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ISSN 0439-755X
CN 11-1911/B

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    28 August 2012, Volume 44 Issue 8 Previous Issue    Next Issue

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    Dynamic Simulation of Emotion in Language Comprehension
    LU Zhong-Yi,BA Xiao-Na,LI Xing-Fen
    2012, 44 (8):  995-1003. 
    Abstract ( 1164 )  
    The major view of Barsalou’s perceptual symbol system, a new theory about knowledge representation, is that perceptual symbol is a component of cognition. Up till now, the theory has been put into wide application and obtained much support in experimental studies of language comprehension. Based on this theory, Zwaan proposed the Immersed Experiencer Frame (IEF), which assumed that the comprehender was an immersed experiencer of the described situation and comprehension was the vicarious experience of the described events. Hence, dynamic mental representation of human emotion can be seen as a result of tracing and simulating the emotional experience on the basis of reading comprehension.
    This research adopted mixed experimental design and sentence–pictures match paradigm. It used such sentences containing static and dynamic emotional information as experimental materials. The response latency of picture judgment was collected as the dependent variable. Different settings of temporal intervals and experimental procedures were employed to explore the participants’ mental representation and time proceedings for comprehension of static and dynamic emotions progression. The research results suggest (1) Participants are able to mentally simulate the emotional information during language comprehension, and emotional context will highly activate their experiential simulation. (2)The representation for static emotion can be finished at the earlier period of language comprehension. Once formed, it becomes highly stable and enduring. (3) Participants are able to mentally simulate the dynamic emotion, which takes a greater amount of time and is finished at the later period of comprehension. The representation for the sentences involving emotional alternations is influenced by the former emotional state. To be more specific, participants will stick to the previous negative emotion and it is not easy for them to represent the positive emotion when reading the sentences involving a transformation from the negative emotional state to the positive state.
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    The Effect of Semantic Classifier on Lexical Recognition and Semantic Extraction of Chinese Sign Language
    CHEN Sui-Qing,ZHANG Ji-Jia,WU Xue-Yun,GAO Ke-Juan
    2012, 44 (8):  1004-1014. 
    Abstract ( 600 )  
    Classifier is a symbol of an object belonging to a particular class. Sign language classifier is a kind of hand-shape which included location, shape, movement and orientation, or with a particular non-manual feature. As one of major factors in sign language, however, the semantic classifier construction in Chinese Sign Language (CSL) has seldom been investigated as a special field. Likewise, YiFu (shapes) of Chinese characters signifies their meaning directly and YiFu is the main carriers of this function. Many studies have examined the role of components in the recognition of Chinese characters. The results showed that the effect of YiFu existed in semantic processing of Chinese words. In addition, by means of word classifying, the studies showed that the symbol of the upper concepts in concept names played an important role in the semantic extraction of scientific and natural concepts. According to the results of the study of Chinese characters, the semantic classifier might affect the recognition of sign language. As a result, we adopted three semantic categories to examine how the semantic classifier of sign language affect the deaf in recognition of the sign language. The three categories include: (1) Generation, the classifier “ ” represents male elders and “ ” represents female elders; (2) Gender, the classifier “ ” represents female; (3) Position, the classifier “ ” represents the position of leadership.
    By using two experiments, the effect of the semantic classifier on the word identification and semantic decision of the Chinese Sign Language were investigated. In Experiment 1, in order to examine the influence of semantic classifier to sign word identification, the deaf students were required to make a lexical decision which were asked to judge a target sign is real or not. The stimulus were 88 sign pictures which were obtained from Chinese Sign Language (2003), including 88 pseudo sign pictures. The result showed that reaction times of the deaf students in identifying the sign language with semantic classifier was much shorter than those without semantic classifier. The Experiment 2 adopted the semantic decision task to explore the influence of semantic classifier to semantic extraction, in which deaf students were required to judge respectively which one was elder or younger; male or female; leadership or non-leadership. The experimental materials of Experiment 2 were the same as in Experiment 1. Similar results were obtained from Experiment 2, deaf students had slower response when target items had no semantic classifier.
