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Conceptual Framework

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Thinking of change in times of danger: The differential impact of job insecurity on innovative behavior MA Bing, YANG Rong, DU Jing, MA Guimei 2022, 30 (11):  2381-2394.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2022.02381 Abstract ( 1659 )   HTML ( 121 )   PDF (845KB) ( 2561 )   Enterprises are experiencing a “dilemma” in employee management and organizational innovation- it is difficult for enterprises to provide stable jobs, though they have to rely on employees to realize organizational innovation. Thus, it is very essential to study the impact of employees' job insecurity on innovative behavior. When employees encounter job insecurity caused by different environmental threats, they show different level of innovative behavior. Previous studies mainly focus on subjective perception in defining the concept of job insecurity, and only pay attention to mechanism of the holistic construction on innovative behavior from the perspective of intrinsic motivation. This study defines and deepens the concept of job insecurity underpinned by the focus of threats, and explores its differential impact on innovative behavior based on the “variable-centered” approach and the “person-centered” approach. Firstly, this study regards job insecurity as subjective perceptions related to environmental threats and divides it into two dimensions, job-focus insecurity and person-focus insecurity. A measurement scale is also developed. Secondly, with the adoption of longitudinal method and the analysis of the subordinate-supervisor dyad data, it is expected to reveal the chain mediating role of situational regulatory focus and work passion in the impact of job insecurity on innovative behavior. Job-focus insecurity has a negative impact on innovative behavior while person-focus insecurity has an inverted U-shaped impact on innovative behavior. Finally, the “person-centered” approach will be adopted to explore the potential types of job insecurity and its impact on innovative behavior by using latent profile analysis. The main contributions of this study at theoretical level are as follow: 1) considering the sources of environmental threats, the definition of the concept of job insecurity, the deconstruction of the dimensions based on threat focus and the development of the measurement scale will promote the conceptual research and measurement development of job insecurity. 2) based on the regulatory focus theory and the dual model of passion, this study adopt the "variable-centered" approach to comprehensively reveal the differential impact of various dimensions of job insecurity on innovative behavior from the process of motivation and emotional response, which will enrich and improve the research of mechanisms. 3) in response to the call of debus et al. (2020), this study adopts the "person-centered" approach and pays attention to the variability between individuals to investigate whether it is possible to identify different job insecurity profiles and whether innovative behavior differs between job insecurity profiles. Thus, how different dimensions are combined within profiles of employees can be uncovered, which can make up for the shortcomings of the previous “variable-centered” approach, and provide a new direction to the in-depth study of job insecurity. In addition, at practical level, the results of this study can equip managers to have a more comprehensive understanding of the threatening nature of job insecurity, and help them have a better view of the differential impact of job-focus insecurity and person-focus insecurity on innovative behavior. What is more, this study can also provide guidance and suggestions for enterprises on effective employee management and innovative behavior promotion in an unstable environment. Figures and Tables | References | Related Articles | Metrics

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How do employees engage in voice behavior despite adversity? Understanding the formation and outcomes of voice resilience from the perspective of achievement goal WANG Yao, LUO Wenhao, HOU Liang 2022, 30 (11):  2395-2404.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2022.02395 Abstract ( 921 )   HTML ( 45 )   PDF (738KB) ( 1178 )   With the increasing uncertainty of the environment, avoiding organizational risks and improving organizational effectiveness by merely relying on the wisdom of managers become increasingly difficult. In this context, employee voice plays an increasingly important role in organizational development. In recent years, employee voice behavior has gradually become a hotspot in organizational behavior research. Theoretical and empirical studies reveal that voice behavior can prompt risks, promote innovation, and offer a powerful guarantee for the sustainable development of organizations. This paper puts forward new questions based on the phenomenon of voice in the workplace, which has not received much attention in the literature thus far. Previous studies on voice predominantly show that when voice-inhibiting factors, such as unsupportive leaders and unsafe environment, are present, employees will reduce their voice behavior and remain silent. However, not all employees will give up their opinions because of environmental obstacles, and some employees are even encouraged to display stronger voice behaviors when facing adversities. What makes an employee speak out in an adversity? What is the mechanism that underlies this phenomenon? What are its outcomes? These questions have not been adequately answered in the extant literature. To fill these gaps, this paper designs three related studies around “voice resilience”. Study 1 combines the cutting-edge findings of employee resilience research to reconceptualize the notion of voice resilience and develops an effective voice resilience scale based on these findings. Study 2 explores the formation mechanism of voice resilience based on achievement goal theory and adopts the new scale developed in Study 1 to empirically test the relationship between three achievement goal orientations and voice resilience. Study 3 explores the impact of voice resilience on the subsequent voice behavior of employees and the voice endorsement of leaders and empirically tests the hypothesized relationship using the new scale developed in Study 1. The theoretical innovation of this study is mainly reflected in three aspects. First, this study reveals that voice resilience is essentially a dynamic psycho-behavioral process that provides a new theoretical perspective for understanding the voice of employees amid adversity. Second, this study deeply analyzes the impact of employee achievement goals on their voice resilience, thereby enriching the literature on the antecedents of voice resilience. Third, this study analyzes the effect of voice resilience on both employees and leaders, thereby extending the findings of previous voice resilience research. Figures and Tables | References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The formation mechanism of ambivalent occupational identification of non-decent workers from paradoxical perspective WANG Hongli, LI Zhen, XU Guangyi 2022, 30 (11):  2405-2413.