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ISSN 0439-755X
CN 11-1911/B
主办:中国心理学会
   中国科学院心理研究所
出版:科学出版社

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    25 March 2021, Volume 53 Issue 3 Previous Issue    Next Issue

    Reports of Empirical Studies
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    Reports of Empirical Studies
    Neural mechanism underlying the effects of object color on episodic memory
    ZHOU Wenjie, DENG Liqun, DING Jinhong
    2021, 53 (3):  229-243.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2021.00229
    Abstract ( 13564 )   HTML ( 2377 )  
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    Color diagnosticity is the degree to which a color is associated with or symbolizes a particular object. Typical color is often associated with high color diagnostic objects and activates the visual (perceptual) or semantic (conceptual) knowledge in long-term memory. However, the relationship between different processing levels (perceptual and conceptual) of object color information and episodic memory retrieval components (familiarity and recollection) remains poorly understood. It is hypothesized that color information can facilitate memory encoding at the perceptual level but inhibit it at the conceptual level. In recognition retrieval, color has a greater impact on familiarity and recollection at the perceptual level, while at the conceptual level, recollection is more affected than familiarity.

    In the present study, event-related potential (ERP) and a study-test paradigm were used to investigate the effects of color consistency (visual color input and object color knowledge) on episodic memory encoding and retrieval by using pictures and names of objects with high color diagnosticity. Twenty-seven college students participated in experiment 1. During the study phase, a picture of an object in its diagnostic color (such as a red apple) or non-diagnostic color (purple banana) was presented on a white background for 500ms. The participants were asked to determine whether the color of the object in each picture was consistent with its actual (diagnostic) color. During the test phase, participants provided old/new judgments about the objects that had appeared in the study phase and the equal number of new items. Twenty-five college students participated in the experiment. A similar procedure was used for experiment two, except that items were the names of the objects in their diagnostic or non-diagnostic color rather than pictures. During both experiments, the participants responded by pressing a mouse button. Their reaction time and EEG (electroencephalography) were recorded.

    The results of experiment 1 showed that, during the encoding phase, color-inconsistent objects were identified less accurately and more slowly, and this triggered a larger N400 than the color-consistent ones. During the retrieval phase the color-consistent objects were recalled more quickly and accurately, and this triggered larger FN400 (frontal negativity) values than the color-inconsistent objects. However, the opposite effects were observed in experiment 2. Color-inconsistent object names were identified more quickly and accurately, and they elicited the same ERP wave as the color-consistent names. During the recognition stage, the color had an effect only during the period of late positive components (LPCs).

    In conclusion, color was found to have different effects on encoding and retrieval of episodic memory at both perceptual and semantic levels. (1) Color had different effects on item coding at the perceptual and semantic levels. Color consistency was found to help the viewer identify objects at the perceptual level, but it hindered object identification at the semantic level. (2) Color congruence was here found to promote familiarity and recollection in object retrieval (perceptual level), but it only improved recollection of an object’s name (conceptual level). (3) The consistency effect in the processing of object name recognition showed that color is closely related to object name, and it also affects the semantic representation of objects, which further supports the spreading activation model.

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    Eliminating threat or venting rage?The relationship between narcissism and aggression in violent offenders
    LIU Yuping, LI Shanshan, HE Yun, WANG Doudou, YANG Bo
    2021, 53 (3):  244-258.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2021.00244
    Abstract ( 6960 )   HTML ( 1077 )  
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    Narcissism is a component of “the dark triad” and it is closely related to maladaptive and even antisocial behaviors. Aggressive behavior is a typical anti-social behavior, and serious aggression constitutes violent crime. Narcissism is often divided into grandiose and vulnerable narcissism. Aggression also has many subtypes, such as premeditated and impulsive aggression. Previous studies have shown that narcissists are aggressive, especially when facing provocation. On the one hand, narcissists feel threatened when they are challenged. To maintain their ego and eliminate threat, narcissists may show aggressive behavior, which is explained by the theory of threatened egotism. On the other hand, when challenged, narcissists also show strong negative emotions because of their inflated but fragile ego, leading to out-of-control behaviors and even triggering them to attack others, which is the so-called “narcissistic rage.” However, most studies are in the background of Western culture, and the participants are mainly college students. Most judicial field studies use questionnaires, and experimental studies to confirm the relation of narcissism and aggression are lacking. The mechanism how they operate is also unknown. Previous studies failed to make distinctions of the subtypes of narcissism and aggression, especially the subtype of vulnerable narcissism. To overcome the disadvantages of previous studies, this study explored the relationship between narcissism and aggression with a questionnaire in experiment 1 and analyzed the manipulating function of provocation with a competitive response time in experiment 2.