    The two experiments showed that the semantic classifier affected sign word identification and meaning extraction of sign language. To sum up, the current study demonstrated the similar tendency as Chinese characters: If the semantic classifier was consistent with semantic meaning of sign language, it could improve the deaf in semantic extraction of sigh language; if not, it could hinder them.
    The conclusion of semantic classifier of sign language make contribution to the theory of CSL word cognition. It also has an important enlightenment in language and concept education for the deaf.
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    The Horizontal and the Vertical Mental Timeline in Chinese Context
    GU Yan-Yan,ZHANG Zhi-Jie
    2012, 44 (8):  1015-1024. 
    Abstract ( 933 )  
    Previous studies have shown that mapping of time is represented along horizontal axis. It has been shown that, compared to English speakers, Mandarin speakers were more likely to think about time vertically (top to down) than horizontally (left to right). Time is expressed both horizontally and vertically in Chinese Context. In this study, we examined whether Mardarin speakers employ both the horizontal and vertical representation of time, if so, which kind of representations of time is dominant.
    We modified the response-discrimination paradigm employed by Ansorge and Wühr (2004). Participants were asked to categorized words presented centrally as referring to the past or to the future by pressing numerical keys with the index finger of the right hand. Experiment 1 was conducted with a 2 (discrimination: discriminating / non-discriminating) × 2 (response dimension: horizontal / vertical) × 2 (STEARC compatibility: compatible / incompatible) within-subject design, to examine whether the time was represented spatially both in horizontal and in vertical dimensions. Response keys, located on the lower left (key 1), the lower right (key 3), the upper-left (key 7) or the upper-right (key 9) positions of the numerical keyboard, were aligned in either the horizontal or the vertical dimensions. Within the horizontal dimension, participants only selected between upper left and upper right or between lower left and lower right. Likewise, for the vertical dimension, participants only selected between upper-left and lower-left or selected between upper-right and lower-right. Experiment 2 was conducted with a 2 (response location: left-diagonal / right-diagonal) × 2 (STEARC compatibility: compatible / incompatible) within-subject design, to study how the two spatial representations interact. Response keys were assigned in a left-diagonal (lower-right and upper-left) and a right-diagonal (lower-left and upper-right) axes, such that both the horizontal and the vertical direction were manipulated. In both Experiment 1 and Experiment 2, the dependent variable was the response time of the participants in pushing the keys.
    In Experiment 1, a STEARC effect was shown in discriminating horizontal dimension. Response was faster with “left-past, right-future” association, than “left-future, right-past” association, but not in the vertical dimension. Similarly, a STEARC effect was also shown in the discriminating vertical dimension (faster responses with “top-past, bottom-future”, than “top-future, bottom-past”), but not in the horizontal dimension. In Experiment 2, for the responses to upper-left vs. bottom-right, a STEARC effect was observed in both the horizontal and the vertical dimension. For responses for bottom-left vs. upper-right, a STEARC effect was observed in the horizontal dimension. The results indicate the horizontal representation is advantageous. A K–S test showed that the distribution of effect sizes was normal, which suggests two spatial representations of time affected each other.
    In conclusion, Mandarin speakers possess both horizontal and vertical mental timeline. The horizontal mental timeline is dominant for representations of time. The present results suggest that Chinese linguistic and cultural experience, such as left to right writing/reading direction could play an important role in mental mapping of time.
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    An fMRI Study for Prototype Position Effect of Insight in Scientific Inventional Problem-Solving
    ZHU Hai-Xue,YANG Chun-Juan,LI Wen-Fu,LIU Xin,QIU Jiang,ZHANG Qing-Lin
    2012, 44 (8):  1025-1037. 
