Archive

25 December 2019, Volume 51 Issue 12 Previous Issue    Next Issue
---
Reports of Empirical Studies


For Selected:

Download Citations EndNote Ris BibTeX

Toggle Thumbnails

Reports of Empirical Studies

Select

Effects of embodied simulation on understanding Chinese body action verbs WANG Bin,LI Zhirui,WU Limei,ZHANG Jijia 2019, 51 (12):  1291-1305.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2019.01291 Abstract ( 4338 )   Recent approaches on embodied cognition and theories of semantic and conceptual “grounding” have emphasized the role of perceptual and motor skills in language comprehension and action understanding. Evidence on the role of sensorimotor information in language processing has been obtained from behavioral and neuroimaging studies. These findings have been taken as a support for the claim that language is understood through sensorimotor simulations of actions and events being described. The theory on Perceptual Symbol Systems holds that the sensorimotor system participates in the language comprehension process, which is an empirical simulation of a situation through a series of complex language cues. Chinese characters may show different characteristics from English words because semantic radicals are linked with the meaning of these characters. These semantic radicals may affect the embodied effect of Chinese characters. In the study, authors used single-character body action verbs in Chinese as experimental materials. Body action verbs are words that use body parts to perform mechanical movements. The directional semantic feature of body action verbs reflects the direction of physical space and can be perceived. Experiment 1 investigated the influence of semantic direction on the spatial judgment of an arrow direction in the motion channel under whole word priming. The repeated measurement design of 2 (Chinese character embodied direction: up/down) × 2 (arrow direction: up/down) was adopted. Thirty-five participants volunteered in this study. Experiment 2 investigated the influence of semantic orientation on the spatial judgment of letter orientation in visual channels under whole word initiation. The repeated measurement design of 2 (Chinese character direction: up/down) × 2 (letter position: up/down) design was used. Thirty-eight participants took part in this experiment. Experiment 3 investigated the embodied simulation of the semantic radical and whole character under the radical priming paradigm. Chinese body action verbs formed by semantic radicals “扌” and “?” were used as experimental materials. A within-subject design of 2 (priming type: semantic radical’s priming/control priming) × 3 (character type: consistent/inconsistent) × 3 (SOA: 43 ms/72 ms/243 ms) was used. Before the behavioral experiment, the participants were asked to hold their hands up for one minute to reinforce the bodybuilding experience of having their hands above and their feet below. Character type shows the direction and orientation between the character and its semantic radical. Consistent character type means that the character and its semantic radical have a similar direction and orientation. For example, the semantic radical “?” means “foot, ” which is below the body. Thus, “蹲” is a consistent character, whereas “跳” is an inconsistent character. Results suggest the following: (1) When Chinese characters are in a downward semantic direction, the downward arrow is judged faster than the upward arrow. When characters are in an upward semantic direction, the direction of the arrow has a null effect. (2) Chinese characters with upward semantic movement can be used to recognize upper letters more quickly and characters with downward semantic movement can be used to recognize lower letters more quickly. (3) In the middle and late stages of Chinese character processing, the response of consistent and inconsistent Chinese characters is significantly different, indicating that the semantic radical is activated from the middle stage of the Chinese character processing until the late stage. The present findings demonstrate the following: (1) An action-character compatibility effect is present in Chinese body movement verbs in the movement and visual channels. Understanding Chinese body movement verbs is a cross-channel embodied simulation process. (2) The semantic radical activation of the phonogram starts from the middle stage to the late stage of Chinese body action verb processing. A semantic understanding of Chinese body action verbs has an embodied simulation at the whole character and component (semantic radical) levels. Related Articles | Metrics

