Advances in Psychological Science

Methodological research on hypothesis test and related issues in China’s mainland from 2001 to 2020

WEN Zhonglin, XIE Jinyan, FANG Jie, WANG Yifan

2022, 30 (8): 1667-1681. doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2022.01667

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Hypothesis testing is an important part of inferential statistics. Most reported statistical test results are based on the null hypothesis significance test (NHST). In the first two decades of the 21st century, the studies on hypothesis testing and related topics in China’s mainland cover such topics as the deficiency of the null hypothesis significance test, use of P-value, repeatability of psychological research, effect size, power of a statistical test, and equivalence test, among others. This systematic review summarizes the main findings and gives suggestions.

NHST has a wide range of applications to a variety of fields, from mathematical statistics to psychology. In the past two decades, Chinese researchers have experienced a process from knowing, using, misunderstanding, understanding, and questioning it, to constantly proposing improvement methods. NHST still occupies an important position in scientific research, despite some shortcomings. When providing statistically significant results, it is recommended to offer precise P-values in order to better evaluate the type I error rate. When one wants to verify is equivalence (or zero effect), a better approach is to set an equivalent boundary value and put the equivalence hypothesis in the position of alternative hypothesis.

NHST has been developed into a set of procedures as follows: First, to ensure the power of a statistical test and save costs, one should do a priori power analysis before sampling, and calculate the required sample size. The only exception is questionnaire studies with more than 160 participants which usually do not need such priori power analysis in the traditional statistical analysis. Second, to collect and analyze data, and report NHST results and confidence intervals. Third, to calculate and report the effect size if the results are statistically significant (at this time only the Type Ⅰ error is possible), and draw conclusions based on the magnitude of the effect size. Fourth, to calculate the effect size if the results are not statistically significant (at this time only the Type Ⅱ error is possible), and accept the null hypothesis if the effect size is small. However, a posterior power analysis is required when the effect size is medium or large. If the test power is high, the null hypothesis will be accepted; if the test power is less than 80%, more participants could be added for further analysis. The process of increasing the sample size should be reported clearly, with the final P-value presented and the type I error rate evaluated.

Furthermore, the reproducibility crisis of psychological research is partly attributable to NHST. But the reproducibility of scientific research must be strictly defined. Although the failure to replicate a study may result from inaccurate operations and improper methods, it may also be caused by moderating effect. We can't judge the scientificity of a study simply by whether it is replicable.

There are three major aspects for expanding the research on the related issues of hypothesis testing. Firstly, the equivalence test has been extended to the evaluation of structural equation models. Second, the analysis of test power has been extended to models other than those in traditional statistics, such as mediation effect models and structural equation models. Third, the effect size has also been extended to models other than those in traditional statistics, and a new R²-type effect size was proposed by using variance decomposition.

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Research on test reliability in China’s mainland from 2001 to 2020

WEN Zhonglin, CHEN Hongxi, FANG Jie, YE Baojuan, CAI Baozhen

2022, 30 (8): 1682-1691. doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2022.01682

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With the application of confirmatory factor analysis, research on reliability has entered a new stage. In the first two decades of the 21st century, the studies on test reliability (including point estimation and interval estimation) in China’s mainland show three main lines of development.

The first line is the development from research centered on the coefficient αto the reliability research based on confirmatory factor models, including the homogeneity coefficient, composite reliability, maximum reliability, single-indicator reliability and reliability of the whole item set scores. Studies have shown that the coefficient αis still useful. In most cases, the α coefficient is the lower bound of the reliability of the composite score (total or average score). As long as the coefficient αis high enough, the test reliability will be even higher. But the coefficient αcannot be used to measure the homogeneity and the internal consistency of a test. The homogeneity coefficient based on the bi-factor model can be adopted to measure the homogeneity of a multidimensional scale, and the composite reliability can be adopted to measure the internal consistency (if consistency is understood as the consistency within each dimension). Furthermore, the Delta method can be employed to estimate the confidence intervals of various reliability.

The second line is the expansion of data types collected by scales (or questionnaires), from single-level data to multi-level and longitudinal data. Whether unidimensional or multidimensional, it is recommended to use a multi-level confirmatory factor model to calculate the reliability of multi-level data. As for the longitudinal data, it is recommended to use the test reliability developed on the basis of the linear mixed model, and the longitudinal data can also be used as a special case of the two-level data for reliability analysis.

The third line is the extended use of reliability, involving rater reliability, encoder reliability, attribute-level classification consistency in cognitive diagnostic assessment, and reliability of difference scores. In addition, research of reliability generalization and reliability meta-analysis appeared.

For a common test with item-errors that can be reasonably assumed uncorrelated, the following procedure of reliability analysis is recommended. When the coefficient αis high enough, report the coefficient α; otherwise calculate the composite reliability on the basis of the factor model. If the composite reliability is high enough, report the composite reliability; otherwise the test reliability is considered unacceptable.

If the composite reliability of every variable in a statistical model is very high (over 0.95), modeling with composite scores does not differ much from modeling with latent variables. Otherwise, it is better to use latent variable modeling.

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Methodological research on mediation effects in China’s mainland

WEN Zhonglin, FANG Jie, XIE Jinyan, OUYANG Jinying

2022, 30 (8): 1692-1702. doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2022.01692

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Being able to analyze the influence mechanism of independent variables on dependent variables, the analysis of mediation effect has become an important statistical method in multivariate research. Since the first publication of Chinese paper on the mediation effect and its analytical methods in 2004, the mediation effect has become one focus of methodological research in Chinese Mainland, which is systematically reviewed in this paper.

Firstly, the simple mediation model is reviewed with concept identification: how to distinguish between mediation and suppression effects, partial and complete mediation effects, and mediation effect and moderation effect. Then, methodological research on mediation effects in China’s Mainland is divided into five aspects: testing method for mediation effects, mediation effect size measure, mediation effect involving categorical variables or longitudinal data, and extended mediation model. They are summarized as follows.

To test ab≠0,the easiest way is to test a≠0 and b≠0. These sequential tests are actually not the same as the joint significance tests because the Type-I error rates are rather different. If the test result is a≠0 and b≠0, then ab≠0 can be inferred with the Type-I error rate less than the significance level 0.05 (the preset significance level), while the Type-I error rate of the joint significance tests is 0.0975. However, if at least one of a≠0 and b≠0 does not hold, the sequential tests should not be used, since its statistical power is less than other alternative test methods discussed in the paper. Anyway, Bootstrap methods are preferred because they provide interval estimation of the mediation effect with a higher power. Furthermore, if appropriate prior information is available, the Bayesian method is also recommended.

