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The Mechanism of Constraint Relaxation and Chunk Decomposition and the Related Prototype Elicitation Effect in Logogriph Tasks XING Qiang;ZHANG Zhonglu;SUN Hailong;ZHANG Jinlian;WANG Jing 2013, 45 (10):  1061-1071.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2013.01061 Abstract ( 1408 )   The representational-change theory proposes two mechanisms for insight: constraint relaxation and chunk decomposition, which has been supported in many studies using matchstick as test materials. It is however unclear whether these two mechanisms can explain insight in Chinese logogriph tasks and if so, how the two mechanisms are triggered by external hints. In Experiment 1a and 1b, the normal reading meaning and the logogriph meaning of the logogriph were compared when participants were asked to understand the two. Experiment 1a showed that the normal reading meaning of the logogriph was easier to understand than the logogriph meaning. In Experiment 1b, a study - test paradigm was used where the normal reading meaning and the logogriph meaning were both provided. The results showed that the logogriph meaning helped relax the constraint from the normal reading meaning. Together, Experiment 1 demonstrates that semantic discrepancies between the normal reading meaning and the logogriph meaning caused difficulties in constraint relaxation. Experiment 2 examined two types of logogriph chunks. Tight chunks were logogriph chunks with embedded sub-chunks or chunks involving decomposition at the stroke level. Loose chunks were logogriph chunks without any embedded sub-chunks or chunks involving decomposition at the radical level. The results showed that it was more difficult to decompose tight chunks than loose ones as shown in the longer reaction time in the former than the latter. Experiment 3 examined how different types of elicitation affect constraint relaxation and chunk decomposition in the incubation period using a single factor design in 3a (type of elicitation: prototype, non-prototype or no elicitation) and a 2 × 3 design in 3b (type of chunk: tight or loose by type of elicitation: prototype, non-prototype or no elicitation). The results showed that prototype elicitation facilitated constraint relaxation and chunk decomposition more than non-prototype elicitation or no elicitation did. In conclusion, the cognitive mechanism of insight in Chinese logogriph can be explained in the framework of representational-change theory emphasizing constraint relaxation and chunk decomposition, both of which can be facilitated by prototype elicitation. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Brain Potential Features of Human Face Recognition during Working Memory SUN Tianyi;XU yuanli;GUO Chunyan 2013, 45 (10):  1072-1084.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2013.01072 Abstract ( 1447 )   As one of the most important skills in human’s daily life, face recognition can help us to promote social interactions and adapt to the environment. Previous ERP studies showed that face recognition could induce N170 (a negative potential peaking at about 170ms) over lateral occipito-temporal electrodes, some researchers argued that N170 might reflect the early structural encoding process. It is widely recognized that N170 possesses right hemisphere advantage, which suggests that the right hemisphere of brain is mainly responsible for structural encoding process. Searching for a specific face (the target) in the crowd and distinguishing it from other’s faces (distractors) are related to working memory which refers to the limited resource system for temporary storage and information processing. Since it is an important function of working memory to intentionally hold an item in mind for current use, the relevant research on working memory is more than 30 years. But the brain potential features of human face recognition during working memory as well as the brain responses to matching faces affected by prior learning remain unclear. Therefore, this article employs event-related potentials (ERPs) technology to explore the essence of face recognition N170 effect and the brain potential features of face recognition during working memory. The influence of prior learning on tracking and discrimination processes is also examined, which depends on the working memory status of a face. The delayed match-to-sample task paradigm was used in this study with pictures of faces as stimuli. 16 college students (eight male and eight female, Mean age = 20.31 years) participated in the experiment and performed sample target match tasks during working memory, tracking targets (familiar and new targets) and excluding the distractors (familiar and new distractors). The ERP results revealed that N170 was induced over lateral occipito-temporal electrodes when participants recognized the targets and distractors, and N170 amplitudes of targets and distractors at the same electrode had no significant differences. Whereas, there was a significant difference between P7 and P8 when different electrodes were compared with; Both the targets and distractors evoked a late positive ERP component peaking around 450ms (P300) during the working memory process. The ERPs of targets and distractors showed dissociation as early as 250ms when tracking new or studied targets respectively. The targets evoked larger and more positive ERPs than the distractors, and new targets evoked a more positive ERP waveform than the studied ones. The typical old/new effect was observed between ERPs of studied and new distractors about 250~650 ms in prefrontal area. The present study results suggest that face recognition N170 effect reflects the whole processing of perception, and there is a right hemisphere superiority of N170 — especially a right temporal region superiority; Moreover, our current findings demonstrated that prior learning affects brain responses to matching faces during a working memory task. Related Articles | Metrics

