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“You” is Different: Inhibition from A Second Person Functional Depiction to Object’s History’s Influence on Object Naming WANG Zhe,SUN Yu-Hao,FU Xiao-Lan 2009, 41 (04):  283-291.  Abstract ( 2080 )   How do people categorize an object into artifact domain? Many researchers consider creator’s intended design (Bloom, 1996) to be a mediate variable between the final judgment and many single factors, such as object’s history (Gelman and Bloom 2000), plausibility of object’s function (Asher and Kemler Nelson, 2008), and creator’s label to the object (Jaswal 2006). As an alternative theory, the utility-based view (Sun and Fu 2005) postulates that using-goal is the mediate variable instead of creator’s design. This view predicts that if subjects consider them as users rather than viewers of an object, the object would be named as an artifact because its functional information would be strongly activated. We used a short-depiction-based object free naming task to test the above hypothesis (see Sun, Wang, and Fu, 2006). More than 160 subjects were randomly assigned to one of four experiment groups. A 2 (pronoun in functional depiction: “You” vs. “someone” used the object) × 2 (object’s history: naturally-formed vs. not mentioned) between-subject design was used. In a 7-page booklet we described 6 objects (one object per page) plus a cover page. Subjects were asked to read the depictions and write down their naming, confidence rating, and naming reasons for each object. The results showed an interesting interaction between pronoun and object’s history. At the “someone” condition, subjects significantly less named objects into artifact domain when the object history was “naturally-formed” than “not mentioned”. But at “you” condition such difference disappeared. Besides, subjects in both conditions named object into artifact domain no matter whether the object was formed naturally or not and their confidence ratings were at the same level. Finally, functional properties of objects were more listed as naming reasons in “You” condition than in “Someone” condition. Current findings suggest that object’s function mediates object’s history and category judgment. Based on this, we further discussed artifact concept categorization from the utility-based perspective. Related Articles | Metrics

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Effect of Working Memory Load on the Activation Processing and Inhibition Processing of Locational Distractors HU Geng-Dan,JIN Zhi-Cheng 2009, 41 (04):  292-304.  Abstract ( 1633 )   There is a disputation about the effect of working memory (WM) load on the distractor processing between the viewpoints of cognitive control mechanism and specific load mechanism. The former suggests WM has inhibitory action on distractors and the inhibition mechanism is not influenced by WM load types; while the latter claims that resource competition between WM task and selective attention task can cause different interference effects, and this competition is influenced by WM load types. By analyzing the two viewpoints, the authors have found cognitive control mechanism is suitable for representing inhibition processing of distractors and specific load mechanism for representing activation processing of distractors, thus the authors speculate that the primary reason leading to the disputation of the two viewpoints might be caused by their observing respectively only one different stage of distractor processing, and also point out that the two viewpoints were both obtained by adopting interference effect indices only, which is easily to cause confusion. Moreover, the specific load mechanism by Park et al.(2007) has neither been verified whether specific load mechanism is suitable for the distractor interference effect or not in condition that the target stimulus and distractor stimulus of selective attention are of the same attribute, nor does it specifically point out on what resource WM task and selective attention task compete. In this study double indices, both interference effect index and negative priming effect index, were used to divide distractor processing into two stages, the activation processing stage and inhibition processing stage, and to represent the two stages respectively, and experiments were conducted to explore the effect of WM load on the locational distractor processing in order to resolve the disputation of the two viewpoints and to confirm and perfect specific load mechanism viewpoint. The three experiments were to investigate respectively the effect of spatial WM, object WM and verbal WM load on locational distractor processing. 2×2×2 factorial within-subjects design was used, and the three factors were WM load level (high WM load, low WM load), interference condition (priming interference, priming neutral) and negative priming condition (probing control, probing repetition). The influence of low/high WM load on the interference effect was tested by ANOVA of repeated measures based on WM load factor and interference condition factor, and the negative priming effect was tested by ANOVA of repeated measures based on load condition factor and negative priming condition factor. 