference point of the moderation effect of support on the relation between role overload and conflict. We collected our data from two online platforms (Number of North American sample: 408, Number of Chinese sample: 442) with the survey method. Before the final scales were developed for analysis, we first conducted multi-group confirmatory factor analyses using LISREL 8.70 to assess the measurement equivalence of the scales across the two samples and languages. After reporting the reliability of scales, we tested our hypotheses by using the hierarchical regression method in SPSS. Our results partially supported our anticipation. Generally speaking, the conflicts between work and family were mediators of role overload and depression for both Chinese and North American workers. Besides, support from either work or family domain moderated the relations between role overload and conflict in the American sample not in the Chinese sample. Specially speaking, work support had a negative moderation effect on the relationship between work role overload and work-family conflict. However, we should note that the increase of work support or family support enhanced the positive relation between family role overload and family work conflict. We provided a new theoretical view to clarify the difference between mechanisms in the work-family relations model across different cultures. On the one hand, based on the distinct support atmosphere existing in the two different countries, we combined the Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility and Conversation of Resources theories to explain our findings. Specifically, Chinese workers have received more support than their counterparts in America in the long term, resulting in less sensitivity about support and leading to an almost constant relationship between role overload and conflict. On the contrary, American workers were used to low level of work support, leading them to perceive less work-family conflict once they received more work support. On the other hand, we had different results in the family domain. Specially, we assumed that the positive moderation effect of work support or family support in the relation of family role overload and family-work conflict can be explained by popular individualism in the American society. When employees have accustomed to low social support for a long time, they know exactly what they should do in both domains. Therefore, they would encounter more conflict if their coworkers or family members provided support suddenly since they may treat such support as intervention in their personal lives. Our findings reminded managers in the different countries to consider different policies to reduce employees’ conflict and depression. In detail, the foreign companies which invest in the Chinese market should establish managerial policy emphasized on reducing work role overload while those Chinese firms which invest in North America should take measures to support their employees.

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    The Antecedents and Outcomes of Employee’s Forgiveness: A Multilevel Model
    ZHANG Junwei;LONG Lirong
    2014, 46 (8):  1161-1175.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2014.01161
    Abstract ( 738 )  

    In organizations, conflict and offense are the ubiquitous part of everyday life. Especially, as organizations increasingly adopt teams as primary work units, which suggests that frequency and intensity of workplace offense will on the increase. As coping strategy for dealing with workplace offense, forgiveness has received enthusiastic attention from researchers. A growing body of literature about forgiveness has focused on psychology, religion, theology, and other areas. There is a notable lack of forgiveness research in the organizational sciences. In order to enrich and deepen our understanding of workplace forgiveness, this research tried to explore the antecedents and outcomes of employee’s forgiveness in the context of Chinese organizations. Specifically, drawing on social information processing theory, we first investigated the cross-level effects of forgiveness climate on employee’s forgiveness, and examined the moderating role of Zhong-yong thinking style in forgiveness climate-employee’s forgiveness linkage. The second objective of this study is to examine the main effects of employee’s forgiveness on ICB, and investigate the moderating role of genuine harmony and superficial harmony playing in the linkage between them. In order to avoid the problem of common method bias, we examined the hypotheses proposed with matched field data collected from 50 supervisors and 298 employees. Employees were asked to provide ratings of forgiveness climate, Zhong-yong thinking style, employee’s forgiveness, genuine harmony and superficial harmony. Supervisor survey contained measures of employee’s ICB. We tested the distinctiveness of the study variables using structural equation model (SEM), hierarchical linear model (HLM) were applied to test our hypotheses. Consistent with hypotheses, the results of hierarchical linear model revealed that forgiveness climate had significant positive effects on employee’s forgiveness, and Zhong-yong thinking style significantly moderated the relation between forgiveness climate and employee’s forgiveness, such that the relation is stronger for employees with high Zhong-yong thinking style than for employees with low Zhong-yong thinking style. In addition, HLM results also showed that the main effect of employee’s forgiveness on ICB was not significant, while genuine harmony and superficial harmony played a moderating role in the relation. Genuine harmony strengthened the positive relation between employee’s forgiveness and ICB, such that the relation is stronger for employees with high genuine harmony than for employees with low genuine harmony. By contrast, superficial harmony weakened the positive relation between employee’s forgiveness and ICB, such that the relation is stronger for employees with low superficial harmony than for employees with high superficial harmony. Our findings contribute to the literature in several ways. First, this research enriches and extends the literature on the forgiveness scholarship in the organizational sciences by examining the antecedents and outcomes of employee’s forgiveness. Second, this study integrates some indigenous elements into research framework of employee’s forgiveness, which not only enriches indigenous theory and research, but also helps to offer some management implications for Chinese organizations.