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2022.02405 Abstract ( 1014 )   HTML ( 45 )   PDF (703KB) ( 1069 )   Occupation is the product of social division of labor, and every occupation beneficial to the society are not superior or inferior to others. In practice, however, some occupations have been “stigmatized” by the public because of their dirty attributes, and have been marginalized in the labor market. Dirty work refers to the occupations that are necessary for the functioning of the society but belittled or disliked by the general public, such as caregivers in hospital who provide patient care services, undertakers who defend the dignity of life at the end, and sanitation workers who play the role of city beauticians. Despite the social value of these occupations, the “defaced image” viewed by the public poses serious identify threat to dirty workers. Occupation is an important source of an individual’s positive self-concept and existence value. Dirty worker would usually be questioned by mainstream value that “how could you be occupied in this work”. Therefore, the scientific community takes it as a key issue that how dirty workers exert influence on their identification, and have controversy on whether practitioners identify or disidentify their occupations. Some researchers point out that dirty workers own complicated identification process and hardly identify or disidentify their occupations, and thus, they are more or less ambivalent about their occupations. However, existing researches about the ambivalent identification of dirty worker are limited in theoretical discussion, and do not have clear idea on the formation mechanism of the ambivalent identification of dirty workers. Accordingly, this study stands from the perspective of paradox and aims to construct a formation mechanism of dirty workers’ ambivalent occupational identification. Specifically, we introduce conflict experience as a mediator, and internal motivation (i.e., family motivation and career calling) and work environment (i.e., work chance and organizational support) as boundary condition. We suggest that the interaction of occupational stigma perception with internal motivation, or with work environment, would induce dirty workers’ conflict experience, which in turn leads to ambivalent occupational identification. The possible innovations of this study are as followed. First, standing from the paradox theory, we propose that the multiple tensions among individuals, organizations and occupations are important sources of conflict experience, and the conflict experience would act as an important influence mechanism of occupational stigma perception on practitioners’ ambivalent occupational identification. It provides a new theoretical perspective for understanding the formation mechanism of dirty workers’ ambivalent occupational identification. Second, we take internal motivation (i.e., family motivation and career calling) and work environment (i.e., work chance and organizational support) into consideration, and present the interaction of occupational stigma perception with these two boundary conditions would be more likely to trigger dirty workers’ conflict experience, which would further lead to ambivalent occupational identification. It points out the direction to discuss the formation mechanism of dirty workers’ ambivalent occupational identification. Third, based on the paradigm of paradox, we construct a formation mechanism of dirty workers’ ambivalent occupational identification. In Chinese context, dirty workers own more complicated identification process and hardly absolutely identify or disidentify their occupations. Therefore, ambivalent occupational identification would be more realistic to describe the identification process of dirty workers. Figures and Tables | References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Influence of associative learning on consumer behavior: From the perspective of product search experience HUANG Jianping, XU Jingxian, WAN Xiaoang 2022, 30 (11):  2414-2423.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2022.02414 Abstract ( 1093 )   HTML ( 69 )   PDF (670KB) ( 1245 )   Previous research has shown that consumers can generate daily expectations based on long-term associations that they form over time, which can guide their searches for certain products. Notably, in their actual search process, consumers may encounter experiences that meet or violate their expectations. Therefore, in light of this phenomenon, this article explore the mechanism of associative learning based on different product search experiences influences consuming behaviors in the following three aspects: First, we determine whether consumers generate expectations concerning expectation violation based on the associative learning that is generated by product search experiences and whether such expectations have an impact on subsequent product searches and relevant psychophysiological activities. Second, we examine the effects of product search experiences that violate or meet expectations on the associative learning of task-irrelevant information while focusing on whether prior short-term associative learning can establish expectations that guide subsequent product searches. Finally, we also study the influence of associative learning due to product search experiences on consumer preference and connect this influence with the brain reward system. When consumers’ expectations are constantly violated in the product search process, is it possible for them to generate expectations concerning expectation violation? Can associative learning be carried out by associating certain attributes of products with expectation violation? Instead of addressing these questions, many previous studies have focused on how individuals respond to a stimulus that violates expectations, proposing the violated expectation model, which indicates that individuals experience processes such as accommodation and assimilation when expectation violation occurs. The former entails that individuals adjust their own expectations to match the result of an expectation violation. In contrast, the latter involves individuals’ active behaviour to prevent expectation violation from occurring; the selection of this is thus done to avoid this circumstance. However, we propose a novel type of expectation in this study: individuals will build new