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Distinct effects of age of acquisition in Chinese object and action picture naming: An ERP study LOU Hao, LI Cong, ZHANG Qingfang 2019, 51 (2):  143-153.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2019.00143 Abstract ( 3131 )   PDF (651KB) ( 235 )   Age of Acquisition (AoA) refers to the age at which a concept is learned. Early-acquired words have an advantage over late-acquired words in processing accuracy and speed. Which stage of AoA playing its role in spoken word production remains controversial. The phonological completeness hypothesis assumes that AoA may have a phonological locus, while the semantic hypothesis assumes that AoA affects semantic processing (i.e., conceptual preparation, lexical selection). The network plasticity hypothesis assumes that AoA arises at multiple processing levels, in spoken word production. In a picture naming task, we used the event-related potential (ERP) technique to examine the loci of AoA effect in object and action pictures naming. Twenty-eight participants (9 males, mean range: 22.18, SD: 2.56) participated in this study. We selected a total of 188 words and their corresponding black and white line pictures, half of which were object pictures, and half were action pictures. Within each type of picture, half were early acquired, and half were late acquired. Therefore, the age of acquisition of picture names (early vs. late) and word type (noun vs. verb) served as within-participants variables. During the experiment, participants were asked to name each picture as accurately and quickly as possible. Behavioral data indicated a typical AoA effect in object pictures naming, showing that object pictures corresponding to early-acquired nouns were named faster than those corresponding to late-acquired ones. In contrast, action pictures corresponding to early-acquired verbs were named slower than those corresponding to late-acquired verbs. ERP data also showed distinct AoA effect patterns in object and action picture naming. For object picture naming, late-acquired nouns elicited a larger positivity than early-acquired nouns between 250~300 ms over left-prefrontal regions. In contrast, for action picture naming, early-acquired verbs evoked a larger positivity than late-acquired verbs within 200~250 ms, 300~400 ms and 450~600 ms time windows over the left hemisphere. We suggest that the AoA effect in object naming may originate in the lexical selection of spoken word production, supporting the semantic hypothesis. In contrast, the AoA effects in action naming may originate in multiple processes, such as lexical selection, phonological encoding and phonetic encoding, supporting the network plasticity hypothesis. The distinct AoA effects between the naming of object and action pictures probably relate to the distinct semantic networks that represent objects and actions. Therefore, the AoA effect in action picture naming is much more complicated than in object picture naming and needs further investigation. Related Articles | Metrics

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The influence of learner’s beliefs about processing fluency on font-size effect CHEN Ying, LI Fengying, LI Weijian 2019, 51 (2):  154-162.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2019.00154 Abstract ( 2881 )   PDF (500KB) ( 721 )   The font-size effect refers to the phenomenon by which the judgments of learning (JOLs) are higher for words presented in a larger versus smaller font size. Recently, it has received a great deal of attention in the area of metacognition because the cognitive mechanism of this effect can provide a way to understand how individuals make judgments of learning, which has been a central question in metacognitive monitoring research. So far, there have been two hypotheses about the mechanism underlying this effect: (a) the fluency hypothesis, which claims that JOLs are higher for larger words because they are presumably easier to process and (b) the belief hypothesis, which argues that the font-size effect is caused by people’s beliefs (e.g., beliefs about how font size affects memory). Recently, Mueller and Dunlosky (2017) proposed a new account that the individual’s belief about processing fluency could produce the font-size effect and went on to provide indirect evidence of this. Building on the work of Mueller and Dunlosky, the present study aims to provide direct evidence supporting this idea that beliefs about processing fluency influence the font-size effect. Furthermore, the current study extended the work of Mueller and Dunlosky by splitting the beliefs about processing fluency into two components: the impact of font size on processing fluency and the impact of processing fluency on memory performance. In this study, we conducted two experiments to investigate the influence of beliefs about processing fluency on the font-size effect via different instructions. Experiment 1 focused on the influence of beliefs about how font size impacts processing fluency on JOLs. Seventy-five participants were randomly assigned to three groups: group 1 received instructions about how the large font words were easier to process, group 2 received instructions about how small font words were easier to process, while the control group did not receive any such instructions. Then, all participants studied word pairs in large (48-point) or small (18-point) font sizes, made JOLs for each word pair and completed a cued-recall test. Experiment 2 focused on the influence of