Select

Processing of Chinese homophonic two-part allegoric sayings: Effects of familiarity and homophone MA Lijun,MA Yunxiao,HE Xiaoqing,LIU Haitao,ZHANG Jingyu 2019, 51 (12):  1306-1317.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2019.01306 Abstract ( 2516 )   Two-part allegorical sayings are a typical language form in Chinese. Understanding two-part allegorical saying involves the ability to understand figurative meanings. Chinese two-part allegorical sayings convey figurative meanings by activating either homophonic or conceptual associations. Homophonic associations are realized based on a conceptual connection between the two homophonic expressions: the second part of the sayings and the expression of the idiomatic meaning. Within the example of Lao tai tai shang ji wo (老太太上鸡窝)—ben dan (笨蛋), a situation is described as an old lady (lao tai tai or老太太) is about to walk towards a henhouse (shang ji wo or上鸡窝), which is reflected in the second part that the purpose of doing this is “heading for eggs” (ben dan or奔蛋). The intended interpretation of the saying “an idiot” (ben dan or笨蛋) could not be worked out without the help of a very crucial apparatus—sound association; that is, “heading for eggs” is pronounced the same with “an idiot” in Chinese with respect to the same segmental combinations and tone patterns. Within the paradigm of sound association, the meaning identified in the source domain (the first part; in our example, the old lady’s behavior) is also observed in the target domain (the second part; in our example, the figurative meaning of the old lady’s behavior) in a metaphoric way through mapping between the two domains, resulting in a shifting from a concrete concept to an abstract one. Mapping, which was described by Lakoff and Johnson in their Conceptual Metaphor Theory, has been considered a powerful theory in interpreting metaphors. Fauconnier proposed Conceptual Blending Theory, emphasizing that mapping happens across spaces via connecting counterparts in the input mental spaces. In our example, it connects one mental space contained the image of an old lady walking towards a henhouse and another mental space describing the purpose of carrying out this behavior. Then the mapping happens when the mental apparatus identifies the sound similarity and generates the intended meaning. Meanwhile, the knowledge of recognizing implicature (Xu, 2005) in pragmatic inference also plays a crucial role in processing two-part allegorical sayings. From this perspective, Chinese two-part allegorical sayings are one of the ideal languages. The successful understanding of them couldn’t be accomplished without considering how people interpret in their real usage. There are three theories relevant to interpreting of Chines two-part allegorical sayings, but what we wonder is which theory is more powerful in explaining the processing of homophonic two-part allegorical sayings in terms of various degrees? Does sound association play a crucial role in the processing? In order to answer these questions, two experiments were designed by using eye-movement instrument: experiment 1 investigated the effect of various degrees of familiarity on the processing of two different types of back parts (homophonic association/ phonography), for example, 老太太上鸡窝—奔蛋 is phonography because there is no metaphoric inference between front and back parts, but老太太上鸡窝—笨蛋 is with homophonic association because the implied meaning (笨蛋) is inferred from the words (奔蛋) through sound similarity. We asked the participants to judge the semantic relatedness between front and back parts and we found that the judgment was determined by the type of back parts, that is, the homophone facilitated the participants’ judgment because of the sound association; while phonography forced participants to infer the implied meaning of the sayings. Meanwhile, participants took longer time to process the sayings with high familiarity and made more errors in the judgment task, the reason of which might be caused by the negative effect of long-term memory. The result supported the Conceptual Metaphor theory and Conceptual Blending theory. However, participants adopted a quite different processing strategy called the on-line processing strategy when the sayings were with low familiarity. The result supported the Pragmatic Inference theory. Experiment 2 investigated how various intonations affected the judgment of semantic relatedness between front and back parts. The results showed that the characters with the same sound pattern but not with the same intonation (e.g. 笨、本、奔) exerted different influences on the judgment. Specifically, the character “本”, which does not fit into the meaning of any of the two parts, did not play a role in the processing. The result does not support the Conceptual Blending theory. Related Articles | Metrics