expectations through violations of their original expectations on the basis of the latter to engage in subsequent product search tasks. In addition, there is no empirical research to support whether consumers will change their initial search strategies based on product characteristics (colour expectations) when faced with products that violate their original expectations. Therefore, this study focuses on consumers’ experience when their original expectations are violated, specifically, when searching for food products, to determine whether such experience and product attributes (flavour labels) will create new associations through associative learning and whether such experience can subsequently influence the individual attentional processing of products. We intend to demonstrate that prior experience-based associative learning is able to influence current visual search through an intertrial paradigm. We expected that our participants might learn the relationship between flavour labels and colour expectation violation experience once trials violated their colour expectation, which could lead participants to tend to stop employing colour expectations to guide their search for target flavour. Accordingly, the search advantage of the colour-flavour congruency target over the colour-flavour incongruency target would no longer exist, eventually bringing about a reduction in or even disappearance of the colour-flavour inconsistency effect. Consumers’ product search experience can also determine their attitude towards products. In this study, we therefore argue that the interaction between the facilitation of consumers’ preferences by their own search experience and the change in their preferences by associative learning based on attentional processing determines consumers’ final attitudes towards products. Consequently, this study explores the impact of product search experiences that violate expectations on subsequent consumer behaviours via the dimensions of attention, learning, and preference to reveal how consumers change their behaviours and neurophysiological activities in different product search experiences. Although consumers’ choices and preferences have a far-reaching significance that shapes a product, the present research demonstrates that how consumers interact with a product also changes the consumers themselves. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The relationship between customer experience journey and input with digitalized interactive platforms offerings LI Chunqing, ZHANG Jieli, LIU Wei, ZHANG Chenlu 2022, 30 (11):  2424-2447.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2022.02424 Abstract ( 860 )   HTML ( 35 )   PDF (1495KB) ( 1042 )   With the development of emerging technologies such as 5G, big data, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things, business environments are gradually becoming a digital ecosystem, in which the interdependence between enterprises and customers is increasingly affected by Digitalized Interactive Platforms (DIP) offerings. DIP has resulted in the increased usage and engagement by multiple stakeholders, which offers a complex and dynamic experience. However, it remains unclear how firms can leverage DIP to facilitate customized and enriched customer experience to increase customer input, thereby co-creating value with other stakeholders. This project fills this void by providing a research framework to address this question, which includes five different studies. Study 1 is based on the stakeholder marketing theory to explore the value co-creation process of stakeholders during the consumer journey of DIP offerings through a qualitative research. Firstly, the recursive reflexive process of multiple stakeholders of DIP offerings will be analyzed based on the theory of recursive reflexivity; secondly, the action and interaction of stakeholders’ practice continuity and consumption experience will be explored based on the theory of practice continuity; finally, based on the identity theory and institution theory, identity evolution, identity co-construction and institutional change process will be examined. These steps help us analyze the behavior and experience of stakeholders in the consumption journey of DIP offerings, which is a step towards theory development in DIP and provides basis for future related studies. Study 2 focuses on the customer experience journey in DIP offerings (DXJ) and intends to explore the definition, dimensions, measurement and generalizbility of this concept. Firstly, DXJ will be defined, similarities and difference between DXJ and other related concepts will be discussed through relevant literature discussion; secondly, we will explore the dimensions of DXJ using qualitative research methods, and develop its measurement scale; then the predictive validity of the developed scale will be tested; data will be collected through a large scale survey study to empirically examine the antecedents and behavioral outcomes of DXJ. In study 3, a new concept, DXJ ambidexterity, is proposed and developed. The conceptualization, source of tension and reconciliation mechanism of DXJ ambidexterity will be explored using qualitative research methods. Firstly, sources of tension of DXJ ambidexterity are explored based on the ambidexterity theory, and factors influencing the tension of DXJ ambidexterity will be investigated; secondly, the reconciliation mechanism of DXJ ambidexterity tension will be discussed; finally, the reconciliation process will be discussed and explained. Study 4 intends to study the evolution process, generation, management and evaluation of customer input with DIP offerings (that is, DCI). Firstly, we will explore the definition and dimensions of DCI, and develop the measurement scale accordingly; secondly, the mechanism and process of the generation and management of DCI will be investigated; finally, the antecedents, mediators, moderators of DCI, as well as how they affect customer behavior and corporate performance will be investigated empirically. Study 5 explores the reciprocal relationship between DXJ and DCI. Based on the theory of spirals, we propose to use a large scale survey method to collect panel data to explore the interaction mechanisms between DXJ and DCI from the following five aspects: customers, their social network, firms, their partners, and enterprise customers. We also intend to identify the lower and upper boundaries of the spiral. This study uncovers the new phenomena of DIP offerings and contributes to the existing research related to customer experience and customer input. This study also extends the existing theories such as recursive reflexivity theory, institution theory, ambidexterity theory, and the theory of spirals. The results of this study will offer insights to DIP companies to establish a win-win, long-term relationship with multiple stakeholders, and ultimately co-create value. Figures and Tables | References | Related Articles | Metrics

