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Orthographic Neighborhood Effects in the Pronunciation of Chinese Words Bi-Hongyan,Hu Wei,Wang Xuchu 2006, 38 (06):  791-797.  Abstract ( 2478 )   Introduction. Much research has shown that, in alphabetic writing systems, words or pseudo-words with large orthographic neighborhood size (N) are pronounced with shorter reaction time (RT) than those with smaller neighborhood size. However, it is not known whether the same effect can be found in the Chinese writing system since Chinese characters are not composed by “letters” which are commonly found in alphabetic writing systems. Eighty and half percent of the Chinese characters are semantic-phonetic compound characters comprising a semantic radical and a phonetic radical. Phonetic radicals indicate the phoneme of the characters, and in Chinese many characters have the same phonetic radical. For example, characters such as “炬、距、钜、拒、讵、柜” have the same phonetic radical “巨”. Although words like “柜” [gui4] do not have the same phoneme as other words mentioned above, it is only an irregular word. It is thus obvious that the Chinese writing system also contains orthographic neighborhood. The present study aimed to investigate whether the N effect existed in Chinese, and if it did, whether the effect was different between the Chinese and alphabetic writing systems. Method. A total of 29 undergraduate students (13 men, 16 women) from Beijing Normal University participated in the present study. All of them were native speakers of Mandarin Chinese. The experiment was run on a notebook PC using E-Prime software. A fixation point “+” was presented on the screen for 500ms, then the target character was displayed. Subjects were asked to read aloud the character as quickly and accurately as possible. Results and conclusion. The N effect was found when considering both RT and number of errors, but this effect was opposite to that found in the English writing systems, with a smaller neighborhood size leading to shorter RT. More studies should be initiated in order to make cross-language comparisons of the N effect Related Articles | Metrics

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Object Based-Inhibition of Return in Dynamic Displays: Object Inhibition or Updating of Spatial Inhibition？ Zhang-Ming,Zhang Yang 2006, 38 (06):  798-804.  Abstract ( 1209 )   A response to a visual target presented at a precued spatial location is facilitated if the target is presented shortly after the cue and inhibited when the cue target onset asynchrony approaches a few hundred ms. The latter effect is termed inhibition of return (IOR). Tipper et al (1991) found that IOR not only existed in static but also in dynamic displays. In particular, when a cued object moves away from the originally cued location, people are slower to detect stimuli in the cued object at its new location. Tipper et al termed this phenomenon object-based IOR. Robertson et al (2001, 2004) , however, suggested that this effect could be reinterpreted as spatial reorienting processes. The present study aimed to examine whether object-based IOR in dynamic displays was resulted from the updating of the spatial inhibition or the inhibition of object representation. Method Two experiments were conducted with 36 participants aged 19 to 23 years of age. All participants were naive to the purpose of the experiment and had normal or corrected-to-normal vision. Stimulus presentation and data collection were controlled by an IBM microcomputer running E-prime software. In experiment 1, we examined whether the IOR effect in dynamic displays was independent of the change of landmarks (objects). In experiment 2, by contrasting the response time under the two conditions: 1) no change-valid cued location and 2) change cued object-valid cued location, as an index of object-based IOR, we examined whether the object-based and location-based mechanisms can co-contributed to the IOR in dynamic displays. Results The results of experiment 1 showed that IOR was present even when the landmarks had been changed. The results of experiment 2 showed that there was no difference between no change-valid cued condition and change cued object-valid cued condition. Conclusions From the results of the present study, it appears that the landmarks changed or not has no influence on the IOR in dynamic displays (experiment 1). There is no evidence that the object-based and location-based mechanisms can co-contributed to the IOR in dynamic displays (experiment 2). In sum, the results showed that the object-based IOR in dynamic displays was resulted from the updating of the spatial inhibition rather than the object inhibition Related Articles | Metrics

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Effects of Memory Load of Brain Activation in Object Working Memory Task Luo Liang,Lin Chongde,Liu Zhaomin,Lu Yong,Li Huijie 2006, 38 (06):  805-814.  Abstract ( 2387 )   Since the mid-1990s, psychologists and cognitive neuroscientists have been investigating in the area of object working memory and have gained valuable insights into the field. However, many issues and problems still need research attention. For example, there are different views concerning the dynamic change pattern of brain activation and the brain mechanism in object working memory tasks, and how the pattern of brain activation in high-load object working memory tasks differs from that in low-load tasks. The present study aimed to make use of the spatial-temporal properties of ERP slow waves to examine the pattern of brain activation when object information with different memory load was recoded and retained in WM. Twenty volunteers (13 female and 7 male, mean age = 20.75 years) participated in the present study. None of the subjects had prior experience with the experimental task and all of the subjects were right-handed with either normal or corrected-to-normal vision. A delayed matching task was adopted. In each trial, a cue was presented on the center of the screen for 400ms, followed by a 400ms blank screen, and finally the to-be-memorized objects were displayed for 1800ms. Two (low-load condition) or four (high-load condition) objects were presented. After an inter-stimulus interval of 3000ms, the probe stimulus was presented for 1600ms. Participants had to respond within 1600ms and were instructed to respond as quickly and accurately as possible. EEG was recorded using 123 Ag/AgCl electrodes (positioned according to the international 10-20 system). The resulting ERPs time locked from the onset of the target stimulus to the probe stimulus were computed for each participant at all recording sites. Each condition was computed separately. Repeated-measures ANOVA was performed. The results showed that slow cortical potentials of the high-memory-load task were more negative than that of the low-memory-load task in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (the effect was found between 700 to 1400ms after the display of the stimulus), and that slow cortical potentials of the low-memory-load task were more negative than that of the high-memory-load task in the left frontal (500-1800ms), left fronto-central (700-1800ms), left centro-parietal (1000-1800ms and 1800-4800ms), right frontal (1800 - 4800ms), and right fronto-central (1400-4800ms) regions. These results suggest that (1) the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) may be responsible for the maintenance and rehearsal of object information and (2) the effects of memory load may be different for the two hemispheres Related Articles | Metrics

