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30 March 2005, Volume 37 Issue 02 Previous Issue    Next Issue

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PERCEPTUAL SYMBOL REPRESENTATION AND PROPOSITIONAL SYMBOL REPRESENTATION IN LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION Wang Ruiming, Mo Lei, Li Li, Wang Suiping, Wu Jun 2005, 37 (02):  143-150.  Abstract ( 2438 )   Using moving window method to investigate the mode of information representation in language comprehension. Subjects were 96 university students in South China Normal University. According to whether the shape of the object in the picture was consistent with that in the sentence, the experimental materials were divided into two categories: consistent version and inconsistent version. The respond time and correct rate of picture recognition were analyzed with Paired-Samples t test. The results in experiment 1 showed that there is perceptual symbol representation in comprehension when subjects complete recognition task once after they read the key sentence. The results in experiment 2 showed that there is propositional symbol representation in comprehension when comprehension task becomes more difficult. The results in experiment 3 showed that there is also propositional symbol representation when related information is pushed into long-memory. The total results suggest that there are both perceptual symbol representation and propositional symbol representation in language comprehension, and perceptual symbol representation is only preliminary, whereas propositional symbol representation is final in human brain. Related Articles | Metrics

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THE ACTIVATION AND INTEGRATION OF TEXT INFORMATION: COMPARISON BETWEEN GOOD AND POOR READERS He Xianyou,Lin Rituan,Mo Lei 2005, 37 (02):  151-158.  Abstract ( 1615 )   The activation and integration models of text information in reading were explored for good and poor readers in the study. Three experiments were conducted. Inconsistent paradigm was used in Experiment 1 to examine whether good and poor readers could maintain global and local coherence. The results showed that poor readers couldn’t maintain global coherence. Probe-verification paradigm was used in Experiment 2 to investigate the reason why poor readers could not maintain global coherence. The probe sentences were either located after the protagonist’s characteristics description, or after filler passage, or after target action. By comparing the reaction time to probe sentences in the three locations, it could be concluded that whether it was because of activation or integration. The results indicated that, just like good readers, poor readers could activate the information in long-term memory. It implied that the reason why poor readers could not maintain global coherence was not that they could not activate previous information, but might be that they had difficulty in integrating the information. Experiment 3 further confirmed that the reason was that poor readers had difficulty in integrating the activated information with new information. Related Articles | Metrics

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fMRI RESEARCH ON THE NEURAL REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT SEMANTIC KNOWLEDGE：MODALITY SPECIFICITY OR CATEGORY SPECIFICITY? Jin hua, Ho-Ling Liu, Ya-Ling Yang,Mo Lei 2005, 37 (02):  159-166.  Abstract ( 2211 )   The study was performed to explore the neural basis about semantics by fMRI, with a better-controlled experimental design which considered both modalities and category in one study and toke the typical questions of semantic retrieval as cognitive task. It was found that the pattern of brain activation (including the activation in left fusiform) evoked by different types of semantic information was very similar at its extent and peak value. Moreover, with a strict statistical threshold, no brain areas specifically related to the retrieval of either categorical or modality information was found. Results suggested that human semantic system be undifferentiated by category or modality at the neural level and the activation of visual imagery of a concrete object may go with the retrieval of its any information. And what’s more, the activation of BA9 observed in this study corroborate and extend the claim that there may be important difference in cortical organization of English and Chinese. Related Articles | Metrics

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THE INFLUENCE OF ENDOGENOUS AND EXOGENOUS ATTENTION ON NUMBER PROCESSING Liu Chao,Mai Xiaoqin,Fu Xiaolan 2005, 37 (02):  167-177.  Abstract ( 1235 )   In the present study, two different experimental paradigms (with the endogenous cue and with the exogenous cue) were used to investigate the distance effect and the notation effect of numbers processing in attended and unattended condition. The stimuli were small numbers (1-4) and large numbers (6-9) in Chinese and Arabic. Subjects’ task was to decide whether the presented number was larger or smaller than 5. The results showed that 1) the distance effect of both of small numbers and large numbers was not affected by the endogenous attention, but the distance effect of large numbers weakened or disappeared in unattended condition with exogenous cue; 2) the notation effect of small numbers appeared in unattended condition with both endogenous cue and exogenous cue, the subjects’ performance on Arabic numbers was not as good as than that on Chinese numbers. Moreover, the influence of exogenous cue was larger than that of endogenous cue. Related Articles | Metrics