42 undergraduates aged from 17 to 23 years participated in the experiments, and E-prime software was used to present experimental stimuli and to collect data. The test result of negative priming effect showed all three types of WM loads (spatial WM, object WM and verbal WM load) had effect on locational distractor processing, and the effect in low WM load condition was more significant than in high WM load condition, which supported cognitive control mechanism viewpoint. And the test result of interference effect showed only spatial WM load had effect on locational distractor processing, and the effect in low WM load condition was also more than in high WM load condition, which provided the support for specific load mechanism viewpoint. To sum up, the viewpoint of specific load mechanism was consistent with Park et al’s study when the target stimulus and distractor stimulus were of the same attribute, and the resource WM task and selective attention task competed on was perceptual disposal resource. Second, the influence of WM load on the locational distractor processing could be explained by double mechanisms: cognitive control mechanism and specific load mechanism. So it can be inferred that cognitive control mechanism viewpoint is suitable for representing inhibition processing, and specific load mechanism viewpoint for representing activation processing, and the two viewpoints are integrated and complementary with each other. Previous researchers did not divide the distractor processing into activation processing stage and inhibition processing stage to explore, which caused the disputation between the two viewpoints. Nevertheless, the method of using double indices to analyze in this study can provide reference for related researches on WM and selective attention. Related Articles | Metrics

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Eye Movements in the Processing of Visual Mental Imagery ZHANG Xia,LIU Ming 2009, 41 (04):  305-315.  Abstract ( 1349 )   Visual mental imagery is one kind of mental imagery. Whether mental imagery can be one special kind of mental representation and has its mental process or not is not only focal in imagery research but also is important in the cognitive psychology. The aim of the present study was to investigate the mental processing of mental rotation and visual imagery scanning through eye movements. Two experiments were conducted in the present study. There were 22 participants (11 males and 11 females) volunteered to take part in Experiment 1 and another 20 participants (10 males and 10 females) took part in Experiment 2. The Experiment 1 investigated whether mental rotation was based on mental image or abstract proposition with a 2 (picture type: ichnography, mirror image) × 8( rotation angle: 0°, 45°, 90°, 135°, 180°, 225°, 270°and 315°) within-subject design. In the Experiment 2, a 3（scanning distance: 0cm, 7cm, 10.5cm）× 2( cognitive type: perception and imagery) within-subject design was conducted to examine whether imagery could also be scanned and whether the oculomotor behavior during imagery reenacted that which occurred when perceiving the object. In the Experiment 1, the results indicated that mental rotation time to recognize rotated pictures increased linearly with different angles of rotation, and the RT was the largest when the pictures rotated 180°. Besides, the oculomotor measures had also similar mental rotation effects during the processing. Subjects need to spend more saccade duration, fixation time and more numbers of saccade as well as more numbers of fixation to identify objects when the pictures were rotated from 0° to 180°. The results of Experiment 2 showed that imagery could also be scanned and eye scanpaths during imagery were similar to those during visual perception. That is, the time of scanning increased linearly with increases in distance during the imagery and perception phase. Moreover, regression analysis of the time and number of scanning supported the notion that the oculomotor behavior during imagery reenacted that which occurred when perceiving the object. The present study demonstrated that mental imagery could be one special kind of mental representation and had its mental process. The mental representation of imagery was mental image but not abstract proposition in some special conditions. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Functionally Separation of P300 and CNV in Lie Detection CUI Qian,ZHANG Qing-Lin,QIU Jiang,LIU Qiang,DU Xiu-Min,RUAN Xiao-Lin 2009, 41 (04):  316-328.  Abstract ( 1509 )   Some researches which have proved that the P300 and the CNV are effective indicators in lie detection, and they are affected by different factors. In the lie detection, the P300 is found to be closely related to stimulus attribute, while the CNV is only related to the response of a subject (deception or honesty). However, there is no research which induces the two ERPs synchronously in one experiment, and no any studies reveals the functional distinction of the two indicators in lie detection and further compares their consequences in lie-detection. Based on previous research, our study assumes that the P300 and the CNV are functionally different in lie-detection and they might reflect different cognitive phases in deception. In order to compare and explore the characteristics of the P300 and the CNV in lie-detection, this study induced “spontaneous deception” under the condition of a “murder game”, and combined GKT (guilt knowledge test) which was often used in the P300 lie-detection research with delayed-response paradigm which induced the CNV to design a new paradigm, so as to induce the two ERPs synchronously in lie-detection and separate them by controlling feedback. There were 33 subjects who participated in this research. They were divided