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How Information Presentation Affect Absolute Direction Judgments Based on Spatial Reference Frames ZHOU Rong-Gang,ZHANG Ka 2008, 40 (11):  1137-1148.  Abstract ( 1684 )   People cannot maintain his/her orientation or specify a spatial location without using, at least basically, a frame of reference.. Egocentric reference frame and allocentric/exocentric reference frame are used most coordinately and frequently for the purpose of successful navigation. Many recent studies have focused on how and why misalignment and target position relative to reference object affect cardinal direction judgments. In these studies, participants see a north-up map indicating one observer’s heading relative to a ground target, which was presented as camera scene with corresponding forward view. A typical task is to determine the cardinal direction between two objects in the scene. They have reported 0o (up) and 180o (bottom) advantage effect and mismatch effect. However these studies have little consideration about information processing and many of them only use cardinal direction task. In the current study, we defined three types of navigation components: specifying paths from reference object to target object (route specifying), identifying one’s own heading (heading identifying), and determining the direction of the target object in the scene (direction determining). We aimed to investigate whether different component’s processing could influence the aforementioned effects on absolute direction judgment. Different information presenting orders were used in corresponding experiments. Two within-subject experiments were conducted. Participants were asked to use a map/direction-word to determine the absolute direction (i.e., North, Northeast) between two objects in a visual scene. Information processing in Exp.1 contained all three components with heading presented in a map in Exp. 1a and direction-word (i.e., Southeast) in Exp. 1b. Exp. 2 contained two kinds of task with one route specifying component (Task-R) and the other heading identifying component (Task-H). Each task was presented on a computer screen and had 8 target position (0o/up, 45o (R45o), 90o (R90o), 135o (R135o), 180o, 225o (R135o), 270o (R 90o), and 315o/left-up (R45o)) and 8 heading (North(N), Northeast(NE), East(E), Southeast(SE), South(S), Southwest(SW), West(W), Northwest(NW)). Participants used the number pad on the keyboard to show directions, for example pressing 8 for N and 9 for NE. Accuracy and response time were collected by E-prime as judgment performance. A total of 64 college students participated in this study to complete three trials (64 problems per trial). Repeated measures statistical analysis was used. The main finding could be summarized as follows: (1) the North direction advantage effect was found for all tasks and the pattern could be described as N < E / S / W < Non-canonical direction (< means shorter response time, and / means no significant difference); (2) the response time was shortest at the 0o/up position (except for Exp. 1a and 1b where no significant difference was found between 0o and 180o/bottom position) and the advantage effect at 180o/bottom position was more evident for Task-H and Task-R (i.e., R180o < R45o, R90o and R135o) than for Exp. 1a and 1b (i.e., R180o < R90o and R135o); (3) the Canonical direction-R90o advantage effect, which means the left/right position advantage effect depends on the canonical direction, was found for Exp 1a and 1b and Task-H. This effect was first reported in our studies. In absolute direction judgment, the traditional effect patterns have not changed by different ways to present information components. However the current findings, especially the discovery of Canonical direction-R90o advantage effect, would help shed light on the understanding of cognitive structure for absolute direction judgments. Future work should pay more attention to cognitive strategies for this new effect. Our work could be applied to personnel selection and training, and designing interface display for navigation assistance. Related Articles | Metrics

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Attention, Cognitive Style and TAP Effect of Prospective Memory LI Shou-Xin,DONG Li-Da,GONG Da-Zhi 2008, 40 (11):  1149-1157.  Abstract ( 1524 )   The mechanism of prospective memory (PM) is a hot topic in memory research area, among which the transfer appropriate processing (TAP) effect of PM has received much attention. Researchers have studied the influence of several individual variables, especially age, on TAP effect of PM. In the present study, we investigated whether there was difference in TAP effect of PM among individuals with different cognitive styles when attention was either focused or divided. This study included two experiments using the classical PM paradigm. Experiment 1: (1) Participants: one hundred and forty-six undergraduates participated in the Group Embedded Figure Test (GEFT). Among them, top 30 high-score student were dubbed field-independent (FI), and 30 lowest-score students were dubbed field-dependent (FD). The final sample included 26 FI and 28 FD. (2) Experimental design: PM task was perceptual. The design was 2 (cognitive styles: FD or FI) × 2 (attention: focused or divided) × 2 (relationship between PM task and ongoing task: matched or mismatched) mixed