beliefs about how processing fluency impacts memory on JOLs. Eighty-nine participants were randomly assigned to three groups: group 1 received instructions stating that easier processing was positively associated with better memory performance, group 2 received instructions stating that processing fluency was unrelated to memory performance, and the control group did not receive any such instructions. All participants completed tasks similar to experiment 1. There were two main results. First, JOLs were higher for large fonts when participants were led to believe that the large font was easier to process (group 1 in experiment 1) or the ease of processing was positively related to better memory performance (group 1 in experiment 2). Second, no difference in JOLs was observed when participants were instructed to believe that the small font was processed much more easily (group 2 in experiment 1) or processing fluency was irrelevant to memory performance (group 2 in experiment 2), i.e., there was no font-size effect. In conclusion, our results provide direct evidence that beliefs about processing fluency can produce the font-size effect, and that they play a vital role in judgments of learning. Related Articles | Metrics

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Location effect of Chinese wordable components in the component priming paradigm WANG Dan,WANG Ting,QIN Song,ZHANG Jijia 2019, 51 (2):  163-176.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2019.00163 Abstract ( 1688 )   Several components in phonogram characters, such as ‘女’, ‘口’ and ‘马’, can be phonetic radical in the phonetic components’ location or semantic radical in the semantic components’ location. We call these components Chinese wordable components (or Chinese wordable radical), and such components must be a single Chinese character. The location and function of Chinese wordable components vary in Chinese characters. In theory, each wordable components can appear in different parts of Chinese characters. However, the same component appears in different locations of Chinese characters with different characterisation characteristics because of the assumption that the location of components follows orthographic rules, and the frequency of the components’ location is different. However, previous studies have failed to distinguish between components’ location and the frequency of components in various locations and did not explore the effects of wordable components in different locations. This study used the component priming paradigm, which can effectively explore the effect of components’ location on the cognition of Chinese characters. With regard to components that can appear in different locations of Chinese characters, this study investigated the roles of different parts in Chinese character recognition by matching the usage frequency of Chinese characters (all high-frequency characters), stroke numbers and other factors in the component priming paradigm. Experiment 1 adopted the component priming paradigm to investigate the function of wordable components in different locations in Chinese character recognition. The priming stimuli were wordable components of three locations (primary semantic radical, secondary semantic radical and phonetic radical). The target stimuli were Chinese characters that contained these wordable components in three locations. Subjects were asked to identify the true and false characters of the target Chinese characters. Experiment 2 adopted component priming and visual search paradigms to investigate the function of wordable components in different locations. The priming stimuli were similar to those in Experiment 1. The target stimuli were square pictures that contained four Chinese characters. Subjects were asked to determine the presence of true and false characters in the picture, and eye movement data were recorded. The following points were gathered from the results. Firstly, the priming effect of the wordable component in the phonetic radical’s location was stronger than that in the semantic radical’s location. Secondly, when the wordable components were applied as semantic radical, they only appeared in the primary semantic radical’s location rather than in the secondary semantic radical’s location. Lastly, the wordable components in the phonetic radical’s location promoted not only the cognition of Chinese characters containing the phonetic radical’s location components but also the cognition of Chinese characters containing the primary semantic radical’s location components. However, they hindered the cognition of Chinese characters containing the secondary semantic radical’s location components. When priming components appeared in the secondary semantic radical’s location, they had no effect on the Chinese characters containing related components. The study showed that in Chinese character cognition, the effect of component location includes the dual effect of the components’ location and the frequency of the components’ location. Related Articles | Metrics