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RESPONSE INHIBITION IN TWO SUBTYPES OF CHILDREN WITH ADHD Wang Yonghui,Zhou Xiaolin,Wang Yufeng,Zhang Yaxu 2005, 37 (02):  178-188.  Abstract ( 2129 )   Two stop-signal tasks were used to investigate two types of response inhibition, response conflict and response stopping. Subjects were two subtypes of children with ADHD (18 of predominantly inattentive and 11 of combined) and normal controls. Results showed that ADHD children were deficient in both types of response inhibition compared with normal controls. No significant differences were observed between the two subtypes of ADHD children after the effect of age was partialed out. Moreover, children showed the same pattern of effects in response inhibition under condition of either endogenous or exogenous attentional cueing. These findings suggest that the two types of response inhibition employ some common cognitive and brain mechanisms and the two subtypes of ADHD were impaired equivalently on these functions. Related Articles | Metrics

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RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN BELIEFS AND COVARIATION IN CAUSAL REASONING Hu Qingfen, Chen Yinghe, Lin Chongde 2005, 37 (02):  189-198.  Abstract ( 2206 )   The present study investigated how people combine covariation information and pre-existing beliefs in causal reasoning. The results were as follows: (1)Subjects did not add up this two sources of information simply, nor did they use a threshold for covariation information. They considered beliefs first, then judged whether the covariation was consistent with their pre-existing beliefs. When these two sources of information collided, they would reconsider their pre-existing beliefs. (2) The effects of beliefs were larger than those of covariation when subjects changed their judgements. These changes were larger when the candidate cause was unbelievable. Related Articles | Metrics

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THE INFLUENCE OF COLOR AND TEXTURE SIMILARITY ON CHILD INDUCTION Li Fuhong,Li Hong,Chen Antao,Feng Tingyong,Gao Xuemei,Zhang Zhongming,Long Changquan 2005, 37 (02):  199-209.  Abstract ( 2202 )   On the basis of previous researches, this paper examined the influence of visual and tactile information on young child Induction. In three tasks, a total of 140 children and 40 adults were presented with target objects with two kinds of property, one is color, the other is texture, followed by test objects that varied in color similarity or texture similarity or both to the target. When objects were not presented with texture difference, both children and adults generalized the containing property to test objects that were highly similar in color (Task 1). When objects were not presented with color difference, both children and adults generalized the containing property to test objects that were highly similar in texture (Task 2). When objects were presented with both color and texture similarity (Task 3), which changed inversely, 4 years olds generalized the properties to those objects that were high similar in texture, regardless of color similarity; on the contrary, 5 years olds and 6 years olds relied both on color similarity and texture similarity to generalize properties. Related Articles | Metrics

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THE DIVERSITY OF EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONS IN NORMAL ADULTS: A LATENT VARIABLE ANALYSIS Chen Tianyong,Li Deming 2005, 37 (02):  210-217.  Abstract ( 1899 )   The diversity of three executive functions (inhibition of prepotent responses, memory updating, and attention switching) was studied with latent variable approach. One hundred and forty-two adults between 18 and 85 years of age performed nine computerized tasks that are considered to tap each corresponding target executive function. The results indicated that 1). Reliability of those tasks is relatively high. 2) Confirmatory factor analysis showed that nine executive function tasks have strong loading on the hypothesized constructs, indicating a good convergent validity of the three executive functions, and the correlation between the three executive functions is rather low when age is controlled, indicating a good discriminant validity of the three executive functions. Altogether, these results were better than those of Miyake et al. (2000), and provided a strong evidence for the diversity of executive functions. Related Articles | Metrics

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ENGLISH PHONOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT IN PRIMARY SCHOOL Xu Fen,Dong Qi,Yang Jie,Wang Weixin 2005, 37 (02):  218-223.  Abstract ( 2530 )   The present study that conducted both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies was carried to investigate development of English phonological awareness in Chinese primary children. The results show: (1) in the beginning of the first grader, there is significant differences of accuracy among four tasks. Different units of English phonological awareness have different developmental levels, from high to low, of rhyming and end-phonemic, onset, and phonemic awareness. (2) Same different orders were lasted from first grade to fifth grade. Related Articles | Metrics

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STRATEGIES USED BY 3 TO 5 YEARS OLD CHILDREN ON A SELF-IMPOSED DELAY OF GRATIFICATION TASK INCLUDING A CROSS-CULTURAL COMPARISON BETWEEN CHINA AND AUSTRALIA Yang Lizhu，Wang Jiangyang，Liu Wen,Monica Cuskelly，Airong Zhang 2005, 37 (02):  224-232.  Abstract ( 2330 )   Using the experiment of self-imposed delay of gratification and situational observation, the developmental characteristics of 3 to 5 years old Chinese children’s self-imposed delay of gratification and the cross-cultural differences between 3.5 to 4.5 years old Chinese and Australian children’s self-imposed delay of gratification were investigated. The results show that the 3 to 5 years old Chinese children’s self-imposed delay of gratification develops with age increasing. 3-year-old children rarely used delay strategies, 4-year-old children’s central delay strategies are the pursuant strategies, 5-year-old children’s central delay strategies are the pursuant strategies and self-distraction and problem-solving strategies, and the self-verbal-control strategies haven’t showed the significant advantage role. In addition, the results also suggest that the 3.5 to 4.5 years old Australian children’s self-imposed delay of gratification is higher than that of the Chinese children of the same age. And there are significance differences and similarities in both between Chinese and Australian children’s development of self-imposed delay of gratification on choosing the delay strategies. The different culture values affect the development of young children’s self-imposed delay of gratification through the different education. Related Articles | Metrics