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    The Effects of Temporal Distance on Confirmatory Information Processing
    LING Bin;WANG Zhongming
    2014, 46 (8):  1176-1191.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2014.01176
    Abstract ( 810 )  

    The present study investigates the influence of temporal distance on confirmatory information processing. Confirmatory information processing principally refers to a tendency of individuals to search and overestimate information that supports with their decision rather than looking for information conflicts (Fischer, Fischer, Englich, Aydin, & Frey, 2011; Fischer, 2011). According to the theoretical viewpoint of Construal Level Theory (CLT, see Trope & Liberman, 2010), temporal distance or perceived temporal proximity exerts an important discount effect on confirmatory information processing under individual and organizational decision making context. It is hypothesized that low temporal distance will increase confirmatory information processing and high temporal distance will decrease it. This discount effect is moderated by construal level mindset and decision’s desirable and feasible representation. We have conducted three studies and our results have found to support our prediction. In Study 1, we have conducted two one-factor between-subjects experiments in which we manipulated temporal distance (near vs. future) and employed a classic selective exposure paradigm to explore the confirmatory information processing. Fifty college students participate in the experiment 1a and sixty college students join in the experiment 1b. The results have shown that participants in a near-temporal decision scenario strengthen their confirmatory information processing, while participants in a future-temporal scenario reduce their confirmatory information processing. Further, we have found that perceived decision certainty plays a partial mediating effect in the process. In study 2, we have conducted a 2×2 between-subjects experiment to investigate the moderating effect of construal level mindset in which we manipulated temporal distance (near vs. future) and construal level mindset (low vs. high). Ninety undergraduate students from a university in Shanghai participate this experiment. The finding have confirmed the temporal discount effect as study 1 did, and also supports a negative impact of construal level mindset on confirmatory information processing. As expected, the moderating effect is testified as well. The negative relationship between temporal distance and confirmatory information processing is stronger when construal level mindset is lower. And the negative relationship between them is weaker when construal level mindset is higher. In study 3, we have explored the moderating effect of decision desirable/feasible representation on the relationship between temporal distance and confirmatory information processing. We conducted a 2×2 between-subjects experiment to verify the hypothesis. Fifty-eight participants take part in this experiment and are randomly assigned into different treatments. Apart from a main effect of decision representation, the results also exhibits its moderating mechanism that the negative relationship between temporal distance and confirmatory information processing is stronger when the decision scenario is represented as high-feasibility/low-desirability, the negative relationship is much weaker when the decision scenario is represented as high-desirability/low-feasibility. The result is shown to support our hypotheses. Our results support the temporal discount effect of confirmatory information processing which shades some light on a new cognitive mechanism for biased information processing. This research brings an insight to the underlying process in mediating role of perceived decision certainty, which responds to the cognitive economy model of confirmatory information processing. Moreover, the abstract and concrete mental representation primed in both mindset and decision context exert a significant boundary mechanism for this temporal discount effect. The negative effects of temporal distance on confirmatory information processing could vary significantly with different level of abstract representation. Finally, our findings also have some practical implications for managing and reducing confirmation biases in the process of information search and evaluation when making a decision.