factorial design. Experiment 2: (1) Participants: one hundred and fifty undergraduates participated in the GEFT. The method used was the same as that of experiment 1.The final sample included 28 FI and 30 FD. (2) Experimental design was the same as that of experiment 1except that PM task was semantic. We used SPSS10.0 to analyze the data. The results were as follows: Experiment 1: Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) on PM scores showed the main effect of attention state was significant (p<0.01). PM score under the focused attention were significantly higher than that of divided attention. The interaction between cognitive style and relationship between PM task and ongoing task was significant (p<0.01). When PM task mismatched ongoing tasks, PM score of FI subjects was significantly higher than that of FD subjects. Further analysis on the difference scores between matched condition and mismatched condition of PM task and ongoing task processing types showed significant main effect of cognitive style (p<0.05). PM score of FD subjects were significantly higher than that of FI subjects, which meant TAP effect of PM was strengthened on FD subjects. Experiment 2: MANOVA test on PM scores showed that as experiment 1, the interaction between cognitive style and relationship between PM task and ongoing task was significant. The interaction between attention and relationship between PM task and ongoing task was also significant (p<0.01). Divided attention tasks showed a significantly impairing effect on PM score when the PM tasks mismatched ongoing tasks. Further analysis on the difference scores between matched condition and mismatched condition of PM task and ongoing task processing types again showed main effect of cognitive style (p<0.01). PM score under divided attention was significantly higher than that under focused attention (p<0.01), which indicated that TAP effect of PM was strengthened under divided attention. To sum up, the current study demonstrated that when PM tasks mismatched ongoing tasks, PM score of the FI subjects were significantly higher than the FD subjects; when the two tasks matched, however, PM scores of FI and FD subjects were comparable. For both semantic and perceptual processing in PM tasks, the TAP effect was found in both FI and FD subjects. Moreover, it is more salient for the FD. Divided attention tasks showed a significantly impairing effect on PM score in the perceptual PM tasks. But only when PM tasks mismatched with ongoing tasks, divided attention tasks showed a significantly harmful effect in semantic PM tasks with a more significant TAP effect. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Valence Strength of Positive Stimuli Modulates the Attention in Extraverts Study HE Yuan-Yuan, YUAN Jia-Jin, WU Ze-Lian, LI Hong 2008, 40 (11):  1158-1164.  Abstract ( 1295 )   Considerable research has confirmed the correlation between extraversion and positive affects (Costa et al., 1980 and 1990; Canli et al., 2001, Amin et al.,2004). In early studies, Costa and McCrae (1980) found that individuals who exhibited a high degree of extraversion—the tendency to be upbeat, optimistic, and to enjoy social contact—reported more positive emotions in everyday life than less extraverted individuals. Furthermore, this association proved effective in predicting levels of positive affects 10 years later (Costa and McCrae, 1980). In addition, highly extroverted individuals are reported slower to shift attention away from locations of positive incentive values compared with less extroverted individuals, suggesting an attentional bias of extroverts for emotionally positive stimuli (Derryberry & Reed, 1994). Consistent with these behavioral studies, the functional neuroimaging study by Amin and colleagues replicated the findings that neural activations elicited by positive stimuli increased with the degree of extroversion by an emotional dot-probe task (Amin et al., 2004). The results showed increased neural reactivity in the right fusiform gyrus with higher extroversion scores during a positive neutral match condition (the probe matched the neutral location), where extroverts made more efforts for a response due to their attentional bias for positive stimuli (Derryberry & Reed, 1994; Amin et al., 2004). Therefore, it seems that extroverts are more sensitive to emotionally positive stimuli than less extroverted individual: they react more intensely to positive stimuli (Canli et al., 2001), and their attention is easy to be diverted by distracting stimuli laden with emotional positivity (Derryberry & Reed, 1994; Amin et al., 2004). Thus, the present study hypothesizes that extraverts direct more attention to positive stimuli, and the intensity of their attention increase with the valence strength of positive stimuli. As paid volunteers, 14 extroverted (19–25 years; M=21.8 years, 7 males) and 14 non-extroverted (18-23 years; M=20.9 years, 7 males) students from Southwest University participated in the experiment. The subjects were selected from a large pool of 350 college students who filled in the extroversion subscale of the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI). The present study adopted a modified oddball paradigm which consisted of 6 blocks of 100 trials, and each block included 70 standard and three conditions of 10 deviants. All deviants were pictures taken from the Chinese Affective