Acta Psychologica Sinica

The enhancing effect of tracking gesture on visuo-spatial learning

JIA Xiaoqian, SONG Xiaolei

2022, 54 (9): 1009-1020. doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2022.01009

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Visuo-spatial ability is the main component of spatial cognitive ability, which forms the spatial model of the external world in the human brain and thinks in mind through transformation of model paradigm. However, when there are few landmarks or reference objects in an unfamiliar environment, individuals with low visuo-spatial ability are often prone to get lost. So, for these individuals with low visuo-spatial ability, how to solve this problem is worth exploring. Previous researches have proved that gestures help individuals to learn. However, most studies focused on improving the ability of route learning by observing tracking gestures, while there were few studies exploring the effect of generating tracking gestures, and there was no research exploring the role of generating tracking gestures in route learning on 3D maps.
The route learning task (Figure 1) was adopted as the main paradigm in the present study to explore the enhancing effect of generating tracking gestures in the route learning process of 3D map.A total of 53 participants were recruited in Experiment 1 to explore the improving effect of generating tracking gestures on visuo-spatial learning of 2D map and 3D map. 2 (map type: 2D vs. 3D) × 3 (gesture: no gesture vs. generating tracking gesture) × 2 (gender: male vs. female) mixed ANOVA was adopted and results (as in Figure 2) showed that main effect of gesture was significant, F(1, 52) = 58.73, p < 0.001, η_p² = 0.53, and so as the main effect of map type, F(1, 52) = 14.46, p < 0.001, η_p² = 0.22. There’s a significant interaction between gesture and map type, F(1, 52) = 4.55, p = 0.03, η_p² = 0.08. However, main effect of gender was not significant, p > 0.05, which is inconsistent with previous studies. And the other interactions between factors was not significant as well, ps > 0.05. The results mean that generating tracking gestures significantly improve the performance of visuo-spatial learning in both 2D map and 3D map, and the enhancing effect of generating tracking gesture on route learning of 3D map was higher than that of 2D map.In Experiment 2, another 49 participants were recruited to investigate the enhancing mechanism of generating tracking gestures in route learning using the occlusion paradigm. A one-way ANOVA was adopted, and Figure 3 presents the results as follow: main effect of gesture was significant, F(2, 47) = 24.05, p < 0.001, and the best performance happened under the condition of generating and not covering tracking gesture. Experiment 2 revealed that visuo-spatial learning was enhanced by the visual information and sensorimotor information provided by tracking gestures.Experiment 3 recruited another 53 participants to explore the methods of enhancement of visuo-spatial learning based on tracking gesture.
The results (as in Figure 4) showed a significant main effect of gesture, F(2, 49) = 26.65, p < 0.001, η_p² = 0.658, and the enhancing effect of generating self-referential tracking gestures was significantly higher than that of observing others' tracking gestures, p < 0.001. It also proved that enhancing physical presence can improve the effect of visuo-spatial learning.
In summary, these results suggest that (1) generating tracking gestures can enhance visuo-spatial learning; (2) visual information and sensorimotor information provided by tracking gestures play important roles in visuo-spatial learning, which confirms image maintenance theory and further complements the embodied embodied-external cognitive perspective of gesture; (3) increasing physical presence can enhance visuo-spatial learning, which validates the embodied-external cognitive perspective of gesture; (4) compared with observing other's tracking gestures, generating self-referential tracking gestures leads to a better performance, that is, generating self-referential tracking gestures is a more effective way to improve visuo-spatial learning.