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The Time Course and Source Location of Category Induction: Electrophysiological Evidence from ERP Chen Antao,Wang Naiyi,LI Hong,Liu Qiang,Feng Ting 2006, 38 (06):  815-823.  Abstract ( 2448 )   Category induction is a process of forming classification criterion. It involves abstraction of common features from limited samples of a specific category and turning the common features into a criterion characterizing this category. The common features provide a basis to judge whether a new stimulus can be classified into the category. Therefore, category induction is a prerequisite of classification processing, and a process of obtaining concepts and rules as well, occupying a primary position in human learning and knowledge acquirement. The event-related potential (ERP) was used to investigate the neural correlation of category induction, with geometric stimuli’s comparison as experimental task. The present study developed Bigman and Pratt’s (2004) study in the following ways: first, the successive presentation of S1 and S2 was changed to simultaneous presentation in order to eliminate the impact of the working memory load so that the meanings of related ERP components be clearer; second, with the limitation of its variation being considered, the size dimension was replaced with stripe orientation dimension, and the number of levels was changed from 3 to 4 to increase the range of feature variation; and third, a “non-induction” condition was designed, where S1 and S2 were identical, and the participants were also required to search common features. The EEG was recorded from 64 scalp sites using tin electrodes mounted in an elastic cap (BrainProduct Inc.), with the averaged reference on the left and right mastoids, and a ground electrode (GND) was placed on the medial aspect of the frontal (on the middle line, between Fz and Fcz). The ERP waves under three conditions were overlapped and averaged respectively. Brain Electrical Source Analysis program (BESA, Version, 5.0, Software) was used to perform dipole source analysis. For dipole source analysis, the four-shell ellipsoidal head model was used. In order to focus on the scalp electrical activity related to the processing of pure induction processes effect, the averaged ERPs evoked by the “non-induction” condition were subtracted from the ERPs evoked by the two “induction” conditions respectively, and two difference waves were obtained accordingly (S1F-S3F and S2F-S3F). Principal component analysis (PCA) was employed in the interval from 400 to 650 ms in order to estimate the minimum number of dipoles. When the dipole points are determined, software will automatically determine the dipoles location. The relevant residual variance criterion was used. Two difference waves were obtained through subtracting S3F from S1F and subtracting S3F from S2F. In the time window of 400 and 650 ms, three conditions elicited obvious LPC component, and the topographies indicated that the components activated mainly over central-parietal scalp region. There was no significant difference between two “induction” conditions, but there were significant differences both between two “induction” conditions and “non-induction” condition. Dipole source analysis (BESA 5) of two difference waves (S1F-S3F and S2F-S3F) indicated that there was only one dipole source under each difference wave, and the two dipole sources were located similarly (both were located approximately in hippocampus). It is known that hippocampus is related to the formation of novel connection, therefore the LPC may reflect the key process of category induction: formation of novel connection Related Articles | Metrics

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A Comparative Study of Two Types of Category Learning：Classification and Inference Learning Liu Zhiya,Mo Lei 2006, 38 (06):  824-832.  Abstract ( 2277 )   In this article, we compare classification learning with inference learning. In the inference task, participants predict the value of a missing feature of an item given its category label and other feature values. In the classification task, participants predict the category label of an item given its feature values. Yamauchi and Markman (1998, 2000, 2002) showed that these two types of learning did not result in the learning of equivalent knowledge. Categories defined by a family resemblance structure were more easily learned by inference learning than by classification learning, whereas categories defined by a nonlinearly separable structure were more easily learned by classification learning than by inference learning. Chin-Parker and Ross (2002, 2004) found that Classification learners were highly sensitive to diagnostic features but not sensitive to nondiagnostic, prototypical features. Inference learners were less sensitive to the diagnostic features than were classification learners and were also sensitive to the nondiagnostic, prototypical features. In the current experiments, we examined the sensitivity of classification and inference learners to another critical type of category information- feature correlation information. We further systematically explored the two learning tasks that might lead to differential learning efficiency, strategy and outcome. Method As Chin-Parker & Ross (2002，2004) pointed out, Yamauchi & Markman ignored irrelative transfer effects in their 1988 study and used less learning exemplars in their 2002 study. We improved Yamauchi & Markman’s experiment (2002) by designing 10 learning exemplars and 3/5 prototypical typicality category structure, using learning-transfer task paradigm and feature category detecting method. We explored the category feature correlation processing in different way in classification and inference learning. One hundred and forty-four volunteers, who took an introductory psychology course for partial credit at South China University of Technology, took part in the experiments (ninety-six for other two complementary experiments). Results For participants who reached the 90% learning criterion, we found that those in the inference learning condition (M = 34.33) were required significantly more blocks than those in the classification learning condition (M = 17.84). For participants given classification learning, we found that they classified transfer stimuli A6~A7 more accurately than they did the transfer stimuli B6~B7. In contrast, participants given inference learning did not show this trend. The study also showed that classification learning was better than inference learning to catch the category prototype. At inference transfer phase, classification learners were more likely to infer the absent feature as the prototypical feature than inference learner did. At single feature classifying, classification learners showed more accurately than inference learner did. Conclusions Inference learning was easier than classification learning with accepting feature correlation information; classification learning was more efficient than inference learning in reaching the learning criterion and switching strategies. Classification learning was better than inference learning in integrating prototype although classification learning was opt to exemplars memorizing comparing inference learning to prototype memorizing Related Articles | Metrics