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Why “no” implies “negative emotion”? Emotional representation in negation processing GAO Zhihua,LU Zhongyi 2019, 51 (2):  177-187.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2019.00177 Abstract ( 5965 )   Propositional theories propose that negation is an explicit abstract symbol, while the embodied theories believe that negation is represented by perceptual symbols. However, both sides lack direct evidence. In the present study, we develop another approach to discuss the issue -- emotional representation. Emotion is viewed as another form of basic experienced symbols and an important component of internal states to construe the representation of abstract concepts. Thus, can negation be represented by emotion? In the two experiments, negative and affirmative phrases with a construction of “you/meiyou (a/no) + neutral two-syllable Chinese nominal words (e.g., 有/没有铁轨, a/no rail)” were developed as experimental materials to explore the emotional representation of negation processing. In experiment 1, we used the Affect Misattribution Procedure (AMP), in which affirmative and negative neutral phrases were adopted as primes presented for 200 ms after a 0 ms or 300 ms blank screen (SOA: 200 ms and 500 ms), and target ambiguous Russian words with 6~7 letters were presented for 100 ms and then were substituted by the masking pictures. The participants were asked to judge the pleasantness of the target Russian words. In experiment 2, we applied the classical affective procedure (Bona Fide Pipeline, BFP), in which the same primes and the same two SOAs in experiment 1 were adopted, but the targets were Chinese affective words from CAWS, and the target word in each trail was diminished until the participants made the judgment on the pleasantness of the target word. The dependent variable in both experiments was the unpleasant response rationale. The results of experiment 1 demonstrated that negative neutral phrases led to more unpleasant responses to the ambiguous Russian words than affirmative phrases in the 200-ms and 500-ms SOA conditions. In experiment 2, negation phrases promoted participants’ responses to negative target words and misled responses to positive words more than affirmative phrases. In other words, negation primed more unpleasant responses regardless of the valence of the target words in both SOA conditions. Lastly, we compared the results of experiment 1 and experiment 2 and discovered that in both measure methods, negative neutral phrases induced more unpleasant responses than affirmative ones, which implied that negation had negative valence and was represented by negative emotion. The results from the two experiments showed that negation was represented by emotional symbols. Because the prime materials adopted in the two experiments were neutral in valence, the different unpleasant response rationales reflected the different valence of the polarity (negation and affirmation), which differed from the explanation of the processing difficulties theories of negation. The stability of this negative bias across two durations meant that the emotional features of negation were not a temporal response but a property of negation. The negative priming effects of negation in the AMP and BFP, which had different demands on attentional resources, were similar. This implied that the negative valence of negation could be activated automatically with unintentional processing. Related Articles | Metrics

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The influence of target knowledge on path integration GUO Jichengsi,HUANG Jianping,WAN Xiaoang 2019, 51 (2):  188-195.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2019.00188 Abstract ( 1593 )   Navigation can be classified into piloting and path integration based on the types of information used. Piloting allows navigators to use direction sensory cues regarding the environment and landmarks, but in path integration, navigators rely on self-motion information. Previous research has revealed that the presence of landmarks might influence human path integration, but it remains unclear how this process might be influenced by the participants’ knowledge about which target location to which they would be asked to return. Here, we report a study designed to investigate the effect of target knowledge in human path integration. In the present study, we used Head-Mounted-Display Virtual Reality to present hallway-mazes, and employed a modified return-to-origin task used by Wan, Wang, and Crowell (2012). That is, the participants first traveled along 5-segment pathways where 0, 1, or 2 landmarks were present at the intersections. When arriving at the end of the outbound pathways, they were asked to return directly to the origin or one of the landmark locations. In order to manipulate target knowledge, we gave different instructions to three groups of participants at the beginning of each trail: the first group was not given any information about where to return; the second group was told about whether they would be asked to return to the origin or one of the landmark locations (without knowing which landmark exactly); and the third group was told about which specific location they would be asked to return to. The results showed the effects of target knowledge on both the return-to-origin and return-to-landmark responses. When attempting to return to the origin, the uninformed group showed longer RTs when there were two landmarks than when there was no landmark; whereas the other two groups showed no such patterns. For another, when attempting to return to the specified landmarks, the uninformed group showed greater position errors than the other two groups. That is to say, target knowledge might diminish interference from the presence or increase of the landmarks on the return-to-origin responses, and lead to more accurate return-to-landmark responses. Taken together, these results revealed that more knowledge about where to return might facilitate human path integration. One possibility is that more knowledge about the target might allow the participants to use a more adaptive strategy to reduce their working memory load and to simplify the structure of the outbound paths they need to process. These findings highlight the influence of non-perceptual factors on human path integration, and they indicate that path integration in humans might be an adaptive and strategic process. Related Articles | Metrics