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The cross-domain influence of tonal categorical perception and tonal complexity on musical pitch perception

LI Xianzhuo, XIAO Rong, LIANG Dandan

2022, 54 (9): 1021-1030. doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2022.01021

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Pitch is a fundamental acoustic property shared by both language and music. However, there are different views on the processing of tonal pitch and musical pitch. Some studies support the “modularity view”, suggesting that tonal pitch and musical pitch are represented separately. In contrast, more studies support the “shared domain-general view”, implying that there are commonalities in the processing of tonal pitch and musical pitch based on their physical similarities. The existing studies have mostly focused on domain-general pitch transfer; nonetheless, they have not considered domain specificity of the tonal pitch as a linguistic element. Hence, it remains unclear whether domain-specific factors, such as categorical perception and complexity of different tonal language experiences on speakers’ pitch processing, play a role in musical pitch perception.
To address the above issues, ninety participants were involved in the experiment, including 30 native speakers of Mandarin Chinese (with a relatively simple tone system), 30 native speakers of Vietnamese (with a relatively complex tone system), and 30 native speakers of Russian (nonpitched control group). A 3 (group: Vietnamese vs. Chinese vs. Russian) × 2 (stimulus type: speech vs. music) between-and-within-subjects design was used. A continuum from [i^?] (closed for Yinping in Chinese and Transverse in Vietnamese) to [i^??] (closed for Yangping in Chinese and Acute in Vietnamese) and its musical counterpart was constructed (see Figure 1). Participants were first tested in an ABX identification task to determine whether the stimulus X was similar to A or B and then an AX discrimination task to decide whether the two stimuli in the pair were identical. The experiment was performed in E-prime 3.0.
Identification and discrimination curves are shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3 respectively. The corresponding indicators are shown in Table 1 and Table 2.
Repeated measures ANOVA tests were conducted on identification indicators(b₁ and W_cb) and discrimination indicators(P_wc,P_bcand P_pk) separately.
In the identification task, the main effect of group was significant in the slope of the identification curve, F(2, 87) = 58.09, p < 0.001, η²_p = 0.57. The interaction effect between stimulus type and group was significant, F(2, 87) = 3.29, p = 0.042. Simple effect analysis showed that the Chinese group and the Vietnamese group were significantly better than the Russian group in terms of speech stimuli. The main effect of group was significant in the boundary width, F(2, 87) = 3.40, p = 0.038, η²_p = 0.07. Post hoc analyses showed that the Chinese and Vietnamese groups were not significantly different, but both were significantly narrower than the Russian group.
In the discrimination task, the main effect of group was significant in the within-category sensitivity (F(2, 87) = 4.95, p = 0.009, η²_p = 0.10), between-category sensitivity (F(2, 87) = 8.27, p = 0.001, η²_p = 0.16) and peakedness (F(2, 87) = 8.80, p < 0.001, η²_p = 0.17). Post hoc analyses all showed that the Chinese and Vietnamese groups were significantly better than the Russian group, and the differences between the Chinese and Vietnamese groups were not significant.
The results showed that (1) both the Chinese and Vietnamese groups showed categorical perception for language and music pitches. There were no differences between language and music stimuli in category boundary width, within-category discrimination rate, between-category discrimination rate, or discrimination peak for either group. The Russian group’s identification curve did not show abrupt shifts, and their discrimination curve was relatively flat with multiple peaks, indicating a continuous pattern significantly different from the two tonal language groups. (2) There were no significant differences between the Vietnamese group and the Chinese group in either the within-category discrimination rate or the between-category discrimination rate.
The experimental results suggest that at the behavioral level, the pattern of native tonal categorical perception can transfer to musical pitch perception, but tonal complexity does not facilitate cross-domain musical pitch perception. The findings of this study support the “shared domain-general view” in terms of the influence of language on musical pitch processing.

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Efficacy of suicide ideation classification based on pain avoidance and the EEG characteristics under self-referential punishment

SUN Fang, SONG Wei, WEN Xiaotong, LI Huanhuan, OUYANG Lisheng, WEI Shijie

2022, 54 (9): 1031-1047. doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2022.01031