    Abstract ( 725 )  
    When people encounter problems, they typically go through a period of puzzlement and require inspiration from other aspects of life to solve these problems. Friedrich Kekulé, for example, discovered the molecular structure of benzene after dreaming of two serpents caught in each other’s tails, which formed a circle on a distinctive ring. Archimedes derived insight into the relationship between weight and volume when he noticed displaced water in a bathtub. Numerous major inventions in history have been based on bionic imitation, in which biological systems are applied to the creation of artificial devices and machines.
    In most previous studies, creativity has been investigated primarily through divergent thinking tasks and insightful problem solving. For example, by comparing the alternative uses task and intelligence-related tasks, different patterns of electrophysiological brain activity and a stronger level of anterior prefrontal brain activation were observed. Although these findings aid the understanding of creativity, whether the progression of scientific invention is identical to the processes discussed in the above-mentioned studies remains unclear. Specifically, the process of prototype position effect of insight in scientific innovation has not been directly addressed. To explore the neural mechanism for prototype position effect of insight in scientific innovation, we selected 40 novel scientific innovation problems (to which scientists have undergone actually but college students did not know the answers) as the material and used fMRI technique for the experiments.
    Zhang Qinglin proposed that in reality, insight should be caused by “prototypal events activation”; it suggests that the key to solving insight problems is to activate the “prototypal event” correctly and gain “key heuristic information” under experimental conditions.Based on Zhang’s hypothesis, this study was designed to explore the neural mechanism governing the act of catching inspiration in scientific innovation. In order to test these hypotheses, we adopted “five to five” paradigm. In this study, the prototype position contains former-problem (problem guide) and former-prototype. The participants were divided into two groupes. First groupes, the participants were asked to investigate 40 post-prototype inventional problems. Second groupes were opposite, the participants were asked to study 40 former-problem inventional problems. The instruments used in the experiments were 40 inventional problems and SPSS 17.0 was used for the statistical analyses.
    Behavior date showed the mean inventional problem-solving score for former-problem was higher than for former-prototype. And our fMRI data showed that the left middle temporal gyrus、left middle frontal gyrus were significantly activated when college students successfully caught inspiration under former-problem condition; left cingulate gyrus and left middle frontal gyrus were significantly activated when college students successfully solve the problem in the case of former-prototype condition.
    To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first fMRI study to investigate the brain activation of critical cognitive processes (automatic activation for catching inspiration) behind scientific innovation. Moreover, the real-life scientific innovations used in the experiments have higher ecological validity than the tasks (riddles, remote association tasks, and so on) used in previous studies. That is, the fMRI results can provide valuable insight into the neural basis of catching inspiration.
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    Dissecting the Win-Loss Framing Effect of Intertemporal Choice: Researches from Intertemporal Choice of Money-Gain & Loss
    MA Wen-Juan,SUO Tao,LI Ya-Dan,LUO Li-Zhu,FENG Ting-Yong,LI Hong
    2012, 44 (8):  1038-1046. 
    Abstract ( 1141 )  
    Human choices are remarkably susceptible to the manner in which options are presented, which can be called ‘‘framing effect’’ (De Martino, Kumaran, Seymour, & Dolan, 2006). Growing bodies of studies have demonstrated that the win-loss framing effect was ubiquitous in risk decision-makings. And some other studies also found a so-called framing effect in intertemporal choice, which involved tradeoffs among costs and benefits at different points in time (Frederick, Loewenstein, & Donoghue, 2002). As a matter of fact, this is an accelerate-delay framing effect, which changes the way of time’s presentation in options through accelerating or delaying frames. However, it is still unclear whether human choices are modulated by the win-loss frame of available options in intertemporal decision-making. Therefore, the present study used intertemporal choice tasks to explore whether the win-loss framing effects existed in money-gain and money-loss intertemporal choices, and also to explore its possible inner mechanisms.
    In this study, we conducted two experiments separately in situations of money-gain (Exp. a) and money-loss (Exp. b), in which subjects were forced to make choices between two amounts of money attained in different delay time in money-gain or loss fictitious scenario stories. In both situations, the intertemporal choices were phrased in win and loss frames, and moreover, the difficulty of the intertemporal choice task in the two experiments was also manipulated through different amounts of money in options. Subjects recruited in Exp. a and Exp. b were thirty (16 male, average age=21.7±1.56) and thirty-eight (14 male, average age=21.92±0.81) respectively, and both experiments were within-subject design.