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Categorical perception of color can be instantly influenced by color vision fatigue and semantic satiation WU Baizhou, LI Jie, HE Hu, HOU You, JIA Yingqi, FENG Shenxing 2019, 51 (2):  196-206.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2019.00196 Abstract ( 3032 )   PDF (489KB) ( 164 )   Categorical perception of color (CCP) refers to the phenomenon by which the discrimination of between-category (BC) colors (i.e., colors that fall into different color categories) is faster and more accurate than the discrimination of within-category (WC) colors (i.e., colors that belong to the same category). Theoretical controversy exists regarding the influence of perception and language on CCP. The perception-based view holds that, although different lexical codes may be used, language does not affect CCP. In contrast, the language-based view suggests that language can influence the speaker’s thought, and thus, language exerts an influence on CCP. Several studies of CCP have provided evidence supporting both views. In recent years, a new theory, the categorical/verbal label comparisons (VLC) model, has been developed in which it is argued that cognitive conflict between a combination of semantic and perceptual processes leads to CCP, and thus, this effect is essentially one of cognitive processing rather than perceptual recognition or lexical codes. This study attempts to investigate the role of perception and language in CCP by changing participants’ ability to process information regarding either color vision or semantics. In this study, participants were required to perform a visual search task to find the only chip (object) that was different in color from 12 other chips (background) around a fixation point. The participants were asked to press “f” when the object was presented to the left of the fixation point and “j” when the object was presented to the right of the fixation point. In Experiment 1, color vision fatigue was used to disturb the color vision of 26 university students who were randomly selected to perform a shape discrimination task unrelated to CCP. In the fatigued condition, two colors belonging to the same category flickered on the screen at 50 Hz for 15 s, and then, 12 trials of the visual search task were performed. In the nonfatigued condition, a constant gray background was presented on the screen lasting 15 s, followed by the visual search task. In Experiment 2, semantic satiation was used to disturb the semantic processing of 22 university students who were randomly selected to perform a meaning-judgment task unrelated to CCP, in which the meaning of a word on the screen was either that of a color or a facial expression. In the high-satiation condition, 60 equivalent color words and 6 noncolor words were judged, and then, 12 trials of the visual search task were performed. In the low-satiation condition, 60 equivalents facial expression words and 6 color words were judged, followed by the visual search task. A 3-way repeated measures ANOVA was performed on the RT data from Experiment 1 (category type x degree of color vision fatigue x visual field). The results indicated that the interaction between category type and the degree of color vision fatigue was significant, F(1, 25) = 49.250, p < 0.001, ηp 2 = 0.663. Color vision fatigue was associated with increased RTs for within-category colors (not significant) and with significantly decreased RTs for between-category colors, F(1, 25) = 6.760, p = 0.015, ηp 2 = 0.213. A 2-way repeated measures ANOVA was performed on CCP effects (the RTs for the within-category condition minus the RTs for the between-category condition), and the results indicated that the main effect of the degree of color vision fatigue was significant, F (1, 25) = 13.183, p = 0.001, ηp 2 = 0.345, such that the fatigued condition (41 ms) produced stronger CCP effects than the nonfatigued condition (17 ms). These results indicated that color vision fatigue increased the effect of CCP in participants. In Experiment 2, since semantic satiation only disturbs the word being satiated without disturbing the others, the two types of stimuli in the WC condition may have been affected differently. Based on whether the meaning of the two colors in the WC condition was identical to the meaning of the satiating word, the WC condition was split into two conditions: identical-WC and nonidentical-WC. A 3-way repeated measures ANOVA was performed on the RT data from Experiment 2, and the results indicated that the interaction between category and the degree of semantic satiation was significant, F(1, 20) = 4.674, p = 0.022, ηp 2 = 0.330. A simple effects analysis found that the RTs in the two WC conditions were not significantly different from the RTs in the low-satiation condition (287 ms for identical vs 283 ms for nonidentical, p = 0.377), but both WC condition RTs were slower than those in the BC condition (263 ms, p < 0.001). The RT for the identical-WC condition (291 ms) was slower than both those in the nonidentical-WC condition (279 