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    Association between Moral Reasoning and Moral Behavior: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
    WU Peng;LIU Huashan
    2014, 46 (8):  1192-1207.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2014.01202
    Abstract ( 4095 )  

    According to the theory of Piaget and Kohlberg, whose focuses were the role of moral reasoning in morality, some researchers are inclined to identify moral reasoning as a key factor in predicting moral behavior, moral judgment or moral decision. Over the past decade, some moral psychologists put forward that cognitive factors played a trivial role in morality, while non-cognitive and unconscious factors having great impacts on morality. The controversy of whether moral reasoning can affect moral behavior remained in both theoretical researches and empirical studies. A systematic review was conducted to synthesize empirical results about relationship between moral reasoning and ethical behavior or immoral behavior. Through literature retrieval and selection, in terms of the criteria for inclusion in the meta-analysis, 83 independent effect sizes (50 studies, 16738 participants) were pick out as meta-analysis unit. After coding of data, independent effect sizes were analyzed by CMA 2.2 program. There are four analyses in this research, including heterogeneity test, publication bias test, main effect analysis and moderation effect analysis. In addition, in terms of tentative review analysis and research hypotheses, random effects model was used as meta-analysis model. The test for heterogeneity illustrated that there was significant heterogeneity in 83 independent effect sizes, and also random effects model was a appropriate model for subsequent meta-analysis. The publication bias test indicated that the impact of publication bias was modest but the major finding remained still valid. The research revealed that a positive association between moral reasoning and ethical behavior was found out (r = 0.238) and contrarily a negative relationship between moral reasoning and immoral behavior (r = ?0.188) was disclosed. The moderator analysis revealed that the standardization of moral reasoning measurements affected the relationship between moral reasoning and moral behavior, and additionally participant’s age could affect the relationship between moral reasoning and immoral behavior. Specifically, there was a stronger link between moral reasoning and ethical behavior in the process of using standardized instrument, while there being a weaker link between moral reasoning and immoral behavior. Meanwhile, the association between adult moral reasoning and immoral behavior was weaker than adolescent’ or children’ association. The results suggested that moral reasoning could play an important role in moral behavior (ethical behavior and immoral behavior). Researchers, what’s more, are expected to pay much attention to measurement instruments of moral reasoning and standardized instruments in the research of moralities, and especially, the area of ethical behavior. Overall, the findings provided an evidence to prove moral reasoning being the key factor of morality and suggested that developing moral reasoning measurement in connection with immoral behavior is in urgent need.

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    The Multidimensional Testlet-Effect Rasch Model
    ZHAN Peida;Wen-Chung WANG;WANG Lijun;LI Xiaomin
    2014, 46 (8):  1208-1222.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2014.01218
    Abstract ( 910 )  

    Testlet design has been widely adopted in educational and psychological assessment. A testlet is a cluster of items that share a common stimulus (e.g., a reading comprehension passage or a figure), and the possible local dependence among items within a testlet is called testlet-effect. Various models have been developed to take into account such testlet effect. Examples included the Rasch testlet model, two-parameter logistic Bayesian testlet model, and higher-order testlet model. However, these existing models all assume that an item is affected by only one single testlet effect. Therefore, they are essentially unidimensional testlet-effect models. In practice, multiple testlet effects may simultaneously affect item responses in a testlet. For example, in addition to common stimulus, items can be grouped according to their domains, knowledge units, or item format, such that multiple testlet effects are involved. In essence, an item measures multiple latent traits, in addition to the target latent trait(s) that the test was designed to measure. Existing unidimensional testlet-effect models become inapplicable when multiple testlet effects are involved. To account for multiple testlet effect, in this study we develop the so-called (within-item) multidimensional testlet-effect Rasch model. The parameters can be estimated with marginal maximum likelihood estimation methods or Bayesian methods with Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms. In this study, a popular computer program for Rasch models, ConQuest, was used. A series of simulations were conducted to evaluate parameter recovery of the new model, consequences of model misspecification, and the effectiveness of model-data fit statistics. Results show that the parameters of the new model can be recovered fairly well; and ignoring the multiple testlet effects resulted in a biased estimation of item parameters, and an overestimation of test reliability. Additionally, it did little harm on parameter estimation to fit a more complicated model (i.e., the multidimensional testlet-effect Rasch model) to data with a simple structure. In conclusion, the new model is feasible and flexible.

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