It is believed that κ², R²-type and so on are not suitable as mediation effect size measures because of no monotonicity. Although $\upsilon ={{(ab)}^{2}}$ is monotonic, it is not as simple and clear as the mediation effect (ab) itself. It is recommended that when the signs of ab and c are consistent, the standardized estimation of ab and ab/c should be reported.

Mediation analysis with multi-categorical independent variables and with a two-condition within-participant design are discussed when categorical variables are concerned in mediation effect models.

There are two types of model development in mediation analysis with longitudinal data. One is continuous time model and multilevel time-varying coefficient model that could be used to test time-varying effect of mediation effect. The other is random-effects cross-lagged panel model and multilevel autoregressive mediation model that could be adopted to examine individuals-varying effect of mediation effect. In addition, latent growth mediation model or multilevel mediation model in mediation effect analysis could be adopted only when the involved causal relationship is instant. Otherwise, cross-lagged panel model, continuous time model, or multilevel autoregressive mediation model should be adopted.

The extensions of the mediation model include multiple mediation model, multilevel mediation model, single-level and multilevel moderated mediation model as well as mediated moderation model. These extended models can be used for both the analysis of observed variables and latent variables.

Finally, the recent development of foreign methodological research on mediation effects is discussed, including potential outcome mediation analysis, confounder control in mediation analysis, robust mediation analysis, and power analysis of mediation effects. Moreover, integration of new statistical techniques has become a new feature of methodological research of mediation effects, for example, exploratory mediation analysis via regularization, bi-factor mediation analysis, latent class mediation analysis, and network mediation analysis.

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Methodological research on moderation effects in China’s mainland

FANG Jie, WEN Zhonglin, OUYANG Jinying, CAI Baozhen

2022, 30 (8): 1703-1714. doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2022.01703

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The analysis of moderation effects has become an important statistical method in multivariate studies. Methodological research on moderation effects in China’s mainland covers the following topics: moderation effects of observed variables, latent variables, multi-level data and longitudinal data; the single-level moderation effect analysis based on a two-level regression model; the integration model of moderation and mediation (see Wen et al. 2022).

Methodological research on the moderation effect of observed variables includes three aspects: standardized resolution, simple slope test, and the moderation effect of category variables. The research on latent moderation includes three aspects too: standardized resolution, model simplification, and comparison of analytical methods. Under the normal condition, latent moderated structural equations (LMS) are recommended to estimate the moderation effect of latent variables. Otherwise, after centralizing all indicators, the unconstrained product indicator method is recommended to establish a latent moderation model; Bayesian method is an alternative, especially in the case of a small sample.

The model development of multilevel moderation effect involves the conflated multilevel model, unconflated multilevel model (UMM), and multilevel structural equation model (MSEM). All independent variables at Level-1 are not centered in the conflated multilevel model, whereas in the UMM all independent variables at level-1 are centered using group-mean, and the group mean is included at Level-2. If the group-mean was treated as a latent variable, MSEM is recommended. Further, two ways are adopted to test multilevel moderation in the multilevel structural equation model: random coefficient prediction (RCP) for cross-level moderations, and LMS for same-level moderations.

The moderation effect analysis of longitudinal data is divided into three types. The first type is moderation analysis in two-instance repeated measures designs, in which only the dependent variable is repeated measurement. In the second type, there isn’t any moderator, while both the independent and dependent variables are repeated measurement (e.g., the cross-lagged model, and the contextual moderation model). In the third type, all variables are repeated measurement, such as the latent growth model and multilevel model.

Two-level regression model is recommended to analyze the moderation effect of single-level data. It can be employed to analyze the moderation effect of both observed variables and latent variables.

Some international frontiers of methodological research on moderation analysis are briefly introduced: the combination of LMS and Bayesian method, moderation analysis of multiple moderators; moderation analysis of longitudinal data.

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Methodological research and model development on structural equation models in China’s mainland from 2001 to 2020

WANG Yang, WEN Zhonglin, LI Wei, FANG Jie

2022, 30 (8): 1715-1733. doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2022.01715

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Structural equation modeling (SEM) is an important statistical method in social science research. In the first two decades of the 21st century, great progress has been made in methodological research on SEM in China’s mainland. The publications cover five aspects: model development, parameter estimation, model evaluation, measurement invariance and the special data processing in SEM.

SEM development includes the research on measurement models, structural models, and complete models, as well as the SEM in population heterogeneity studies and longitudinal studies. The research on the measurement models involves bi-factor model, exploratory structural equation model, measurement models for special design (e.g., random intercept factor analysis model, fixed-links model, and the Thurston model), and formative measurement models. The research on the structural models involves the actor-partner interdependence model. The research on the complete models focuses on item parceling. The SEM in the study of population heterogeneity involves latent class/profile model, factor mixture model, and multi-level latent class model. The SEM in longitudinal studies includes models describing development trajectories and differences, such as the latent growth model, the piecewise growth model, the latent class growth model, the growth mixture model, the piecewise growth mixture model, the latent transition model and the cross-lagged model.

The publications on parameter estimation methods mainly involve the introduction of methodology (including the partial least square method and the Bayesian method) and the comparison of different parameter estimation methods. Advances in the model evaluation include fit indices and their corresponding critical values, selection of fit indices, model evaluation criteria beyond fit indices, and comparison and selection among alternative models. The development of measurement invariance involves three topics: (1) the introduction of different models with testing process and model evaluation criteria for measurement invariance analysis; (2) measurement invariance analysis in a particular model or data (e.g., second order factor model and ordered categorical data); (3) new methods of measurement invariance analysis (e.g., alignment and projection method). In addition, research into special data processing methods in SEM addresses issues of missing data, non-continuous data, non-normal data, and latent variable scores.

Finally, recent advances in SEM methodological research abroad are introduced to help researchers understand some cutting-edge topics in this field, which offers implications for future directions of SEM methodological research.