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Facilitating Effect of Transparent Nested-Sets Relations on Bayesian Reasoning Shi Zifu,Zhang-Qinglin,Qiu Jiang 2006, 38 (06):  833-840.  Abstract ( 816 )   The natural frequency hypothesis proposed by Gigerenzer & Hoffrage (1995) assumed that the cognitive fallacy in Bayesian inference would be diminished when the problem was presented in frequency format instead of in probability format. The nested-sets hypothesis proposed by Mellers et al. (1999), however, thought that the natural frequency format facilitated the problem-solving because this format made the visualization of the nested relation among sets. Sloman (2003) and Gigerenzer & Hoffrage (1999) explained the facilitating effect of frequency format on problem-solving from the point of view of the concept of set. On the basis of the findings above, this study aimed to evaluate the effects of different external representation on transparent nested-sets relation, and to discuss the facilitating effect of transparent nested-sets relations on Bayesian inference. In addition, this study investigated if transparent nested-sets relations could diminish the difference on reasoning results from participants who are majored in arts or science. The present study also discussed if narrating reason could enhance participants’ meta-cognition monitoring and understanding of the nested relation in classic Bayesian inference, thereby improve their reasoning results. Two experiments were collectively conducted with totally 336 arts and science students, among whom 82 students were majored in mathematics and 86 in Chinese in the first experiment, and 83 students majored in mathematics and 85 in Chinese in the second experiment. All participants were not familiar with Bayesian inference rule. A total of 329 questionnaires were collected. A analysis of variance of the absolute value of difference between posterior probability and normal value was performed. The results indicated that: (1) there was no significant effect of one-by-one-question; (2) facilitating effect of completed tree diagram and uncompleted one on Bayesian reasoning was found by framing problem’s nested-sets relations in terms, but the effect of simple tree diagram was not significant. (3) narrating reasons inspired meta-cognition so that participants could effectively sense internal nested-sets relations by mobilizing their knowledge and schema and improved their Bayesian reasoning performances. (4) there was no significant difference between arts and science students. The results of this study supported the hypothesis that transparent nested-sets relations in task representation could improve Bayesian reasoning. It also suggests that the meta-cognition monitoring by narrating reason could mobilize foregone logic knowledge and scheme knowledge in mind and make thinking more transparent. These findings offered psychological evidence to reduce students’ short-time memory burden so as to improve teaching efficiency and students’ performance Related Articles | Metrics

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Overt Visual-Spatial Attention Shifts in Children Sui Guangyuan,Wu Yan 2006, 38 (06):  841-848.  Abstract ( 637 )   Individuals orient to information involving either overt movements of the head, eyes, or body, or covert shifts of attention whereby the head, eyes, or body remain stationary in their visual environment,. Overt orienting and covert orienting used to be accepted as independent systems. However, increased brain imaging studies have showed that they share the common brain functions. Both overt and covert attention can be endogenously or exogenously aroused. Endogenous attention was summoned by behavior goals or intentions of observer, whereas exogenous attention was deployed by salient information that appeared at the peripheral location of the observer’s visual field. Ever since Posner rendered this categories in early 1980’s, studies on endogenous and exogenous visual spatial attention shifts has been an important research field. A wealth of studies has revealed cue-validity effect, SOA effect and IOR effect in covert attention shifts. Yet little attention has been paid to overt attention shifts, despite that overt visual-spatial attention shift was more common in daily life. In order to better understand the relation between covert and overt attention shifts, performance of children’s overt attention shifts were examined. Similar effects in this two systems were expected because covert and overt shifts of attention are subserved by similar neural mechanisms. Method The cue-target paradigm was employed with a few modifications. Performances of 24 children of grade 3 and grade 6 were measured with EYELINK Ⅱ. All of the visual stimuli were presented on the white background. During the first experiment, subjects were cued by the presence of a black arrow to overtly attend to the incoming targets, and 350 ms later the target appeared at the peripheral location which may be in accordance with the cued location or not. During the second experiment, subjects were cued by the presence of a black asterisk that appeared at the peripheral location, and various intervals later the target appeared at the cued or uncued location. The task was to discriminate the color of the targets. A repeated-measured MANOVA was used to analyze the attentional effects. Results Children exhibited significant cue-validity effect under endogenous cue, with shorter response time in cue-valid trials than in cue-invalid trials, and with little difference between grades; they also showed significant cue-validity effect and SOA effect under exogenous cue. Children of grade 6 had the least response time at the shortest SOAs while the greater cue-validity effect appeared at a relatively longer SOAs in 3rd grade children. No IOR effect was found in any groups, although the response time was shorter under the cue-invalid conditions in children of grade 6, which did not reach the significance level. Conclusions These results suggested that overt attention shifts was similar with covert attention shifts for children exhibited stable cue-validity effects both in endogenous and exogenous cue conditions. The IOR effect found in covert attention shifts was absent in overt attention shifts, which indicated that overt attention shifts differed from covert attention shifts in some ways. The executing of eye movements may have contributed to this difference Related Articles | Metrics