Meta-Analysis

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Brain activation differences in lexical-semantics processing in autistic population: A meta-analysis of fMRI studies YU Jiayu, JIN Yuxi, LIANG Dandan 2022, 30 (11):  2448-2460.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2022.02448 Abstract ( 913 )   HTML ( 41 )   PDF (1638KB) ( 1077 )   Language impairment is a salient and one of the earliest symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Over the past decades, researchers have employed various neuroimaging techniques (e.g., functional magnetic resonance imaging, fMRI) to explore the neural markers of language impairments in individuals with ASD. Individual investigations have converged on finding differences in neural responses of language processing (e.g., word, sentence, prosody) between autistic participants and typically developing (TD) controls. Results from meta-analytic studies further indicated that the differential neural activities were stable across studies. However, the meta-analysis that focused on semantic processing in the ASD group revealed somewhat different results from the meta-analysis on language processing. In addition, the results of sub-analyses that divided language processing tasks into subtypes reported that the ASD-TD differential activation patterns were moderated by task type. The previous meta-analysis of semantic processing in ASD populations included both sentence-level and word-level semantic processing studies. Considering the differentiated underlying mechanisms of word-meaning and sentence-meaning processing, it is essential to distinguish between these two levels of semantic processing. Lexical-semantic processing ability is at the forefront of language acquisition and a known area of impairment in individuals with ASD. Previous review studies have adequately summarized the behavioral performance of individuals with ASD for semantic processing at the single word level. However, a meta-analysis to investigate the cross-study brain activation patterns of individuals with ASD during lexical-semantics processing is still missing. The current study identified 11 published journal articles that used fMRI to investigate lexical-semantic processing in individuals with ASD. Activation likelihood estimation analysis was adopted to investigate whether atypical brain activation patterns in individuals with ASD were stable across studies and how the atypical performance manifested. The results revealed that the TD group activated the left inferior frontal gyrus, the left superior frontal gyrus, the left middle temporal gyrus, and the left middle frontal gyrus, which are brain regions responsible for completing lexical-semantics processing tasks. Like the TD group, the ASD group also showed activation in typical lexical-semantics processing brain regions, such as the left inferior frontal gyrus, the left middle temporal gyrus, and the left medial frontal gyrus. At the same time, differential brain activation patterns were steadily present between the ASD and TD groups. To be more specific, no brain region was found in the ASD group-TD group subtraction analysis, while the left superior frontal gyrus was present in the TD group -ASD group subtraction analysis. This finding indicated the atypical brain activation patterns of lexical-semantics processing in individuals with ASD manifested as hypoactivation in the left superior frontal gyrus. In addition, exploratory sub-analyses suggested that the atypical brain activation patterns of adults with ASD may differ from those of children and adolescents with ASD. Adults with ASD were more likely to show enhanced activation in the visual processing areas, while children and adolescents with ASD showed reduced activation in the left middle temporal gyrus. In summary, the current meta-analysis provided evidence for the atypical brain responses to lexical-semantics processing in verbal individuals with ASD from a cross-study perspective. Their atypical brain activation activities when processing meanings of words were consistent with the "decreased frontal lobe activation" hypothesis. The current study revealed novel findings which highlighted that distinguishing between different levels of language processing can help researchers identify the corresponding neural markers of certain types of language impairments in autistic populations. Due to the limited number of included studies, the current study had some limitations, such as only including fMRI studies and not considering the task, behavior and general language skills related factors. Future studies should take age, language background, general language skills, intervention experiences, and types of semantic processing into consideration. Figures and Tables | References | Related Articles | Metrics

Research Method

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Moderation analysis for longitudinal data FANG Jie, WEN Zhonglin 2022, 30 (11):  2461-2472.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2022.02461 Abstract ( 4156 )   HTML ( 179 )   PDF (933KB) ( 3263 )   At present, the analysis of moderating effect is mainly based on cross sectional data. This article discusses how to analyze the moderating effect with longitudinal data. If the independent variable X and the dependent variable Y are longitudinal data, longitudinal moderation models can be divided into three categories according to the type of moderator: time-invariant moderator, time-variant moderator, and moderator generated from X or Y. For example, Xtj is divided into two parts, time-varying intra-individual differences $X_{t j}-\bar{X}_{\bullet} j$ and time-invariant inter-individual differences$\bar{X}_{\boldsymbol{\bullet} j}$, and then the moderating effect of $\bar{X}_{\boldsymbol{\bullet} j}$ on the relationship between $(X_{t j}-\bar{X}_{\bullet} j)$ and Ytj can be analyzed. In that case, there will be no new moderator Z, which is characteristic of moderation research on longitudinal data in contrast to research on cross-sectional data. Four types of longitudinal moderation analysis approaches are summarized: 1) Multilevel model (MLM); 2) Multilevel structural equation model (MSEM); 3) Cross-lagged model (CLM); 4) Latent growth model (LGM). It is found that the decomposition of the moderating effect and the use of the latent moderating structural equation (LMS) method are the two characteristics of the moderation analysis for longitudinal data. Specifically, MLM, MSEM, and CLM divide the moderating effect of longitudinal data into three parts: the time-varying intra-individual part, time-invariant inter-individual part, and the cross-level part. In addition, the moderating effect of longitudinal data can be