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The role of feature and spatial location in value-driven attentional capture BAI Xuejun, LIU Li, SONG Juan, GUO Zhiying 2016, 48 (11):  1357-1369.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2016.01357 Abstract ( 1711 )   PDF (741KB) ( 41 )   When stimuli are associated with reward outcome, their visual features will acquire high attentional priority such that stimuli possessing those features can involuntarily capture attention. This phenomenon is called value-driven attentional capture. The results from Anderson’s (2014) study demonstrated that when a color feature was associated with a reward outcome in one spatial location but not another, attention can be captured only when the color feature appeared in the rewarded location. However, it is thought that Anderson’s experimental design did not involve the condition that color associated with high reward appeared in a neutral location in the test phase. The present study explored the role of feature and spatial location in value-driven attentional capture by designing the neutral location condition, using a training-testing paradigm. Experiment 1 was designed to test whether color stimuli presented in the specific spatial location can capture attention via reward-based learning or not. In the training phase, red targets appeared at four of eight possible stimulus positions; the number of appearance of each position was equal. For example, correct responses were accompanied by a higher reward when the targets appeared at the upper left or lower left position and accompanied by a lower reward when the targets appeared at the upper right or lower right positions. The other four positions were neutral locations, and no target appeared at those positions. In the test phase, the red stimulus was presented as distractor. It was found that when the red stimulus was presented at the position associated with higher-reward or at a neutral position between the two high-reward positions, attention can be captured. However, when it was presented at the position associated with lower-reward or other neutral positions, attention can not be captured. Experiment 2 was designed to test the interaction effects of color feature and spatial location in value-driven attentional capture. In the training phase, for example, correct responses were accompanied by higher rewards when red targets appeared at the upper left or lower left position, and were accompanied by lower rewards when green targets appeared at the upper right or lower right position. In the test phase, red or green stimuli were presented as distractors. The result showed when a higher-reward color stimulus appeared at the position associated with higher-reward or at a neutral position between the two high reward positions, attention could be captured. However, when it appeared at a position associated with lower-reward or other neutral positions, attention can not be captured; When a lower-reward color stimulus appear at a position associated with higher-reward or other positions, attention can not be captured. The present findings demonstrated that (1) the effect of attentional capture by specific spatial location associated with higher-reward showed some degree of generalization; (2) the participant’s study integration information (color and location) in the training phase cannot be generalized to partial features (e.g. independent color feature); (3) the generalization of value-driven attentional capture was selective. Related Articles | Metrics

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The mechanism of the effect of task setting on negative compatibility effect: The effect of top-down cognition control on subliminal prime processing WANG Jiaying, JIAO Runkai, ZHANG Ming 2016, 48 (11):  1370-1378.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2016.01370 Abstract ( 985 )   PDF (1154KB) ( 71 )   Negative Compatibility Effect (NCE) is the surprising result that the masked prime arrows inhibit the responses to compatible target arrows and facilitate the responses to opposite target arrows when the prime-target Inter-Stimulus-Interval (ISI) is between 100ms and 150ms in the masked prime paradigm. The theoretical argument is mainly about whether the origin of NCE is perceptual or reactive. But almost all the theories considered that subliminal information processing was automatic and can not be regulated by top-down cognition control process. However, recent studies showed that NCE can be affected by task setting, which is considered as a Top-down cognitive control processing. How does the task setting affect NCE? The Effect of top-down cognitive control on NCE might happen at the subliminal prime information processing stage or at the reaction stage. Therefore, this study manipulated task setting to explore the mechanism of the effect of top-down cognitive control processes on NCE. The research combined masked prime paradigm and Go-NoGo paradigm to investigate the effects and mechanism of task setting on NCE. Eighteen students participated in the study. The experiment adopted classical NCE procedure and stimulus. Primes were double arrows pointed either to left or right, the mask was composed of two double arrows (one pointed to the left and other to the right). Targets were characters or double arrows in Go condition, either compatible or incompatible to the prime. Participants were instructed to response to the arrows or the characters by pressing the left or right arrow keys on keyboard in Go condition. There’s no target in NoGo condition. Reaction times and accuracies were analyzed with a 2 (compatibility) × 2 (task setting) analyses of variance (ANOVA). Behavior data showed that the main effects of compatibility and task setting and the interaction between them were significant. Further analyses on interaction showed