Picture System (CAPS). A natural scene of cup served as the frequent standard picture and 30 pictures grouped as either highly positive (HP), moderately positive (MP), or Neutral served as the deviants. Three groups of deviant pictures were selected in such a way that they differed significantly in valence from one another, but were similar in arousal. Each subject was instructed to press the “F” key on the keyboard as accurately and quickly as possible if the standard picture appeared, and to press the “J” key if the deviant picture appeared. The EEG for correct response during each valence condition was overlapped and averaged separately. At about 170ms after stimulus onset, a prominent P2 component was elicited in all three valence conditions, and P2 amplitudes were largest at central and central-frontal sites, irrespective of valence condition. We found a significant valence and extroversion interaction effect on P2 amplitudes. The results showed that in extroverts, highly positive stimuli elicited larger P2 amplitudes than moderately positive stimuli which, in turn, elicited larger amplitudes than the neutral stimuli. In contrast, ERPs were similar across the three valence conditions in non-extraverts. The result indicates that the attentional bias of extraverts for positive stimuli increases with the valence intensity of positive stimuli Related Articles | Metrics

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Mechanism of the Coordinating Integration in Text-Reading WANG Rui-Ming,MO Lei,LI Li2,JIN Hua 2008, 40 (11):  1165-1177.  Abstract ( 2004 )   Text reading is one of the most complex and unique cognitive activities of human and is an important way of getting information and knowledge. The mechanism of information processing in text reading has been a hot topic in experimental psychology, and several models have been proposed. According to the memory-based text processing view, readers activate the previous information and integrate it with the current information by resonance in text reading. If the previous information has local-incoherence with the current information, coordinating integration could then be occurred. The key issue involves the mechanism of the coordinating integration in text reading. In our view, the coordinating integration could occur only when the previous information has event-relatedness with the current information. Furthermore, coordinating integration is hypothesized to be an automatic process so that readers are not aware of the integration process during their reading. The main purpose of the present study was to investigate the mechanism of the coordinating integration in text reading. Three experiments were conducted using a self-paced, line-by-line, reading paradigm. In experiment 1, 30 university students were asked to read 12 narrative passages. The independent variable involves the relationship between the elaboration on a characteristic of the first protagonist and two subsequent target action respectively carried out by two protagonists. The independent variable had two levels-consistent version and qualified version. The dependent variable were the reading times of the first target sentence describing the actions of the second protagonist and the second target sentence describing the actions of the first protagonist. In experiment 2, 28 university students were asked to read 12 narrative passages and to judge whether a probe word appeared in the previous section of the text. The relationship between the elaboration on a characteristic of the first protagonist and subsequent target action carried out by the second protagonist was the first independent variable, which had two levels-consistent version and qualified version. The position of the probe word was the second independent variable, which also had two levels- appeared before or after the target sentence. The reaction time and the accuracy of the probe word were the dependent variables. In experiment 3, 66 university students were asked to read 1 narrative passage, and then give answers to two questions. The relationship between the elaboration on a characteristic of the protagonist and subsequent target action carried out by the protagonist was the independent variable which had three levels -consistent version, inconsistent version and qualified version. The dependent variables were the reading times of target sentence and control sentence, the accuracy of recollection of key information in the text. In addition, the participants’ self-report was also analyzed. In experiment 1, for the first target sentence, there was no difference between the consistent and qualified conditions, and for the second target sentence, the reading time in the qualified condition was longer than that in the consistent condition. In experiment 2, the reaction time for the probe word after the target sentence was shorter than that before the target sentence in both the consistent and qualified conditions. The accuracy of the probe word after the target sentence was higher than that before the target sentence in both the consistent and qualified conditions. In experiment 3, the reading time of target sentence in the inconsistent condition was longer than that in qualified condition and consistent condition, the reading time of target sentence in qualified condition was longer than that in consistent condition, and for the control sentence, there