ms, p = 0.004) and those in the BC condition (261 ms, p < 0.001). A 3-way repeated measures ANOVA was performed on CCP effects (condition x degree of satiation x visual field), and the results indicated that the interaction between identical type conditions and the degree of satiation was significant, F(1, 20) = 8.471, p = 0.009, ηp 2 = 0.298. A simple effects analysis found that the identical-WC condition (30 ms) produced a stronger CCP effect than the nonidentical-WC condition (18 ms) in the high-satiation condition, F(1, 20) = 10.772, p = 0.004, ηp 2 = 0.350, but this comparison was not significant in the low-satiation condition (23 ms vs 19 ms), F(1, 20) = 0.773, p = 0.390. These results indicated that semantic satiation increased CCP effects in participants in the identical-WC condition. In sum, the results of these experiments indicated that semantic processing was not influenced by color vision fatigue, but it was influenced by semantic satiation. Linguistic relativism cannot explain the perceptual effects found in Experiment 1, and linguistic universalism cannot explain the semantic effects found in Experiment 2; only the VLC model can explain all the results of this study. Therefore, this study supports the VLC model. Participants’ color vision was disturbed by color vision fatigue, such that the role color vision information played in visual search task performance was decreased, and the effect of semantic information was increased. As a result, the effect of CCP increased in Experiment 1. In Experiment 2, the participants’ semantic processing of the satiated word was disturbed by semantic satiation, leading to difficulty in extracting the meaning of the satiated word. Therefore, the RT in the identical-WC condition was slowed, and the effect of CCP was increased. Related Articles | Metrics

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The role of right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex on social emotional regulation in subclinical depression: An tDCS study ZHANG Dandan, LIU Zhenli, CHEN Yu, MAI Xiaoqin 2019, 51 (2):  207-2015.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2019.00207 Abstract ( 2643 )   PDF (1304KB) ( 272 )   So far as we know, three studies demonstrated that that the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (RVLPFC) plays an important role in down-regulating the emotional response to social exclusion. In a previous study, we explored the causal relationship between transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and dominant emotional regulation in the context of social exclusion. Depression is an disorder that shows deficits of social functions. Compared with healthy controls, depressive individuals enjoy less in social interaction and the activation of the lateral prefrontal lobe of depressive subjects usually reduces. The current study aimed to explore whether the anodal tDCS targeting at RVLPFC could also improve the emotional regulation of social exclusion in subjects with high depressive levels. Furthermore, this study added individual negative images as a baseline to test the specificity of the RVLPFC on emotional regulation of social exclusion. Before the experiment, we classified the participants with a Beck Depression Inventory score of < 3 as low depressive tendency group and those with a score of ≥ 18 as high depression tendency group. Participants also completed a Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) on the day of the tDCS experiment. Finally, a total of ninety-eight participants were included. They were randomly divided into anodal tDCS group (including 25 high depressive and 25 low depressive subjects) and sham tDCS group. All participants viewed social exclusion images and individual negative images separately in two blocks. In the no-reappraisal condition, participants were instructed to passively view images; in the reappraisal condition, they reappraised images so to down-regulate the negative emotional responses. Ratings of negative emotion experience were provided at the end of each trial. There was a significant three-way interaction of group, tDCS type, and task. Simple simple effect analysis showed that in the reappraisal condition, anodal tDCS over the RVLPFC resulted in a decreased negative emotion rating in subjects with low-depressive levels, while this task effect (i.e., emotional regulation) was not significant in subjects with high-depressive levels. Another three-way interaction was found among image type, tDCS type, and task: when participants were presented with social exclusion images, in the reappraisal condition, anodal tDCS over the RVLPFC resulted in a decreased negative emotion rating in the emotional regulation condition; however this task effect was less significant when participants were presented with individual negative images. Besides the two three-way interactions, this study also observed significant main effects of task, group, and tDCS type, as well as two-way interactions of group and task, tDCS type and task, image type and task, and group and tDCS type. The current findings indicate that the improvement of emotion regulation via tDCS targeting at RVLPFC may be invalid for depressive patients if only one session of tDCS is performed; thus multiple sessions are highly suggested for clinical practice. Furthermore, this is the first tDCS study that compared the RVLFPC role of emotional regulation of social versus individual based negative experiences. The result provides evidence of direct causal relationship between RVLPFC and emotional regulation in the context of social exclusion, highlighting the functional specificity of this brain region on emotional regulation. Related Articles | Metrics