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Depressed students are at high-risk for suicide. Psychological pain, especially pain avoidance, was a more robust predictor for suicide ideation than depression at the behavioral level. Due to suicide as a complex classification model, machine learning algorisms applied to integrate behavioral data and neural characteristic can advance suicide prediction, and the accuracy of multimodality features is superior than clinical interview. The present study aimed to integrate data-driven machine learning algorisms and the three-dimensional psychological pain model to figure out the optimal features in the prediction of suicide ideation.
Seventy-seven college students were recruited by advertisement and divided into three groups: depressed group with high levels of suicide ideation (HSI, n = 25), depressed group with low levels of suicide ideation (LSI, n = 20), and healthy controls (HC, n = 32). All participants completed the three-dimensional psychological pain scale (TDPPS), Beck depression inventory-I (BDI), Beck suicide ideation inventory (BSI), and the self-referential affective incentive delay task (SAID). The value of support vector based on machine-recursive feature elimination (RFE-SVM) algorithm applied to combine the scale scores, resting state and punitive-related EEG components for feature ranking in a nonlinear way. Firstly, in order to explore the importance and specificity of pain avoidance and pain processing related EEG characteristics in the classification model of suicidal ideation, the classification models of painful feeling and pain avoidance were established, which helped to understand the importance of EEG features under the self-referential punitive condition in above two models. Secondly, in order to differentiate the important prediction features of classification models of depression and suicide ideation, depression classification models with single- and multimodal features as input variables were established separately. Thirdly, the single- and multimodal classification models of suicidal ideation were established. Further, the important features of the classification model of suicide ideation, depression and pain avoidance would be compared with each other.
Results showed that: (1) Scores of pain avoidance in the HSI was higher than the LSI group (p < 0.001, Table 1). (2) The multimodal psychological pain-based model for suicide ideation classification (Accuracy = 85.66%, Precision = 0.82, Recall = 0.73, AUC = 0.92) was sufficient and superior than the EEG single-modal model (Accuracy = 65.43%, Precision = 0.40, Recall = 0.21, AUC = 0.57, Table 2). Importantly, the pain avoidance and BDI scores ranked the top two features in the classification model of suicide ideation, whereas painful feeling and pain arousal subscale scores ranked the top two features in the multimodal classification model of depression (Accuracy = 73.83%, Precision = 0.76, Recall = 0.83, AUC = 0.80, Table 2 and Table 3). The top four EEG features in the multimodal classification model of suicidal ideation are CNV, LPP, target-P3 and feedback-P3 under the self-referential punitive conditions, while the top four EEG features in the multimodal classification model of depression are FRN, LPP under self-referential reward condition and FRN, target-delta under self-referential punitive conditions. The EEG optimal features of overlap in the pain avoidance and suicide ideation classification models were the LPP and target-P3 under self-referential punitive conditions. (3) The powers of delta and beta band were negatively correlated with the BSI-W (r_delta = -0.26, p_delta < 0.05; r_beta = -0.24, p_beta < 0.05) and pain avoidance subscale scores (r_delta = -0.26, p_delta < 0.05; r_beta = -0.23, p_beta < 0.1). The FRN amplitude under other- and self-referential punitive conditions were negatively corelated with the pain avoidance subscale scores (r_other = -0.28, p_other < 0.05; r_self = -0.19, p_self < 0.05). In the HSI group, power of delta elicited by positive feedback under self-referential conditions was lower than those under other-referential conditions (p = 0.084). In the HSI group, the amplitude of LPP in other-referential punitive conditions was higher than those under reward (p = 0.003) and neutral conditions (p < 0.001), whereas in the LSI group, the amplitude of LPP under self-referential punitive conditions was higher than that under neutral conditions (p = 0.006).
As a pilot study, the current study provided a support for the prominent role of pain avoidance and its related neuroelectrophysiological correlates in the prediction of suicide. The clinical significance of this results will be discussed.