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Selected Attentional Bias in Different Level of Trait Anxiety PENF Jiaxin;YANG Qiwei;LUO Yuejia 2013, 45 (10):  1085-1093.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2013.01085 Abstract ( 2342 )   Anxiety is one of the most common mental disorders and has attracted attention of more and more researchers. A number of behavioral studies suggest that attentional bias towards threat among anxious populations is a relatively robust phenomenon. The attentional biases are observed not only across different experimental tasks but also across different anxiety disorders. However, studies of the neural mechanisms of this phenomenon are currently rare and inconsistent. It was found that compared to low trait anxiety (LTA), high trait anxiety (HTA) evoked different P2 between angry and neutral faces, with a larger P2 to the angry face in some studies. In contrast, others found that threatening stimuli elicited a larger P2 in both groups. Similarly, inconsistent findings also exited for the P1. In addition, the N1 effect on the attentional bias to fearful images with a complex context is still unclear. Therefore, the present study aimed at investigating the electrophysiological markers of attention bias for fearful images with a complex context in anxiety. Participants were selected out of a pool of 70 undergraduate students. The participants were screend on the basis of their response to Spielberger’s Trait Anxiety Inventory. Those with scores in the top quartile of the distribution (n=17, 6 males and 11 females) were assigned to the HTA group, and those in the bottom quartile of the distribution (n=17, 10males and 7 females) were assigned to the LTA group. All participants were right-handed, and had normal or corrected normal vision. ERPs were recorded when subjects viewed 30 fear and 30 neutral pictures which were presented twice. ERP data from five midline electrode sites was selected for further statistical analysis: Fz, FCz, Cz, CPz, and Pz. We measured mean amplitudes in four windows following stimulus onset: 120~140 ms (N1), 230~250 ms (N2), 300~500 ms (P3), and 500~1000 ms (Slow wave, SW). Anxiety group (HTA vs. LTA) ×picture type (fearful vs. neutral) ×electrode sites (Fz, FCz, and Cz) analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted on the amplitude of N1, N2, P3, and SW. For all analyses, the significance level was set at 0.05. Post-hoc testing of significant main effects was conducted using BONFERRONI method. Significant interactions were analyzed using simple-effect models. Results showed that the HTA group exhibited a enhanced N1 in comparison to the LTA group, F(2, 64) = 19.28, p < 0.01. And the interactions of the three factors was significant, F(1, 32) = 11.94, p<0.01. The interactions between picture and group was significant [Cz: F(1, 32) = 6.93, p<0.05, FCz: F(1, 32) = 5.22, p<0.05]; compared to LTA, HTA elicited different N1 amplitude between fearful and neutral images, with enhanced N1 to the fearful images. LTA elicited enhanced N2 compared with HTA, F(1, 32) = 4.83, p < 0.05. A significant relation between N2 and the trait score was found by using the stepwise regression analysis, F=6.97, p<0.05, R2=0.18. These results indicate that the HTA group allocated more attention resource to fearful images at the early emotional process stage (120~140 ms), whereas LTA group began to distinguish fearful from neutral at the later stage (230~250 ms). The executive function of inhibition might decrease with HTA, These results provide new evident to support the cognition-motivation model. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Effect of Value Sequence on Value-directed Metamemory YAN Yan;JIANG Yingjie;YANG Ling 2013, 45 (10):  1094-1103.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2013.01094 Abstract ( 687 )   Value-directed metamemory allows individuals to choose more important information to encode, preserve and retrieve in order to allocate their attention resources reasonably and maximize their effective memory performance when they are exposed to some information with different value. Previous research has mainly focused on the differences in value-directed metamomery between young and old people, as well as the impairment of value-directed metamemory in Alzheimer’s disease and Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. However, there is little research concerning the factors affecting the level of value-directed metamomery. Value-directed metamemory improves memory efficacy by emphasizing high-value information. Therefore, it is of great importance to explore the factors promoting the Value-directed metamemory, such as the influence of value sequence on Value-directed metamemory. Value sequence refers to the Spatial or temporal sequence of value and words. In the present study, two experiments using a selectivity task were conducted to investigate the effect of value sequence on Value-directed metamemory, namely whether there was a value-sequence effect: one was to measure the memory capacity (mean number of words recalled), the other the memory efficiency/selectivity (the recall of high-value items relative to low-value items is the selectivity index, or SI). Subjects were told that they would be presented with six different lists of words, and that each list