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Methodology study and model development for analyzing longitudinal data in China’s mainland

LIU Yuan, DU Hongyan, FANG Jie, WEN Zhonglin

2022, 30 (8): 1734-1746. doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2022.01734

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Longitudinal research could systematically capture the change of the target variable and thus is more convincing than cross-sectional research. It is popular in the fields of social sciences such as psychology, management, statistics, sociology, etc. The present study reviews the methodology study and model development for analyzing longitudinal data in China’s mainland. We aim to retrospect the methods used, the main research questions, and the popular research domains in longitudinal models.

The target publications ranged from 1st Jan. 2001 to 31st Dec. 2020 in CNKI core collections in the relative domains, and finally, 75 articles met our selecting criterion. Results also indicated that the research topic widely includes latent growth model, multilevel modeling, autoregression, cross-lagged model, missing data, etc. Among these research topics, latent growth model ranked as the first. Typically, the latent growth model and experience sampling method were favored in the field of psychology.

There are mainly four research questions retrieved from the publications. The first research question is to compare the mean difference, which is less popular. The second research question is to examine the reciprocal relationship between variables. It often uses the cross-lag model and the causal model to reveal the autoregressive and cross-lagged relationships within and between variables. The third research question is to depict growth trajectory with individual differences. It uses the latent growth model (LGM) and multilevel model (MLM) as the main methods to show a growth trajectory from the between-person perspective, as well as the individual difference included. The last one is to explore the dynamic changes. This research question does not focus on the general tendency of change but on the fluctuation between different time points. It usually uses autoregression with its extensions, MLM, time-varying effect model, and some newly developed models such as the dynamic structural equation model.

The recent 20 years' publication broadens the domains of longitudinal models, such as the extension of the shape and pattern of growth, the combination of latent class analysis leading to growth mixture model and latent transition analysis. The causal effect, longitudinal mediation and moderation models are also introduced to reveal the relationship between variables. Meanwhile, models depicting growth trajectory with individual differences combines with models examining reciprocal relationships, thus they were extended and integrated to random intercept cross-lagged model, latent variable autoregressive latent trajectory, as well as general cross lagged model. Furthermore, research design becomes more complex; the intensive longitudinal data was introduced and thus the models were according developed, such as MLM, time-varying effect model, dynamic structural equation model, group iterative multiple model estimation, and so forth. Particularly, missing data issue is also hot discussed in the field.

To summarize, methodology study for analyzing longitudinal data in China’s mainland has made fruitful development on the above topics and are in an advanced position all over the world. However, when comparing to the international scope, publications in China’s mainland are limited in narrow range. Many topics need to keep up with the international pace, which is a direction that Chinese scholars need to make efforts. Another future direction is to learn from other disciplines to promote the development of interdisciplinary.

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Developing an online model of educational rehabilitation for children with ADHD

JIANG Han

2022, 30 (8): 1747-1758. doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2022.01747

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Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder in children. At present, the traditional (offline) educational rehabilitation model for children with ADHD has encountered problems, such as ineffective academic support, teachers’ low participation, and unsecured school management and incapability to serve in special circumstances (such as epidemic situation). Based on the neurocognitive training (NCT)the study aims to build an online model of educational rehabilitation for children with ADHD in China and then undertake preliminary application. This study is divided into three sub-studies: Study 1 is to investigate the current situation of educational rehabilitation of Chinese children with educational rehabilitation and analyze the needs of these children and their key stakeholders (parents and teachers). Study 2 is to evaluate the effectiveness of NCT based on the educational rehabilitation online model by using a randomized controlled single blind test (50 in the intervention group and 50 in the control group). Study 3 aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the online model participated by intervention agents (parents or teachers), and their acceptance of the online model by key stakeholders. It uses a randomized controlled test with a larger sample size (n = 100 in each group) in three intervention groups (parent interventionist group / teacher interventionist group / control group) × two ADHD groups (diagnosis group / sub diagnosis group). The purpose of this study is to provide an effective and easy-to-use form of educational rehabilitation for children with ADHD in China.

One of the features of this study is that it focuses on solving the actual needs. It starts not only from the symptoms of ADHD, but also from the needs of children and their key stakeholders. It recognizes a practical educational rehabilitation program on two foundations: first, the program is effective. Secondly, the key stakeholders have an intention to use it. The second feature of this study is that it is not only different from the over reliance on procedural training in western research, but also different from the previous combination of medical and education in China. Rather, it considers the academic achievement of children with ADHD as a combination of cognitive ability and noncognitive factors (such as interpersonal interaction and sustainable management).The innovations of this study are as follows: 1) realizing the training process, sustainability and consistency through the utility of computerized program and platform operation, as well as, giving online rehabilitation teachers and intervention agencies a certain degree of freedom to improve, adjust or supplement the existing procedural training. Realizing mutual support between human-computer interaction and interpersonal interaction. 2) Combining the cognitive training with Chinese school teaching and family education to realize the problem-solving idea of "solving problems in the environment where problems occur". 3) Utilizing the key stakeholders (parents and teachers) as intervention agencies, and to train, supervise and support them through procedures and rehabilitation teachers online. 4) Taking the improvement of executive function as the initial goal, and academic performance and the satisfaction of the key stakeholders as the eventual goal.

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A dynamic perspective on the relationship between team reflection-in-action and innovation: A moderated mediation model integrating cognition and emotion

LIU Wei, SHEN Xiaoling

2022, 30 (8): 1759-1769. doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2022.01759

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In a complex and changing market environment, and in the context of China's implementation of an innovation-driven strategy, companies will need to rely on team innovation to establish a unique competitive advantage for its long-term development. The procedural black box in the relationship between team reflection and team innovation has been identified after review of existing research. It has been suggested that reflecting the past can lead to new ideas and changes in the literature, but there is little empirical research conducted on how this is achieved. Based on the traditional idea of after-action reflection, this study proposes the differences in conceptual connotation and empirical measurement of in-action team reflection. Through an emphasis on the importance of reflection in the team processes, this will effectively promote information processing and emotional integration during team activities, help teams effectively resolve difficulties and problems encountered in the innovation stages, and prevent teams from deviating from team goals and make timely adjustments. In addition, this study examines the differential role of team reflection in different stages of innovation, dynamically analyzes the behavioral outcomes of creative formation and implementation, and proposes the coupling of the two mechanisms, namely information processing at the cognitive level and team emotion at the emotional level, by integrating the motivated information processing theory and the social functions of emotion, to construct an overall model of team reflection on innovation. This study also thoroughly explores the process mechanism, and includes a comprehensive analysis of the moderating role of contextual factors at each stage of the relationship to enhance the overall validity of the model.