was no difference among consistent, inconsistent and qualified conditions. In addition, the accuracy of recollection of key information in the inconsistent condition was higher than those in qualified condition and consistent condition, while there was no difference between the consistent and qualified conditions. More important, the participants in the inconsistent condition reported inconsistent information, while the participants in the consistent and qualified conditions reported no inconsistent information. The present results showed that previous information could be activated when related with current information semantically; however it was integrated with current information only if it is related in events. Furthermore, coordinating integration is an automatic process and readers are thus not aware of the integration process during reading Related Articles | Metrics

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Deaf Adolescents’ Representations of Taxonomic Relations ZHANG Ji-Jia,LI De-Gao,WU Xue-Yun 2008, 40 (11):  1178-1189.  Abstract ( 940 )   Because deaf people differs from hearing people in so many ways, such as using a different language and having a relatively isolated way of living, a reasonable hypothesis is that their representation of world knowledge might have some unique characteristics compared to hearing people. In the current study we sought to investigate their representation of taxonomic categories. Our hypothesis was that deaf adolescents had stronger tendency of imagery representation of exemplars and weaker awareness of taxonomic categories than their intelligently-matched hearing counterparts. In experiment 1, 15 deaf adolescents and 15 intelligently-matched hearing counterparts (31 months younger) were recruited to complete a semantic categorization task. There were two groups of experimental stimuli. One was high-typicality group composed of 16 taxonomic categories, in which 3 exemplars of higher typicality and 1 of lower typicality were selected as prime and target. The other was low-typicality group again of 16 taxonomic categories, in which 3 exemplars of lower typicality and 1 of higher typicality were selected as prime and target. All the exemplars from 25 taxonomic categories were presented in forms of words and pictures and subjects’ reaction time and accuracy were recorded. In experiment 2, 16 deaf adolescents and 16 intelligently-matched hearing counterparts (38 months younger) were recruited to complete a false memory task. There were two kinds of experimental stimuli. The first group was composed of exemplars from 13 categories, in which 3 exemplars of high typicality and 1 of low typicality were used as study item and lure. The second group was composed of exemplars from another 13 categories, in which 3 exemplars of low typicality and 1 of high typicality used as study item and lure. All the exemplars were presented in forms of words and pictures and the purpose was to further test our hypothesis. The results showed for experiment 1, both deaf and hearing adolescents responded faster to the stimuli sets in which the primes were exemplars of higher typicality than lower typicality. But deaf adolescents responded slower to picture stimuli than words while hearing adolescents’ reaction time remained the same. Besides, deaf subjects made more errors when the primes were exemplars of higher typicality. Similar results were obtained from Experiment 2. Deaf adolescents had lower recognition accuracy when target items were of lower typicality while hearing subjects’ recognition accuracy was not influenced by exemplar typicality. For the recognition accuracy of lures, deaf subjects made more error than hearing subjects. Furthermore the hearing subjects’ recognition was influenced by exemplars typicality and item presentation mode while the deaf subjects were not. To sum up, the current study demonstrated that deaf and hearing adolescents had similar typicality awareness. But due to their persistent dependence on the use of sign language, deaf adolescents had weaker awareness of a taxonomic category than their hearing counterparts. Instead, they had a stronger tendency to use imagery representation of taxonomic categories than their hearing counterparts Related Articles | Metrics

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A Meta-analytic Review on Treatment Effects of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Children in China GAI Xiao-Song,LAN Gong-Rui,Liu Xi-Ping 2008, 40 (11):  1190-1196.  Abstract ( 2150 )   Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most common neurobehavioral disorder for children. They are at high risk relative to the normal population with respect to scholastic and social failure in school settings. Practice calls for effective interventions to decrease the developmental risk of ADHD. So a comprehensive evaluation on all the existing interventions is needed. There have been many descriptive and meta-analytic reviews on this topic in the West. However, the results from western reviews cannot be applied to China directly. First, the diagnostic criteria are different between the West and China; second, Traditional Chinese Medicine is an important intervention that is not used in the West; third, parents in China have more apprehensions on drug treatment and attach more importance on academic performance. So a meta-analytic approach