that NCE was significant only in the arrow target condition, in which prime is related to task setting and there was no significant effect in the character target condition, in which prime is not related to task setting. ERP waveform analyses revealed that P3 latency is longer in compatibility condition than in incompatibility condition only when the targets were arrows, which means that P3 is only longer in the compatibility condition when prime is related to the task setting in the Go trials. Mean amplitude of P3 has a significant difference between arrow target condition and character target condition in the NoGo trials. The results suggest that task setting has effect on the NCE through the top-down cognition control process. The cognitive control system regulates the top-down cognitive process according to the task requirements, which impacts on the subliminal prime information processing. Related Articles | Metrics

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Rotated self-face recognition: Evidence from ERPs ZHONG Yiping, LI Jin, ZHAN Youlong, FAN Wei, YANG Zilu 2016, 48 (11):  1379-1389.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2016.01379 Abstract ( 1789 )   PDF (704KB) ( 182 )   Previous studies showed that the angles of rotation could influence the face recognition. And the “self-face advantage”, refers to individuals respond to self-face faster than other’s face and self-face induce larger amplitudes than other’s face, is an important content in face recognition. And how picture plane rotation angles influence “self-face advantage”, and how the rotated self-face recognition performs in brain is unclear. In the present study, we adopted the Event related potential technology to investigate the temporal processing of the influence of picture plane rotation angles on “self-face advantage”. The study was a 2 (Face type: self-face VS face of other ) × 2 (Angles of rotation: 0°, 90°, 180°) within groups design. We used the same- different face-matching judgment task, 20 participants were asked to judge whether or not two successive faces represented the same person: The first face (the probe stimulus) was the participant’s self-face or an acquaintance’s face presented upright, and the second face (the target stimulus) was a self-face or an acquaintance’s face which was rotated to a certain angle (0°, 90°, 180°), and the response times and the components of ERPs were recorded. The results of ERP showed that there was a main effect of angles of rotation, and the target stimulus elicited larger N170 (180~240 ms) amplitudes under rotated to 90°, 180° than rotated to 0° condition in occipito-temporal area. And there was a main effect of angles of rotation, and the target stimulus elicited larger N2 (240~300 ms) amplitudes under rotated to 90°, 180° than rotated to 0° condition. And for the component of LPP (400~500 ms),there was a significant interaction between Face type and Angles of rotation. Furthermore, for self-face, there was a significant difference among 0°, 90° and 180°. However, for other’s face, there was no significant difference among three conditions. Our results indicate human brains decoded the facial configurational information automatically in earlier stage. In the later stage, individual will process facial identify information elaborately, and self-face can occupy the limited cognitive resource to operate the mental rotation. Thus, the self-face advantage can be regulated by the angles of rotation in the picture plane. Related Articles | Metrics

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The effects of category consistency and neighborhood size of the semantic radical on the semantic processing of Chinese character WANGJuan; ZHANG Jijia 2016, 48 (11):  1390-1400.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2016.01390 Abstract ( 812 )   Semantic radical is an important component in a phonetic compound character which is related to the meaning of the whole character. Characters sharing the same semantic radical comprise the semantic radicals family. The difference induced by the neighborhood size of semantic radicals is called the semantic radicals neighborhood effect. The semantic radicals’ category consistency is also important in processing Chinese characters. Two kinds of consistency effects were included. One of them is the category consistency on word level, indicating the consistency between a category denoted by the semantic radical and a category denoted by the whole word; The other one is category consistency on category level, indicating whether family members of semantic radicals have a very close category. Previous studies have found both the consistency effect and the neighborhood effect of semantic radicals. However, divergence is still existed among these conclusions. It is unknown whether the neighborhood size effect of semantic radicals is adjusted by the category consistency, and whether processing a character is influenced by the family consistency of semantic radicals. The present study was designed to address these questions. Two behavioral experiments and one eye movement experiment were conducted in this study. In Experiment 1, 22 undergraduates were recruited and a 2 (neighborhood size: large, small) × 4 (priming condition：R+S+, R−S+, R+S−, R−S−) design was used. The materials included 128 word stimulus pairs; each condition has 16 word stimulus pairs. Participants were asked to judge the semantic category consistency between two successive words fast and accurately. In Experiment 2, 30 undergraduates were recruited and the same design with Experiment 1 was adopted. After one word was presented in the uppermiddle of the screen, four words were presented below the first word. Participants were then asked to choose two words consistent with the meaning of the first word. The selection proportion and eye movement data