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CLASSROOM EFFECTS ON THE RELATIONS BETWEEN CHILDREN’S SOCIAL BEHAVIORS AND SCHOOL ADJUSTMENT Guo Boliang,Wang Yan,Chang Lei 2005, 37 (02):  233-239.  Abstract ( 2388 )   Multilevel data analysis was used to explore the effect of classroom climate on the relations between children’s social behaviors and their academic achievement and peer acceptance. Subjects consisted of 4650 middle school students from 82 classes. Peer nomination was used to measure children’s prosocial, aggressive and withdrawn behaviors and peer acceptance. Classroom climate included teacher’s support, harsh teaching style, student relationship, classroom order and rule clarity. These were measured by student self-reports that were aggregated into classroom variables. Results showed that children's prosocial behavior positively predicted academic achievement and peer acceptance, whereas aggression and withdrawal negatively predicted these two school adjustment variables. Teacher’s support reduced the negative relation between withdrawal and school adjustment; harsh teaching style reduced the negative relation between aggression and peer acceptance and between withdrawal and academic achievement; student relationship reinforced the negative relations of aggression and withdrawal to school adjustment variables; classroom order and rule clarity also enhanced the negative relation between aggression and school adjustment. Related Articles | Metrics

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THE BUFFERING EFFECT OF SELF-ESTEEM ON THE DEPRESSIVE AND ANXIOUS REACTIONS TO INDUCED FAILURE Zhang Xiangkui，Tian Lumei 2005, 37 (02):  241-245.  Abstract ( 2080 )   This study combined questionnaires with an experiment to investigate the buffering effect of self-esteem on the depressive and anxious reactions to induced failure using 117 undergraduates in Grade Two as subjects. The results showed: (1) Whenever the negative emotional reactions were measured, the depressive or anxious reaction of the group with high self-esteem was obviously less than that of the group with low self-esteem; (2) The failure-procedure successfully induced the negative emotional reactions to failure; (3) After failure, self-esteem didn’t buffer the negative reactions to it immediately; (4) After strategy-operation, self-esteem buffered the negative emotional reactions significantly and this buffering effect was different under different condition; but there was no overall significant interaction between self-esteem and strategy-operation in this effect. Related Articles | Metrics

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COMPARATIVE STUDIES ON DECISION-MAKING OF GROUPS USING MULTI-METHOD UNDER MULTI-COMMUNICATION CONDITIONS Zheng Quanquan,Zheng Bo,Zheng Xining,Xu Yuejin 2005, 37 (02):  246-252.  Abstract ( 2038 )   The relative effects of communication media (computer-mediated, CM vs. Face-To-Face, FTF) and methods of discussion, i.e., devil’s advocacy (DA), dialectical inquiry (DI), expertise (E), unstructured discussion (control group, C), on decision making of groups with simulated laboratory experiments of personnel selection were investigated by this study. The results showed: (1) There were significant effects of communication conditions and methods of discussion on information exchanging. (2) On the side of group members’ attitudes, the members suffered much more difficulty in CM than in FTF. There were major effects of methods of discussion on difficulty of decision-making felt by members. And there were no significant effects of communication media and methods of discussion on both process satisfaction and outcome satisfaction. (3) The number of turns of votes for making sure consensus under DA and DI was more than that under E and C. There were significant effects of methods of discussion on the number of turns of votes which indicated the total time of decision-making of groups. Related Articles | Metrics

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PROCESS OF INTERACTION AMONG MEMBERS IN SIMULATED WORK TEAMS Liu Xuefeng,Zhang Zhixue 2005, 37 (02):  253-259.  Abstract ( 2417 )   Work teams have been widely adopted in organizations. The objective of this study is to develop a scale measuring the interaction among the members of work teams. A simulated team exercise was used in this study. It was found that the items concerning the team members’ interaction are loaded on two dimensions that are named structural and interpersonal dimensions respectively. The scale has satisfactory reliability. The two dimensions positively correlate with the performance of the investigated work teams, indicating the scale’s strong validity. The developed scale can be used as an instrument to measure the interaction of work-teams in future studies. Related Articles | Metrics