decomposed into the moderating effect of initial level and rate of change by LGM. In the present study, we propose a procedure to analyze longitudinal mediation analysis. The first step is to decide whether it is necessary to make a causal inference. If the aim of research is to make a causal inference, CLM should be adopted to analyze longitudinal moderation. Otherwise, proceed with the second step. The second step is to decide whether it is necessary to treat longitudinal data as multilevel data. If longitudinal data is treated as multilevel data, MSEM should be adopted to analyze longitudinal moderation, because MSEM and MLM are more suitable for describing individual differences. Otherwise, LGM should be adopted to analyze longitudinal moderation, because only an LGM can simultaneously examine the effect of some variables on change and how the change affects other variables. The third step is to decide whether MSEM converges. If MSEM converges, the result of MSEM should be reported. Otherwise, MLM should be adopted to analyze longitudinal moderation. Compared with MLM, MSEM takes sampling error into account when the group mean is calculated, but the convergence of the MSEM is more difficult. Therefore, the MSEM with sampling error taken into account is preferred. If convergence fails, MLM will be considered. This paper exemplifies how to conduct the proposed procedure by using Mplus. Directions for future research on moderation analysis of longitudinal data are discussed, such as the moderation analysis for intensive longitudinal data based on the dynamic structural equation model. Figures and Tables | References | Related Articles | Metrics

Regular Articles

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The combination of metacognition and face cognition: Cut-in points and methods ZHOU Xingchen, HE Wen 2022, 30 (11):  2473-2486.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2022.02473 Abstract ( 870 )   HTML ( 21 )   PDF (777KB) ( 803 )   Metacognition is the cognition of cognition, including all aspects of cognition. The recent years have witnessed a rapid increase in research on the combination of metacognition and face cognition. Face cognition is often thought to be ‘special’ in some respects, due to its innateness, automaticity, neural specificity, and heredity. The combination of metacognition and face cognition can broaden the research of the two fields and explore whether the phenomena widely confirmed at the level of face cognition apply to its metacognitive level, and whether the metacognitive illusions found in many non-face fields also appear in the field of face cognition. In addition, face conveys important identity information and social information. The combination of metacognition and face cognition also has rich practical significance in social communication, clinical diagnosis, administration of justice, and other practical fields. The current research on metacognition of face cognition is still in its infancy. The term "metacognition" has been rarely directly mentioned, and the related concepts has been used instead. Moreover, most researchers have only focused on the study of the judgment of learning (JOL) in face memory. This paper aims to make an in-depth analysis of the current metacognitive research on face cognition, in order to provide more inspiring research ideas for scholars in the related fields, and promote the follow-up development of the empirical research on the combination of metacognition and face cognition studies. This paper firstly systematically reviewed the domestic and foreign research on the cut-in points of the combination of metacognition and face cognition, and further summarized the main research methods. The cut-in points of recent studies on the combination of the two fields included the applicability of metacognitive illusions (Dunning-Kruger effect and egocentric bias) in face cognition and the applicability of face cognition phenomena (own-race effect and familiarity advantage) in metacognition. As for the main research methods of the research on the combination of metacognition and face cognition, according to different testing timings, methods have been mainly divided into three ways, including the prospective measurements (e.g., judgment of learning, JOL), concurrent measurements (e.g., feeling of knowing, FOK), and retrospective measurements (e.g., retrospective assessment questionnaires). According to different evaluation targets, methods can also be divided into the estimates of one’s own performance (e.g., self-assessment questionnaires) and the estimates of other people's performance (e.g., estimates of the number of people who answered correctly in the face cognition tasks). Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages, and it should be selected according to the metacognitive components that researchers aim to explore. Multiple methods can be combined based on different research aims. Finally, four feasible directions for further theoretical and applied research were proposed. First, the previous research remains at the level of metacognitive monitoring. In the future, it can be expanded to the level of metacognitive control of face cognition, metacognitive performance of the subjective judgment of facial arousal and the cognitive neural mechanism of the two fields. Second, comparative studies can be conducted with non-face cognition fields to further explore whether the consistent metacognitive results across face and non-face fields are related to the domain general feature of metacognition or due to some possible personality traits. Thirdly, whether metacognitive ability of face cognition can be improved by improving the face cognition ability would also be an interesting direction for future studies to focus on. Fourthly, with the wide application of human face automatic recognition system, it is particularly important to expand the targets of the metacognitive evaluation from human beings to algorithms, based on the part of the need for manual review of machine learning face recognition results. This would provide new perspectives for understanding face cognition, and enhance its application values. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The mechanism of sound symbolism: Innate and acquired interaction model based on the sensitive period MA Yanan, HUANG Yanli, SHI Yujing, XIE Jiushu 2022, 30 (11):  2487-2496.