Through the construction of the above theoretical model, exploring the process and conditions of the impact of reflection on innovation in teams, and the collection of empirical data for statistical analysis, this study will make the following three contributions theoretically and practically. First, this study specifically distinguishes the connotations and characteristics of in-action and after- action reflection. On this basis, this study explores the differential effects of the coupling of cognitive and emotional mechanisms in the different stages of innovation, expands the role of team emotions in existing cognitive mechanism, expects to expand the understanding and knowledge of the process and results of team reflection on innovation. Second, upon the motivated information processing theory and the social function of emotion, this study constructs a dynamic process of team reflection from an empirical perspective, and considers the role of team reflection in the different stages of innovation through dynamic and systematic views. Finally, multi methods have been conducted this study, such as in-depth interviews, questionnaires and experimental research, to cross-examine and approach the research questions from different perspectives. This study proposes the dynamic and situational characteristics of reflection in innovation, and uses a more comprehensive and scientific approach to analyze and validate the results to enhance the validity and persuasiveness of the research model.

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The double-edged sword of shared leadership in virtual teams: A perspective from adaptive structuration theory

LIU Songbo, CHENG Jinkai, WANG Xi

2022, 30 (8): 1770-1784. doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2022.01770

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With remote working becoming a norm following the global pandemic, workers increasingly need to work in virtual teams supported by collaborative technologies. While the literature has highlighted the relevance of shared leadership for virtual teams, empirical research appears to focus on the positive effects of shared leadership on virtual teamwork at the team level while neglecting the negative effects of shared leadership on virtual team work at the individual level.

This paper argues that shared leadership is a double-edged sword in relation to virtual team leadership in terms of both team and individual performance. Using adaptive structuration theory, we propose a study to show that shared leadership in virtual teams is positively related to team performance through the mechanisms of team intrinsic motivation and team self-efficacy. Team virtuality plays an inverted U-shaped moderating role in the relationship between shared leadership and team self-efficacy, as well as the relationship between shared leadership and team intrinsic motivation. Before reaching a certain critical point, team virtuality plays a positive moderating role, and after reaching a critical point, team virtuality plays a negative moderating role. Task complexity positively moderates the effects of shared leadership on team self-efficacy and team intrinsic motivation. On the other hand, we propose that shared leadership in virtual teams is negatively related to team performance through the mechanisms of social loafing and relationship conflict. Team virtuality plays a positive moderating role in the relationship between shared leadership and social loafing, as well as the relationship between shared leadership and relationship conflict. While task complexity negatively moderates the effects of shared leadership on team self-efficacy and team intrinsic motivation.

Meanwhile, this study also shows that shared leadership is a double-edged sword in relation to virtual team leadership in terms of individual performance. On the one hand, we propose that shared leadership in virtual teams is positively related to individual performance through the mechanisms of individual intrinsic motivation and individual self-efficacy. Team virtuality plays an inverted U-shaped moderating role in the relationship between shared leadership and individual self-efficacy, as well as the relationship between shared leadership and individual intrinsic motivation. Before reaching a certain critical point, team virtuality plays a positive moderating role, and after reaching a critical point, team virtuality plays a negative moderating role. Task significance positively moderates the effects of shared leadership on individual self-efficacy and individual intrinsic motivation. On the other hand, shared leadership in virtual teams is negatively related to individual performance through the mechanisms of workload and job anxiety. Team virtuality plays a U-shaped moderating role in the relationship between shared leadership and workload, as well as the relationship between shared leadership and job anxiety. Before reaching a certain critical point, team virtuality plays a negative moderating role, and after reaching a critical point, team virtuality plays a positive moderating role. Task significance negatively moderates the effects of shared leadership on workload and job anxiety.

Our proposed research not only extends our understanding of the influence mechanisms and boundary conditions of shared leadership in virtual teams, but also provides suggestions to organizations for improving leadership and performance in virtual team contexts.

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How sharing on social media influences consumer choices

JIN Fei

2022, 30 (8): 1785-1793. doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2022.01785

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In today’s highly interconnected mobile and computer-mediated environment, where the act of posting is only a click away, consumers increasingly post their consumption experiences online, from social media to review websites and e-commerce marketplaces. Echoing this momentum, a growing number of brands and marketplaces explicitly encourage consumers to post their purchase experiences by deftly including social media buttons or using hashtag-rich digital communications that directly prompt consumers to post to trigger greater engagement and sales. Previous research has mainly focused on when and why consumers share on social media after purchases. The current research examines whether, how, and when exposure to sharing cues (e.g., social media buttons) during a purchase episode influences consumer choices. We argue that exposure to sharing cues promotes impression management motivation and decreases sense of autonomy. Based on these accounts, we examine two consequences: product interest and decision termination.

In the first research, we examine how the mere presence of sharing cues on a webpage may influence consumer behavior in unexpected ways that can variably help or hurt companies promoting their products online. Drawing upon research on the use of both social media and product consumption for self-presentation purposes, we hypothesize that the presence of social media cues increases feelings of public self-consciousness and this increased self-consciousness influences consumers’ interest. We further show that the effect of public self-consciousness on product interest is moderated by product self-presentational value. Consumers’ interest will increase for products that they would like others to see them own or use (i.e. desirable self-presentational value). However, consumers’ interest will decrease for products that they would not like others to see them own or use (i.e., undesirable self-presentational value).

Technological advances enable firms not only to record and track transactions but also to analyze consumers’ responses to their offerings even prior to making their decisions. The pervasiveness of situations in which we are observed or even merely feel observed goes beyond direct human interactions at different stages of the decision process in the social media era. In the second research, we propose that social media cues make consumers feel being observed by others and reducing feelings of independency. This threatens consumers’ sense of autonomy, which is defined as feeling that decisions are made free from external influence. We argue that sense of autonomy, the fundamental motivation of humans, is most pronounced during the process when consumers are comparing different options. Specifically, the pre-decisional or process stage captures the stage wherein consumers are still considering the choices in the consideration set, reviewing the available information, and examining the trade-offs. On the contrary, the post-decisional or outcome stage captures the stage in which consumers already know their preferences and remind them by either sharing on social media. Notably, this distinction pertains to whether consumers are still in the midst of constructing their preferences while being observed or had already finished constructing their preferences and are being observed while indicating their choice. We show that threats to sense of decision autonomy occur if consumers are observed prior to finalizing their choice (vs. during making decisions).