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The shape-gender implicit association and its impact on consumer preference for product shapes DING Ying,PANG Jun,WANG Yansu 2019, 51 (2):  216-226.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2019.00216 Abstract ( 3815 )   Prior research on psychology and aesthetics has documented a general preference of human beings for rounded rather than angular shapes. However, recent research examining the symbolic meanings of shape suggests that individual’s shape preference is context-dependent. Our research extends the existing literature by proposing a new contextual factor that influences shape preference. We propose that shape is implicitly associated with gender, such that roundness is more associated with femininity whereas angularity is more associated with masculine. This association is applied to brand perceptions, leading consumer to more prefer rounded-shaped products when confronting a feminine brand but more prefer angular-shaped products when confronting a masculine brand. Four studies were conducted to test our hypotheses. Study 1 used an Implicit Association Test to examine the implicit association between shape and gender. In Study 2, we examined the shape-gender association by asking participants to choose between a rounded-shaped product and an angular-shaped product for themselves. Study 3 retested the shape-gender association in the context of purchasing for others, and examined whether this association was implicit or not by asking the participants to write down the reasons for their choices. Study 4 demonstrated the implications of the shape-gender association by testing congruency effect of brand gender image and product shape on consumer preference. Participants were presented with either a feminine brand—Chanel or a masculine brand—Hugo Boss, and asked to choose the more preferred flash drive between a rounded-shaped option and an angular-shaped option. Following that, they evaluated perceived congruency between the product shape and the brand’s gender identity. As predicted, results of Study 1 showed that participants classified male names faster when they were presented in an angular frame than in a rounded frame (t(92) = -2.10, p = 0.038), and this effect was reversed for female names (t(92) = 2.53, p = 0.013). Study 2 indicated that compared to male participants, female participants were more likely to choose the rounded-shaped products (sunglasses: χ 2(1) = 26.66, p < 0.001; perfume: χ 2(1) = 4.48, p = 0.03). Study 3 found similar effects when the participants chose products as a gift for others: they were more likely to choose the rounded-shaped product for a female friend than for a male friend (χ 2(1) = 3.71, p = 0.05). In addition, only 5 out of 97 participants mentioned recipients’ gender as the influencing factor of their choices, suggesting that the gender-shape association is implicit and beyond individuals’ awareness. Finally, Study 4 showed that compared to a masculine brand, a feminine brand led to a higher likelihood of choosing the rounded-shaped (vs. angular-shaped) product (χ 2(1) = 5.29, p = 0.02), and that this effect was mediated by perceived congruency between product shape and brand gender identity (95% CI = 0.01 ~ 1.82). Our research is the first to formally test the implicit association between shape and gender. In addition, we demonstrate the implications of this association by showing that brand gender identity affects consumer preference for products with different shapes. These findings advance our knowledge of the contextual effect on consumers’ shape preference, and provide important implications on how to enhance a product’s market success by choosing the right shape design. Related Articles | Metrics

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Benefits and costs of servant leadership behavior: A work-home resource model perspective KANG Yongjun,PENG Jian 2019, 51 (2):  227-237.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2019.00227 Abstract ( 3064 )   Servant leadership refers to a set of behaviors that serve the needs and interests of others that enhance the long-term well-being of subordinates and the stakeholders associated. Many studies have demonstrated that servant leadership has a positive impact on its recipients such as subordinates, teams, and organizations. However, few studies have explored the impact of servant leadership behavior on actors (leaders). This study draws from the work-home resources model, and adopts the actor perspective to identify the benefits and costs of engaging in servant leadership behavior. Specifically, we infer that, on one hand, servant leadership could contribute to resource generation (i.e., positive emotion) and then improve work-family interface; on the other hand, servant leadership may also lead to resource depletion (ego depletion) and therefore have negative effect on work-family interface. However, as a kind of situational resource, organizational support could enhance the resource generation process and buffer the resource depletion process of servant leadership.