was used to examine the effects of treatment with Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder children in China. A search was made of the CNKI (National Knowledge Infrastructure) databases. In order to decrease the heterogeneity among different treatment outcomes, we limited the search to articles published from 1994 to 2005 (the year in which the meta-analysis was commenced). Criteria for including studies in the sample were that the type of intervention and outcome measures be sufficiently well described to enable classification and that it be possible to calculate an effect size. Additional criteria for selection of studies were that if children have more than one disorder, ADHD should be primary. Besides, the study should employ pretest-posttest design or control group design. We were able to locate 62 unique studies that met these criteria. Studies that met inclusion criteria were systematically coded based on specific features of the article. Coded variables included: number of participants, sex of participants, age range of participants, treatment time, type of intervention, and outcome relating to the type of treatment. The effect size is the difference between the mean of outcome measures at the end of the program and the mean prior to commencing the intervention (post-pre means) or the mean of the outcome measures administered in a treatment group compared to the mean of the outcome measures administered to a control group. In all cases, this difference between the mean is divided by the appropriate pooled group standard deviation. The results showed that: (1) The interventions aimed to improve the behavioral, academic, cognitive and/or social functioning of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder have obvious effects. (2) Overall, the combined interventions have the largest effects, then larger for medical interventions and smaller for behavioral or cognitive-behavioral interventions. (3) Overall, there were larger effects of the various interventions on academic than on other outcomes, which is not consistent with foreign meta-analysis results. (4) Among indicators from different resources, the objective observations have the largest effects, then the parental rating, and then the teacher’s rating. (5) Various interventions have different effects on different effect indices. The quality of intervention approaches, effect indexes and study quality were discussed according to the results described above Related Articles | Metrics

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On the Religiosity of Christian Adolescents: Based on the Case of Christian Group in the Rural Area of Gansu Province YANG Bao-Yan,WAN Ming-Gang,WANG Wei,LIU Xian-Cui 2008, 40 (11):  1197-1202.  Abstract ( 2248 )   Religiosity has long been recognized as a very important standard for religious faith. Social psychologists’ researches are usually carried out from the following perspectives: religious orientation, religious attitude and individual’s involvement in religious activities. The present paper aims at analyzing the religiosity of Christian adolescents and its characteristics, expounding the relationships among religious involvement, religious orientation and religious attitude in the hope of understanding the status quo of the Christian faith of Christian adolescents and the formation of their religious faith. The present study employed 148 Christian adolescents to examine relationships of religious orientation, religious involvement and religious attitude through questionnaires among Christian adolescents based on fieldwork. The results showed that: (1) the stability of religious faith of Christian adolescents is being weakened without the manifestation of gender difference. adolescents from Christian families are much more stable in their religious faith than those who were converted into Christians in a certain time; (2) religious orientation is composed of intrinsic religious orientation, extrinsic personal orientation and extrinsic social orientation. Extrinsic orientation took priority over other orientations, without gender difference, and the score of people who are consistent with their religious orientation on the intrinsic religious orientation and extrinsic personal orientation is significantly higher than that of those who deviate from religion; (3) the score of Christian adolescents with high religious involvement on the dimensionalities of intrinsic religious orientation and extrinsic personal orientation is significantly higher than that of those with low religious involvement; (4) the relationship between each intrinsic dimensionality of religious orientation shows significant positive correlation, and each dimensionality of religious attitude and religious involvement, intrinsic religious orientation and extrinsic personal orientation are positively related too. The present paper ends with the conclusion that: Christian adolescents polarize on their religious faith, displaying no gender difference. The religious orientation of Christian adolescents consists of intrinsic religious orientation, extrinsic personal orientation and extrinsic social orientation. Extrinsic orientation takes priority over other orientations Related Articles | Metrics