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Cognitive Development of Distinctions Between Plants and Nonliving Objects in Terms of Reproduction in 4- To 7- Year-Olds Zhang-Lijin,Fang Fuxi 2006, 38 (06):  849-858.  Abstract ( 2363 )   The examination of younger children’s ability to distinguish living from nonliving things in terms of essential biological properties such as growth, illness, autonomous action, inheritance and reproduction is all through the primary content of the naïve theory of biology. Past studies have shown that preschool children already can acquire understandings of these biological traits, and develop ontological distinctions and coherent causal explanatory frameworks. However, these studies focused mostly on the animal-inanimate distinction, rather than the distinction between animate objects (including both animals and plants) and inanimate objects. Interpretations of these studies may also be confounded by such methodological differences as task difficulty, scoring criteria, choice of stimuli, type of data emphasized, and number of subjects used. The present study thus tried to examine younger children’s conception of plant reproduction by varying stimulus and task types so as to map out children’s development of categorical knowledge. A total of 152 4- to 7-year-olds from two kindergartens and two elementary schools in Yinchuan city participated in the study. The subjects were equally distributed in each of the two genders and in each of the four age groups. The stimuli used were realistic color photographs of plants (half with and half without visible fruits and seeds) and nonliving things. Interviews and a picture-choice task were both used to measure children’s concept of plant reproduction and their ability to distinguish plants from nonliving things. A 4 (age: 4, 5, 6, and 7 years) × 2 (plants vs. nonliving things) design was adopted. Statistically significant results were obtained for the main effects associated with the two independent variables but not for the interaction effect. Children’s understanding of nonliving things was significantly better than that of plants. Also, significant difference was found between every age group except between 5- and 6-year-olds. That is, there was rapid development from 4 to 5 years, a slow development from 5 to 6 years, and a rapid development again from 6 to 7 years. Nearly two-thirds of the 7-year-olds could appreciate the reproduction of plants by pointing out the growth cycle of “plant-seed-plant.” At the same time, they could also distinguish plants from nonliving things in terms of reproduction. The result also showed that children aged 6 could appreciate the reproduction of plants with visible fruits and seeds. It seems reasonable to conclude that 6-year-olds had a mature grasp of the reproduction of plants with visible fruits and seeds. Four conclusions may be drawn from these results. First, three levels of understanding (none, partial and good) are identifiable with 4- to 7-year-olds, with 7-year-olds being able to distinguish plants from nonliving objects in terms of reproduction. Second, it seems easier to map out the developmental potential of younger children by reducing stimulus and task difficulty, so that most of the 6-year-olds can acquire recognition of plant reproduction. Third, variations in task requirements may significantly influence the conceptual understanding in terms of plant reproduction among 5- and 6- year-olds; the same may not be true for either older or younger children. Finally, children show better cognitive performance with picture-choice tasks than interview tasks, and in plants with fruits and seeds than those without Related Articles | Metrics

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The Development of Children’s Ability of Allocation of Study Time under Different Task Orientations Liu Xiping,Fang Ge 2006, 38 (06):  859-867.  Abstract ( 1646 )   Allocation of study time is about the ability related to children’s learning strategies. There are many studies concerning children’s allocation of study time. However, the results are mixed about whether the middle age elementary school students can allocate their study time properly. Moreover, researchers have never compared the three different orientations (speed-oriented, accuracy-oriented, and speed / accuracy-oriented) in one study. The current study was conducted to explore the real rule of development of children’s ability of allocation of study time under those three conditions. Method We conducted three experiments, all focused on the three orientations separately. We adopted a 3 (age: Grade Two, Grade Four, Grade Six in Elementary School)*3 (difficulty of material: easy, average, difficult) mixed design. Participants were 72 students in Grades 2, 4 and 6 in elementary schools. The children studied Chinese paired-words (with different difficulty), in the way of experimenter-paced, and were asked to choose one of the three paired-words to learn each time. with 8 seconds per screen, the participants had three paired-words to choose. The participants were then asked to retrieve as soon as they could right after they studied. The program was designed through E-prime. The words were shown by a Dell Handbook, and time of studying was recorded by Dell as well. The Dell PC recorded the total time per item, no matter how many times the participate studied it. Finally, we analyzed those entire data with SPSS. Results The main findings are as follows. (1) The ability of allocation of study time increased with age under speed-orientation. Grade 2 children did not use the strategy, while Grade 4 and Grade 6 children did. There was a difference on RT of retrieving between Grade 4 and Grade 6, but there was no difference on accuracy of retrieving. (2) There was no difference on the performance of allocation of study time among children of different ages under accuracy-orientation. They all allocated longest time on easy items. However, there was a difference of retrieving accuracy between Grade 2 and Grade 4 children. (3) The ability of allocation of study time increased with age under speed/ accuracy-orientation. Grade 2 children did not use the strategy, while Grade 4 and Grade 6 children both did. Grade 4 children did not get better performance on retrieving accuracy although they used the strategy of allocation of study time as Grade 6 children did. Conclusions (1) There was a trend that the ability of study time allocation increased with age. (2) The orientations had produced different influences on allocation of study time among children at different ages. (3) There were 3 stages in the development of children’s ability to use strategy of study time allocation: first, without using strategy at all, second, unstable effect with using strategy, and finally, stable effect with using strategy Related Articles | Metrics