The current findings contribute to social sharing and give insights to how digital environment affects consumer behavior. Managerially, the findings demonstrate when brand-led efforts to prompt customers to share their purchases backfires.

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The prospect of gaze manipulation technology in decision-making research: Altering decision-making

LIN Jiao-Min, LI Ai-Mei, ZHOU Ya-Ran, HE Jun-Hong, ZHOU Lei

2022, 30 (8): 1794-1803. doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2022.01794

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The eye-tracking technique has been widely used in behavioural decision-making research owing to its advantages: 1) does not interfere with the decision-making process, 2) objectively collects information and 3) provides accurate and rich process data. To reveal the causality between eye movement and decision making, gaze manipulation could be utilised to examine whether shifting visual attention can alter choice behaviour. Gaze manipulation is classified into two types: exogenous manipulation and gaze-contingent manipulation. The two types of gaze manipulation have the same goals but have different characteristics, thus typically limiting their use for different research areas.

Researchers can use exogenous manipulations, including spatial cueing, visual salience and exposure time to enforce participants’ bias towards attending to a particular stimulus since the initial stage of decision making and to alter their choice finally. Fixation count and fixation duration are two common indexes used for exogenous manipulation. One of the limitations of exogenous manipulation is participants’ possible susceptibility to the demand effect. Participants might infer that the stimulus which presents for longer or brighter is the one they are supposed to choose. Designing the framework of exogenous manipulation experiment is easy, and its conclusion has profound significance in our daily life. Therefore, exogenous manipulation can be used to explore which marketing methods can effectively promote customer purchasing and how to improve the effectiveness of advertising design in consumer behaviour research.

Gaze-contingent manipulation is an experimental paradigm that interrupts decision makers’ decision processes on the basis of their gaze behaviour. In this paradigm, participants’ gaze is monitored and information relating to their fixation duration in a trial is used to trigger the decision prompt and remind participants to indicate their choice. Last fixation and fixation duration are two common manipulation indexes in such research. This paradigm overcomes the negative impact on the demand effect because researchers need not change the stimuli. However, participants’ eye movements may occasionally fail to trigger the decision prompt which might then generate timed-out trials. Gaze-contingent manipulation has been widely used in consumption choice, intertemporal choice, risky choice, moral choice and cognitive choice, among others, to explore the causal link between eye movement and decision making and to test and compare different decision models on the basis of the decision-making process.

Gaze manipulation study has crucial theoretical and practical significance. On the one hand, examining the causal link between eye movement and decision making may help test and compare different decision-making models to provide process evidence that will support the hypotheses of decision-making models. On the other hand, gaze manipulation can alter decision-makers’ choices on the condition that researchers need not change the value of the choice and interfere with the decision-making process. Thus, it can provide ideas to improve decision making from the perspective of information processing.

To improve the gaze manipulation experiment and cater for practical needs, we give three suggestions to advance gaze manipulation study. Firstly, future research should fully consider the differences in individual preference and choice strategy to reduce the number of timed-out trials. Before the experiment, researchers should test individual preference and choice strategy differences under different parameters and set unique stimuli for each participant. Secondly, future research should integrate gaze manipulation with computational modelling or other methods to enrich the manipulation indexes. By computational modelling, researchers can determine key indexes with high explanatory power for outcome and improve the effectiveness of gaze manipulation. By machine learning, researchers can remove the redundancy from massive data and effectively and accurately determine manipulation indexes. Thirdly, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, future research should extend the research field to human resource management and provide suggestions for the changing work style.

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Cognitive mechanisms of 2D-to-3D spatial information transformation in haptic recognition of 2D images

QIN Yinghui, YU Wenyuan, FU Xiaolan, LIU Ye

2022, 30 (8): 1804-1817. doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2022.01804

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Two-dimensional (2D) tangible image is an important alternative way for visually impaired people to obtain image information. Most existing tactile 2D images are tangible line drawings directly transformed from visual 2D images. The expression of spatial information in the visual 2D images usually follows principles of perspective and viewpoint transforming three-dimensional (3D) space into 2D planar. The mapping from 2D image to 3D space in visual system is learned through long-time perceptual learning. However, it still needs further exploration about cognitive mechanisms of 2D-to-3D spatial information transformation established by haptic system in haptic recognition of 2D images. The visual features of 2D images, including perspective, viewpoint, occlusion, texture gradient and hollow-out, affect the 2D-to-3D spatial information transformation in haptic recognition of 2D images mainly. These visual factors usually interfere with the recognition of 2D tactile images which are directly transformed from 2D visual images. Therefore, visual factors, such as perspective and viewpoint, cannot be directly transferred to tactile 2D images. Based on the findings of existing researches, a dual-imagery processing model is proposed to explain the mechanisms of 2D-to-3D spatial information transformation when touching 2D tangible images, and the cognitive mechanism concerning about how visual factors modulate the 2D-to-3D spatial information transformation. The following are key points of this model:

Firstly, the cognitive process of haptic recognition of 2D images consists of three modules: haptic perception, working memory and long-term memory. (1) The "haptic perception" module receives tactile and proprioceptive information, obtains the texture, shape and size information of the object, then forms the spatial relationship information of each part of the object, including perspective and viewpoint, by further sensory integration; (2) The "working memory" contains two sub-modules: Object-imagery-based sub-module forms the object imagery of the 2D images using the object information (texture, shape and size) offered by the "haptic perception", In contrast, spatial-imagery-based sub-module forms the spatial imagery of 2D images using the space information (spatial relationship, perspective, and viewpoint) offered by the "haptic perception" module; (3) The "long-term memory" module stores the individual's prior knowledge, experience, and representation of the objects and interacts with other two modules

Secondly, haptic recognition of 2D images depends on the coordination of object imagery and spatial imagery. Successful haptic recognition of 2D images requires the effective integration of object imagery and spatial imagery. Otherwise, the 2D images cannot be recognized by touching. The dual-imagery processing model could contribute to the further exploration of haptic recognition and its cognitive mechanism, and provide theoretical guidance for the design of 2D tangible images.