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2022.02487 Abstract ( 1099 )   HTML ( 16 )   PDF (686KB) ( 824 )   The Bouba-kiki effect (i.e., BK effect) indicates the mapping between phonemes and shape features. The innate theory and acquired theory have heated debates on the mechanism of the BK effect. The innate theory holds that sensitivity to sound symbolism is inborn. On the contrary, the acquired theory holds that sound symbolism is the product of linguistic experience. The above-mentioned theories are both supported by many studies and neither of them can completely refute the other. This suggests that none of these theories fully reveal the mechanisms of the emergence of sound symbolism. Therefore, the present review systematically reviews previous findings that support the innate and acquired theories on the mechanism of the BK effect, respectively. Then, the present review first proposes the hypothesis of the sensitive period of the language-related BK effect and reviews recent studies that have provided preliminary evidence for the sensitive period of the BK effect. In addition, the present review also reviews potential factors that may affect the sensitive period of the BK effect. Specifically, the present study holds that the BK effect has a sensitive period that is similar to the critical period of language. The BK effect may be influenced by linguistic experience and the distribution of arbitrariness in language. On one hand, the early language learning experience may enhance the sensitivity of infants toward the BK effect. However, with the increase of age and language experiences, the sensitivity of the sound symbolism for adults gradually decreases. On the other hand, children mainly learn symbolic vocabulary in the early stage of language learning and children’s sound symbolism sensitivity gradually increases in this stage. When the proportion of arbitrary vocabulary gradually increases, children’s sensitivity to the sound symbolism gradually decreases. Furthermore, to integrate the above debates, the present review proposes the innate and acquired interaction model for sound symbolism based on the sensitive period of the language-related BK effect. This model holds that sound symbolism is supported by innate mechanisms and acquired experiences. In other words, sound symbolism is simultaneously influenced by the plasticity of the brain and the accumulated language experiences. In this way, children may have an innate “sound symbolism cognitive structure,” which enables them to map and integrate multi-modal inputs. Therefore, children are sensitive to all potential sound symbolism. In the early stage of language learning, the iconicity in language is prominent. Meanwhile, the sound symbolism cognitive structure can be triggered by children’s language expression and the sound symbolism schema is built through assimilation during this period. This process increases the brain’s sensitivity to sound symbolism. However, with the increase of vocabularies, the arbitrariness of the form-meaning mappings also increases. When the sound symbolism cognitive structure fails to assimilate the new vocabulary, the arbitrary schema is built through accommodation. In the accommodation process, the brain’s sensitivity to sound symbolism gradually decreases. As mentioned above, assimilation and accommodation simultaneously participate in language learning. The difference between assimilation and accommodation is that accommodation is gradually enhanced during the whole language learning period, while assimilation is only gradually enhanced during the sensitive period of sound symbolism and gradually decreased after this period. Eventually, with the increase of age and language experiences, assimilation and accommodation reach a dynamic balance. In particular, the proportion of the language’s arbitrariness and iconicity gradually tends to be stable and the sound symbolism cognitive structure is adapted to the external information. As a result, assimilation and accommodation maintain a relatively balanced state. Finally, the present study proposes future research directions for the sensitive period of sound symbolism. Figures and Tables | References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Embodied memory and its intrinsic mechanism JIN Yuwei, SUN Xiao, SONG Yaowu 2022, 30 (11):  2497-2506.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2022.02497 Abstract ( 1346 )   HTML ( 54 )   PDF (716KB) ( 1525 )   With the development of embodiment, it is widely recognized that the body may be the key to shaping advanced cognitive functions (e.g., memory). The research of embodied memory aims at exploring the role of the body and its sensorimotor process in memory. The manipulation or restriction of the physical state, embodied characteristics or availability of the body would affect the efficiency, valence and content of memory. The intrinsic mechanisms can be explained by several assumptions, including the encoding specificity principle, the priming effect, the metaphor representation theory and the reactivation hypothesis. However, there is still no a consensus on the mechanisms. This review focuses on the commonalities of existing research and theories, and aims to explain the mechanism by which the body acts on memory under one framework. There are three steps in the current work. Firstly, four experimental paradigms based on the experimental operations of the embodied memory research are summarized: (a) The simulation paradigm, which simulates the initial state by adopting body postures consistent with the encoding stage to influence memory retrieval. (b) The priming paradigm, which influences memory retrieval by priming the social meaning of body postures or facial expressions. (c) The metaphorical paradigm, which impacts the efficiency and content of memory retrieval by activating the emotional valence of vertical spatial movement (e.g., good is up, bad is down). (d)The reverse validation paradigm, in which the embodied effect disappears by performing interfering gestures in the encoding or retrieval stage to hinder the mental simulation. Then, based on the way that embodied operations act on memory and the perspective of theoretical explanation, it is found that the core of embodied memory lies in reactivation. Therefore, on the basis of the sensory-motor simulation model of embodied cognition, a sensorimotor simulation model of embodied memory, which emphasizes the role of reactivation and explains the psychological process of embodied operation on memory, is proposed. Specifically, an individual can manipulate the availability and physical state of his or her body to act on the encoding and extraction stages, respectively, or manipulate the embodied characteristics of the body to act on the extraction stage alone. Thus, the extraction stage can reactivate the perceptual and motor information of the encoding process, which facilitates the extraction of information. It is worth noting that this reactivation has several constraints: The first is the memory task. Task specificity will affect the degree to which the embodied operation activates the memory. The more specific the task is, the lower level of embodied activation in memory is. The second is the embodied operation. Compared with the