Select

The influence of questioning type on the generalization of autobiographical memory GONG Huoliang, YANG Di, ZHANG Fangyi 2019, 51 (12):  1318-1329.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2019.01318 Abstract ( 2774 )   PDF (848KB) ( 158 )   Current researchers are largely concentrated on the characteristics of the high degree of autobiographical memory related to the negative emotion and depression, very few studies investigated the ways to reduce or improve the degree of autobiographical memory. The high degree of generalization of autobiographical memory is a symbol of occurrence and development of depression. Knowing how to reduce degree of generalization of autobiographical memory in order to alleviate the symptoms and lower the relapse rate of depression that needs to be resolved in psychological counseling and treatment. Based on the previous research, 344 junior, middle school students have been selected for the experiments. The present study includes three parts: Experiment compared the generalization difference in the autobiographical memories of both the problematic state and the normal state, verifying that the positive and negative autobiographical memory scores of the problematic state were significantly lower than those of the normal group, and no significant difference in the neutral autobiographical memory score between the two groups. Experiment 2 compared the two questioning types, namely, solution-focused (SF) and problem-focused (PF) on the generalization of autobiographical memory and proved that the scores of positive, negative autobiographical memory and neutral autobiographical memory in the problem- focused questioning were significantly higher than those solution-focused questioning and control group, but there was no significant difference between the problem- focused questioning and control group in all kinds of autobiographical memory scores. A relationship between the questioning type and the autobiographical memory was established, the relation would be used in the counselling. Experiment 3 further explores the influence of solution-focused questioning on the generalization of autobiographical memory in different attribution styles, and testifies that the positive and negative autobiographical memory scores of the internal attributive group were significantly higher than those of the external attributive group, but there was no significant difference between the two groups in the neutral autobiographical memory score. The result shows that similar to depression and other mental disorders, the degree of autobiographical memory generalization of individuals suffering from general psychological distress show a higher generalization degree of autobiographical memory; a solution-focused questioning can palliate the generalization of autobiographical memory better than question-focused questioning. Moreover, solution-focused questioning is beneficial in improving the generalization of autobiographical memory in internal attribution groups of individuals suffering from general psychological distress. In short, we can conclude that the questioning type does affect the degree of the generalization of autobiographical memory, provides a useful attempt for psychological counselors or therapists to reduce the generalization of autobiographical memory in cases. Related Articles | Metrics

Select

The effect of cognitive vagueness and motivation on conscious and unconscious self-deception ZHONG Luojin, RU Taotao, FAN Meng, MO Lei 2019, 51 (12):  1330-1340.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2019.01330 Abstract ( 3887 )   Academia has a long discussion of self-deception. Self-deception provides fertile ground for research in biology, philosophy, and psychology. Philosophers theoretically discuss the possibility and conditions of the existence of self-deception. Biologists study the applicability of the self-deception from the evolutionary perspective. Psychologists want to provide empirical evidence for the existence of self-deception. Nevertheless, the presentation of self-deception remains controversial. Therefore, an empirical study of self-deception with direct evidence is required to tackle the existence of self-deception. A large number of studies have investigated the existence of self-deception. The results showed that motivation, external or internal, and cognitive vagueness are the triggers of the existence of self-deception. However, it remains unknown whether self-deceived people believe in their own deception interacts with the effect of cognitive vagueness and motivation on self-deception. In this paper, we investigate whether self-deceived people believe in their own deception influences the self-deception and moderates the effect of cognitive vagueness and motivation on self-deception. We further propose two forms of self-deception: unconscious and conscious self-deception, where those unconscious self-deceived people believe in their own deception while those conscious self-deceived people do not. As cognitive vagueness and motivation have different effects on the two forms of self-deception, we further investigate whether the two forms of self-deception share the same processing mechanisms. Following the research paradigm of Chance et al. (2011), we investigated the above hypotheses in three experiments. In Experiment 1, we improved the research paradigm used by Chance et al. (2011), and we showed that self-deception could be categorized as conscious self-deception and unconscious self-deception. Experiment 2 showed that cognitive vagueness positively and negatively associated with unconscious and conscious self-deception respectively. Experiment 3 illustrated that motivation increased the conscious self-deception, but had no impact on unconscious self-deception. The diverse effects of motivation and cognitive vagueness on the unconscious and conscious self-deception suggest that two forms of self-deception are driven by different processing mechanisms. Related Articles | Metrics