including the dwell time, fixation counts, and the first fixation index were also recorded. In Experiment 3, 23 undergraduates were recruited and a 2 (family consistency degree of semantic radical: high, low) × 2 (category consistency between semantic radical and whole word: consistency, non-consistency) experimental design was used. The materials included 72 word stimulus and participants were asked to judge the consistency between the semantic radical and the whole word. Behavioral and eye movement data were analyzed. Word-pairs relation effect was found. The reaction time of R+S+ was shorter than R−S+, while the reaction time of R+S− was longer than R−S−. Differences in relation condition were found in dwell time and fixation counts. Interaction effects were found between the neighborhood size and category consistency. Characters with a large neighborhood size had a higher error rate on the R+S− condition, while characters with a small neighborhood size had a higher error rate on the R+S+ condition; The characters with a large neighborhood size had a higher selection proportion than the small one on the condition of R+S−. Eye movements data showed that Chinese characters with a large neighborhood size were focused earlier on the R−S− condition. In Experiment 3, for transparency words, the higher of the family semantic radical consistency degree, the reaction time was shorter and the error rate was lower; For opaque words, the higher of the semantic radical consistency degree, the error rate was higher. Results indicated that processing a phonetic compound character were influenced by the category consistency on word level, category consistency on category level, and the neighborhood size of semantic radical. The role of semantic radicals’ family characteristics was adjusted by the category consistency on word level. A new model about the semantic radical influencing on the process of the semantic category was proposed. Related Articles | Metrics

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Cross-language repetition priming effect of semantic access for trilinguals LI Li; ZHANG Yang; LI Xuan; GUO Hongting; WU Limei; WANG Ruiming 2016, 48 (11):  1401-1409.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2016.01401 Abstract ( 1101 )   In recent years, how to relate the lexical representation and conceptual representation of third language words what were studied newly of trilinguals, namely the semantic access of trilinguals, has raised great attention among researchers. Existing studies show that in the processing of achieving the task of word recognition, all the three languages of the trilinguals will be activated. Therefore, when acquiring the third language, the existing conceptual representation systems of the first and second languages of learners may become a potential source of influence or disturbance for learning. For this reason, the semantic access of trilinguals is the key issue to be studied. The present study discusses the semantic access mechanism of trilinguals using the task of cross-language repetition priming. The participants are 48 international students from Indonesia who are studying Chinese in Guangzhou. The independent variable is learning conditions (learned, never learned), the dependent variables are the reaction time and accuracy of word judgment. Experiment 1 discusses whether the equivalent words in first language will play a role as intermediary language in the semantic access of third language words presented visually and aurally; Experiment 2 discusses whether the trilinguals will resort to equivalent word in second language in the semantic access of third language vocabulary presented visually and aurally. The result of Experiment 1 shows that first language words plays a role as intermediary language in both the visual understanding and aural understanding of third language words, and this role is not restricted by visual channel or aural channel. The result of Experiment 2 shows that in the semantic task of visual presentation, the word of second language will play a role as intermediary language in the semantic access of third language; however in the semantic task of aural presentation, the equivalent words of second language don’t have the function of intermediary. In conclusion, the words of first language play a role as intermediary in the semantic access of third language, however the words of second language have a limited intermediary function in the semantic access. The result of this study shows the semantic access mechanism of a trilinguals is complicated in a totally different way comparing with that of a bilingual. Related Articles | Metrics

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The neural signs of categorization and property inferences during verbal category-based properties induction LI Jing; CHEN Antao; CHEN Jie; LONG Changquan 2016, 48 (11):  1410-1422.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2016.01410 Abstract ( 882 )   Category-based property induction involves in at least two processes, namely, categorization and property inferences. Previous ERP studies in figural category-based induction only focused on categorization, could not generalize their findings to semantic induction. The studies in semantic category-based properties induction failed to acquire ERP parameters related to categorization and property inferences respectively due to their experimental designs where their non-inductive condition contained unrelated categories with consistent properties or related conclusion categories with inconsistent properties. What’s more, in these ERP studies on semantic category-based induction, the conclusion categories and conclusion properties were presented simultaneously in previous studies, which involved complex comparison that was not helpful to explore the ERP responses to category-related