simple, automatic, routine, and lower cognitive resource-requiring embodied operations, complex, intentional, unfamiliar, and higher cognitive operations have less impact on memory. The last one is the way of recall. In contrast to general recall, the more specific the recall task is, the lower the impact of embodied activation in memory is. More multi-dimensional theoretical and applied work is encouraged to explore the stability and underlying mechanisms of embodied memory. Specifically, it is necessary to strictly control the parataxis with the original experiment (i.e., adding embodied variables is to activate a certain psychological state in the original encoding and thus affect the memory results), rather than hypotaxis (i.e., adding physical variables is enough to explore the relationship between body and memory) to conduct repetitive research to improve the reliability of results. In addition to that, transforming the three-dimensional direct activation of one’s own embodied operations into a two-dimensional indirect activation of others’ behaviors by mirror neurons can explore the impact of the body on memory under the “quiet” condition. Finally, future research can also control the valence and content of memory by manipulating the different sensorimotor patterns of the body. This effort may indirectly adjust the individual’s cognition and emotion, which in turn affect his/her behavior. Figures and Tables | References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Serial order effect during divergent thinking: A new perspective on the dynamic mechanism of creative thought processes CHEN Qunlin, DING Ke 2022, 30 (11):  2507-2517.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2022.02507 Abstract ( 964 )   HTML ( 32 )   PDF (719KB) ( 1021 )   The serial order effect in divergent thinking (DT) is one of the most robust findings in the field of creativity research. This effect refers to the phenomenon that the number of generated ideas decreases, whereas the originality of ideas increases across time while performing DT tasks. A body of studies showed that the serial order effect can be evidenced in a range of age samples, various types of divergent thinking tasks, and different scoring methods. There are two possible explanations for the occurrence of the serial order effect. Mednick's association theory indicates that the generation of creative ideas is an automatic retrieval process that spatially follows a progressive search pattern from the spread activation of proximal concepts to distant ones. This activation pattern will gradually spread over time from close, obvious associations to distant, unusual associations, thus the quality of ideas gradually shifts from conventional to novel. In addition, the association theory emphasizes that the structure of an individual's semantic network is critical for the generation of novel ideas. For example, individuals with a flexible semantic network are more capable of coming up with novel ideas. On the other hand, a growing number of studies supported that top-down control processing is the key to the emergence of the serial order effect during DT. Relevant findings were mainly focused on: (1) the selection and use of strategies during idea generation leading to the serial order effect, (2) category switching during idea generation leading to the serial order effect, and (3) executive functions related to the serial order effect of divergent thinking. In conclusion, the association theory and the executive control hypothesis focus on explaining individual differences in the serial order effect and cognitive processing, respectively. Several neuroimaging studies have shown the executive control network centered over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex that connects with the semantic memory-related lateral temporal cortex to suppress obvious and conventional ideas at the early stage of idea generation. With the decreasing interference from obvious and conventional ideas over time, the semantic retrieval space, the semantic distance of cues and concepts retrieving would gradually increase. During the process, the executive control network centered over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex shifts its function to controlled semantic retrieval therefore select and evaluate for potential ideas in the working memory space. The pattern of neural activation is manifested by the executive control network coupling with the default mode network, specifically the co-activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the inferior frontal gyrus, the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, and the hippocampus which is subordinate to the default mode network. However, there are relatively few studies on the neuronal mechanisms underlying the serial order effect, and these studies mainly focus on the cognitive processes of single idea generation. Thus far, the current explanatory framework mostly employed cognitive and neuroimaging findings on creative thinking. Future research needs to combine cognitive and computational models, semantic analysis, brain dynamic analytical approaches, and representational similarity analysis to explore the cognitive and neural mechanisms of the serial order effect, as to provide a new perspective for deconstructing the dynamic process of creative thinking. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The influence of body ownership illusion on pain and its potential mechanisms GU Lijia, GONG Wenxiao, ZHANG Jing, CHEN Wei, GUO Jianyou 2022, 30 (11):  2518-2528.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2022.02518 Abstract ( 1083 )   HTML ( 41 )   PDF (705KB) ( 990 )   The body ownership illusion (BOI) is associated with multisensory integration, including visuo-tactile, visuo- proprioceptive, tactile-proprioceptive, visual-interoceptive integration and so forth. A series of studies have demonstrated that BOI may be able to reduce acute and chronic pain. There are several key factors that influence the induction of subjective feeling of ownership over the fake body parts, such as synchronicity of multisensory integration, space between the real and fake body parts, the physical appearance of the fake body parts, a first-person perspective. These factors have also been proved to be critical in the effect of analgesia of BOI. In addition, BOI can be modulated by the perceived body/limb size, transparency of the body/limb and so on. The influence of these factors on pain is complex, which differs between healthy subjects and patients with chronic pain, various chronic pain states and the relevant body perception disturbances. Altered body representation represents one of the mechanisms associated with the analgesic impact of BOI. The neural mechanism of BOI on pain, however, still remains unknown, we propose that it is associated