into two groups: 17 of them got feedbacks concerning the outcome of lie-detection while other 16 didn’t.This experiment included two steps. Subjects played a “murder game” before lie detection, and their event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were measured during the detection. We mainly analyzed the ERPs evoked by three kinds of stimuli. Our result revealed a distinctive tendency between the P300 and the CVN in both groups. Whether there was feedback did not affect the amplitude of P300. In both of the two groups, the amplitude of P300 elicited by probe stimulus was significantly larger than that elicited by the irrelevant stimulus no matter whether feedback was acquirable. The P300 could detect lie effectively. In contrast, absence of feedback could affect the amplitude of the CNV. The amplitude of the CNV elicited by the probe stimulus was significantly larger when people got feedbacks than when they didn’t. The CNV could only detect lie effectively in the condition of having feedback. The data concerning lie-detection rates of the two indicators reflected that: the lie-detection rate of CNV elicited in feedback group was significantly larger than that in no-feedback group, which were 88.24% and 43.75% respectively; while the rates of the P300 elicited in the two groups were 70.6% and 75% , respectively. The results revealed that the P300 and the CNV were separate on the function of cognitive process. The former was related to the cognitive process of stimulus in deception, while the latter was related to the processes such as response to deception and generating deceptive intention etc. In addition, the two indicators were separate concerning detection rate in different conditions. P300 could detect lie effectively in both conditions while the CNV could only be used as an available indicator of lie detection in the condition of getting having feedback. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Roles of Orexins in the Nucleus Accumbens and Ventral Tegmental Area on Reward-Associated Behavior Induced by Morphine BAI Yun-Jing,HAN Jin,LI Yong-Hui,HUANG Yan-Bei1,YANG Xiao-Yan,SUI Nan1 2009, 41 (04):  329-336.  Abstract ( 1264 )   Orexins are neuropeptides produced by the hypothalamus. Orexin neurons have extensive projections to the mesolimbic dopamine system (MLSD) and are critically involved in drug addiction. The central nucleus of the MLSD, the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and nucleus accumbens (NAc), contain abundant orexinergic fibers and receptors. In the VTA, orexins are implicated in drug reward-elicited place preference and acquisition of behavioral sensitization. However, less study has been focused on the role of orexins in the NAc in drug reward by now. The present study aims to investigate the roles of orexins in the VTA and NAc in drug reward-associated behavior. The development of conditioned place preference (CPP) induced by morphine was used to investigate the roles of orexins in the VTA and NAc in drug reward. The apparatus for the CPP was consisted of two distinctive compartments. The 135 male Wistar rats were alternatively treated with morphine (3mg/kg) or saline before conditioning training (45min), with one injection per day. Before three conditioning sessions with morphine, the OXR1 antagonist SB334867 was bilaterally microinjected into the VTA (0, 1, 5 μg) or NAcSh (0, 1, 3 μg). Before two conditioning sessions with morphine, orexin A (0, 2, 4, 6 μg) was bilaterally microinjected into the NAcSh. One-way ANOVA and Post Hoc LSD were used to reveal the difference among groups. The results showed that the development of morphine CPP was inhibited when SB334867 was infused into the VTA and not affected when SB334867 was infused into the NAcSh. Orexin A microinjected into the NAcSh did not enhance or inhibit morphine CPP, but increased locomotor activity especially in the rats treated with morphine. The present study demonstrated the different roles of orexins in the VTA and NAcSh in drug reward induced by morphine, indicating that orexins in these two brain regions might regulate the different aspects of addictive behavior. Related Articles | Metrics

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Scopolamine Has Different Influences on Spatial Reference Memory and Spatial Working Memory in Rats YU Ping,QU Chun-Huan,SHI Mi,LI Xin-Wang,GUO Chun-Yan 2009, 41 (04):  337-345.  Abstract ( 1360 )   Despite of many years of intensive studies, the role of cholinergic system in spatial reference memory and spatial working memory remains controversial. It was found that scopolamine, an antagonist to cholinergic muscarinic receptor, impaired the encoding and retrieval process of spatial memory. It was also found that the spatial working memory was more sensitive to muscarinic receptor antagonists than spatial reference memory. In this study, the effects of scopolamine on the acquisition, retention and retrieval processes of spatial reference memory and spatial working memory were observed and compared using the Morris water maze (MWM) task. Experiment 1 were performed on 46 adult rats, which were divided randomly into 6 groups and trained in a reference memory version of the MWM with two blocks of four trials per day for three consecutive days. Scopolamine was injected (1 mg/kg, i.p.) 20 min prior to the day’s first trial in group 1, immediately after the day’s last trial in group 2, or 20 min prior to the probe trial in group 3. The remaining 3 groups were injected with saline for