    In study 1, we administered the Narcissism Personality Inventory-13, Hypersensitivity Narcissistic Scale, The Trait Anger Scale, Entitlement Scale, and Impulsive/Premeditated Aggression Scales in 498 violence offenders to establish a structural equation model. Then, the significance of effects was examined using Bootstrap to explore the relationship between narcissism and aggression and its mechanisms. In study 2, we recruited 90 violent offenders for scenario-based experiment. Participants were randomly divided into a provocation group (n = 46) and a no-provocation group (n = 44). Participants in both groups completed the questionnaire for narcissism. Then, they finished the first stage to manipulate provocation. Participants were told to compete with another participant (a fake participant) in racing the speed of reactions. In the provocation group, participants lost the game and received negative feedback from their rivals; in the no-provocation group, participants won the game and received positive feedback from their rivals. Then, they completed the questionnaire for manipulation testing and measured negative affect and perceived threat for the mediating variables. Finally, they finished the second stage in which they could send their rivals’ noises, which can be considered as the aggressive indicator.

    Experiment 1 showed that narcissism can predict aggression and that the trait anger and entitlement play multiple mediating roles. Significant effects were found in the mediating paths of grandiose/vulnerable narcissism→trait anger→premeditated aggression, grandiose/vulnerable narcissism→trait anger→impulsive aggression, and grandiose/vulnerable narcissism→entitlement→premeditated aggression. However, the effect of the mediating path grandiose/vulnerable narcissism→entitlement→impulsive aggression was not significant. Compared with grandiose narcissism, vulnerable narcissism was a stronger indicator of premeditated and impulsive aggression. Experiment 2 showed that under provocation, grandiose narcissism and aggression exhibited significant correlation. Meanwhile, perceived threat and negative affect served a mediating function. Grandiose narcissism cannot predict aggression behaviors if not provoked, but the mediating role of perceived threat was still significant. For vulnerable narcissism, the influence on aggression and the mediating role of perceived threat and negative affect were all significant whether provoked or not.

    The following conclusions can be obtained from the two experiments: (1) The association between narcissism and aggression was still effective in violent offenders in Chinese culture; (2) “Threatened egotism” and “Narcissistic rage” could explain the relationship between narcissism and aggression. In specific, “threatened egotism” could predict premeditated aggression rather than impulsive aggression, and “narcissistic rage” could predict both subtypes of aggression; and (3) Vulnerable narcissism was non-adaptive, exerting a larger effect size on aggression and a wider applicability compared with grandiose narcissism. Researchers should pay attention to the effects of vulnerable narcissism on maladaptive behaviors, such as aggression, and distinguish the subtypes of narcissism and aggression. Furthermore, the above results could be used in the prevention of crime and the management and correction of criminals by judicial practice departments.

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    “You were what you eat”: Food gender stereotypes and their impact on evaluation of impression
    ZUO Bin, DAI Yuee, WEN Fangfang, GAO Jia, XIE Zhijie, HE Saifei
    2021, 53 (3):  259-272.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2021.00259
    Abstract ( 9471 )   HTML ( 1520 )  
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    Interpersonal evaluations refer to people’s perception of someone and how they judge personalities based on existing information. Recent research has focused on food gender stereotypes and their effect on impression evaluations. However, past studies on food gender stereotypes were mostly conducted within Western cultural context, while few studies were based on non-Western culture, and unsystematically only focused on the impressions of sexual attractiveness, personal qualities, or masculinity/femininity. Therefore, this study examined whether food gender stereotypes exist in the Chinese cultural context while investigating these stereotype effects on impression evaluations based on the Big Two model, which provided a good theoretical basis and measurement index. We hypothesized that the Chinese also held food gender stereotypes and had different impression evaluations on individuals consistent or inconsistent with food gender stereotypes of different genders. To test these hypotheses, we performed two separate studies. In total, 788 participants were recruited online and 132 through advertising on campus. Study 1 comprised examining whether participants held explicit and implicit food gender stereotypes using open nomination, self-reporting, and semantic priming paradigms. Study 2 involved measuring participants' evaluation of competence and warmth on individuals with given food gender stereotypes using questionnaires and Implicit Relational Assessment Procedures. Results revealed that both genders held the explicit food gender stereotype of “men like masculine food and women like feminine food,” but only women held implicit food gender stereotypes. Additionally, participants reported higher evaluations for competence and lower evaluations for warmth on men who were consistent with the food gender stereotype, while for women who were consistent, participants thought they were warmer but less competent. Implicitly, both genders held stereotyped evaluations that inconsistent men were warmer. In conclusion, this research explored and examined the unique content of food gender stereotypes in the Chinese cultural context, which deepens the understanding of food gender stereotypes and contributes significantly to the field of cross-cultural food gender stereotypes. Furthermore, we creatively combined our study purposes with the Big Two model and systematically investigated people’s evaluation of individuals with consistent/inconsistent food gender stereotypes in two aspects, which has important implications for future research.