and property-related processes clearly. Therefore, this study was aimed to find distinct ERP characteristics between categorization and property inferences during verbal category-based property induction. The present study employed ERPs and adopted single-premise verbal category-based property induction. Thirty-four undergraduates participated in this experiment, they were presented with premise stimuli including category and property first, next conclusion category (category-presenting stage) and conclusion property (property-presenting stage) would be presented separately. Experimental premise and conclusion stimuli in tasks composed with specific categories and blank properties including capital letters plus Arabic numeral (e.g. premise: 苹果 X1 (apple X1)), which represented the category item has the blank property. (e.g. apple has property X1). In the experiment, premises involving premise categories and premise properties were presented firstly (apple X1), and then conclusion categories involving related (e.g., pear) and unrelated categories (e.g., rose) were presented (categorization stage); Finally, the conclusion properties involving consistent (e.g., X1?) and inconsistent properties (e.g., B3?) were presented with question mark (properties stage). Participants were required to make response in property-presenting stage to judge whether this conclusion based on premise stimuli was acceptable or not. In the categorization stage, the results found compared to related categories, unrelated categories elicited greater N400 that indicated N400 is closely related to the processing of semantic categorization; In the properties stage, consistent property elicited smaller frontal N2 than that did by inconsistent property regardless of conclusion category condition, which suggested that N2 is associated with mismatch of perceptual property or multi-dimensional rule inconsistence. What’s more, consistent property elicited greater P3a than inconsistent property at the frontal brain region during 300~400 ms regardless of conclusion category condition, which provided that attention transfer or allocation with unconsciousness could be attribute to the activation of P3a. Meanwhile, at the parietal brain region, consistent properties elicited greater P3b than inconsistent properties under related conclusion categories, which indicated that P3b has a link with the degree of expectation in reasoning. The present study also found on the properties stage, inconsistent properties yielded a greater P600-like component than consistent properties at parietal brain region during 400~600 ms under related conclusion categories, which showed that P600-like LPC400–600 is related to the violation of rule-based logical inference. Therefore, The ERP responses to categorization and properties inferences were dissociated in this study. Besides, previous studies mainly employed explicit paradigm (e.g. semantic categorization task) or implicit paradigm (e.g. semantic priming paradigm) in ERP studies on semantic categorization, category-based property induction employed in this study to uncover ERP characteristics of categorization is beneficial for extending findings in this field. Related Articles | Metrics

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The mechanism of emotional contagion ZHANG Qiyong, CHEN Chenghui, LU Jiamei, ZHANG Pengcheng 2016, 48 (11):  1423-1433.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2016.01423 Abstract ( 3411 )   PDF (854KB) ( 419 )   According to the theory of primitive emotional contagion, emotional contagion is a psychological process of physiology eliciting emotion, which consists of the following courses: emotional awareness –> unconscious mimicry –> physiological feedback –> emotional experience. As early as 1884, William James and Carl Lange put forward a same periphery-feedback theory of emotion, which depicted a close relationship between physiological change and emotional change. Unfortunately, it described neither the mechanism from stimuli events to peripheral physiological change, nor the internal link between physiological feedback and emotional arousal. The above two issues could be resolved by research on the mechanism of emotional contagion. To prove the mechanism, we opened up recruitment to 62 college students as available participants in the following experiments. (1) In the eye movement experiment, International Affective Picture System was employed as sensorial emotional information to explore perceiver’s level of emotional awareness. All participants were distinguished into high and low score group by E-prime experiment of emotional awareness. Then Hi-speed eye tracker was used to study fixation time in area of interest (AOI) in two groups. The results showed that there were significant differences in relative fixation time (%) between high and low score group. (2) In the biological feedback experiment, we played teaching videos, as sensorial emotional information, to students through a real-time simulation during the experiment, which aimed to explore participants’ level of unconscious mimicry and physiologic feedback. The two physiological indices, facial electromyographic (EMG) and frontal EMG, were used to reflect the level of unconscious mimicry. The other two indices, Blood Volume Pulse (BVP) and Resistance from Skin Conductance (SCR), were employed to measure the extent of physiological feedback or emotional arousal. The Emotional Contagion Scale, a subjective experience scale, was put into use to infer the extent of participants’ emotional experience. The above indices could be confirmed with each other, not contradictory, in the final consequences. Significant differences were found in the above indices between high and low score group (p < 0.05 or p < 0.01). (3) The relative fixation time (%) in AOI was used as participants’ awareness index, the rate of change in facial EMG (ΔE) as unconscious-mimicry index, the rate of change in BVP amplitude as physiological-feedback index, the score on The Emotional Contagion Scale as estimate of participants’ emotional experience. Finally, path analysis was employed to confirm the mechanism of emotional contagion. Emotional contagion begins with a perceiver mimicking the other’s expression, which elicits the mimic’s physiological reaction in the specific circumstances. If the perceiver’s peripheral physiological change was cut off from the specific circumstances, his/her emotional experience would not come up. In a word, only when an individual is exposed under certain circumstances will physiological reaction arouse emotional experience. Related Articles | Metrics