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The covariant relationship between adolescent friendship networks and bullying: A longitudinal social network analysis

ZHANG Yunyun, ZHANG Qiwen, ZHANG Libin, REN Ping, QI Xingna, CHANG Ruisheng

2022, 54 (9): 1048-1058. doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2022.01048

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The effect of group identity shifting on impression updating in older adults: The mediating role of common ingroup identity

WEN Fangfang, KE Wenlin, HE Saifei, ZUO Bin, LI Lanxin, MA Shuhan, WANG jing

2022, 54 (9): 1059-1075. doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2022.01059

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In the field of impression updating, most researchers focus on the impression updating of individual targets, while few research focus on the impression updating of groups. However, the intervention of prejudice and conflict between groups has always been a hot issue to be solved in the field of social psychology. Since group identity is the basis for impression evaluation of groups, based on the perspective of Common Ingroup Identity Model and social categorization, changing group identity to improve common ingroup identity provides a feasible “change makes sense” intervention path for the impression update of the target group. Considering that the large elderly population has become an important part of the world population, it is of great practical significance to evaluate the elderly population positively. Based on this, the present study manipulated group identity shifting at both explicit and implicit levels through “minimal group recategorization paradigm”. The purpose of this study is to explore the influence of identity shifting on the impression updating of the elderly group and the role of common ingroup identity in it, so as to explore a method with low restriction, simple operation and obvious effect to improve out-group impression evaluation.

In preliminary experiment, 119 college students participated in the psychology class as subjects, to examine the effect of group identity shifting manipulated by the minimal group recategorization paradigm on the updating of minimal in-group/out-group impressions. In Experiment 1A, 98 college students were recruited as subjects. The aim of Experiment 1A was to use the “minimal group recategorization paradigm” to manipulate the shifting of group identity, examining the change of young individuals' perception of warmth and competence towards the elderly group, and the effect of group identity shifting on the impression updating of the elderly at the explicit level. In Experiment 1B, we recruited 35 college students as subjects to explore whether the impression evaluation of the elderly can be effectively changed at the implicit level by using Go/ No-Go association task. In Experiment 2, the effect of identity shifting was tested on both explicit and implicit levels. At the implicit level, a Single Category Implicit Association Test with higher application rate and wider application scope was used, and an integrated perspective of warmth, competence and stereotype trait words was used to measure the impression evaluation. At the same time, the influence of identity shifting on common ingroup identity was also measured to explore the role of common ingroup identity in the impression updating of the elderly.

The results of pre-experiment found that shifting group identity could effectively update individual's impression of out-group. Specifically, the evaluation of out-group in the changed group was significantly improved compared with that in the unchanged group, F (1, 117) = 6.75, p = 0.011, η_p² = 0.06. The results of experiment 1A showed that at the explicit level, shifting group identity could affect the impression updating of the elderly, and the second evaluation of the elderly was significantly improved, F (1, 50) = 6.66, p = 0.013, η_p²= 0.13, especially in the competence dimension, F(1, 51) = 12.85, p =0.001, η_p² = 0.25. The results of Experiment 1B showed that at the implicit level, manipulation of group identity shifting could not effectively improve the impression evaluation of the elderly. In Experiment 2, it was found that at the explicit level (Fig. 1), common ingroup identity fully mediated the effect of identity shifting on impression updating, with the mediating effect size accounting for 29.2% of the total effect, suggesting that identity shifting improved impression ratings of the elderly by increasing common ingroup identity (Fig. 2). At the implicit level, consistent with experiment 1B, identity shifting did not change subjects' implicit impression evaluation of the elderly.

In conclusion, minimal group recategorization paradigm can shift individual group identity through two classifications and improve impression evaluation of out-group, which is an effective tool to change group identity and alleviate intergroup bias. At the explicit level, common ingroup identity played a mediating role, but at the implicit level, no intervention effect was found. These findings have created a new recategorization method for enhancing common ingroup identity, and opened up a simple and effective method for intergroup prejudice intervention. Moreover, the application of minimal group paradigm is no longer a static application, but more dynamic, ecological significance and realistic value.

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Algorithmic discrimination causes less desire for moral punishment than human discrimination

XU Liying, YU Feng, PENG Kaiping

2022, 54 (9): 1076-1092. doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2022.01076

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The application of algorithms is believed to contribute to reducing discrimination in human decision-making, but algorithmic discrimination still exists in real life. So is there a difference between folk responses to human discrimination and algorithmic discrimination? Previous research has found that people's moral outrage at algorithmic discrimination is less than that at human discrimination. Few studies, however, have investigated people's behavioral tendency towards algorithmic discrimination and human discrimination, especially whether there is a difference in their desire for moral punishment. Therefore, the present study aimed at comparing people's desire to punish algorithmic discrimination and human discrimination as well as finding the underlying mechanism and boundary conditions behind the possible difference.