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The role of rhythm in auditory speech understanding

CHEN Liangjie, LIU Lei, GE Zhongshu, YANG Xiaodong, LI Liang

2022, 30 (8): 1818-1831. doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2022.01818

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For a long time, the research of rhythm has mainly focused on sensory and perceptual processing, ignoring its role in speech comprehension. Oral speech, as an important channel of information exchange in human society, has rich rhythmic characteristics, and its understanding is that listeners receive external speech input and obtain meaning. In daily communication, auditory speech comprehension is influenced by multiscale rhythm information. Common external rhythms showed below. Prosodic structure rhythm can affect the intelligibility of auditory speech and help listeners to analyze sentence structure in an ambiguous context. Context rhythm changes the listener's judgment of the number of words and affects the recognition of vowels and consonants in words. Body language rhythm can alter stress position perception and restore speech intelligibility. The influence of external rhythm on auditory speech comprehension exists in a wide range of auditory and non-auditory stimuli, which help the listeners to understand the speaker's speech content. The process by which the listener's brain uses external rhythms to promote or alter speech comprehension is thought to be related to internal rhythms. Internal rhythms are neural oscillations, which can represent the hierarchical characteristics of external speech input at different time scales and tend to be coupled with each other. The convergence of internal and external rhythms over time with the input of external rhythmic stimuli is called neural entrainment. Neural entrainment of external rhythmic stimuli and internal neural activity can optimize the brain's processing of speech stimuli and extract discrete language components from continuous sound signals. It's worth noting that neural entrainment is not only a passive follower of external rhythm information but also influenced by the subjective regulation of listeners. In the process of speech comprehension, top-down modulation may be derived from cognitive processes such as the listener's selective attention, prior knowledge of grammar, and expectation. They can affect neural entrainment at the same time. When the listener pays selective attention to a stream of speech, it weakened or eliminated the advanced neural response of the brain regions to not pay attention to the voice stream. And neural entrainment based on the corresponding component in the listener is expected to enhance speech representation and processing. And neural entrainment relied on the listener of the existing prior knowledge to integrate words composition between different levels or across brain areas. These active modulations make the key information in the process of speech comprehension more likely to be at the optimal excitability level of neuron cluster activity, thus obtaining more processing resources. We believe that neural entrainment may be the key mechanism to realize the interrelation between internal and external rhythms and jointly affect speech comprehension. Finally, the discovery of internal and external rhythms and their related mechanisms can provide a research window for understanding speech, a complex sequence with structural rules in multilevel time scales.

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Basic emotion and its neural basis: Evidence from fMRI and machine-vision studies

LIANG Fei, JIANG Yao, XIAO Tingwei, DONG Jie, WANG Fushun

2022, 30 (8): 1832-1843. doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2022.01832

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Basic emotion theory is the most representative theory in the field of emotion science, which holds that human emotions are composed of a limited number of basic emotions, such as fear, anger, joy, sadness and so on. Basic emotions are evolved for fundamental life tasks, and each basic emotion has its own unique neural structure and physiological basis. Although basic emotion theories are widely accepted, there is little agreement on specific basic emotions. In recent decades, many fMRI studies have attempted to determine the unique neural structural underpinnings of each of the basic emotions, and made many important findings, such as disgust is related to the insula, sadness is related to the anterior cingulate gyrus, and the amygdala is an important limbic structure related to fear. However, recent meta-analysis studies have found that many basic emotions share many brain regions. Therefore, the theory of specific brain regions of basic emotions has been questioned and even denied. Through the discussion of the basic emotions and neural basis, as well as the latest functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study of basic emotion theory analysis found that a lot of brain imaging data have reported certain basic emotion that is associated with a particular brain regions, different stimulation induced a kind of basic emotion is stable to activate the same brain regions. But these studies also raise questions. As Barrett notes, the amygdala is involved in almost all negative emotions, like fear, anger, and surprise. Therefore, it is likely that the amygdala was just involved in regulating arousal. Instead, we believe that the reason for the inconsistencies in these studies is that humans may have only three basic emotions: joy, fear (anger), and sadness. Many of the so-called different basic emotions are actually the same basic emotion. Fear and anger may be the same basic emotions, while surprise may be the cognitive component that induces fear and anger. They share a common neural basis: the amygdala. Recently, researchers have tried to interpret the facial expressions of laboratory rats by using machine-vision technology to process their facial features. Similarly, machine vision can be used to decode human facial expressions, emotion recognition and classification. Future research can focus on multiple forms of common and unique features and connections between features (such as functional brain connections), such as behavioral, physiological, visual cortex, eye movement, facial expression, fMRI imaging, EEG topography and other data features. At the same time, we can try to prototype emotions from many angles. Thus, it is expected to form multi-angle and multi-form emotion prototype, providing new ideas and new evidence for the research of basic emotion theory.

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The underlying mechanisms of negative affect in (cognitive) conflict adaptation: Separated vs. integrated insights

YANG Qian

2022, 30 (8): 1844-1855. doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2022.01844