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The reciprocal relationship between morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge among Chinese children: A longitudinal study ZHAO Ying; CHENG Yahua; WU Xinchun; NGUYEN Thi Phuong 2016, 48 (11):  1434-1444.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2016.01434 Abstract ( 1066 )   Vocabulary knowledge develops rapidly in elementary school years and plays an important role in children’s reading comprehension and school achievement. Instruction alone is not sufficient to explain the variance in vocabulary acquisition. Cognitive and linguistic skills may make considerable contribution to the development of vocabulary knowledge. As a form of metalinguistic awareness, morphological awareness, defined as “children’s conscious awareness of the morphemic structure of words and the ability to reflect on and manipulate that structure”, is closely related to vocabulary knowledge. The structure system of morphological awareness varies in different language systems. Contrast with alphabetic languages, Chinese has its unique characteristics: most productive compounding structure and abundance of homophones. Homophone awareness, homograph awareness and compounding awareness are three important components of morphological awareness in Chinese. The relationships among various subtypes of morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge may be different across grades and may be reciprocal. Besides, with the increasing grade, the nature of the reciprocal relationships among three subtypes of morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge may follow a predictable pattern. This across-grade longitudinal study investigated the reciprocal relationship between morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge among Chinese children. In total, 399 children (first, third and fifth graders) participated at two time points. The interval was one year. All participants were tested on morphological awareness (homophone awareness, homograph awareness and compounding awareness) and vocabulary knowledge in both times, along with phonological awareness, and nonverbal reasoning at Time 1 as control variables. Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to investigate the relationship among children’s three subtypes morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge after controlling for intelligence, phonological awareness and the auto-regression effects. The results showed that (1) Morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge of first, third, and fifth grade children improved from Time 1 to Time 2. (2) With the age, IQ, phonological awareness and the autoregressive effect of vocabulary knowledge being controlled, children’s homophone awareness and compounding awareness of the grade 1 at Time 1 significantly predicted their vocabulary knowledge at Time 2 (one year later). However, homograph awareness at Time 1 did not predict vocabulary at Time 2 significantly. Compounding awareness of the grade 3 at Time 1 uniquely predicted the development of their vocabulary knowledge in one year later, but neither homophone awareness nor homograph awareness at Time 1 significantly predicted later vocabulary knowledge. And for the grade 5, homograph awareness and compounding awareness at Time 1 could significantly predict vocabulary knowledge at Time 2, but homophone awareness did not. (3) With the age, IQ, phonological awareness and the autoregressive effects of the three subtypes of morphological awareness being controlled, children’s vocabulary knowledge of the grade 1 at Time 1 uniquely predicted their homophone awareness, homograph awareness, and compounding awareness one year later respectively, and the same pattern was found in the fifth grade students; for the grade 3, vocabulary at Time 1 could predict the change in homograph awareness and compounding awareness between two time points, but did not predict their homophone awareness. The results suggest a reciprocal relationship between morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge among Chinese elementary children. The relationships among three subtypes of morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge were variously represented in Chinese children who had different learning experiences. Homophone awareness is a crucial factor for early vocabulary acquisition. However, homograph awareness may contribute to advanced vocabulary development in upper elementary years. In addition, compounding awareness is a salient contributor to Chinese children’s vocabulary development throughout the entire elementary school years. Reciprocally, vocabulary knowledge has unique contribution to the development of morphological awareness for the children in all three grades. Related Articles | Metrics