    The results showed that, in the money-gain situation, win-loss framing effect occurred when the intertemporal choice task was easy, but disappeared when it was difficult. Specifically, compared to lose framing, the probability of choosing to gain immediately was higher when subjects in gain framing (Exp. a). In addition, regardless of task difficulty, no framing effect existed in intertemporal choices in the money-loss situation (Exp. b).
    In conclusion, the present study suggested that win-loss framing effect existed in intertemporal choices in the money-gain situation and was modulated by the tasks’ difficulty. But no framing effect existed in intertemporal choices in the money-loss situation. Therefore, win-loss frame was such an indispensable factor of intertemporal choice that should not be ignored. In turn, we should pay more attention to it as well as the contexts of intertemporal choice in the future studies.
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    Positive Outcome Evaluation Is Modulated by Closeness of Outcome: An ERP Research
    SUO Tao,FENG Ting-Yong,LUO Jun-Long,LUO Yu,LI Hong
    2012, 44 (8):  1047-1057. 
    Abstract ( 701 )  
    Closeness of outcome refers to the degree of distance between real behavioral outcomes and desired outcomes. Previous studies revealed that closeness of outcome was one of the main factors that induce counterfactual thinking about the outcome, and played an important role in inducing post-decisional emotions (e.g., regret, rejoicing). Although some recent researches have explored how closeness of outcome affects negative outcome evaluation (e.g., losing money) in gambles, there is no evidence that whether it modulates positive outcome evaluation (e.g., gaining money). By simultaneously recording event-related potentials (ERPs) data from participants engaged in a simple like-slot-machine gambling task, the present study aimed to further investigate that whether and how closeness of outcome modulated feedback outcome evaluation when gaining money.
    Fourteen healthy undergraduates (7 males and 7 females, age 19-24, M=21.6 years) were recruited to take part to this study. The participants in the experiment were all right-hand, had normal or corrected-to-normal vision and had no neurological or psychological disorders. Each participant signed a consent form prior to the experiments and was paid after the experiment. The study was approved by the local academic committee.
    In this experimental task, closeness of feedback outcome was manipulated through depending on the distance between feedback outcome and desired outcome in the screen in the gambling task. Thus, three conditions were included in analyzed results: near-gain, general-gain, and full-gain. The EEG was recorded from 64 scalp channels using electrodes mounted in an elastic cap. Feedback-related ERPs, including feedback-related negativity (FRN) and P300, were calculated for a 1200 ms epoch including a 200 ms pre-feedback baseline. The amplitude of FRN and P300 were peek-to-peak measured separately in the 200~300 ms and 300~500 ms time windows after the appearance of feedback.
    Behavioral results suggested that emotional response of the participants was obviously modulated by the closeness of outcome. Specially, participants tended to use the emotional word “rejoicing” to describe their feelings when near-gains, and tended to use the word “elation” to describe their feelings when full-gains. In addition, the closeness of feedback outcome also modulated the reaction time of participants in the next trial following it, in which, participants’ reaction time was evidently longer when near-gains, compared with the one when full-gains and general-gains. ERP results indicated that the FRN and P300 were sensitive to the closeness of outcome, with near-gains eliciting larger amplitudes of the FRN and larger amplitudes and longer latencies of the P300, compared with full-gains and general-gains. These results revealed that positive outcome evaluation is also modulated obviously by closeness of outcome.
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    The Effect of Gender, Wayfinding Strategy and Navigational Support on Wayfinding Behaviour
    FANG Hui-Cong,ZHOU Lin
    2012, 44 (8):  1058-1065. 
    Abstract ( 758 )  
    The wayfinding strategy and the navigational support mode are two important factors in human wayfinding behavior. Although many lines of evidences have displayed the gender differences in the use of wayfinding strategy and the effectiveness of some navigational support designs, the interaction of these two factors still remained to be studied.