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RISK PERCEPTION AND GAMBLING BEHAVIOR AMONG MACAU RESIDENTS: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY Sun Yue,Li Shu 2005, 37 (02):  260-267.  Abstract ( 2487 )   Triggered by rather surprising reports that Macau residents are less keen on gambling, anonymous questionnaire was designed to explore risk perception and gambling behavior among Macau residents. Results revealed that (1) the warning sign provided by the local Casino would neither dissuade nor persuade one to gamble; (2) the knowledge of “financial help from social network” did not permit prediction of gambling preference; (3) the multiple-play and single-play gambles were in fact so utterly different that the short-run one was perhaps not based on the expected value rule; (4) the predictions of the sanction systems proposed by institutional view of culture were consistent with the observed findings that the government employees gamble less than non-government employees and that the more likely a resident was recognized in a Casio the less likely he or she was going to gamble; (5) some “intrinsic tendency” related variables were gender and mother tongue, which implied that the observed difference in gambling was rooted in long-standing cultural value; (6) the education level was a good predictor of gambling. The theoretical implications for these findings in risk-taking were discussed. Related Articles | Metrics

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A Comparison of Moderator and Mediator and their Applications Wen Zhonglin,Hau Kit-Tai,Chang Lei 2005, 37 (02):  268-274.  Abstract ( 3437 )   The concepts and analyses of the moderator and mediator effects were discussed. Approaches in estimation and testing of moderating and mediating effects were summarized with recommendations for appropriate choices. The moderator and mediator as well as their effects were compared in terms of their implications, intentions, functions, implied models, estimation and testing strategies and other factors which enable a better understanding of the two variables involved. As an illustration, moderators and mediators were analyzed and compared in a study on the relations between students’ antisocial behaviors and peer relations. Related Articles | Metrics

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APPLICABILITY OF ITEM RESPONSE THEORY IN SELF-REPORT QUESTIONNAIRE Guo Qingke,Meng Qingmao 2005, 37 (02):  275-279.  Abstract ( 2328 )   Item Response Theory was used to analyze the Emotional Competence Scale which consisted of 9 subtests and 132 5-point Likert-type items. Factor analysis showed the first eigenvalues extracted from each subtests were significantly larger than the second ones. All the items in the subtests showed high level model-data fit when 5-grade Item Response Models were applied. The study also showed that the item parameters had hypothesized relationship with CTT item statistics and were invariant across subject groups. All the results above support the notion that IRT is feasible to analyze Likert-type items. In the study test reliability coefficient can be estimated more correctively through IRT method. Related Articles | Metrics

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A STUDY OF SCORE EQUATING IN THE COLLEGE ENGLISH TEST: A NEW APPROACH BASED ON “ANCHOR ITEMS” AND TWO-PARAMETER IRT MODEL Zhu Zhengcai 2005, 37 (02):  280-284.  Abstract ( 946 )   In China’s College English Test (CET), Rasch model has been used in the score equating procedure for 15 years and lots of score equating data have been accumulated. This paper discusses in detail some demerits of the score equating method based on Rasch model, and introduces a new score equating approach based on “anchor items” and two-parameters IRT model (the Item Response Theory model). It is assumed that for the old score equating method based on Rasch model: 1)The students in the control group give equal attention to both the formal and the control papers. 2)There has been no leakage of the items in either paper. 3) All items have the same Discrimination Index. A failure in assumption 1) would usually occur because the students feel that the control paper test is an extra burden to them and they often do not give it the same importance as the formal paper. In this case their marks on the control paper would be lower than their true performance. If the two papers were, in fact, equally easy or difficult they would score lower marks on the control paper, thus making it appear harder. This would have the effect of making the formal paper seem to be relatively easier and in the process of equating the students’ marks would be reduced. If assumption 2) is not true and the control paper has not truly been kept confidential, the effects would be in the opposite direction. The candidates would do better than they should on the control paper, causing their marks on that paper to be relatively high in comparison with the formal test. The latter test would therefore appear to the equating algorithm to be harder than it really is and all the students’ marks would be increased. Note that this would be true even if only a few items were leaked. For example, if just one Reading passage were leaked, together with the associated items, those five items would be scored correct for students who might otherwise have failed at least in some of them. Since reading items have double weight, this could falsely increase the score of weaker students by up to 10 marks! Of course, the effect on the mean score would be smaller since many students would have scored on these items anyway. It might also be argued that, since there is evidence that the items do not all have the same Discrimination Index, the two/three-parameter IRT model should be used. It has to be accepted that any equating step will increase the standard error of measurement (SEM) of the final score because the parameters that need to be used for equating will be estimated with some standard error of their own. However, this increase will usually be small (given the sample size of several hundred used to do the model fitting) and should be more than compensated for by the reduction in the “between-forms” bias, which the equating procedure is designed to correct. In this paper, a pilot study with real CET test data is reported with satisfactory score equating results. Related Articles | Metrics