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The positive impact of worked-example design method and presentation mode on pupils’ learning for algebraic operation rules DU Xuejiao; ZHANG Qi 2016, 48 (11):  1445-1454.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2016.01445 Abstract ( 753 )   Previous research (Lin & Zhang, 2007) indicated that 6th grade pupils failed to master the algebraic operation rules of the “sum of perfect squares” and “square difference” by worked examples. The reason could be that pupils did not understand the meanings of the new algebraic operators or operation rules. So that the authors proposed two kinds of worked-example designing methods and their presentation modes, named “method of explanation,” “method of explanation-labels,” “stepwise presentation mode” and “whole presentation mode,” and took place three experiments as follow. In experiment 1, a 2 (methods of design: the “method of explanation” or the ordinary method) × 2 (algebraic operation rules: “sum of perfect square” or “square difference”) between-subjects factorial design was adopted. One hundred and twenty 6th grade primary school students chosen from pre-test were randomized into four groups to learn different kinds of worked examples. At last, all participants were received near and far transfer tests to test their learning effects. They further compared the “method of explanation” and the “method of explanation-labels” in learning the two algebraic operation rules in experiment 2. The procedure was same as in experiment 1. In experiment 3, the “method of explanation-labels” was presented by stepwise mode or whole mode to explore the effect of presentation mode in learning two algebraic operation rules. The procedure was same as in experiment 1. The results revealed that: (1) Mean performance of near and far transfer tests was better for the “the method of explanation” than ordinary method in learning the two algebraic operation rules. (2) There was no significant difference between the “method of explanation-labels” and “method of explanation,” except that the mean performance of the near transfer test was better for the “method of explanation-labels” than the “method of explanation” in learning the “square difference” rule. (3) Mean performance of near and far transfer tests was better for the “stepwise presentation mode” than the “whole presentation mode” in learning the two algebraic operation rules. In conclusion, these results demonstrated that the “method of explanation” was helpful to improve pupils’ learning of algebraic operation rules relative to ordinary method. Operation labels should be appropriately added to the worked examples when designed the “method of explanation,” otherwise, it would increase the pupils’ cognitive load, and reduce the positive effect of labels. In the case of the worked examples, which involved too many operation labels or operation steps, the learning effect was better for the “stepwise presentation mode” relative to the “whole presentation mode.” Related Articles | Metrics

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The age differences of the mediation effect of emotion regulation between traits and emotion LUO Li; HUANG Min-Er 2016, 48 (11):  1455-1466.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2016.01455 Abstract ( 1763 )   How does emotion regulation influence the developmental mechanism of personality and emotion? A large number of studies indicate that personality traits such as extraversion and neuroticism are closely correlated with positive & negative emotion. Emotion regulation is defined as the changing of emotional processes enfolding in multiple domains (such as physiology, expressive behaviors, cognitive & emotional subjective experiences) that happens due to the application of any cognitive or behavioral regulatory strategies. Two basic strategies of emotion regulation, cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression of emotions, may moderate emotional responding and facilitate emotional & social adaptation. The present study aims to investigate how emotion regulation mediates the prediction between personality traits and positive & negative emotion and also how age moderates the correlations among traits, emotion regulation, and emotions. This study measured traits, cognitive reappraisal & suppression, and positive & negative emotion by EPQ, ERQ and PANAS in a sample of 870 participants that fall into three age groups: youth, middle age and the elderly. The research adopted SPSS 17.0 and Amos 17.0 to explore the correlation and mediated pathways & construction among traits (extraversion & neuroticism), emotion regulation (cognitive reappraisal & suppression) and positive & negative emotion, and then compared the differences in the structured equation models among three age groups. The results indicated that: (1) Extraversion strongly predicted positive emotion, and neuroticism strongly predicted negative emotion. (2) As age increases, the degree of neuroticism, positive & negative emotion all showed reducing tendencies; degree of extraversion remained stable; but suppression exhibited an increasing tendency; (3) Age moderated the mediated models among traits, regulatory strategies and positive & negative emotion. The correlation between neuroticism and negative emotion was the weakest one in the middle age group as it compared with those in youth and the elderly group. Meanwhile, the mediating role (which shows in effect size of mediation) of cognitive reappraisal between neuroticism and negative emotion reached the strongest point in the middle age group as compared with the other two age groups. In addition, mediated effects of suppression between extraversion and positive & negative emotion reached significantly only in middle age group. This study suggests that cognitive reappraisal & suppression of emotional behaviors may buffer the strongly correlates between traits (e.g., neuroticism & extraversion) and negative & positive emotion. The mediated effect of emotion regulation between traits & emotions may reach strongest in middle age. Emotion regulation would play an important role in personality development. Related Articles | Metrics