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    The relationship between social media use and fear of missing out: A meta-analysis
    ZHANG Yali, LI Sen, YU Guoliang
    2021, 53 (3):  273-290.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2021.00273
    Abstract ( 10942 )   HTML ( 1660 )  
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    Social media use and fear of missing out are both common phenomena in our daily life. Numerous studies have discussed the relationship between these two variables, but the results were mixed. Theoretically, there are two main arguments about the relationship between social media use and fear of missing out. To be specific, the social cognitive theory of mass communication suggested that there was a significant positive correlation between the two variables, while the digital goldilocks hypothesis argued that there may be a U-shaped relationship instead of a significant linear correlation between the two. Empirically, the effect sizes of this relationship reported in the existing literature were far from consistent, with r values ranging from 0 to 0.75. Therefore, this meta-analysis was conducted to explore the strength and moderators of the relationship between social media use and fear of missing out.

    Through literature retrieval, 65 studies consisting of 70 independent effect sizes that met the inclusion criteria were selected. In addition, a random-effects model was selected to conduct the meta-analysis in Comprehensive Meta-Analysis 3.3 software, aiming at testing our hypotheses. The heterogeneity test illustrated that there was significant heterogeneity among 70 independent effect sizes, indicating that the random-effects model was appropriate for subsequent meta-analyses. Based on the funnel plot and Egger’s test of regression to the intercept, no significant publication bias was found in the included studies.

    The main effect analysis indicated a significant positive correlation between social media use and fear of missing out (r = 0.38). The moderation analyses revealed that the relationship between social media use and fear of missing out was moderated by the indicator of social media use, as well as the type of social media. Specifically, compared with the frequency, the time as well as the intensity of social media use, social media use addiction had the strongest correlation with fear of missing out; compared with Snapchat and Facebook, Instagram had the strongest correlation with fear of missing out. Other moderators such as gender, age, measurement tools of fear of missing out as well as individualism index did not moderate the relation between these two constructs. The results supported the media effect model, which suggested that social media use, especially social media use addiction may be an important risk factor for individuals’ fear of missing out. Longitudinal studies are needed in the future to explore the dynamic relationship between social media use and fear of missing out.

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    “Will I be judged harshly after trying to help but causing more troubles?” A misprediction about help recipients
    SHANG Xuesong, CHEN Zhuo, LU Jingyi
    2021, 53 (3):  291-305.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2021.00291
    Abstract ( 7045 )   HTML ( 1019 )  
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    In many cases, people intend to offer help but unfortunately cause more troubles to help recipients. After doing so, helpers often expect negative evaluations from help recipients. However, is this prediction accurate? The present research proposes a misprediction: helpers will overestimate the negative impacts (underestimate the positive impacts) of their behaviors on help recipients when they try to help but cause more troubles. The reason for this misprediction is that in contrast to helpers’ predictions about help recipients, help recipients pay more attention to helpers’ warmth and less attention to helpers’ competence.

    We conducted six studies (N = 1, 763) to test the proposed misprediction and test its underlying mechanism. Study 1 adopted a 2 (outcome: success or failure) × 2 (role: helper or help recipient) between-subjects design. Helpers predicted help recipients’ reactions (gratefulness, satisfaction, the likelihood to seek help again, the likelihood to recommend helpers to others), whereas help recipients rated their own reactions. The results showed a misprediction such that helpers exaggerated the negative reactions of help recipients. In addition, the misprediction was specific to failure. In the success condition, helpers made accurate predictions about help recipients’ reactions. These results also ruled out alternative explanations of the spotlight effect and social desirability bias.