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Expectations for Autonomy, Beliefs about Parental Authority, and Parent-Adolescent Conflict and Cohesion Zhang Wenxin,Wang Meiping,Andrew-Fuligni 2006, 38 (06):  868-876.  Abstract ( 2237 )   Parent-child relationships are a classical theme in developmental psychology. Particular attention has been paid to the nature and change of parent-child relationships during adolescence in recent years. Although the literature has changed from an emphasis on inevitable estrangement to a view that the family adjusts and maintains its relationship to accommodate the increasingly mature adolescent, researchers have consistently seen that the transition into adolescence introduces certain amount of disruption into the relationship, such as small to moderate increases in conflict and declines in cohesion. Developmental psychologists believe that the changes in parent-child relationships during adolescence are instigated by adolescents’ increased sense of autonomy and independence and declined respect for parental authority. Culture may be involved in this process. Because adolescents’ beliefs about individual autonomy and parental authority vary across cultures, parent-adolescent relationships may reflect specific cultural norms and values. Despite the argument on the importance of culture for human development, however, the majority of the research has been conducted with adolescents and families in Western cultures. Research on adolescents in Mainland China has been very rare. The major purposes of the present study were to examine beliefs about individual autonomy and parental authority, parent-adolescent conflict and cohesion among contemporary urban and rural adolescents in Mainland China, and whether the associations between parent-adolescent relationships and adolescents’ beliefs about parental authority and expectations for autonomy were identical with those found among adolescents in western cultures. We administered measures of expectations of individual autonomy, beliefs about parental authority and parent-adolescent conflict and cohesion to 704 urban and rural 10th and 12th grade students in Shandong province, the people’s republic of China. The results indicated that despite the radical social and economic reforms in Chinese society, both urban and rural adolescents continued to report strong endorsement of parental authority and expectations for later personal behavioral autonomy. Compared with rural adolescents, urban adolescents possessed greater acceptance of open disagreement with parents, expectations for earlier individual autonomy, and their relationships with parents were characterized by more frequent and intense conflicts as well as lower cohesion. These results suggested that the modernization process taking place in China had a greater impact on urban adolescents than it did on rural adolescents, whereas rural adolescents were more influenced by traditional Chinese norms and values. Significant variations also emerged in adolescents’ attitudes towards parental authority, expectations for behavioral autonomy and parent-adolescent conflict and cohesion as a function of adolescent’s age and gender and parents’ gender. The associations between Chinese adolescents’ beliefs and expectations of parental authority and behavioral autonomy and parent-adolescent relationships appeared somewhat different from the patterns reported among adolescents in western cultures. These findings were discussed in terms of China’s cultural traditions and the ongoing social and economic reforms Related Articles | Metrics

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The Prediction of Protection Motivation for STD/HIV High Risk Sexual Behavior among Rural-to-urban Migrants Fang-Xiaoyi,lin Xiuyun,Lin Danhua,Li Xiaoming,Deng Linyuan 2006, 38 (06):  877-885.  Abstract ( 2356 )   With the Economy reform and innovation in China since 1980s, more and more people moved from rural areas to cities to seek opportunities. Now, there are more than 120 millions rural-to-urban migrants in China. They face many social and personal problems (such as separating from their family) in the city. Some studies reported that the migrants had more chances than non-migrants to engage in the high risk sexual behavior. The rural-to-urban migrants are becoming one of the mostly concerned targets in STD/HIV (Sexually Transmitted Disease/Human Immunodeficiency Virus) prevention in China. The Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) has been applied as an effective theoretical foundation for STD/HIV prevention in West. However, PMT has not been tested in empirical studies in China. The objective of this study was to explore the high risk sexual behaviors of STD/HIV among rural-to-urban migrants and the prediction of the protection motivation (PM) to such behaviors. We made three hypotheses. First, the rural-to-urban migrants would have many high risk sexual behaviors. Males would have more high risk sexual behaviors than females. Second, there would be a significant relation between the fatalness of the sexual behavior and PM, i.e. the higher the fatalness of the sexual behavior, the higher intrinsic rewards, extrinsic rewards, and response costs, and the lower the perceived severity, perceived vulnerability, self-efficacy and response efficacy. Third, PM would predict the migrants’ high risk sexual behaviors. Method With a self-administrated anonymous questionnaire, 2201 participants who had been working on 14 occupations in Beijing for more than 3 months were asked to report the time of their first sexual behavior, multiple sexual partners in life, and within the past month, commercial sexual behavior, sexual behavior of their sexual partners, condom using, evaluation of severity of STD/HIV in China, knowledge of STD/HIV symptom and transmission, and PM appraisal. The participants were selected based on the officially reported occupation distribution of the migrant. The participants were ask to sign an informed consent before they filled in the questionnaire, and were paid for their work after they had finished the questionnaire. Results Data analysis showed that there were 904 rural-to-urban migrants who had some sexual experiences. Further data analysis suggested that: (1) migrants had many high risk behaviors: 67.4% had sexual behavior before marriage, 31.0% having multiple sexual partners in their life and 6.8% within the past month, 9.4% had commercial sexual behavior, and males’ high risk sexual behaviors were significantly more than females’; (2) PM significantly predicted STD/HIV high risk sexual behaviors, and higher sexual risk was associated with perceptions of higher extrinsic reward, Intrinsic rewards, response costs, and lower perceived severity, perceived vulnerability, self-efficacy and response efficacy, Conclusions PM can predict all of the high risk sexual behaviors such as the condom using, taking part in commercial sexual behaviors, the first time of the sexual behavior, the number of sexual partners and sexual behaviors of the sexual partner. The results indicated that PMT might be applied as a practical theory for prevention of STD/HIV high risk sexual behaviors among rural-to-urban migrants Related Articles | Metrics