To achieve the research objectives, six experiments were conducted, which involved various kinds of discrimination in daily life, including gender discrimination, educational background discrimination, ethnic discrimination and age discrimination. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants were randomly assigned to two conditions (discrimination: algorithm vs. human), and their desire for moral punishment was measured. Additionally, the mediating role of free will belief was tested in Experiment 2. To demonstrate the robustness of our findings, the underlying mechanism (i.e., free will belief) was further examined in Experiments 3 and 4. Experiment 3 was a 2 (agent: algorithm vs. human) × 2 (free will belief: high vs. low) between-subjects design, and Experiment 4 was a single-factor (agent: human vs. algorithm with free will vs. algorithm without free will) between-subjects design. Experiments 5 and 6 were conducted to test the moderating role of anthropomorphism. Specifically, participants’ tendency to anthropomorphize was measured in Experiment 5, and the anthropomorphism of algorithm was manipulated in Experiment 6.

As predicted, the present research found that compared with human discrimination, people have less desire to punish algorithmic discrimination. And the robustness of this result was demonstrated by the diversity of our stimuli and samples. In addition, we found that free will belief played a mediating role in the effect of discrimination (algorithm vs. human) on the desire to punish. That is to say, the reason why people had less desire to punish when facing algorithm discrimination was that they thought algorithms had less free will than humans. Finally, the results also demonstrated the moderating effect of anthropomorphism.

Specifically, the main statistics were as follows. In Experiment 1, an independent sample t-test revealed that desire for moral punishment in human condition (M = 5.29, SD = 0.99) was marginally significantly more than in the algorithm condition (M = 4.97, SD = 1.34), t(170) = 1.82, p = 0.073, Cohen’s d = 0.27. In Experiment 2, an independent sample t-test revealed that desire for moral punishment in human condition (M = 5.11, SD = 1.14) was significantly more than in algorithm condition (M = 4.60, SD = 1.54), t(170) = 2.44, p = 0.016, Cohen’s d = 0.38. In addition, a bootstrapping mediation analysis (model 4, 5000 iterations) showed that the effect of agent on desire for moral punishment was mediated by free will belief, b = -0.56, 95% CI = [-0.95, -0.21]. In Experiment 3, a 2 (agent: algorithm vs. human) × 2 (free will belief: high vs. low) between subject ANOVA revealed a significant effect for agent, F(1, 201) = 4.01, p = 0.047, η2 p = 0.02, such that desire for moral punishment in human condition (M = 4.59, SD = 1.46) was more than in algorithm condition (M = 4.17, SD = 1.51). We also found a marginally significant effect for free will belief, F(1, 201) = 3.83, p = 0.052, η2 p = 0.02, such that desire for moral punishment in high free will belief condition (M = 4.61, SD = 1.26) was more than in low free will belief condition (M = 4.17, SD = 1.67). Importantly, the interaction between agent and free will belief was also significant, the difference between desire for moral punishment in human condition and algorithm condition was only significant when free will belief was high, F(1, 201) = 8.19, p = 0.005, η2 p = 0.04. In Experiment 4, a one-way ANOVA revealed that condition influenced desire for moral punishment, F(2, 207) = 9.03, p < 0.001, η2 p = 0.08. Follow-up planned contrasts showed that desire for moral punishment in algorithm without free will condition (M = 3.94, SD = 1.45) was less than in algorithm with free will condition (M = 4.56, SD = 1.62) and human condition (M = 4.98, SD = 1.35), ps < 0.05. In Experiment 5, we found a significant interaction between agent and anthropomorphism, b = 0.16, SE = 0.06, t= 2.70, p = 0.008. A follow-up analysis revealed that there was no difference between conditions for people with higher tendency to anthropomorphize (p = 0.295), there was a significant difference between conditions for people with lower tendency to anthropomorphize (b = -0.57, SE = 0.12, t = -4.82, p < 0.001). In Experiment 6, a one-way ANOVA revealed that condition influenced desire for moral punishment, F(2, 204) = 12.60, p < 0.001, η2 p = 0.11. Follow-up planned contrasts showed that desire for moral punishment in human condition (M = 5.52, SD = 1.19) was more than in anthropomorphic algorithm condition (M = 4.97, SD = 1.27) and non-anthropomorphic algorithm condition (M = 4.43, SD = 1.35), and desire for moral punishment in anthropomorphic algorithm condition was also more than in non-anthropomorphic algorithm condition, ps < 0.05.