    Studies 2a and 2b adopted an identical design to that in Study 1 and replicated the results in Study 1 in a different scenario by bounded and unbounded scales. In addition, we found the existence of the misprediction made by helpers in both proactive and reactive helping. Study 3 replicated the results by using indicators involving money.

    In Study 4, with an identical design to that in Study 1, helpers made predictions about how help recipients rated their warmth and competence, whereas help recipients rated helpers’ warmth and competence. Afterwards, helpers predicted help recipients’ reactions, whereas help recipients rated their own reactions. The results showed that helpers underestimated help recipients’ ratings of warmth and competence in the failure condition and that this underestimation accounted for the overestimation of help recipients’ negative reactions.

    In Study 5, we recorded participants’ real-time thoughts during their prediction or rating process. We found that helpers considered their competence (warmth) earlier and more (later and less) than help recipients, indicating that helpers focused more on their competence and less on their warmth when making predictions about help recipients than help recipients did. The query order and content accounted for the overestimation of help recipients’ negative reactions in the failure condition.

    We show that people who try to help others but eventually cause more troubles mispredict the reactions of help recipients. Helpers overestimate the negative consequences (underestimate the positive consequences) of their behaviors to help recipients. We also reveal the underlying mechanism of this misprediction that helps recipients pay more attention to helpers’ warmth and less attention to helpers’ competence compared to helpers’ predictions about help recipients. Understanding this misprediction helps alleviate the concerns of helpers when they are intended to offer help but actually do harm to others and helps promote subsequent helping behaviors.

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    Multidimensional psychology of filial piety (xiao): Differences in orientation and changes from ancient to modern times
    GE Xiaoyu
    2021, 53 (3):  306-321.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2021.00306
    Abstract ( 4690 )   HTML ( 443 )  
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    Filial piety (xiao) refers to the proper way to treat parents, an important concept in Chinese culture. Since the advent of the New Culture Movement in China, some people have criticized filial piety, whereas others still advocate it. The possible basis for this disagreement may be that filial piety is comprised of both good and dark sides. Psychological researchers have conducted empirical studies exploring the factor structure of filial piety. However, past research in the realm of filial piety has had some limitations, such as unsatisfactory reliability and validity, confound of subjective researcher intent, and omissions of important factors. I predict that there exists more factors inside filial piety and that the different factors are correlated with different criterion.

    Here, I have tested an operational conceptualization of filial piety. Specifically, in the pilot study, items were generated in two ways. First, 50 items were adapted from four Chinese philosophical classics, namely the Analects of Confucius, the Works of Mencius, the Classic of Filial Piety, and the Book of Rites. Second, 56 participants were then recruited to list 5-10 characteristics of filial piety, with a total of 337 individually generated descriptors that I collected, which were then grouped into 48 categories by a psychology student blind to the hypothesis, who was asked to simplify the redundancies. In Study 1, I used exploratory factor analysis to construct a measure of filial piety (N = 633). In Study 2, I used confirmatory factor analysis and tested the correlations of each dimension of filial piety and criterion variables, including family self-concept, family resilience, parent bonding styles, inadequate parent-child boundaries, self-supporting personality, and compliance, to validate the structure (N = 396 and 206). In Study 3, I asked the participants to indicate to what extent each item in the scale agreed with their ideal (s) of filial piety (N = 221). I further asked those with children older than 10 years to indicate to what extent each item agreed with their ideal expectations of how their children—of any age—should treat them (N = 213).

    The results demonstrated that filial piety is composed of nine factors: respecting and installing parents, obeying parents, being kind and pleasant to parents, adhering to principles without letting parents feel humiliated, accompanying parents, making a name for oneself and letting parents feel honored, yearning for parents, not interfering with parents, and dissuading parents. The nine-factor structure has good reliability, convergent validity, discriminant validity, criterion-related validity, and content validity. Different factors have different patterns of correlations with criterion variables. After controlling for covariates, all dimensions of filial piety positively correlated with family self-concept and family resilience. Parental care positively correlated with respecting and installing parents, being kind and pleasant to parents, accompanying parents, and yearning for parents. Parental indifference negatively correlated with the above mentioned variables. Likewise, parental autonomy negatively correlated with obeying parents. Lack of parent-child boundaries and the use of psychological control positively correlated with obeying parents and yearning for parents, whereas it correlated negatively with respecting and installing parents. A self-supporting personality positively correlated with respecting, installing, and dissuading parents. An interpersonal, self-supporting personality negatively correlated with yearning for parents. Compliance positively correlated with obeying parents and yearning for them but correlated negatively with dissuading them.