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Optimism, Pessimism and Depression: The Relations and Differences by Stress Level and Gender Tao-Shao 2006, 38 (06):  886-901.  Abstract ( 2943 )   Optimism and pessimism are two dimensions of the generalized outcome expectancies. They have been shown to play important roles in predicting depression among various populations. Whereas optimism and pessimism have been repeatedly revealed as two separate constructs, they were viewed as the bipolar opposites in many previous studies. The present study was aimed to examine if optimism and pessimism have distinct roles in depression among university students. Moreover, the moderator effects of stress level were tested to examine the vulnerability hypothesis about the role of optimism proposed in previous studies. The gender differences in the roles of optimism and pessimism were also examined. Three hundred and thirty-four students (female and male students: 167 in each group) with diverse majors from three universities in Beijing completed questionnaires about their general outcome expectancies, depression and stress. The Life Orientation Test (Scheier, & Carver, 1985) was used to measure students’ optimism and pessimism (Cronbach’α = 0.70), the Chinese version of CES-D (Radloff, 1977) was administered to measure students’ depression (Cronbach’α = 0.87), and a stress rating questionnaire was applied to measure students’ stress level (Cronbach’α = 0.84 ). The results indicated that optimism and pessimism were significantly but modestly correlated (r = -0.26, p < 0.001). Hierarchical multiple regression analysis showed that while both of them explained unique variance of depression, pessimism explained relatively greater proportion than optimism did. In addition to groups of students who scored higher than average in either optimism or pessimism and lower than average in the other dimension (percentages for the group of optimism and the group of pessimism: 35.9%, 23.4%), there were other groups of students who scored higher than average (19.8%) or lower than average (21%) in both optimism and pessimism. MANOVA further revealed significant group differences in stress and depression. Stress level moderated the relation between optimism and depression in a way that the protective effect of optimism became more salient with increasing stress level. Gender moderated the relation between pessimism and depression to some extent. When stress level was included into the predictive model as a covariate, the negative effect of pessimism was much stronger among male students. Taken these results together, optimism and pessimism are two related but distinct dimensions of general outcome expectancies, and have different roles in depression. The protective roles of optimism tend to be more important for students with higher stress level, and the destructive roles of pessimism tend to increase for male students with higher level of stress. The vulnerability hypothesis about the role of optimism was not supported Related Articles | Metrics

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Pancultural Self-Esteem——Evidence from China Cai-Huajian 2006, 38 (06):  902-909.  Abstract ( 858 )   The long-held view that self-esteem is pancultural has been challenged in the past decade. One of the main reasons is the repeatedly revealed low self-esteem among people from collectivistic culture. With regard to the causes of low self-esteem in collectivistic culture, two arguments have been proposed. One argues that people in collectivistic culture do not have the need to pursue self-esteem or have a weaker need than westerners due to interdependent culture (Heine, Lehman , Markus, Kitayama, 1999). The other acknowledges the cultural differences in self-esteem, but they do not think that people in Eastern culture lack the need of self-esteem and it is modesty that leads to Easterner’s low self-esteem because Eastern culture values modesty very much (Brown, 2003). However, almost all related evidence was based on explicit self-report measures that are sensitive to social desirability and unable to tap implicit processes. The present research aims to examine whether people in collectivistic culture exhibit self-esteem while self-presentation is minimized and while implicit self-esteem is allowed to manifest by using subliminal evaluative priming procedure that is totally free of self-presentation (Nosek, 2002). The expectation is that when effects of self-representation are removed, Easterners would exhibit self-esteem implicitly. Method 123 college students from East China Normal University in Shanghai participated in the experiments as volunteers. A 2 (priming type: ‘I’ vs. ‘he/she’)*2 (target valence: positive vs. negative)*2 (target type: attributes vs. non-attributes) within-subjects design was employed. All participants completed the computerized tasks in separated cubicles on computer with a refreshment frequency of 72Hz. They were presented a pre-mask stimulus for 56ms (4 frame) first, then priming stimulus for 42 ms, then post-mask stimulus for 56ms, and finally the target stimulus. The participants were required to respond to the positive and negative target stimuli with key ‘E’ and ‘I’ respectively as soon as possible with the least errors. The dependent variable was reaction time. Data from 3 participants were discarded after preliminary data analysis due to high error rates (higher than 20%). Results Repeated measure ANOVA revealed a significant two-way interaction between priming type and target valence, F(1,119)=24.16， p<0.001. Students responded faster to positive targets than to negative ones when primed with ‘I’, t(1,119)=6.92，p=<0.001， M1=534.59， M2=516.64. However, when primed with ‘he/she’, students responded at the similar speed to positive and negative targets, t(1,119)=-1.08， p=.28, M1=531.79， M2=535.32 . These findings suggest that Chinese college students possess self-esteem at implicit level. The three-way interaction was not significant, F(1,119)=2.50， p>0.05, which indicated Chinese college students associated self with positive stimuli implicitly no matter the stimuli are attributes or not, providing convergent evidence that self-esteem is alive among Chinese. In summary, the results demonstrate that Chinese college students exhibit self-esteem when self-presentation is minimized and implicit self-evaluation is allowed to manifest. Conclusion By employing subliminal evaluative priming procedure that is free of self-presentation, the present research provides compelling evidence that people’s self-esteem in the collectivism culture manifest pronouncedly at implicit level when self-presentation is minimized, supporting that self-esteem is pancultural Related Articles | Metrics