control. Experiment 2 were performed on 42 adult rats, which were divided randomly into 6 groups and trained in a working memory version of the MWM task to find a new target position (trial 1). Retrieval (trial 2) was tested 75 min later. Similar to experiment 1, scopolamine was injected (1 mg/kg, i.p.) 20 min prior to trial 1 in group 1, immediately after trial 1 in group 2, or 20 min prior to trial 2 in group 3. The remaining 3 groups were injected with saline for control. The swimming latency, length, strategy and velocity were recorded. For experiment 1, animals in group 1 and group 3 showed deteriorated learning curves and no spatial bias to the goal quadrant was observed, indicating that scopolamine interfered encoding and retrieval process of the spatial reference memory. Animals in group 2 showed no significant difference from the saline control, indicating that scopolamine has no effects on the retention of spatial reference memory. For experiment 2, animals in all the three groups showed significant prolongation of swimming latency, indicating that the scopolamine impaired encoding, retention, and retrieval of the spatial working memory. In conclusion, the present study demonstrated that the muscarinic receptors played differential roles in spatial working memory and spatial reference memory. Related Articles | Metrics

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Multiple Emotional Contagions and Its Dynamic Impact on Consumer’s Negative Emotion under Service Encounters DU Jian-Gang,FAN Xiu-Cheng 2009, 41 (04):  346-356.  Abstract ( 1614 )   It has long been observed that people tend to “catch” another person’s emotion and to feel what those around them are feeling about. Hatfield, Cacioppo, and Rapson (1992, 1993, and 1994) call this process of imitation “emotional contagion”. Most papers on emotional contagion come from social psychology perspective. Few scholars, base on the marketing perspective, explore the influence of emotional contagion on customer’s psychology and behavior, especially the relationship between negative emotional contagion and customer’s negative emotion. The article discussed the multiple impact of emotion contagion on customer’s negative emotion under service industry setting. Experiment research methodology is adopted and really scenario video tapes were used as stimulator. 260 students joined this experiment, including 130 male and female separately. There were 65 samples in each video scenario. Quantitative analyses are conducted using ANOVA and Paired-Samples T Test. The main research results are as follows: 1. The research proves that negative display (including emotion, vocalizations, and movements, etc) would lead to individual emotional contagion so as to make him/her experience significant change of negative emotion. The stronger the negative display is, the more the emotional contagion and increases of negative emotion are. 2. Individual’s negative emotion would reduce by positive emotional contagion when he/she accepts positive emotional display. The stronger positive display is, the more significantly the individual negative emotion is reduced. 3. In the whole process of the service encounter, the customer may experience positive and negative emotional contagion for several times, as a result, positive (negative) emotional contagion was alternated with negative (positive) emotional contagion (e.g. Service failure and recover process). This situation led to more complex emotional change from customers. 4. Sensitivity of the emotional contagion has a moderating role in the process of emotional contagion. Comparing with respondents who are low-susceptive, negative emotion of respondents with high-susceptive has a significant increase when they experience negative emotional contagion. Meanwhile, when they experience positive emotional contagion, their negative emotions reduce stronger. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Influence of Involvement on Information Processing of Rational Advertising Appeals ZHOU Xiang-Xian,JIN Zhi-Cheng 2009, 41 (04):  357-366.  Abstract ( 1563 )   As one of the most important concepts in market research, involvement is particularly of interest in the field of advertising psychology. It is shown that almost all the stages in the process of advertising communication are subject to the influence of involvement, such as brand searching, information processing, attitude changing, and the formation of purchase intention. The present study was to have an investigation into how information processing of rational advertising appeal could be influenced by the combination of personal involvement and product involvement with eye-tracking technique to 32 (18 females and 14 males) college student volunteers, based on the ELM model and the FCB Grid model. The design formed a 2(high versus low personal involvement)×2(high versus low product involvement)×2(strong versus weak rational advertising appeal) mixed factorial, with personal involvement as the between-subject and product involvement and rational advertising appeal the two within-subject independent variables. The dependent variables were number of fixations, the index of information amount the participants receive, and duration of fixation, which indicates the depth of information processing. The results of number of fixations revealed that the main effects for personal involvement and product involvement were significant. Audience had a bigger number of fixations under high than low personal involvement condition