Select

Adaptive time management: The effects of death awareness on time perception and intertemporal choice WANG Peng, WANG Xiaotian, GAO Juan, LI Xialan, XU Jing 2019, 51 (12):  1341-1350.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2019.01341 Abstract ( 6875 )   PDF (697KB) ( 988 )   Death awareness refers to thinking about and the recognition of the inevitability of personal death. As a critical component of the human-unique ability of autonoetic consciousness, death awareness can be viewed as a cognitive adaptation for time management. We hypothesize that activating death awareness may affect intertemporal choice, in which people make tradeoffs between rewards across different time points. Such effects of death awareness on intertemporal choice may be mediated by time perception, a subjective assessment of the speed of time passage. In this research, we investigate the impact of death awareness on time perception and intertemporal choice, and the relationships among them. Study 1 examined the relationship between death awareness and time estimation. Eighty-three college students were randomly assigned to either a death awareness activation group where mortality was made salient to the participants or a control group where the participants imagined their toothache experience. After a word-search distraction task, the participants in both groups completed a time-passage (400ms, 800ms, 1200ms, 1600ms) estimation task. The results showed that the participants in the group of death awareness activation gave significantly shorter estimates than the participants in the control group. Study 2 (n = 123) extended the measure of time perception to a more extended period and also measured the delay discounting rate of the participants from their intertemporal choices between a smaller-and-sooner reward and a larger-and-later reward. The participants were randomly assigned to either a death awareness activation group or a toothache awareness activation group. The participants then indicated how long ten years was to them by marking on a line with the statement “10 years is very short” on the left end side of the line and the statement “10 years is very long” on the right end side. The participants in the death-awareness activation group marked the line closer to the left end (“life is short”) than those in the control group. As predicted, the participants in the death-awareness activation group had a lower delay discounting rate and were more future-oriented in making intertemporal choices. Moreover, bootstrapping analysis revealed a partial mediation effect of time-passage estimation between death awareness and delay discounting. In conclusion, death awareness serves adaptive functions in time management. Activating death awareness makes people feel that time passes more quickly and promotes future-oriented decisions. Related Articles | Metrics

Select

The impact of congruency between moral appeal and social perception on charitable donation CHEN Siyun, WEI Haiying, MENG Lu 2019, 51 (12):  1351-1362.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2019.01351 Abstract ( 2505 )   PDF (809KB) ( 810 )   Previous research has long paid attention to how to improve persuasive effectiveness in charitable donation. Based on moral foundation theory (MFT) and stereotype content model (SCM), this paper proposes that a match between moral appeal and social perception leads higher persuasive effectiveness of individual donation. More specifically, relative to those who are exposed to a binding appeal, consumers who are exposed to an individualizing appeal are more willing to donate for warmth-oriented organizations. However, for competence- oriented organizations, a binding appeal will garner higher persuasive effectiveness than an individualizing appeal. Furthermore, two types of efficacy (i.e., self-efficacy and response efficacy) mediate the interaction effect of moral appeal and social perception on donation effectiveness. Three lab experiments were conducted to examine these hypotheses. In particular, experiment 1 employed a 3 (moral appeal: binding appeal vs. individualizing appeal vs. neutral) × 2 (social perception: warmth-oriented vs. competence-oriented) two-way between-subjects design. We found that competence-oriented (vs. warmth-oriented) organizations will obtain better donation persuasion results when consumers are exposed to binding (vs. individualizing) appeal, supporting the hypotheses H1a and H1b. Then, in experiment 2, we identified the underlying mechanism, such that the interaction effect is driven by consumers’ response efficacy and self-efficacy, verifying the hypotheses H2a and H2b. Experiment 3 further examined the mediating role of different types of efficacy using a moderation approach. Participants were randomly assigned to one of condition of 3 (moral appeal: binding appeal vs. individualizing appeal vs. neutral) × 2 (social perception: warmth- oriented vs. competence-oriented) × 2 (efficacy: self-efficacy vs. response efficacy). Experiment 3 replicated the findings of previous experiments, showing the robustness of our conclusions. We also ruled out some alternative explanations (e.g., empathy) in the study. Theoretically, this research observes for the first time the interactive effect of moral appeal and social perception, thus extending both moral foundation theory and stereotype content model. The current study also enriches existing donation literature by examining the mediating role of response efficacy and self-efficacy. Managerially, this research has rich implications to charitable organization and companies when they aim to improve persuasive effectiveness in an individual donation. Related Articles | Metrics