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Explicit and Implicit Measures of Intimate Relationships and Their Association Zhang Hong,Wang Dengfeng,Yang Ye 2006, 38 (06):  910-915.  Abstract ( 2650 )   Following Fei’s Differential Pattern of interpersonal closeness, closeness is defined as the psychological distance from the target person to the self. There are two types of closeness. Besides explicit closeness, which can be measured through introspection, a structure of “implicit closeness” is also presented by social psychologists to tap into the “auto-activated”, or “out of consciousness” side of closeness. Its theoretical significance notwithstanding, the Differential Pattern has rarely been subject to empirical study. The results of the few studies, though lending some support to the structure, need to be replicated to establish their validity. Furthermore, to our knowledge, there is no previous research that examined implicit and explicit blood relationship, romantic relationship and friendship simultaneously. The current study was designed to fill in this gap. In this study, the differences and associations between explicit and implicit closeness of the most intimate family member (blood relationship), lover (romantic relationship) and the most intimate friend (friendship) were investigated. Explicit closeness was measured by direct ordering and the Inclusion of Other in the Self (IOS) scale, while implicit closeness was measured by Implicit Association Test (IAT). It was within-subjects designed, with all the participants finishing the implicit and explicit measures of all three relationships. In addition to the two explicit measures, each participant also finished seven IATs, three of which compared the self to the three target figures, the other three compared the three target figures to a general other, and the last one compared self to a general other. The results indicated that a) There were significant differences between explicit closeness across the three targets. Specifically, family members were the closest, followed by romantic partner, and friend came the last. However, no differences existed in their implicit closeness; b) No significant correlation was found between explicit and implicit closeness; c) Gender differences were not significant in explicit measures. For implicit measures, males felt closer to lovers than females. A rough Differential Pattern can be drawn from this study. The differences found between implicit and explicit measures might arise from the different nature of the cognitive underpinnings of the two types of closeness. These findings suggest potential usefulness of IAT as indirect measure of closeness. Future research should select more points from the continuum of closeness, such as general family member, classmates, and acquaintances in order to examine more thoroughly the Differential Pattern Related Articles | Metrics

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Concept Analysis on Meanings of Self-Supporting in Ancient Books Xia Lingxiang,Huang Xiting 2006, 38 (06):  916-923.  Abstract ( 498 )   Self-supporting（自立） is an old concept in Chinese culture and regarded as the prime of Chinese national spirit. Self-supporting has been viewed as an important character or moral quality. From the perspective of personality psychology, it can be regard as a personality construct. The meaning of self-supporting was not always clear. Sometimes it was equated to the Western concepts such as autonomy and independence. The present study aimed to clarify the meaning of self-supporting in ancient Chinese books and compared it with the West concepts such as autonomy and independence. The method of concept analysis was applied to 200 ancient Chinese books, including 199 electronic ancient books and a papery ancient book that contain the words. Using various approaches, this study attempted to identify the meaning of self-supporting in these ancient books. The results showed that：（1）The keyword of self-supporting（自立） appeared in 98 out of 200 ancient books examined. （2）Self-supporting was used in ancient books to connote individual self-supporting, materials self-supporting, self-supporting relative to others, and nation self-supporting, each of which also included many other specific meanings. （3）The personality features of self-supporting described in ancient books could be categorized as initiative, independence, morality and others. This paper also discussed the essence of individual self-supporting and the structure of self-supporting personality in ancient books. It also discussed advantages and limitations of this research. The results generated from this study suggest that：（1）individual self-supporting was the major aspect of self-supporting; it was a complex concept in ancient books. Cultivating by oneself and establishing oneself were two basic meanings of individual self-supporting. （2）Self-supporting was both a personality trait and a way in which personality is shaped. （3）Emphasizing morality and interpersonal connection were the key difference between Chinese self-supporting and Western concepts of autonomy and independence Related Articles | Metrics