These results enrich literature regarding algorithm discrimination as well as moral punishment from the perspective of social psychology. First, this research explored people's behavioral tendency towards algorithmic discrimination by focusing on the desire for moral punishment, which contributes to a better understanding of people's responses to algorithmic discrimination. Second, the results are consistent with previous studies on people’s mind perception of artificial intelligence. Third, it adds evidence that free will has a significant impact on moral punishment.

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The impact of ethical leadership prototype on the effectiveness of ethical leadership: The mediating role of elevation

XING Zhijie, HE Wei, ZHANG Zhengtang, JIANG Xuting

2022, 54 (9): 1093-1105. doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2022.01093

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Ethical leadership (EL) is a positive leadership style demonstrated to be effective in promoting employee performance. However, previous research has mainly focused on the cognitive perspective to explain the positive effects of ethical leadership on employee outcomes, and the role of emotion has received little attention. In this research, we advance this stream of research by taking into account employees’ implicit beliefs of ethical leadership (i.e., ethical leadership prototype, ELP). Specifically, drawing from the theoretical model of discrete positive emotions in the workplace and implicit leadership theories, this paper theorized and tested the mediating role of elevation on the relationship between ethical leadership and employee task performance and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) moderated by employee ELP.

We tested our hypotheses in a multi-source, multi-wave field study (Study 1). In Study 1, we tested our full theoretical model (i.e., H1 to H4) by collecting multi-wave and multi-source data from 193 leader-employee dyads. Empirical results in Study 1 only demonstrated the positive relationship between EL and employee elevation (H1: B = 0.80, p < 0.001) and the indirect relationship between EL and employee OCB via employee elevation (H2b: indirect effect = 0.16, 95% CI = [0.010, 0.338]).

To replicate these empirical findings and test the moderating role of employee ELP further, we conducted two vignette experiments (Study 2 and 3). In Study 2 and Study 3, we recruited 400 and 200 participants from two online survey panels (i.e., the Sojump and the Credamo) and manipulated ethical vs. unethical leadership (Study 2) and high vs. low ethical leadership (Study 3). Experimental results in both studies replicated the positive relationship between EL and employee elevation (H1; in Study 2: B = 2.45, p < 0.001; in Study 3: B = 0.60, p < 0.001) and the indirect relationship between EL and OCB via elevation (H2b; in Study 2: indirect effect = 0.72, 95% CI = [0.406, 1.048]; in Study 3: indirect effect = 0.17, 95% CI = [0.053, 0.317]); in addition, the moderating effects of employee ELP on the relationship between EL and elevation (H3) and the indirect relationship between EL and OCB via elevation (H4b) were demonstrated. Simple slope tests, as shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2, demonstrated that when ELP was high (in Study 2: simple slope = 2.57, p < 0.001; in Study 3: simple slope = 0.80, p < 0.001), EL had a stronger positive relationship with elevation than when ELP was low (in Study 2: simple slope = 2.31, p < 0.001; in Study 3: simple slope = 0.31, p = 0.012).

This research makes several theoretical contributions. First, this research contributes to our understanding of the process through which EL influences employee outcomes by identifying employee ELP as a crucial contingency. Second, by demonstrating the mediating mechanism of the positive moral emotion of elevation (with general positive affect being controlled), this research provides a finer-grained understanding of the affect-based mechanism for the effectiveness of EL. Third, by investigating when EL activates employee elevation, this paper enriches the knowledge of the antecedents of felt elevation. Finally, this paper extends implicit leadership theory by applying it to a specific leadership domain and highlighting the crucial role of ELP.