    The present study was aimed to investigate the effect of gender, wayfinding strategy and navigational support mode on wayfinding behavior. 120 subjects were screened by the classic Wayfinding Strategy Scale developed by Lawton and then were assigned to different navigational support mode in a VR maze program scripted with 3Dmax and Virtools. In the practice stage, the subjects were required to get familiar with the operation rules, such as moving forward or backward, turning left or right by pressing the cursor keys. Then, the subjects entered the formal test, in which they were asked to arrive at the exit of the maze as quickly as possible with the aid of a given navigational support mode. The navigation time and the route map were recorded when the subjects successfully completed the task.
    Firstly, our data showed that the navigation time in males with lower-score in orientation strategy was the shortest under the condition of the guide sign support in the VR maze, while it was the longest under the condition of the YAH map support. Moreover, they were significantly different between the two treatments. However, the effect of the navigational support mode on wayfinding performance was not significantly different in the males with higher score in orientation strategy. These data indicated that orientation strategy was an important factor to predict the male’s navigational performance. Secondly, our data also showed that the effect of the navigational support mode on the female’s wayfinding performance was statistically significant. The navigation time was the shortest under the condition of the guide sign support, and it was the longest under the condition of the YAH map support.
    The results have shown that the effectiveness of navigational support depends on the user’s gender and wayfinding strategy, which can be used to evaluate the interface designs of navigational support systems. The future study on other kinds of navigational support(e.g., track-up YAH map) and measuring metrics (e.g., employing the eye-tracking technology) would be helpful to elucidate the interactions among gender, navigational support mode, and wayfinding strategy.
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    Phonological Specificity of Tones in Early Lexical Representation at 16 Months of Age
    TAO Ye,XU Qin-Mei, PLUNKETT Kim
    2012, 44 (8):  1066-1074. 
    Abstract ( 621 )  
    By about 14 months of age, English infants show sensitivity to mispronunciations of consonants and vowels of familiar and newly learnt words when asked to identify a referent. They are also capable of learning two similar-sounding words. These findings suggest that infants possess phonologically detailed representations of words. However,very little is known about the role that tones play in early lexical representations. Word meaning is also distinguished by tones, which consist primarily of pitch level or contour variations in tonal language, like Chinese. While in English, a typically non-tonal language, pitch change only plays a role in the phrasal level as intonation. This study aims to answer the question: Do 16-month-old Chinese and English infants treat tones as phonological information in their lexical representations?
    Using the intermodal preferential looking paradigm with the mispronunciation task, study 1 examined whether Chinese infants at 16 months were sensitive to mispronunciations of tones in monosyllabic, familiar words. 15 infants were separated into two groups. For group 1, the familiar words were pronounced correctly in block1, while mispronounced with the falling tone in Mandarin (T4) in block 2. The block order was reversed for the infants in group 2. Using a similar task to study 1, study 2 investigated whether English infants at 16 months were sensitive to tonal change in familiar English words when asked to identify a referent. In contrast with study 1, all the 12 infants received one kind of block order. In block 1, the words were pronounced with T4 as the familiar tone. A falling pitch contour is common in English and quite similar to T4 whereas it is less common to pronounce words with a fall-rise contour in English. Therefore, the dipping tone in Mandarin (T3) was used as the novel tone in block 2 and were considered as tone mispronunciations in study 2.
    The results of study 1 showed that Chinese infants in group 1 looked longer at a target object when its label was correctly pronounced than when the label was mispronounced, in other words, a mispronunciation effect was found. In group 2, there were no systematic difference in infants’ preferences for the target between the pre- and the post-naming phase, neither when the target label was mispronounced or pronounced correctly. The results of study 2 showed that English infants looked longer at a target object when its label was pronounced with T4 than when the label was pronounced with T3. A positive correlation was found between English infants’ receptive vocabulary size and their performance in the mispronunciation condition.