contained 12 words. They were informed that each word was paired with a number, and that this number indicated how much the word was “worth.” They were told that the values ranged from 1 to 12. Their tasks were to study and recall high-value words as many as possible in order to maximize their score in the experiment. Two experiments were conducted with 2 (value sequence: value-item/item-value) × 3 (value category: high-value/medium-value/low-value) within-subject factorial design. Experiment 1 explored that whether there was a value-sequence effect on SI in spatial sequence of words and value, and the results showed that the main effect of value sequence was not significant on SI. Experiment 2 explored that whether there was a value-sequence effect on SI in temporal sequence of words and value, and the results showed that value-word sequence produced a better value-directed metamemory, compared with word-value sequence when item and value were presented sequentially, and the diffidence reached a distinct level. The results of 2 experiments are as follows: 1) there is no value-sequence effect when value and words are presented spatially; 2) there is a value-sequence effect when value and words are presented temporally. To be specific, the priority of value improves the level of value-directed metamemory, and also the subjects could make use of the task experience to encode, retrieve and utilize high-value words more efficiently. By contrast, the subjects’ value-directed metamemory is relatively stable on the “words-value” condition, and they are not sensitive to updated task experience. In conclusion, our results reveal that there is an effect of value sequence on value-directed metamemory. The present findings do not only demonstrate how to promote people’s metamemory during the learning process, but also extend the research method of value-directed metamemory. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Effective Design of Worked-example for Learning Algebra Operation Rules Containing New Operators ZHANG Hua;QU Kejia;ZHANG Qi 2013, 45 (10):  1104-1110.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2013.01104 Abstract ( 510 )   Most of the previous researches indicated that, after students had learned worked-examples including certain rules, they could master the rules involved to solve problems. However, recent researches have shown that students were able to discover and master new rules through well-designed worked-examples, based on their prior knowledge. Zhang Qi and Lin Hongxin (2005) and Lin Hongxin and Zhang Qi (2007) found that primary school students could learn new mathematic rules with proper design, but these students failed to master algebra rules. One possible reason of this finding was that the students did not understand the meaning of new algebra operators. Therefore, we designed worked-examples of conversion from index to logarithmic form by applying the “method of converting label” and worked examples of logarithmic operations by applying the “method of explanation”. The main objective of our study was to examine the effectiveness of each design method on worked-example learning. In order to explore the effect of “method of converting label (design with method of converting label or normal design)” and “number of worked-examples (3 or 6)” on learning conversion from index to logarithmic form, a 2×2 between-subjects factorial design was used in Experiment 1. One hundred twenty 9th grade students participated the experiment in which they were divided into 4 groups to take part in different procedures. Experiment 2 used a 2 (method of design: design with the method of explanation or normal design) ×2 (learned the conversion rules: yes or no) between-subjects factorial design, in which there were also 120 9th grade students took part and carried on different procedures in 4 separate groups to learn logarithmic operation rules. There was a significant main effect of “method of converting label”, which is, students who have learned worked-examples with this method performed better than those who haven’t. However, there was no significant main effect of the number of examples or interaction between the method of converting label and the number of examples; In addition, the main effects of both factors (design with method of explanation or normal design; learned conversion from index to logarithmic form or not) were significant. There was also a significant interaction between these two factors. For students who learned the conversion rules, their performance on worked-examples designed with the method of explanation was better than those who learned normal-designed examples. For students without the knowledge of the conversion rules, there was no significant difference between the two groups. The present study implied that most of the 9th grade students could master the conversion rules from index to logarithmic form and the logarithmic operation rules. Worked-examples designed with the method of converting label significantly improve students’ learning. Worked-examples designed with the method of explanation facilitate transferring, which is related to participants’ previous knowledge. Related Articles | Metrics