    These findings help to understand the internal structure of filial piety and differentiate its good side from its dark side.

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    Two-level mediated moderation models with single level data
    and new measures of effect sizes
    LIU Hongyun, YUAN Ke-Hai, GAN Kaiyu
    2021, 53 (3):  322-336.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2021.00322
    Abstract ( 5339 )   HTML ( 386 )  
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    Mediation and moderation analyses are commonly used methods for studying the relationship between an independent variable (X) and a dependent variable (Y) in conducting empirical research. To better understand the relationships among variables, there is an increasing demand for a more general theoretical framework that combines moderation and mediation analyses. Recently, statistical analysis of mediated moderation (meMO) effects has become a powerful tool for scientists to investigate complex processes. However, the traditional meMO model is formulated based on the homoscedasticity assumption, which is most likely to be violated when moderation effects exist. In addition, routinely reporting effect sizes has been recommended as the primary solution to the issue of overemphasis on significance testing. Appropriate effect sizes (ES) for measuring meMO effects are very important in reporting and interpreting inferential results. However, there does not exist an effective measure that allows us to answer the question regarding the extent to which a variable Z moderates the effect of X on Y via the mediator variable (M) in the meMO model.

    The article is organized as follows. First, the two-level moderated regression model proposed by Yuan, Cheng, & Maxwell (2014) was extended to a two-level mediated moderation (2meMO) model with single-level data, the statistical path diagram was structured according to the conceptual model and the equations. Second, several effect sizes were developed for the 2meMO effect by decomposing the total variance of the moderation effect. Third, to estimate the parameters of the 2meMO model and the ES measures of the meMO effects, we developed a Bayesian estimation method to estimate the parameters of the 2meMO model. Fourth, a Monte Carlo simulation study was conducted to evaluate the performance of the 2meMO model and the proposed ES measures against those with the meMO model. Finally, we illustrate the application of the new model and measures with a real data example.

    The simulation results indicate that the size of bias and MSE for parameter estimates are small under both meMO and 2meMO models whether the homoscedasticity assumption hold or not. The results of the coverage rate of the 95% CI for $di{{f}_{moME}}$ following 2meMO is comparable to those following meMO when the variance of moderation error is zero, which is the assumption the meMO model is based. However, when the moderation-error variance is nonzero, 2meMO yields more accurate estimates for $di{{f}_{meMO}}$. than meMO does, the advantages of 2meMO over meMO become more obvious as the moderation-error variance increases. The results of Type I error rate indicate that 2meMO controls Type I error rather well, and the rates are close to 0.05 or below 0.05 under all the conditions. However, the Type I error rates of meMO tend to be higher than 0.05 when the moderation-error variance is nonzero. The power rates following the meMO and 2meMO models are comparable for the medium or large sample size, or when there is a large difference in meMO effects. While the value of power following 2meMO is slightly lower than that following meMO at small sample se, this result is mostly due to the inflated Type I error rate of meMO, and larger sample sizes and the smaller moderation-error variances correspond to more accurate estimates of $\phi _{meMO}^{(f)}$. The results also indicate that, when the homoscedasticity assumption of the meMO model is satisfied, the effect size estimates following the two models are about the same. However, when the moderation-error variance is not zero, the results following 2meMO are more accurate than those following meMO.

    In summary, the article developed a 2meMO model with single-level data and proposed several measures to evaluate the size of the meMO effect explained by moderator variables in total, directly, or indirectly. The performance of the 2meMO model is compared against that of the traditional meMO model via Monte Carlo simulations. Results indicate that, when the assumption of homoscedasticity holds, 2meMO yields comparable results with those under meMO. When the homoscedasticity assumption is violated, estimates under 2meMO are more accurate than those under meMO. More importantly, the measures of the size of the meMO effect proposed in this article can be used as a supplement to the test of meMO effects and will meet the needs for reporting ES in practice. Consequently, the 2meMO model is recommended for the analysis of mediated moderation, and the effect sizes (ESs) for the interpretation of the effect according to the questions of interest are better reported.

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