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Advertising Persuasion for Brand Extension: Revising the Dual Mediation Model Huang Jinsong,Zhao Ping 2006, 38 (06):  924-933.  Abstract ( 1129 )   Most new products were introduced to the market by way of brand extension. It seems important for researchers and practitioners to understand how and why advertising for brand extension works. However, past advertising research mostly used fictitious brands as experimental materials. Because little attention had been given to advertising for brand extensions, the process by which advertising may impact attitude change of extended brands was largely ignored, and the influences of brand familiarity were seldom considered in the traditional persuasive hierarchy models. Furthermore, some research studies indicated that advertising for familiar brands may not work in the same way as advertising for unfamiliar brands, suggesting that research on familiar brands’ advertising has significant theoretical and practical meaning. The purpose of the present study was to modify a dual mediation model (DMM) and to use the model to examine the effects of advertising for brand extensions. DMM, which derives from cognitive response theories, is a kind of persuasive hierarchy causal model. In the past 20 years, researchers using DMM have found the model to “best” fit the data in several experiments. However, most of these examinations used unfamiliar brands only. In the present study, we extended DMM into familiar brands and employed prior brand attitudes as exogenous variables. Five hundred sixty-four students at three Chinese universities participated in three studies. The experimental brand and advertising were selected according to whether or not brand extension was executed. In the main experiment, subjects were first asked to evaluate the experimental brand. Subjects were then exposed to the advertising stimuli and were finally asked to complete the following measures: attitudes toward advertising (Aad), advertising cognitive responses (Cad), brand cognitive responses (Cb), post-exposure brand attitudes (Ab) and purchase intention (Pi). In order to examine the internal validity of this pretest-posttest design, we conducted another no treatment pretest-posttest experiment. A replication study about another established brand was also carried out to examine the external validity of the results. This cross-validation procedures supported the conclusion that the extended model is invariant across different brands. The experiments yielded three sets of findings. First, prior brand attitudes (PAb), which integrated the cumulated marketing efforts, had a significant impact on Cad, Cb and Ab. The implication is that, when researchers investigate the psychological constructs that occur as a result of familiar brands’ advertising exposure, PAb should not be ignored for it contributes to the formation of Aad and Ab. The results also showed that the effectiveness of extended brands’ advertising relied on whether or not consumers favored the brand. Second, the formation of Aad was a direct function of Cad and was an indirect function of PAb. This finding indicates that favorable prior attitude brings about strong attention to processes that help to form Aad and increases advertising effectiveness. Third, similar to DMM, Aad had a direct as well as an indirect effect on Ab through the mediating influence of Cb. Our findings were different from previous findings in that the direct effect of Aad on Ab was less than that yielded by unfamiliar brands. Our findings were also different from those of previous research in other ways that carry theoretical and practical implications. These findings are potentially relevant for brand managers and advertising managers who are concerned with the impact of advertising. The findings are also of particular interest to marketing researchers who study the psychological constructs of advertising as well as to those who wish to explore the marketing implications of brand extensions Related Articles | Metrics

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The Development of the Item Bank of Graphic Deductive Test Based on Item Response Theory Xiao Wei,Miao Danmin,Zhu Ningning,Zhang Qinghua 2006, 38 (06):  934-940.  Abstract ( 1206 )   With the application of high-tech weapons in the military arena and the changes in the pattern of warfare, the future high-tech local wars require much more of soldier’s psychological qualifications. In order to improve the quality of the Chinese soldiers, it is vitally important and also necessary to add psychological measurement system to the physical examination of the enlisted men. The history of military personnel psychological selection shows constructing such system is historical development trend. The Psychological Selection System (Version 1.0) is soldier’s qualification test. The objective of the test is to eliminate recruited young men with low intelligence. The content includes: Chinese Vocabulary Reasoning Test (CVRT), Number Operation Test (NOT) and Digital Search Test (DST). Version 2 needs to add nonverbal test to measure pattern-recognition and spatial reasoning. Method 235 graphic deductive items imitating Combined Raven’s Test (CRT) were developed and administered to 1,733 males with different education levels -- junior high school, senior high school, technical secondary school, freshman and sophomore. Using Anchor-Test design, the participants were divided into 5 groups. The 235 items were divided into 4 tests. The CRT was used as test 5 while the 72 CRT items were distributed to the 4 tests as anchor items. The items were calibrated using BILOG-MG3.0 (Marginal maximum likelihood estimation and three-parameter logistic model). The scale of test 5 (CRT) serves as the reference in the calibration. The items were then deleted if their data-model fitness were not good or the maximum information were less than 0.3. The Cronbach’s alpha and information of each item were calculated for testing reliability. Correlation coefficients between ability of subjects and their scholastic performance were used as criterion-related validity. Results The item bank with 181 items were established with a maximum information between 0.30 and 1.13. Based on the location of maximum information, 181 items were divided into 4 groups: <-2.5(32 items), ≤-2.5 and ≤-1.5(79 items), -1.5< and ≤1.5(69 items), and >1.5(1 items). This means that the item bank can only be used to estimate the subjects whose ability are low, but it is not suitable for measuring high ability subjects. The cutoff scores for candidate of conscription was confirmed at -1.64 based on 5% elimination rate. The reliability and validity for low ability person are satisfactory. Conclusions Subjects’ performance on graphic deductive test was affected by education level and by the characteristics of the item. Item contents were found to be difficult to remember and to describe, which suggests that they are good for personnel selection. The degree of difficulty of the items was affected mainly by the number of the principles being used in reasoning process. The item bank have satisfactory reliability and validity for individuals with low ability, rendering it fit for being used for elimination of low ability individuals in recruitment Related Articles | Metrics

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Acta Psychologica Sinica 2006 Vol.38 Totle Contents 2006, 38 (06):  941-947.  Abstract ( 1416 )   Related Articles | Metrics

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Thanks to reviewers 2006, 38 (06):  948-948.  Abstract ( 1404 )   Related Articles | Metrics