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Phonological Specificity of Lexical Tones in 12-month-old Chinese-speaking Infants TAO Ye;XU Qinmei 2013, 45 (10):  1111-1118.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2013.01111 Abstract ( 875 )   By about 12 months of age, infants show sensitivity to mispronunciations of familiar words when asked to identify a referent. These findings indicate that infants are able to access the phonological detail of words when engaged in lexical recognition. However, most of this work has focused on mispronunciations of consonants and vowels. Very little is known about the role that lexical tones play in constraining lexical access during the early stages of lexical development. In tonal languages (e.g., Chinese), over and above vowel and consonant variations, words are distinguished by lexical tone. Over half the world’s population speak a tonal language. The current study aims to answer the question: Do Chinese infants treat tones as phonological information in their lexical representations as early as 12 months old? Using the intermodal preferential looking paradigm with the mispronunciation task, the current study examined whether Chinese infants at 12 months were sensitive to mispronunciations of lexical tones in monosyllabic, familiar words. 12 infants were in group1, 8 infants were in group2. For group 1, the familiar words were pronounced correctly in block1, while mispronounced with the falling tone in Mandarin (Tone 4) in block 2. The block order was reversed for the infants in group 2. The proportion of target look (PTL) and the difference between infants' longest look at target and distracter images (LLD) before and after naming were calculated. Systematic increment in PTL or LLD across pre- and post-naming phases indicates infants' association of the target label and object. The results showed that both groups of infants could associate the target labels and objects when the labels were correctly pronounced (PTL: group 1, t(11) = 1.78, p = 0.103; group 2, t(7) = 2.95, p = 0.021), while the associations were not found when the labels were mispronounced (PTL: group 1, t(11) = -0.79, p = 0.45; group 2, t(7) = -0.41, p = 0.70). In other words, the mispronunciation effects were found for both groups. But infants’ sensitivity to tonal mispronunciations was not influenced by their receptive vocabulary size. In conclusion, the results indicate that sufficient phonological information of tones is encoded by 12-month-old Chinese infants. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Measurement and Microgenetic Study of Routines in Two-Person Problem Solving ZHANG Mei;XIN Ziqiang;Lin Chongde 2013, 45 (10):  1119-1130.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2013.01119 Abstract ( 737 )   Problem solving is a hot topic in cognitive psychology and has reached many consensuses. For example, it was found that individuals often develop strategies that allow them to perform reliably and fluently. One important finding is the einstellung effect. Recently, research on einstellung effect has extended from single to multiple people. Although most empirical studies adopted the task of Transform The Target (TTT) created by Cohen and Bacdayan (1994), this task has not gained as much attention as Tower of Hanoi because of its obscure validation indexes. Moreover, given lacking of the research on the emergence process of routines, two problems, that is, the consciousness and stability of routines, the influence of declarative knowledge on routines are still remained controversial. The purpose of this research was to modify and validate the indexes of routines, describe the emergence process of routines using the microgenetic method. According to the requirement of the study purpose, an electronic program was developed by us. Seventy undergraduates were recruited and were randomly selected into 35 pairs. This study developed a series of 40 hands TTT games according to the requirement of microgenetic method. The moves, the time, and the scores of each participant in the game were recorded. Payoffs were awarded to each pair of players when the tournament was finished. Firstly, this study demonstrated the universality of the routines in this revised TTT game by modifying the picture and confirmation indexes; secondly, it examined the emergence process of routines underlying the instruction of theory of representation redescription and microgenetic method. The results showed that there were obvious routines in the two persons’ problem solving task—TTT game. This effect could be described and confirmed not only through comparing the beginning and finishing 5 hands but also the 5 indexes according to Cohen and Bacdayan’s study (1994): increasing reliability, increasing speed, repeated action sequences, occasional sub-optimality, and patterned behavior based on defined strategy. Based on aforementioned findings, the results further indicated that the generation of routines is the outcome of representation redecoration that based on subjects’ behavior acquisition. The process could be pictured by measuring the path, rate, breadth, the source of behavior and strategies’ change. During the process, routines transformed from procedural to declarative, from unconsciousness to consciousness. These results firstly indicated that the revised indexes were more reasonable and could depict the routines better. Secondly, based on the results in study 2, the generative theory, which is the famous theory of routines, was improved. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Effect of Task Frames and Altruism on Social Discounting HE Guibing;JIANG Duo 2013, 45 (10):  1131-1146.