    In conclusion, the results indicate that 1) tones interact with phonological information for both Chinese and English infants at 16 months of age; 2) 16-month-old English infants may be on the way of learning to eliminate the phonological specificity of tone.
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    Effect of Moral Disengagement on Adolescents’ Aggressive Behavior: Moderated Mediating Effect
    YANG Ji-Ping,WANG Xing-Chao
    2012, 44 (8):  1075-1085. 
    Abstract ( 1914 )  
    Moral disengagement is an individual predisposition to evoke cognitions that allow individuals to restructure their actions to appear less harmful, minimize their role in the outcomes of their actions, or attenuate the distress that they cause to others. Adolescents with high levels of moral disengagement may tend to report more aggressive behavior. However, most researches about adolescents’ moral disengagement are conducted in Western countries, and we have limited knowledge about the moral disengagement of Chinese counterparts. So this study is aimed to investigate the effects of interparental conflict, moral disengagement, and moral judgment on adolescents’ aggressive behavior in contemporary China. The Children’s Perception of Interparental Conflict Scale, Moral Disengagement Scale, Moral Reasoning about Aggression Scale and Aggression Questionnaire were administered to 756 adolescents (332 boys and 424 girls) from junior and senior high schools in Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province, using Structural Equation Model Analysis.
    The results show that: (1) The boys got significantly higher scores than girls did in moral disengagement scale (t=5.11, p<0.001). (2) Adolescents in different ages showed significantly different moral disengagement, and this difference was most apparent in 15 and 19 age groups. (3) Adolescent’ performance in Interparental conflict scale could predict their aggressive behavior (g=0.27, p<0.001), and moral disengagement could partially mediate the relationship between interparental conflict and aggressive behavior. This result indicates that parents’ conflicts could affect adolescents’ aggressive behavior by influencing moral disengagement. However, the mediating effect of moral disengagement was moderated by moral judgment. That is to say moral disengagement, as a moderated mediator, had an effect on adolescents’ aggressive behavior.
    The present study enriched the theory of moral disengagement by confirming the moderating role of moral judgment in the relationship between moral disengagement and aggressive behavior. It was suggested that we could decrease the adolescents’ aggressive behavior by reducing their interparental conflict, reducing their moral disengagement, and improving their moral judgment.
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    Diverse Consequences of Negative Emotional Responses Between High and Low Happiness People
    TANG Gan-Qi,HUANG Min-Er
    2012, 44 (8):  1086-1099. 
    Abstract ( 1441 )  
    The purpose of the present study is to investigate the differences of emotional modalities which may make a distinction between high and low happy people in social adaptation and mental health. A large number of Literatures have demonstrated that subjective well being correlates closely with genetics and personality (e.g., extraversion and neuroticism) and interacts with social adaptation, psychological functions and mental health broadly. Further, extraversion is related to more positive emotions and approach behaviors. Neuroticism is linked with more negative emotions, behavioral suppression, and physiological activation. The study hypothesized that, as meeting with adverse situation, the happier people linked with higher extraversion and lower neuroticism would have more changes in emotional experience and expressive behaviors, quicker resilience, and weaker physiological activation. The study also predicted to see the difference in emotion regulation which could be helpful to explain the emotional differences between high & low happy people.
    The study was designed to measure the various emotional changes and the regulation strategies in watching a disgust/fear-inducing film clip between high happiness (H_H) and low happiness (L_H) groups. The H_H group (n=32) and the L_H group (n=34) of were selected with positive emotions (e.g., joy and interest) by DES-IV and validated by two measures of life satisfactory. Both groups then were elicited various negative emotions (e.g., disgust, fear, et. al.,) by watching an amputation film clip in a lab environment, and their emotional responses in modalities of subjective experiences, expressive behaviors, physiological responses and regulation strategies were recorded in the meantime. In addition, the personality traits and habitual strategies of emotion regulation were measured with questionnaires of EPQ and ERQ in advance.