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Can you perceive my efforts? The impact of social status on consumers' preferences for complexity

CHEN Zengxiang, HE Yun, LI Xiao, WANG Lin

2022, 54 (9): 1106-1121. doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2022.01106

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Aesthetic is the first medium of a product in the era of “appearance economy.” Previous studies have explored the effects of aesthetic elements on consumer behavior, including color, packaging transparency, size, logo shape, and so on. Unlike existing studies, this research discusses the overall dimension of design, that is, the degree of complexity of the design. Specifically, we propose that people’s subjective social status affects their preference for complexity in design. Meanwhile, people with low social status are more likely to prefer a complex packaging design than those with high social status.

We conducted five experiments to test the hypotheses. Experiment 1 used 2 (social status: low vs. high) × 2 (product design: simple vs. complex) between-subjects design with 198 adults (female = 128) participating in the experiment. The results showed that people with relatively low social status have higher evaluations of complex packaging designs (M _simple= 4.24, SD= 0.17, M _complex= 4.94, SD= 0.16), F(1, 190) = 8.76, p= 0.003. At the same time, the level of complexity did not influence how people with high social status evaluate products (M _simple= 4.59, SD= 0.16, M _complex= 4.70, SD= 0.17), F(1, 190) = 0.19, p= 0.66, see Figure 1.

Using a more rigorous method to manipulate the social status, experiment 2 employed a one-factor two-level (social status: low vs. high) between-subjects design with 134 adults (female = 97). After manipulating social statuses, participants reported their preferences between complex and simple packaging designs. The higher the preference value is, the more people prefer complex designs. The result confirmed that people with low social status preferred products with complex designs (M _high= 4.02, SD= 2.31, M _low= 4.92, SD= 2.19), F(1, 132) = 5.16, p = 0.025, η² = 0.038.

Similar to experiment 2, experiment 3 (211 participants, female = 151) also used a one-way design (social status: low vs. high vs. control) but added a control group as the baseline group for comparison. The results confirmed that a low social status could drive preference for complexity. Furthermore, the results showed that people with low social status (M _low= 6.00, SD= 2.20) preferred complex packing design more than those in control (M _control= 5.22, SD= 2.28; t(196) = 2.034, p= 0.043) and high social status groups (M _high= 4.86, SD= 2.34; t(196) = 2.86, p= 0.005; see Figure 2). At the same time, no significant difference was observed in the preference between the high social status and control groups, t(196) = 0.897, p= 0.371. Experiment 3 also found that consumers’ perceived effort mediated the above effect. Specifically, in the comparison between the control group and the low social status group, the mediating effect of consumer perceived effort was positive and significant (β = 0.31, 95% CI = [0.004, 0.66]); in the comparison between the control group and the high social status group, the mediating effect of consumer perceived effort was not significant (β = 0.06, 95% CI = [-0.41, 0.28]); in the comparison between low social status group and high social status group, consumer perceived effort also played a mediating role (β = -0.37, 95% CI = [-0.73, -0.03]). These results showed that low social status individuals (vs. individuals in high social status vs. individuals in the control group) perceived that complex packing products entailed more effort from producers. Hence, they preferred such products.

Experiment 4 was a pre-registration experiment (200 participants, female = 151). The experimental design and procedure were the same as in experiment 2. The results also showed that people with low social status preferred complex packaging designs (M _low= 4.70, SD= 1.86, M _high= 3.33, SD= 1.89; F(1, 198) = 26.84, p < 0.001, η²= 0.12) and believed these products had a higher value (M _low= 4.71, SD= 1.62, M _high= 3.86, SD= 1.60; F(1, 198) = 13.88, p < 0.001, η²= 0.07). Compared with high social status individuals, low social status individuals perceived that producers spent more effort on a product if it had a complex packaging design (M _low= 4.80, SD= 1.50, M _high= 3.74, SD= 1.61), F(1, 198) = 23.13, p < 0.001, η²= 0.11. Thus, these consumers perceived higher product value, as well as higher preference toward the product (sequential mediation: model 6; β = -0.47, 95% CI = [-0.74, -0.25]).