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IRT Information Function of Polytomously Scored Items under the Graded Response Model LUO Zhao-Sheng, OUYANG Xue-Lian, QI Shu-Qing, DAI Hai-Qi,,DING Shu-Liang 2008, 40 (11):  1212-1220.  Abstract ( 1863 )   Abstract: Computerized adaptive testing (CAT) is one of the ultimate areas in the field of item response theory (IRT). Many high stake tests, such as GRE and TOEFL, have their CAT versions. Item selection strategy is the core content of CAT. And item information function (IIF) always is the important index of item selection. Although item information of dichotomously scored items has been extensively studied, item information of polytomously scored items receives much less attention. However, due to the advantages inbred in Computerized adaptive testing (CAT) with polytomously scored items, it gains more and more attention now. But the item selection strategies implemented under such situations are not systematically proved to be efficient. Many researchers use the degree of closeness between trait level and the average of item category parameters as the index of item selection strategy, or other strategies such as the degree of closeness between trait level and the median of item category parameters, etc. Up to now, seldom research had systematically concerned about the inherent relationship between the trait level and item category parameters under polytomously scored item types, and its effect on item information. The primary purpose of this research is to systematically investigate the relations of item information to item category parameters and subject trait levels. In this study, we simulated 121 trait values that distributed uniformly between the ranges of -3 to 3. Also, we simulated 504 sets of item parameters, with 4 sets of discrimination parameters which separately matched the 126 sets of difficulty parameters. Each item is graded in terms of 5 categories with differential degrees of difficulty. Based on the results of item information of simulated data, we find that the trait value that correspondence to the maximum item information matches the difficulty parameter group with high-frequency item categories. We call this principal as “item category parameter priority rule”. Such principle is very different from the previous item selection strategies under computerized adaptive testing situations. The results of this research will be very useful for the construction of computerized adaptive testing with polytomously scored items. Related Articles | Metrics

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Exploration into Chinese Traditional Confucian Thoughts on Responsibility REN Ya-Hui 2008, 40 (11):  1221-1228.  Abstract ( 2234 )   As a most important social and psychological theme, the idea of responsibility expresses specific values, and reflects the typical cultural-related characteristics. Different from Western responsibility viewpoints originated from an individualism background, traditional Confucianism places emphasis on exploring the role of responsibility in relational ethics systems. According to Confucianism, it is not subjectivity of individual but “harmony of man with nature” that constitutes the logical starting point of responsibility inquiry. Upon such premise, Confucian understandings of responsibility peculiarly exhibit the structural feature of “rationalizing human beings practice abiding by natural rules”. On this account, traditional Confucianism bases the concept of responsibility on plain blood kinship, and forms “ritual and fitness” principles, to which “the filial piety” is central. Furthermore, the extensive application of those principles to the whole society is suggested as well. Practically speaking, responsibility is essential in individual undertaking the role of the master over the mass world, and also in the realization of Confucian moral ideals returning to the real life. The main contents of such responsibility are as follows: (1) the benevolence in the course of “Practicing humanitarianism”, which originates from family ethics and develops to cover all kinds of social relationships, (2) “Wang Dao”, the faith on “respecting morality through protecting people”, i.e. realizing the ideal of “Ren Yi” by serving for social governance, thus constituting central values of social politics in Confucianism, (3) the consciousness of concerns about the state and people, which comprises two aspects, about both the practice of “ritual and fitness” principles by oneself and the ritual governance of the whole nation. Confucianism further states that only with the development and transcendence of personality can the above contents of responsibility be achieved, and that under the guidance of the philosophy of “sacrificing oneself for others”, individual is molded in a wide-range relational background. As for the cultivation of responsibility character, Confucianism emphasizes that it firstly is a process of internalizing the external rules through the “sincerity” and “respect” training. However, the promotion of inner moral knowledge and experiences is not the ultimate goal. For Confucianism, “unity of knowledge with practice” is most crucial during the process of cultivation, which, to a large extent, will help to create a responsible life style. Although such process is mainly dependent on some subjective factors, there are still some external intervention mechanisms, among which moral education and penalties are typical, that provide necessary supplements. Related Articles | Metrics