    The results indicated that: (1) Comparing to the L_H group, the H_H one was higher in extraversion, lower in neuroticism, and better in habitual cognitive reappraisal; (2) During and immediately after watching the amputation film, the L_H group exhibited higher sympathetic physiological activation (e.g., more increased in HR and GSR), reported more inhibition in expressive behaviors, but showed more unspecific expression (e.g., body movement and face touch) in the post film period. On the other hand, H_H group was elicited more disgusting expressive behaviors, stronger displeasure, and recovered more quickly in the post film period.
    The study suggests that the happier people are more vivid in emotional social interaction and also have better resilience as facing with an adverse situation. By comparison, the less happy people are less likely to express their unpleasant emotions but actually they still keep a higher activation in physiology. It also suggests that the happier people would have a healthier regulation by better cognitive reappraisal in generally. The study is implication for understanding of the individual differences between high and low happiness people in social adaptation and mental health from the perspectives of emotional responses, resilience and emotion regulation.
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    The Effect of Promotion Types on Consumers’ Purchase Decisions: From the Perspective of Construal Level Theory
    LIU Hong-Yan,LI Ai-Mei,WANG Hai-Zhong,WEI Hai-Ying
    2012, 44 (8):  1100-1113. 
    Abstract ( 2092 )  
    Premium promotion and price promotion are the most frequently used marketing tools. However, research on how the two types of promotions differently influence consumers’ decisions remains scarce. Construal level theory (CLT) provides a new perspective to investigate how consumers construe two types of promotions. CLT proposes that individuals use higher level of construal (abstract mindsets) to represent an object as the psychological distance increases. Construal levels influence consumers’ decisions by a preference for information or events that match their abstract or concrete mindsets. As price promotions provide more utilitarian benefits and express core values, which are more likely to remain unchanged; premium promotions provide more hedonic benefits and express peripheral values, which are more likely to decrease with time. Guided by the CLT, we hypothesized that price promotions and premium promotions were represented at high and low construal level respectively. The role of promotion types in consumers’ decision making was depended on whether consumers’ goals and tasks match with the construal levels of promotion types.
    Three experiments were conducted to test the hypotheses. In experiment 1, 86 college students were engaged in a 2(promotion type: premium promotion vs. price promotion)×3 (temporal distance: near future vs. distant future) between-subjects design of experiment which was conducted to study the construal level of promotion types. In experiment 2, 136 college students participated in a 2 (task type: Willingness to Pay task vs. choice feasibility task) × 2 (temporal distance: near future vs. distant future) between-subjects design of experiment, which was conducted to study the construal level of decision tasks. 175 college students participated in the third experiment which used a 2 (promotion type) × 2 (task type) × 3 (temporal distance) between-subjects design to study the congruency effect between the construal level of promotions\the decision tasks and the temporal distance.
    The results indicated that premium promotion was more effective in the near future and price promotion was more effective in the distant future, which meant that price promotions and premium promotions were represented at high construal level and low construal level separately. Furthermore, when construal levels of promotion types matched with the goals and tasks, their positive effects could be amplified. The results have some important implications. Firstly, marketing personnel should select the appropriate promotion types according to the time period. Meanwhile, they should pay more attention to whether the decision context factors match with the construal levels of the promotion types.
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    Effect of Negative Emotions and Persuasion Strategies on Brand Relationship Restoration
    HUANG Jing,TONG Ze-Lin,ZHANG You-Heng,ZHANG Xiao-Juan
    2012, 44 (8):  1114-1123. 
    Abstract ( 1036 )  
    Prior research in psychology and marketing indicates that consumers’ negative emotions will impact their information processing, and the results vary according to types of negative emotions. Though plenty of research discussed how negative emotions influence information processing, little research has considered the moderation effect of negative emotions in brand relationship restoration management. This research introduces negative emotions as moderators and proposes that in order to improve brand relationship management, the firm should take consumers’ negative emotions into account to select the appropriate persuasion strategy.