Select

The influence of advice-seeker’s gaze direction on advisor’s advice-giving DUAN Jinyun, SHI Bei, WANG Xiaotian 2019, 51 (12):  1363-1374.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2019.01363 Abstract ( 2431 )   PDF (803KB) ( 248 )   Advice, given or taken, is vital in decision-making processes and social interactions. An individual can either exert one’s influence on others with advice, or use others’ advice to enable effective decision-making. Given the importance of behaviors related to advice, it has become critical for scholars to investigate their antecedents. However, previous studies have focused largely on advice taking rather than advice giving, which is equally vital. To fill this gap, the current study, inspired by eye effects, seeks to explore the relationship between advice-seekers’ gaze direction and advisors’ willingness to give advice, as well as the mechanism underlying this relationship. Drawing from Signaling Theory, we examined the effect of advice-seekers’ gaze direction on advisors’ advice giving, as well as the process linking them. We focused on the mediating effect of perceived role expectation and on the moderating effect of rejection sensitivity. Three experiments with different decision making scenarios were conducted to test the hypotheses. The advice-seekers’ gaze direction (direct vs. averted) was manipulated using same images of faces (3 models, 2 males and 1 female) in three experiments. Experiment 1 employed an undergraduate’ career decision-making scenario to examine the direct effect of advice-seekers’ gaze direction on advisors’ willingness of giving advice, as well as the mediating effect of perceived role expectation. A total of 102 university students were recruited for this experiment (39 males; mean age 23.76 ± 4.39 years), and were randomly divided into two groups (direct vs. averted). The experiment 2 adopted a 2 (gaze direction: direct vs. averted) × 2 (rejection sensitivity: high vs. low) between-subject design to examine the moderating effect of rejection sensitivity with an undergraduate’ decision-making scenario in daily study life. A total of 318 undergraduates were recruited (155 males; mean age 21.74 ± 1.49 years). Using the tendency to expect rejection scale (TERS), we deployed 86 participants (35 males) who scored in the top 27% in the high rejection sensitivity group and 86 participants (36 males) who scored in the bottom 27% in the low rejection sensitivity group. The experiment 3 employed a job-related decision making scenario in an organization to examine the full model (a moderated mediation model). A total of 198 full-time employees were recruited (88 males; mean age 31.20 ± 5.06 years). The results of the three experiments showed that: (1) advice-seeker's gaze direction directly influenced the advisors’ willingness to give advice. When the advice-seeker's gaze direction was direct rather than averted, advisors were more willing to give advice; (2) perceived role expectation mediated the relationship between advice-seeker's gaze direction and advisors’ willingness to give advice; (3) advisors’ rejection sensitivity moderated the relationship between advice-seeker's gaze direction and advisors’ willingness to give advice, as well as the indirect relationship of advice seeker's gaze direction to advisors’ willingness to give advice through perceived role expectation. When the advisor's rejection sensitivity was high, seeker's direct gaze direction had a stronger effect on the advisors’ willingness to give advice, as well as on the indirect effect mentioned above. These findings contribute to our understandings of how to help advisors to give advice, and add to the research on eye effects as well. Related Articles | Metrics

Select

The divergent effects of work stress on constructive voice and defensive voice: A cross-level of moderated mediation model LU Hong-Xu, ZHOU Fan, WU Ting, YAN Jin, SHAO Yan, LIU Yan-Bin 2019, 51 (12):  1375-1385.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2019.01375 Abstract ( 3009 )   PDF (679KB) ( 245 )   Previous studies have mainly considered voice as a behavior with constructive intention for the organization. However, such studies have failed to recognize that voice can be an important means for individuals to achieve their own instrumental goals. Among the few studies that have examined the instrumentality of voice behavior, little attention has been paid to distinguishing between the types of voice behavior motivated by instrumental goals, leading to an incomplete understanding of the instrumental side of the behavior. Hence, this study attempts to broaden our understanding of different voice behaviors as a means of satisfying different instrumental goals in pressure situations. Specifically, based on conservation of resources theory, we suggest that high work pressure indicates threats, increasing individuals’ motivation to conserve resources and thus leading to more defensive voice. In contrast, when work pressure is low, the environment is likely to be perceived as benign, motivating the expression of constructive voice. Importantly, we highlight the role of leader openness as an important boundary condition. Leader openness signals that voice behavior is encouraged and valued, leading to positive expectations for employees to maintain or acquire resources through such behavior, which further motivates that behavior. In contrast, when leaders turn a blind eye to their employees’ voice, employees perceive that their suggestion behavior cannot help them achieve their instrumental goals, and they thus stay silent about work-related issues. Taken together, we suggest that work pressure leads to more defensive voice and less constructive voice, especially when leader openness is high. To test our conceptual model, we conducted a one-month time-lagged study among 386 employees from 50 teams at a construction site. We found that although employees’ perceptions of work stress significantly decreased constructive voice, they also increased defensive voice. Ego depletion mediated the effects of work stress on these two types of voice behavior. Moreover, the results showed that group-level leader openness significantly reinforced the negative relationship between work stress and constructive voice, as well as the negative indirect effect of work pressure on constructive voice through ego depletion. However, the moderating effect of leader openness was not observed when testing the direct and indirect effects of work pressure on defensive voice. This study makes three main contributions to the literature. First, responding to researchers’ recommendations in recent years, the study investigated the mechanisms of different types of voice behaviors. Second, the study drew on conservation of resources theory to explain the effects of work stress on voice behavior, enhancing our understanding of why people engage in certain types of voice behavior in response to work stress. Finally, the study highlights leader openness as an important boundary condition, clarifying when work stress is more likely or less likely to lead to different voice behaviors. Related Articles | Metrics