and the advertising products of high product involvement received a bigger number of fixations than those of low product involvement. The results of fixation duration showed that the interaction between personal involvement and product involvement was significant. The simple main effect for product involvement was not significant when personal involvement was low, but when it was high, however, advertising products of high product involvement had a significant longer duration of fixation than that of low product involvement. The interaction between product involvement and rational advertising appeal was significant. The difference of fixation duration between strong and weak rational advertising appeal was not significant at the level of low product involvement, but at the level of high product involvement, however, audience had significantly longer fixation duration for the product advertisement of strong rational advertising appeal than for that of weak rational advertising appeal. It was concluded that the participants could obtain more advertisement information as the degree of personal involvement or product involvement increased. The processing depth of brand information could be greater for the advertisement of strong than weak rational advertising appeal only when the product involvement was high. Meanwhile, only when personal involvement was high could product information of high product involvement receive higher degree of processing than that of low product involvement. Therefore, rational advertising appeal could mainly be appropriate for the communication of the product of high product involvement, which could only be efficient when personal involvement was also high. Besides, the study also provided some suggestions on further research and discussions on the implication for advertising activities. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Influences of Career Cognitions and Social Supports on Chinese Farmers’ Career Choice Consideration ZHAO Li,ZHENG Quan-Quan 2009, 41 (04):  367-376.  Abstract ( 1449 )   Anchored in general social cognitive theory, the Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT; Lent, Brown, and Hackett 1994, 1996) was developed to combine the person, environmental and behavioral influences on individuals’ career choice and development. The theory emphasizes the central role of self-efficacy beliefs and outcome expectation that enable people to assert personal control of their own career efforts. It also envisions that the environmental variables, such as social supports and barriers, may directly promote or restrict the exercise of personal control in terms of career choice. From this perspective, the theory is contradictory to Bandura’s suggestion that such environmental variables affect career choice indirectly though the influence of career cognitions. Since its introduction, SCCT has received a great deal of empirical attention. A number of studies used urban-resident samples to search for supports of basic prediction and central cognitive-person variables. However, there are not much investigation on SCCT’s hypotheses in reference to environmental influences and involving social vulnerable groups (especially farmers in China). Therefore, the present study used SCCT as its theoretical framework to develop and test the hypothetical model of career cognitions (career self-efficacy and career outcome expectation), social supports (positive support and negative support), and their influences on Chinese farmers’ career interest and choice consideration. Based on LB501-2002, together with in-depth interview data on career psychology and social supports, we developed a pro-questionnaire of career self-efficacy, outcome expectation, career interest, choice consideration and social supports related to occupations representing Holland’s (1985) RIASEC (Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, Conventional) career types. After conducting an item analysis of a pro-test sample of 419 farmers and by using structural equation technique, we were able to test the measurement and structural models with a formal sample of 628 farmers. The results indicated that 1) across six career types, each subtest had a stable structure and perfect internal consistency and validity. 2) Consistent with SCCT’s core hypotheses and across Holland types, career cognition variables had positive influences on career interest and choice consideration, and the interest not only directly predicted choice consideration, but also mediated the positive relations between career self-efficacy, outcome expectation and choice consideration. 3) However, it is contrary to SCCT’s contextual hypotheses that, social supports generally and indirectly related to career consideration, with self-efficacy fully mediating the positive relation between positive support and choice consideration on “Enterprising” and “Conventional” types, and partially mediating the negative relation between negative support and choice consideration on “Conventional” type. These findings provided that some new empirical evidences for testing SCCT’s hypotheses in terms of contextual influence on career choice, indigenous extension and development. They also had important practical implications for the Chinese farmers. The authors believed that social support can be very effective in changing the Chinese farmers’ employment by improving their cognition level, competition abilities and enhancing their confidence in the job markets. Related Articles | Metrics