Experiment 5 tested the mediation effect by moderators. We proposed that the impact of social status only existed in consumers who believed in the value of effort. Experiment 5 used a 2 (social status: low vs. high) × 2 (product design: simple vs. complex) × 2 (belief in effort value: low vs. high) between-subjects design (346 participants, female = 208). The ANOVA revealed a three-way interaction (β = -0.73, t = -1.99, p = 0.048). Furthermore, the Johnson-Neyman analysis found that the preference for complex design among low social status individuals only existed among those who believed in the value of effort (β = -0.46, t = -1.97, p = 0.05). The results of this interaction again suggested that the preference of low social status individuals for complexity stems from their perception of the producer’s effort in making these products.

This study has the following theoretical contributions. First, it brings the perspective of subjective social status to the study of consumer aesthetics. Second, it provides a new mechanism for the role of social status, i.e., social status affects people’s behavior by influencing their perceived importance of effort. Previous explanations of the behavior of low social status individuals have tended to be from a compensatory psychological perspective. In contrast, the current research takes the perspective of effort to demonstrate that low social status individuals value effort, which influences their behavior. Third, this research also contributes to the study of consumer effort, as this study finds that simply changing the level of complexity of packaging design can change people’s perceptions of producer effort.

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Detection of aberrant response patterns using a residual-based statistic in testing with polytomous items

TONG Hao, YU Xiaofeng, QIN Chunying, PENG Yafeng, ZHONG Xiaoyuan

2022, 54 (9): 1122-1136. doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2022.01122

Abstract ( 141 )

Tests are widely used in educational measurement and psychometrics, and the examinee's aberrant responses will affect the estimation of their abilities. These examinees with aberrant responses should not be treated with conventional methods, the important thing is to accurately screen them out of the normal group. To achieve this, a common method is to construct person-fit statistics to detect whether the response patterns fit their estimated abilities.
In this study, a residual-based person-fit statistic R was proposed, which can be applied to both dichotomous or polytomous IRT models. The construction of R is based on a weighted residual between the observed response and the expected response. By accumulating the weighted residuals, the goodness of fit can be calculated and compared with a specific critical value to determine whether an examinee is aberrant or not. Given that tests with polytomous items can provide more information, polytomously scored items are being increasingly popular in educational measurement and psychometrics. The ability of R statistic to detect aberrant response patterns under the graded response model was mainly considered in this article.
An existing polytomous person-ft statistic l_zp was also introduced in its outstanding standardized form and superior power. In the first study, a simulation study was conducted to generate the empirical distribution of R statistic and l_zp. R statistic is an accumulation of weighted residuals, showing a positive skew distribution; l_zp shows a negative skew distribution when the test is less than 80 items. Both of them differ from the standard normal distribution, It is necessary to set critical value according to the type 1 error, using it to distinguish whether each respondent's response pattern is fitted. In the second study, examinees with different aberrant behaviors (e.g., Cheaters, Lucky guessers, Random respondents, Careless respondents, Creative respondents and Mixed) under different test length conditions were simulated, and the detection rate as well as area under curve (AUC) were used to compare the effectiveness of the two person-fit statistics. The results show that the R statistic has a better detection rate than l_zp when the aberrant behavior affects only a few items or the aberrant behavior is cheating or guessing. When the aberrant behavior covers plenty of items, l_zp is slightly better than R statistic. Then, an empirical study was also conducted to show the power of R statistic.
Both of the R statistic and the l_zp have their own pros and cons, so we may combine them in the future person-fit studies. The R statistic has a better detection rate under certain conditions compared to the l_zp, especially when cheating and lucky guessing happened. Considering that cheating and guessing behaviors of low-ability examinees are more preferred in many aberrant test behaviors, the R statistic is worthy of further research and exploration in real-world applications.

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