@@@To test the proposed theoretical model, we surveyed 76 supervisors and their managers in Chinese enterprises using experience sampling surveys. Approximately one week before the start of the daily surveys, we sent a questionnaire containing the measures of our between-level constructs (e.g., organizational support) to participants. During the daily survey, participants were sent three surveys each day while they were at work for 5 workdays. At time 1 (11:00 a.m.), supervisors completed measures of servant leadership behavior, and then managers completed the measures of transformational leadership behavior and ethical leadership behavior of each of their subordinates (supervisors). At time 2 (4:00 p.m.), supervisors completed the measures of negative/positive emotion and ego depletion. At time 3 (7:00~9:00 p.m.), supervisors completed the measures of work-home interface (work-home conflict, work-home facilitation).@@@The results from the multilevel linear model analysis showed that: (1) engaging in servant leadership behavior is not only positively related to positive emotion, but also positively related to perceptions of ego depletion during the day; (2) positive affect and ego depletion, in turn, mediate the effects of servant leadership behavior on daily work-home interface; and (3) organizational support influences the strength of the daily relationships between servant leadership behavior and its positive (positive emotion) and negative outcomes (ego depletion), that is, high organizational support strengthens the positive association between servant leadership behavior and positive emotion whereas low organizational support increases the detrimental effects of servant leadership behavior on ego depletion.@@@Our findings contribute to literature in several ways. First, through taking an actor-perspective, we have investigated both positive and negative effects of servant leadership behavior, which can help us understand the double-edged sword effects of servant leadership behavior more comprehensively. Second, by revealing the mediating role of positive emotion and ego depletion and the moderating role of organizational support, this study has helped increase our understanding of the underlying mechanism and boundary conditions of the relationship between servant leadership behavior and work-home interface. Finally, based on the work-home resources model, this study has clarified the dynamic process characterizing servant leadership behavior to work-home interface by using within-level research design, which should eventually enrich the application of work-home resources model in leadership literature. Related Articles | Metrics

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Linking abusive supervision with employee creativity: The roles of psychological contract breach and Zhongyong thinking style SHEN Yimo,MA Chenlu,BAI Xinwen,ZHU Yanhan,LU Yunlin,ZHANG Qinglin,LIU Jun 2019, 51 (2):  238-247.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2019.00238 Abstract ( 4382 )   Although creativity has been recognized as an important employee outcome related with work context, to date little research has examined the relationship between abusive supervision and employee creativity, which has perhaps been hindered by the lack of a theoretical framework outlining the mechanisms underlying this relationship. The current study examined the processes linking abusive supervision to employee creativity in the Chinese context by focusing on the mediating influence of psychological contract breach and the moderating influence of Zhongyong thinking style. We collected data from 93 supervisors and 369 subordinates at three different time points. In the first survey, the subordinates were asked to provide information about abusive supervision and their demography. One week later, these subordinates were asked to answer some questions about psychological contract breach and Zhongyong thinking style. Approximately two months later, we asked these supervisors to rate their subordinates’ creativity. Multi-level structuring equation modeling technique and Monte Carlo resampling method were employed to examine the hypothesis about the moderating role of Zhongyong thinking style in the indirect relationship between abusive supervision and employee creativity through psychological contract breach. These findings provided support for the hypothesis that the indirect relationship between abusive supervision and employee creativity through psychological contract breach is moderated by Zhongyong thinking style, such that the indirect relationship is weakened when Zhongyong thinking style is high, rather than low. These findings contribute to our understanding of the relationship between abusive supervision and employee creativity in the Chinese context, and imply that the negative influence of abusive supervision on employee outcomes could be decreased by guiding employees to cultivate Zhongyong thinking style because it can encourage self-regulation of behavior after experiencing abusive supervision. Related Articles | Metrics