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Do lower class individuals possess higher levels of system justification? An examination from the social cognitive perspectives YANG Shenlong, GUO Yongyu, HU Xiaoyong, SHU Shouli, LI Jing 2016, 48 (11):  1467-1478.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2016.01467 Abstract ( 1686 )   PDF (910KB) ( 417 )   According to system justification theory, lower class individuals are more likely to view social system as legitimate than those from higher class. Yet, the opposite pattern emerged in many empirical studies suggesting that system justification was stronger among individuals from higher class relative to lower class counterparts. Recently, a cognitive perspective of system justification theory proposes that people express a salient tendency of internal attribution when explaining socioeconomic disparities, which serves as a main source of system justification. Given the fact that individuals from lower social class are characterized by contextualized cognitive style and external attribution, they may attribute socioeconomic disparities to external factors, and thereby are less likely to support the social system. Thus, we expected that 1) one’s social class was positively correlated with system justification, and 2) an internal attribution for the gap between the rich and the poor played a mediating role. Moreover, studies derived from social cognitive theory of social class demonstrate that the increase in perceived control have potential to help lower class individuals shift their attributional styles from external to internal. We further hypothesized that 3) perceived control could moderate the mediation model proposed in hypothesis 2. Two studies were designed to test these three hypotheses with different strategies. In Study 1, 241 college students with different levels of subjective social class were randomly assigned into high or low perceived control priming conditions, and then assessed their attributional tendency regarding the rich-poor gap and system justification, so that the moderating effect of perceived control on the mediation model could be tested. In study 2, 829 college students from four universities of different levels received scales of social class, perceived control, attributional style for the rich-poor gap and system justification to examine the hypothesized relationships in their actual lives. The results supported all of the three hypotheses. Firstly, social class was positively associated with system justification. That is, lower social class individuals exhibited fewer tendencies to support the social system. Secondly, attributional tendency for the rich-poor gap mediated this relationship between social class and system justification. Lower class individuals were less likely to attribute the disparities between the rich and the poor to internal factors (e.g., personal striving, ability), and also displayed lower level of system justification. Thirdly, the hypothesized moderated mediation model was also supported; that is, the mediating effect of attribution between social class and system justification was moderated by perceived control. When perceived control was low, the mediating effect was significant; however, when perceived control was high, lower class individuals’ internal attributional tendency would become as high as those of higher class, resulting in the absence of the mediation model. Both of the two studies supported consistenly all of the above hypotheses. These results support and expand the cognitive perspective of system justification theory, which emphasizes the cognitive basis of one’s system justification but fails to consider the differences between classes. This study also proposes an extension to the social cognitive theory of social class by combining different social classes’ social cognition with their system justification. In addition, the connection of the two theories forms a more comprehensive picture of class, cognition, and justification. Therefore, the present research is based on social cognitive perspectives. Furthermore, this study demonstrates that perceived control can moderate the mediation model. This is not only a further theoretical exploration, but a noteworthy suggestion for social governance that lower class individuals’ internal attribution and system justification can be altered by an increased sense of mastery of themselves and a decreased sense of restriction from the society. Related Articles | Metrics

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The effect of repeated two-syllable brand name on consumer’s perception and preference WEI Hua; WANG Tao; ZHOU Zongkui; FENG Wenting; DING Qian 2016, 48 (11):  1479-1488.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2016.01479 Abstract ( 3060 )   Brand name is significant brand equity. It plays a vital role in delivering brand value, building brand image and highlighting brand characteristics. Previous research found that the semantic and phonetic features of a brand name would influence consumers’ perception and preference. There is rarely any research paid attention to the function of repeated two-syllables. From the perspective of baby schema and based on stereotype content model, this study examined the effect of repeated two-syllable brand name on consumers’ perception and preference and verified the moderating effects of vowel features and product type. We investigated the effect of repeated two-syllable brand name on consumers’ perception through 3 studies and 4 experiments. Study 1 examined the effect of repeated two-syllable brand name on baby schema and warm-competence perception by 2 experiments. Experiment 1 conducted single factor experiment (repeated and non-repeated) with 72 valid participants, including 29 males and 43 females, averaging 20.29 years of age. Compared to non-repeated ones, the results of the experiment suggested, repeated two-syllable brand names were more baby-like evaluated by consumers. Experiment 2 also used single factor experiment design (repeated and non-repeated). 