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Abstract: Conflict adaptation refers to the dynamic modulation of conflict processing across successive trials, which depends on top-down cognitive control. Since negative affect is a critical factor which modulates cognitive control, how it influences conflict adaptation is of great interest to researchers. According to the types of negative affect, that is to say either incidental or integral, this research question can be further discussed from the separated and the integrated relationship of cognition with emotion. From the separated perspective, conflicting information is typically acted as the source to activate cognitive control, and moreover, it is also the distracting information that needs to be controlled and inhibited. In this context, the manipulation of incidental negative affect (negative stimuli vs. negative mood) is independent of conflict processing. Accordingly, the manner that negative stimuli influence conflict adaptation is by interacting with cognitive control; while the influence exerted by negative mood on adaptation is achieved by individuals’ arousal and (or) motivational levels. Another thing that needs to be noted is that whether or not negative affect is manipulated at the phasic (i.e., negative stimuli) or at the tonic (i.e., negative mood) level, their influences on conflict adaptation are indirect, which to some extent reflects the separation of negative affect with cognitive control and conflict processing more specifically. Despite of this point, it does not necessarily mean that negative affect is completely unrelated to conflict, but instead, the mismatch between individuals’ habitual response tendency and the task goal during conflict processing would induce negative affect associated with goal confusion and/or error commission. In line with this viewpoint, recent evidence obtained from behavioral, physiological, and neuroimaging studies have indicated that conflict processing automatically elicits negative affect that termed as integral negative affect. These findings suggest the inherent relationship between conflict and negative affect. Namely, that not only “cold” cognitive system involves conflict processing, “hot” affective system also engages this process. In this sense, integral negative affect can be deemed as another source to generate conflict adaptation, being acted as both “output” and “input” of conflict processing. From the integrated perspective, integral negative affect is highly integrated with conflict processing and can influence conflict adaptation in turn, which can promote conflict adaptation. The underlying mechanism is that in order to better control or inhibit conflict and concomitant negative affect, integral negative affect elicited from conflict processing inherently promote goal-related performance and effectively trigger cognitive control, ultimately contributing to the evident adaptation effect. Therefore, discussing the influence of negative affect on conflict adaptation from the insight into the relationship of cognition (conflict) with negative affect deepens our understanding regarding how negative affect exerts its impact on conflict adaptation, which also provides a new insight into how cognition integrates with emotion. On this basis, future studies can further reveal the neural mechanisms underlying the beneficial influence of conflict adaptation by integral negative affect, as well as clarify the integrated relationships between emotion regulation and cognitive control inherently.

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The relationship between gut microbiota and brain imaging and clinical manifestation in schizophrenia

ZHOU Zhenyou, KONG Li, CHAN Raymond

2022, 30 (8): 1856-1869. doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2022.01856

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The microbiota-gut-brain axis hypothesis has attracted more and more attention in the research of the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. This hypothesis stated that gut microbiota can cause inflammation in the brain of patients with schizophrenia and cause abnormalities of brain function through the intestinal immune system, and that early colonization of gut microbiota will affect the development of the central nervous system in patients with schizophrenia and thus cause abnormalities of brain structure. Previous research has preliminarily investigated the relationship between the composition of gut microbiota and the brain imaging and clinical manifestation of patients with schizophrenia, but the specific action path is still unclear.

In the current research, we have summarized the latest research progress and found that the gut microbiota diversity of patients with schizophrenia is significantly lower than that of the normal control, and the relative abundance of gut microbiota is also significantly different from that of the normal control at different biological levels, which is mainly manifested as the increase in the relative abundance of Actinomycetes and Proteus as well as the decrease in the relative abundance of Bacteroides and Sclerotinia. Based on the brain imaging results of patients with schizophrenia, we found that there was a significant correlation between the diversity of gut microbiota and the relative abundance of certain microbiota and the gray volume of specific areas of the patient's brain, including the right middle frontal gyrus, the right postcentral gyrus and insula, as well as the Amplitude of Low Frequency Fluctuation index (ALFF) and Regional Homogeneity index (ReHo) in certain brain functional areas, which were mainly reflected in the functional signals of the frontal and temporal lobes. Further combined with the clinical manifestation analysis of patients with schizophrenia, the results showed that there was a significant correlation between the composition of gut microbiota and the cognitive function scores as well as the clinical symptom score (PANSS). The α diversity of gut microbiota was related to visual hallucination, and the relative abundance of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum was significantly and positively correlated with the negative symptom score.

These evidences indicate that the potential role of gut microbiota in schizophrenia is related to the changes of brain structure and function. Based on the ability of gut microbiota to identify and produce chemicals and the evidence of severe neurotransmitter imbalance in patients with schizophrenia, we proposed the mechanism hypothesis of gut microbiota affecting the brain structure and function of patients with schizophrenia, believing that gut microbiota may affect the brain structure and function of patients with schizophrenia through immune mediated pathway, short-chain fatty acid pathway, kynurenine pathway and brain-derived neurotrophic factor pathway. The related contents will provide new insights for further elucidation of the pathological mechanism of schizophrenia, clarify how gut microbiota affect the potential pathophysiological process of schizophrenia through the microbiota-gut-brain axis, and provide a theoretical basis for the inclusion of gut microbiota in the diagnosis, evaluation and intervention of schizophrenia.

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The mechanism of collective ritual promoting group emotional contagion

LIU Chunxiao, LIU Lizhi, Wang Dan, CHEN Wenfeng

2022, 30 (8): 1870-1882. doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2022.01870

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Recently, group emotional contagion has attracted much interest among the scholars of emotional contagion, focusing on the interactive process of emotional contagion among group members. It contains not only direct emotional contagion between two individual, but also the process of group identity, common behavior, collective rules. In addition to inter-individual emotional contagion, group emotional contagion involves two unique emotional outcomes—"emotion cycles" and "collective effervescence". To clarify the occurrence and enhancement process of group emotional contagion, this review associates the three elements of collective ritual (i.e., synchronized actions, shared attention, and shared meaning) and group emotional contagion. Then, the potential mechanisms of collective ritual on group emotional contagion is summarized.

First, redundant, repetitive and synchronized actions, as well as shared attention and meaning in collective rituals can trigger the processes related to self-representation. On the one hand, the "self-referential effect" pushes individuals to project personal characteristics into the group, leading to "self-anchoring". On the other hand, collective rituals are characterized by ambiguous causality, but with symbolized social norms embodied. During the process of collective rituals, individuals tend to rely on symbolized social norms to represent themselves, and thus the self-stereotype occurs. As a result, the group identities based on self-anchoring and self-stereotyping is facilitated.

Second, strong sense of belonging to the group promotes integrated identity, thereby blurring the boundaries between the individual self and the social self. Highly integrated individuals will experience a transformation of self-representation, from the individual self to the relational self or the collective self (emphasizing group identity), so that an individual will be more closely connected with the group. The group identity generated by collective rituals leads individuals to regard emotion senders as a part of the group and more likely to interpret emotional signals as positive, leading to a larger possibility of emotional mimicry in this context. Emotional imitation under collective ritual produces an emotional experience based on identity, which ultimately enables group emotion to spread on a larger scale.

In conclusion, collective rituals enhance group identity through self-stereotyping and self-anchoring. Integrated identity basing on group identity makes individuals pay more attention to group identity, which further leads individuals to transform the individual self into social self and more prone to accepting the group's opinions and emotions. Future studies should further investigate the influencing factors of group emotional contagion and enrich its measurement methods.