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2013.01131 Abstract ( 1148 )   Human beings are surrounded by social relationships often described by social distance. Generally speaking, our strongest social relationships are with those who are “closest” to us, and individuals with weaker relationships are more “distant”. Social discounting refers to the phenomenon that the subjective value of another person’s gain or loss decreases as the social distance increases. Different from temporal discounting and probability discounting which have received more attention in the realm of behavioral decision making, very few researches on social discounting have been conducted. In 2006, Jones and Rachlin studied this phenomenon for the first time under the frame of “I will forgo some gains in order to let another person obtain $75”. It was found that the amount of money an individual was willing to sacrifice declined as the social distance increased. That study also revealed that the function of social discounting fitted the hyperbolic model. However, there may exist some other frames in our daily life. Therefore, in the present research, the phenomenon of social discounting is explored in four frames, including “I will forgo some gains in order to let another person obtain ¥100” (NG-G), “I will forgo some gains for another person to avoid losing ¥100” (NG-NL), “I will suffer some losses in order to let another person obtain ¥100” (L-G) and “I will suffer some losses for another person to avoid losing ¥100” (L-NL). Meanwhile, this research also explored the social discounting function in the context of Chinese culture. Four experiments, including two pre-experiments and two formal experiments, were conducted. In the first pre-experiment with 117 undergraduate and post-graduate subjects, social distances between oneself and mother, a friend and a mere acquaintance were measured. The results show that the social distance between one and his/her mother is the shortest, while that between one and a mere acquaintance is the longest. Some Chinese subjects in the first pre-experiment could not understand the choice of the traditional titration procedure well, which was used by Jones and Rachlin in 2006. So a new situational choice titration procedure was tested in the second pre-experiment. The results indicate that the new titration procedure is more understandable for Chinese subjects, and therefore, is more applicable to this research. Based on the pre-experiments, two formal experiments were carried out. The first one compared social discounting between the frames of NG-G and NG-NL, and the second made comparison between the frames of L-G and L-NL. In both experiments, we conducted a 4 social distance (mother, friend, a mere acquaintance and a stranger) ×2 frames (NG-G and NG-NL in the first experiment, L-G and L-NL in the second experiment) within-subject design. In addition, the subjects’ altruism was also measured by Self-report Altruism Scale. Valid subjects recruited in the two experiments were respectively 78 and 77. The results show that: (1) in all of the four frames, exponential model is more suitable for describing social discounting than hyperbolic model among Chinese subjects; (2) task frames influence social discounting degree, which is lower in frames of NG-NL and L-NL than in frames of NG-G and L-G; (3) the interaction between social distance and task frames also has impact on social discounting degree. As social distance increases, the difference between social discounting degree in NG-G and NG-NL frame becomes smaller. This trend also exists in frames of L-G and L-NL; and (4) the interaction between social distance and altruism influences social discounting degree. Only when the social distance is long enough is there an obvious difference in discounting degree between subjects with high altruism score and those with low. In conclusion, this research suggests that people not only avoid his/her own losses, but also try to avoid others’. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Influence of the Leader’s Creativity on the Employees’ Creativity PAN Jingzhou;LOU Yating;ZHOU Wenxia 2013, 45 (10):  1147-1162 .  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2013.01147 Abstract ( 1383 )   Since individual creativity is the building block for organizational innovation, there is a heightened level of interest in individual creativity. With many influencing factors, special attention has been devoted to a leader’s impact on followers’ creativity. Drawing on social cognitive theory, the study focused on the influence of the leader’s creativity on the employees’ creativity in organizational settings, and further incorporated Leader Member Exchange Relationship (LMX) and authoritarian leadership as situational factors to tap their interaction effects on employees’ creativity. We conducted two studies using two different samples of leader-subordinate dyads in China to test our assumptions. Data in study 1 were collected from three Chinese organizations including a college, a hospital and a public institution. A total of 120 employees and their leaders participated in the survey and 96 (80%) pairs of leader-member dyads provided usable responses. The result of Study 1 demonstrated that the presence of the leader’s creativity was associated with the employees’ creativity and intrinsic motivation was a mediator between the two constructs. The data in Study 2 was collected from 21 Chinese companies of various sizes in the industries of construction design, electronics, information technology, networking, software and consulting. All 202 leader-member dyads were invited to participate in the survey, and 194 pairs (96%) provided usable responses. The findings showed: (1) the presence of the leader’s creativity had a positive association with the employees’ creativity; (2) authoritarian leadership positively moderated this relation; (3) LMX interacted with the joint condition to affect employees’ creativity – more specifically, the effect of the leader’s creativity on the employees was stronger when both LMX and authoritarian leadership were high than when LMX was high and authoritarian leadership was low; the effect of the leader’s creativity on the employees was stronger when both LMX and authoritarian leadership were low than when LMX was low and authoritarian leadership was high. Different from other studies’ focusing on the leader’s management activity, we demonstrated the implicit and potential influence of the leader’s creative performance at work on the followers as well as the influences of some context variables. By doing this, we expect to enrich the social learning theory and leadership literatures. By discussing the interaction effects, some straightforward fashions were challenged. At the end of the paper, the limitations and the future directions were discussed. Related Articles | Metrics