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Take precautions: Impact of informal information before organizational change on employee resistance to change DU Jing,CUI Yumeng 2019, 51 (2):  248-258.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2019.00248 Abstract ( 2035 )   Informal information before organizational change refers to unconfirmed information moving through informal channels. Such information can pertain to the content and objectives of organizational change during the preparatory phase. Although previous studies have found the distribution of informal information before the organizational change, its impact on employees has been unknown. To shed light on informal information before organizational change, we investigated the impact of informal information quality and character before the organizational change on employee initial change resistance. We investigated the mediation of organizational change cognition as well as the attenuation of employee resistance to the change over time and the moderating effect of informal information frequency. Our theoretical propositions are collected from 255 MBA students in a reputable university in China. Our original plan for the data to be collected before the organizational change was rejected by top executives due to the possible negative influence of informal information gathering. Thus, a retrospective self-report was utilized for MBA students to complete the questionnaire. To avoid common method variance, a two-wave collection was designed. MBA students reported the informal information before the organizational change, their change cognition, and initial change resistance in the first wave. Two weeks after the first wave, MBA students reported their change resistance during the implementation of the organizational change. Structural equation model and multi-level linear growth model were utilized to conduct analyses regarding the impact of informal information before the change and the attenuation of employee resistance to change, respectively. The results showed the low quality and negative informal information before the organizational change were positively related to the employee initial resistance to change, and this relationship was mediated by change cognition. The resistance to change of employees attenuated significantly over time from the preparatory phase to the implementation of organizational change. The research focused on the informal information before organizational change and explored its impact on employee resistance to change. Based on adaptation level theory, we found the attenuation of employee resistance to change over time. Our study extends implementation of organizational change to preparatory phase where the organizational change has been brewed, which contributes to adaptation level theory. The results demonstrated that informal information can prepare employees in advance and reduce resistance to change. Thus, managers could focus more attention to informal communication before the organizational change occurs in the workplace. Related Articles | Metrics

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Eliminating the negative impact of subgroups by exchanging members in the subgroups NI Xudong,JI Baile 2019, 51 (2):  259-268.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2019.00259 Abstract ( 3691 )   The core of team research has shifted from team diversity to team faultlines and from faultlines to subgroups. In other words, the study of subgroups is the developmental direction of the study of team diversity and faultlines. Numerous studies have documented the negative effects of subgroups on group functioning, and scholars have explored whether team situations can eliminate such negative influence. However, no studies have explored whether the dynamic change of team composition at the subgroup level, such as subgroup member exchange, can eliminate this negative influence. This study aims to fill the research gap by focusing on this topic. This research investigates teams with two balanced and identity-based subgroups as the research objects, and uses experimental research methods to explore whether subgroup member exchange can eliminate the negative impact of subgroups on team outcomes. By conducting experiments on 75 temporary teams (38 teams with subgroup member exchanges and 37 teams with no subgroup member exchange), this paper finds that (1) subgroup member exchange has a positive effect on team information elaboration and team decision quality and that (2) team information elaboration plays an intermediary role in the relationship between subgroup member exchange and team decision quality. The theoretical contributions of this study are as follows: (1) it confirms whether variables at the subgroup level can eliminate the negative effects of subgroups on team functioning and proposes the concept of subgroup member exchange, and (2) it enriches the theory of CEM with subgroups involved in the path, which aims to develop team decision quality through information elaboration. The practical contributions of this study are two-fold. (1) It improves the ability of a team to solve complex tasks and managers can promote the movement of members among subgroups, such as providing them with the opportunity to work together, and valuing more interpersonal rather than inter-subgroup differences. (2) It increases team decision quality by allowing managers to create conditions to improve the degree of team information elaboration, such as fostering pro-diversity beliefs by communicating member’s belief in the value of diversity, and by explaining how task performance can benefit from the diversity of information and perspectives. Although this research has provided theoretical contributions in subgroup research, numerous areas have yet to be explored. In the future, research on this topic can be improved by the following: (1) scholars can continue to explore how other changes in group composition can affect subgroup mechanism in the dynamic framework, and (2) scholars can continue to expand the CEM theory on subgroup backgrounds and investigate whether team information elaboration plays an active role in diversity, faultlines, and subgroups. Related Articles | Metrics