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Subjective class research in psychology of social class: Its contributions and deficiencies

YANG Shenlong, RAO Tingting, YU Feng, GUO Yongyu

2022, 30 (8): 1883-1893. doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2022.01883

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Recently, researchers in the field of social class psychology have attached great importance to the perspective of subjective class. This is highlighted by emphasizing the subjective class component in the social class concept. According to this approach, a person's social class includes both the objective social resources they control (i.e., the objective class) and their perception of their own social status (i.e., the subjective class). In terms of theory, measurement, design, and topic selection, research based on this theoretical orientation tends to focus on the investigation of issues related to subjective class.

In theory, subjective class, as a personal perception reflecting social class, is considered to be able to reflect a person's social class level comprehensively and effectively. Moreover, by understanding social class as a hierarchical notion, this theoretical orientation provides the foundation for quantitative research in the psychology of social class. Conceptually, subjective class is also considered to be better able to reflect the effect of social class on individuals’ psychological and behavioral exhibition, which not only promotes the simplification of social class measurement but also makes social class (i.e., a traditional sociological variable) more psychologically explained. It is of great significance to the development of research in this field. In terms of the method, researchers use a lot of experimental methods to examine the causal relationship between social class and a dependent variable by manipulating subjective class. This makes up for the insufficiency of previous studies on objective classes that could only reveal correlations and provide methodological assistance for drawing key conclusions in this field. In terms of research topics, the emphasis on subjective class has helped researchers to expand the scope of research in the psychology of social class. Themes such as the experience of social class, sign of social class, and perception of class mobility have all received more attention. Behind this series of research progress, the important foundational role of the orientation cannot be ignored.

However, while this research orientation affirms the contributions of the above four aspects, the proposal of this idea has also led to certain negative effects. First, by only focusing on the subjective class attributes in the social class, or even equating the subjective class with the social class, this approach greatly reduces the rich connotation of the social class theoretically, and it cannot fully reflect the reality of this concept. Second, previous studies have found significant inconsistency between the concepts of subjective and objective class, which led to the risk of using subjective class as an operational definition of social class at the conceptual measurement level. Third, for the experiment of manipulating the subjective class, since the objective class of the subjects does not change with the experimental treatment, it is difficult to interpret the research results as the social class effect. Finally, because many studies focus on subjective class, it seems that the issue of social class has lost its original pluralistic and complex characteristics in the real society, and more of it has become the comparison between "higher" and "lower class." If we draw on the sociology research ideas, social class psychology can pay more attention to and reveal some problems in the process of social development.

Based on the above advantages and disadvantages, future social class psychology research focusing on subjective class should consider further in-depth basic research to clarify the relationship between objective and subjective classes and their different predictive effects. Furthermore, a more detailed distinction can be made between subjective class and objective class. Similarly, more consideration should be given to combining the perspective of sociology to understand and respond to the problems of contemporary society based on specific social class groups in reality.

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Low Socioeconomic Status and intertemporal choice: The mechanism of “psychological-shift” from the perspective of threat

DU Tangyan, HU Xiaoyong, YANG Jing, LI Lanyu, WANG Tiantian

2022, 30 (8): 1894-1904. doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2022.01894

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Much evidence shows that people living in low socioeconomic conditions often engage in "short-sighted behavior". They seem to focus on meeting short-term needs and aspirations rather than long-term benefits and returns, such as investing less in education, saving too little, and borrowing too much. These choices may further deepen their disadvantage and cause them to fall into the trap of "low socioeconomic status-behavioral decision-making-low socioeconomic status".

Why are people living in low socioeconomic conditions more likely to be short-sighted? Previous studies believe that low socioeconomic status shapes individual preferences and values and impairs self-control. These defects make them more likely to make irrational behavioral decisions. However, in recent years, researchers have pointed out that the seemingly irrational behavior of people living in low socioeconomic conditions is an adaptive response to a threatening environment. People who live in low socioeconomic conditions always face various risks and threats, such as resource scarcity, environmental instability and unpredictability, and a bad childhood environment. If the current demand is high and the future is uncertain, it is more beneficial to obtain the smaller benefits available at present than to wait for the larger returns in the future. Scarcity theory, construction level theory, and life history theory are three representative theoretical viewpoints that answer the mechanism behind the “short-sighted behavior” of the people who live in low socioeconomic conditions from the perspective of the interaction between individual and the environment. The psychological shift model integrates them from the perspective of threat, regards the "short-sighted" behavior of the people living in low socioeconomic conditions as the product of the operation of the general social and psychological mechanism, and points out that the psychological shift triggered by threat perception is the internal mechanism of low socioeconomic status affecting intertemporal choice.

Specifically, the experience of living in low socioeconomic conditions induces a “psychological shift” in response to socioecological cues. At the cognitive level, they focus on things related to scarcity when facing the threat of scarcity. At the level of thinking, they represent events concretely and contextually when facing uncertain threats. At the behavioral strategy level, once the threat cues appear, people who experience low socioeconomic conditions in childhood may notice the threat faster and switch to the fast life history strategy. These psychological shifts lead to the occurrence of "short-sighted behavior".

To attribute a more practical policy value to the psychological shift model, future research can be carried out from the following aspects: First, the research perspective that "short-sightedness" is the survival strategy of people living in low socioeconomic conditions in a threatening environment needs to be further popularized. This adaptive perspective more comprehensively and accurately describes the intertemporal choice process of people living in low socioeconomic conditions, reduces the stigmatization of people living in low socioeconomic conditions to a great extent. Second, the mechanism of poverty affecting intertemporal choice needs to be further studied. The novel and enlightening psychological shift model from the perspective of threat needs much empirical research to confirm. The multilevel relationship between low socioeconomic status and intertemporal choice in different development stages still needs to be discussed. Finally, “short-sighted behavior” intervention for people living in low socioeconomic conditions needs to be carried out widely and deeply. Based on the core mechanism of eliminating threats to reduce short-sighted behavior, future studies should combine the valuable experience accumulated in the process of poverty alleviation and the internationally agreed strategies that can significantly reduce the “short-sightedness” of the people living in low socioeconomic conditions. These actions may help develop an effective intervention program in line with China's national conditions, so as to provide scientific psychological paths for realizing common prosperity.

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