263 valid participants were obtained, including 120 males and 143 females, averaging 21.74 years of age. The results showed that repeated two-syllable brand name was more likely to be regarded as baby with more warmth and less competence. And baby schema mediated the repeated two-syllables and warmth-competence perception. Study 2 looked into the moderation of vowel features between repeated two-syllable brand name and consumers’ perception. We adopted a 2 (repeated vs. non-repeated) × 2 (vowel and non-vowel) double factors between subjects design with 253 valid participants, including 203 males and 50 females, averaging 18.52 years of age. The results of the study indicated that the effect of repeated two-syllables on consumers’ warmth perception was moderated by vowel features. When a brand name contained front vowel, the effect would be weakened. Study 3 examined, with 1 experiment, the product type as moderation between repeated two-syllable brand name and consumer preference. A 2 (repeated two-syllable feature: repeated vs. non-repeated) × 2 (product feature: hedonic and utilitarian) double factors mixed design was adopted, among which the product feature was between-group factor and repeated two-syllable feature was in-group factor. 104 valid participants were obtained, including 53 males and 51 females, averaging 32.94 years of age. The results showed that the effect of repeated two-syllables on consumers’ preference was moderated by product type. With regard to hedonic product, consumers’ preferred repeated two-syllable brand names; utilitarian product, however, they favoured non-repeated two-syllable brand names. Although there were a few studies about phonetic features of brand name, they mostly focused on the effect of single phonetic features (front vowel, back vowel) on consumers’ perception. Hardly any studies examined phonetic structural features. This study expanded the phonetic research of brand name from single phonetic features to phonetic structural features and provided a new perspective for brand name research. Related Articles | Metrics

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The mechanism of auxiliary variables in full information maximum likelihood–based structural equation models with missing data WANG Meng-Cheng; DENG Qiaowen 2016, 48 (11):  1489-1498.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2016.01489 Abstract ( 1294 )   In social and behavioral studies, missing data cannot be avoided in the process of data collection, especially in longitudinal studies. Because sample with missing data lose the balance characteristics of their complete counterparts, which may distort parameter estimates and degrade the performance of confidence intervals, special methods have to be developed for these analysis. Two modern missing data analysis techniques, maximum likelihood estimation and multiple imputation, have been widely studied in the methodological literature during the last decade. Since the maximum likelihood estimation and multiple imputation require the MAR (missing at random) assumption, including auxiliary variables can help fine-tune the missing data handling procedure, either by reducing bias or by increasing power. A useful auxiliary variable is a potential cause or a correlate of the incomplete variables in the analysis model. Notably, Graham (2003) proposed a “saturated correlates model”, which allows us to include auxiliary variables in FIML-based structural equation models easily. However, some questions about the inclusion of auxiliary variables are needed to further study. The main research question was under what condition the auxiliary variables will be effective in the FIML-based structural equation modeling. The current study investigates the effect of including auxiliary variables during estimation of structural equation modeling parameters with FIML estimation through Monte Carlo simulation. It focused on the missing values of the auxiliary variables and variables of interests simultaneously. The simulation repeated 5,000 times for each of 576 combinations: common missing rates (5 percent, 10 percent, 15 percent, and 20 percent), missing mechanism combinations (MCAR-MCAR, MCAR-MAR, MCAR-MNAR, MAR-MCAR, MAR-MAR, and MAR-MNAR), correlations (low, moderate to high), number of auxiliary variables (1, 3, 5), and sample sizes (100, 200, 500, 1000). The evaluation criteria are bias and confidence intervals coverage of parameters. Data generates according to Enders (2008) model. All data generate and analyze by Mplus 7.0. Auxiliary variables without missing values outperformed auxiliary variables with missing values. Including auxiliary variables which had missing values in the analysis procedure was found to improve parameter estimation efficiently in most cases. Results showed that the bias was more serious when the missing mechanism of the auxiliary variables was MCAR than MNAR. In the FIML-based structural equation modeling, the inclusion of more than a single auxiliary variable for MAR-MCAR or MAR-MNAR combined mechanisms is beneficial, while for MAR-MAR combined mechanism, a single auxiliary variable would be better. In addition, it is beneficial to include auxiliary variables which had low correlation with variables of interests in this model. However, simulation results indicated that the common missing rates had little impact on bias. Overall, this study indicates that the inclusion of incomplete auxiliary variables is beneficial, even if the auxiliary variables and variables of interests have a relative proportion of missing data. Related Articles | Metrics