Select

Development of a Generalized Cognitive Diagnosis Model for polytomous responses based on Partial Credit Model GAO Xuliang,WANG Daxun,WANG Fang,CAI Yan,TU Dongbo 2019, 51 (12):  1386-1397.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2019.01386 Abstract ( 1134 )   Currently, a large number of cognitive diagnosis models (CDMs) have been proposed to satisfy the demands of the cognitively diagnostic assessment. However, most existing CDMs are only suitable for dichotomously scored items. In practice, there are lager polytomously-score items/data in educational and psychological tests. Therefore, it is very necessary to develop CDMs for polytomous data. Under the item response theory (IRT) framework, the polytomous models can be divided into three categories: (i) the cumulative probability (or graded-response) models, (ii) continuation ratios (or sequential) models, and (iii) the adjacent-category (or partial-credit) models. At present, several efforts have been made to develop polytomous partial-credit CDMs, including the general diagnostic model (GDM; von Davier, 2008) and the partial credit DINA (PC-DINA; de la Torre, 2012) model. However, the existing polytomous partial-credit CDMs need to be improved in the following aspects: (1) These CDMs do not consider the relationship between attributes and response categories by assuming that all response categories of an item measure the same attributes. This may result in loss of diagnostic information, because different response categories could measure different attributes; (2) More importantly, the PC-DINA is based on reduced DINA model. Therefore, the current polytomous CDMs are established under strong assumptions and do not have the advantages of general cognitive diagnosis model. The current article proposes a general partial credit diagnostic model (GPCDM) for polytomous responses with less restrictive assumptions. Item parameters of the proposed models can be estimated using the marginal maximum likelihood estimation approach via Expectation Maximization (MMLE/EM) algorithm. Study 1 aims to examine (1) whether the EM algorithm can accurately estimate the parameters of the proposed models, and (2) whether using item level Q-matrix (referred to as the Item-Q) to analyze data generated by category level Q-matrix (referred to as the Cat-Q) will reduce the accuracy of parameter estimation. Results showed that when using Cat-Q fitting data, the maximum RMSE was less than 0.05. When the number of attributes was equal to 5 or 7, the minimum pattern match rate (PMR) was 0.9 and 0.8, respectively. These results indicated that item and person parameters could be recovered accurately based on the proposed estimation algorithm. In addition, the results also showed that when Item-Q is used to fit the data generated by Cat-Q, the estimation accuracy of both the item and person parameters could be reduced. Therefore, it is suggested that when constructing the polytomously-scored items for cognitively diagnostic assessment, the item writer should try to identify the association between attributes and categories. In the process, more diagnostic information may be extracted, which in turn helps improve the diagnostic accuracy. The purpose of Study 2 is to apply the proposed model to the TIMSS (2007) fourth-grade mathematics assessment test to demonstrate its application and feasibility and compare with the exiting GDM and PC-DINA model. The results showed that compared with GDM and PC-DINA models, the new model had a better model fit of test-level, higher attribute reliability and better diagnostic effect. Related Articles | Metrics