    Related literature identifies two types of persuasion strategies: couterargumentation response strategy and diagnosticity response strategy. Considering consumers’ specific negative emotions, the firm should make the following decision: for consumers in low level of negative emotions, it is better to use couterargumentation response strategy; for consumers in high level of negative emotions, it is better to use couterargumentation response strategy if they feel regret and diagnosticity response strategy if they feel angry. Consumer forgiveness will mediate the relationship between persuasion strategy and brand relationship restoration intention.
    Two experiments verify our hypotheses. One hundred and two undergraduate students participated in experiment 1. They first read scenarios for negative emotions manipulation and then a scenario about persuasion strategies. Finally, they answered questionnaires about their forgiveness and brand relationship restoration intention. The results showed that compared with consumers who feel angry (regret), couterargumentation response strategy (diagnosticity response strategy) is more likely to make consumers who feel regret (angry) forgive the target brand and extend their relationship. One hundred and thirty- five undergraduate students participated in experiment 2. This experiment last two weeks to manipulate the levels of negative emotions. In the first week, participants read scenarios for negative emotions manipulation and answered questionnaires. In the second week, these participants recalled their negative emotions and then filled questionnaires. Results showed that for consumers in low level of negative emotions, there is no significant difference between two types of negative emotions (regret and angry) for persuasion strategy; for consumers in high level of negative emotions, the moderation effect of the types of negative emotions is significant.
    The theoretical contribution of this research is to introduce both type and magnitude of negative emotions into brand relationship restoration management research. Besides, our research implies that a firm should firstly consider consumers’ magnitude of negative emotions and then their types when selecting persuasion strategy.
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    Testing Measurement Equivalence of Categorical Items’ Threshold/Difficulty Parameters: A Comparison of CCFA and (M)IRT Approaches
    LIU Hong-Yun,LI Chong,ZHANG Ping-Ping,LUO Fang
    2012, 44 (8):  1124-1136. 
    Abstract ( 742 )  
    Multiple group confirmatory factor analyses and differential item functioning basing on the unidimensional or the multidimensional item response theory were the two most commonly used methods to assess the measurement equivalence of categorical items. Unlike the traditional linear factor analysis, multiple-group categorical confirmatory factor analysis (CCFA) could model the categorical measures with a threshold structure appropriately, which is comparable to the difficulty parameters in the multidimensional IRT [(M)IRT)]. In this study, we compared the multiple-group categorical CFA (CCFA) and (M)IRT in terms of their power to detect violations of measurement invariance (i.e., DIF) with the Monte Carlo method. Moreover, given the limitation of the assumptions under the traditional unidimensional IRT model, this study extended the DIF test method to the (M)IRT model. Simulation studies under both unidimensional and multidimensional conditions were conducted to compare the DIFFTEST method, IRT-LR method (for unidimensional scale), and MIRT-MG (for multidimensional scale) with respect to their power to detect the lack of invariance across groups. Results indicated that the three methods, namely, DIFFTEST, IRT-LR, and MIRT-MG, showed reasonable power to identify the measurement non-equivalence when the difference of threshold was large. For unidimensional scale, the IRT-LR test demonstrated superior power to DIFFTEST. Whereas, for multidimensional scale, the results were not completely consistent across different conditions. The power of MIRT-MG was higher than that of DIFFTEST when test length was long and the correlation between dimensions was high. In contrast, the power of DIFFTEST was higher than that of MIRT-MG when test length was short and the correlations between dimensions were low. For a fixed number of noninvariant items, the power of the DIFFTEST method became smaller as the test length increased, whereas the power of the IRT-LR and MIRT-MG methods became larger as the test length increased. The number of respondents per group (sample size) was found to be one of the most important factors affecting the performance of these three approaches. The power of the DIFFTEST, IRT-LR, and, MIRT-MG methods would increase as the sample size increased. For a finite number of observations, the power of all three methods was larger under the balanced design when the two groups were equal in size than when two groups were unequal in size in the unbalanced design. For the DIFFTEST method, the Type I errors reached the nominal error rate at 5%, while the IRT-LR and MIRT-MG methods produced much lower Type I error rates.
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