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An Empirical Analysis of Influences of Personality Traits on Job Performance for Frontline Staff in Public Transportation Industry: With Work Attitude Acting as a Moderator YAO Ruosong;CHEN Huaijin;MIAO Qunying 2013, 45 (10):  1163-1178.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2013.01163 Abstract ( 1500 )   Over the past century, researchers and practitioners adopted a variety of personality tests in personnel selection, expecting that personality tests could accurately select employees with high-quality and high-performance. In order to verify the validity of personality tests used in personnel selection, the research hotspots focused on the relationship between personality traits and job performance. Due to the lack of a unified universal model of personality traits, personality traits did not predict job performance significantly in previous studies. With general acceptance of Big Five Personality theory, Big Five Personality was widely used in personnel evaluation and personnel selection, which consequently promoted researches to explore the relationship between personality traits and job performance. Numerous studies demonstrated that personality traits under the theoretical framework of Big Five Personality could predict job performance, meanwhile researchers proposed that perhaps there might be some kind of moderator in the impacts of personality traits on job performance. By questionnaire, this research studied correlations between Big Five Personality and job performance under the influences of work attitude. In previous studies, self-report questionnaire was applied in the assessment of job performance more frequently. With a variety of objective job performance data of frontline production staff working as the criterion, this research probed into the impacts of personality traits on job performance, assuming that work attitude was the moderator. The results of surveying 1,277 frontline staff members in public transportation illustrate that personality traits are significantly related to job performance, with work attitude acting as a moderator in this relationship. Among frontline staff members in public transportation, conscientiousness is a good predictor of task performance, while extraversion predicts contextual performance well. As a consequence, priority should be given to the candidates with high conscientiousness and low extraversion. Candidates with high neurotic tendencies should be avoided. With high work attitude, personality traits have closer contacts with task performance, Conscientiousness and extraversion are good predictors of job performance; While with low work attitude, personality traits are more closely related to contextual performance, agreeableness and openness predict job performance well. The completion of work is emphasized in the high-attitude environment, while coordination of relations is more valued in the low-attitude environment. Work attitude as a moderator affects the requirements of job performance of personality traits. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Item Parameters’ Estimation Accuracy of Two-Parameter Logistic Model DU Wenjiu;ZHOU Juan;LI Hongbo 2013, 45 (10):  1179-1186.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2013.01179 Abstract ( 581 )   The item parameters’ estimation accuracy is very important to test development, especially to the construction of item bank. Nowadays, in domestic and foreign, the study of item parameters’ estimation accuracy is mostly based on that the true values of the item parameters are known, under this circumstances, applying kinds of estimation methods to estimate new estimators, then evaluating methods’ effectiveness by comparison with the true values about the root-mean-square-error (RMSE) and Bias. But this method can’t present the change rules of estimation error among the different parameters’ true values. In order to solve this problem, this article attempts to explore the item parameters’ estimation accuracy issue on the point of item parameters estimation information function. Based on the two-parameter Logistic model, given the definition of the item parameters’ estimation information function firstly, then generated examinee sample to explore the factors which affected item parameters’ estimation accuracy by computer simulation randomly. The experiments were designed (2 × 3 × 2) cases. The study is conducted and revealed: (1) The accuracy of the estimators enhance as the quantity of the sample increases. (2) The examinee’s ability distribution has more influences on difficulty parameter estimation accuracy, while less influences on discrimination parameter. (3) The estimation accuracy of item discrimination and item difficulty parameter are both influenced by parameter a and parameter b’s true value. Related Articles | Metrics