with cross-modal mirror therapy and visual analgesia. Thus based on the neural mechanisms of these two phenomenon, we suggest that the “body matrix” and the “pain matrix” might be involved. The concept of “body matrix” was proposed to interpret the induction of the sense of ownership and the complex relationship between representation of the body in the brain and the integrity of the body itself, which includes the insula and posterior parietal cortex. It processes and further integrates the sensory stimuli like visual, tactile, proprioceptive, interoceptive signals from the environment. To be specific, the induction of the sense of ownership could first activate the body matrix and then suppress the pain matrix in acute pain. In chronic pain, the analgesic effect may be related with the reversal of the cortical representation and functional disturbances. Moreover, the posterior parietal cortex may play a key role in these integrations, which needs to be further validated in fine-designed protocols. In summary, most of the researches support a link between embodied illusion and pain disorders, yet several studies didn’t find the analgesic effect of BOI. It might result from the experimental procedure that the artificial/fake hand was covered to avoid visual feedback, or may due to differences in the experimental settings of the control group. Future research topics may include the following aspects. Firstly, future research might want to consider more about the role of interoception in multisensory integration paradigms as exteroceptive signals may not suitable in patients with allodynia who are extremely sensitive to tactile stimuli. The usage of interoception enables the induction of sense of ownership without any tactile stimuli. Thus taking into account of interoception allows a better understanding of the contribution of interoception in bodily illusion and in pain modulation. Secondly, future studies need to identify the cognitive mechanism and neural substrates underlying the effect of BOI on pain. For instance, whether BOI analgesic effect has shared neural mechanisms with mirror therapy and visual analgesia needs further interrogation. Thirdly, how BOI affects pain varies differently in acute pain and chronic pain, and in different chronic pain conditions. Future research needs to shed further light on the identification of this complex phenomenon. Finally, robust and new paradigms of body ownership illusion are needed to further explore the full potential of BOI to modulate pain and to be applied in pain management in clinical populations. Figures and Tables | References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Body size perception: Accuracy and cognitive mechanisms LIU Shuang-shuang, XIAO Bing, WANG Kui, Raymond C.K. CHAN 2022, 30 (11):  2529-2539.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2022.02529 Abstract ( 1134 )   HTML ( 64 )   PDF (686KB) ( 1254 )   Body size perception refers to how an individual perceives the size, weight and proportions of his/her body. Distorted body size perception can be a mental health problems, and is associated with psychiatric disorders such as eating disorders, body dysmorphic disorder, depression, and certain psychotic disorders. This is an often-ignored research area, with largely inconsistent evidence. The extant literature concerning body size perception in patients with eating disorders generally supports four notions. First, anorexia nervosa (AN) patients and bulimia nervosa (BN) patients both overestimate their body size, but the magnitude of such distorted perception varies with different methods estimating one’s body size. Two commonly-used methods for body size estimation are the ‘depictive method’ and the ‘metric method’. The latter method usually generated a higher degree of overestimation in body size than the former method in patients with eating disorders. Second, the distorted body size perception in AN patients may be confounded by their extremely low body mass index (BMI). Yet, this previous finding is inconsistent due to the ecological validity of the ‘depictive’ and ‘metric’ methods. Third, AN and BN patients have different estimates of body size perception for ＂self＂ versus ＂others＂, and such discrepancy may be related to attitudes towards themselves. However, attitudinal factors and its effect on body size perception are seldom studied and thus remain unclear. Lastly, distorted body size perception in patients with eating disorder is correlated with symptom severity and could indicate prognosis of the illness. Body size perception is also one of the intervention targets for treating eating disorders. The literature remains inconclusive regarding whether healthy people have accurate body size perception, because previous findings vary with different designs in measuring body size perception, sample characteristics (demographics and geographical-cultural aspects). Yet in general, healthy people tend to perceive others’ body size consistently, with overestimation for others with low BMIs, and underestimation for others with high BMIs. Three cognitive mechanisms underlying distorted body size perception have been proposed, namely contraction bias, adaptive after-effect and serial dependence. These putative mechanisms operate in health people and patients with eating disorders. In view of the above-mentioned review of the literature, we recommended three useful approaches for research in body size perception. First, it is necessary to distinguish two different methods for estimating body size perception, namely the ‘recognition technique’ (which involves the use of a visual analogue as reference in measurements) and the ‘recall technique” (which does not involve any visual analogue). It is likely that the two methods will yield different estimates from subjects, and may partly account for the inconsistent finding in the literature. Second, the problems of unclear definition of “overestimation” in previous studies should be addressed, by developing operational criteria and a standardized definition across different paradigms. Third, male subjects should be included in future study, because this gender has been under-represented in previous research. Lastly, in view of the growing incidence of eating disorders, body size perception is a worthy topic for research in China. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Comparative studies of mind reading: Similarities and differences in theory of mind between non-human primates and humans and corresponding explanations YIN Rong 2022, 30 (11):  2540-2557.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2022.02540 Abstract ( 1465 )   HTML ( 60 )   PDF (873KB) ( 1448 )   Theory of mind refers to the ability of individuals to speculate about other people's mental states and make causal explanations for their behaviors. Comparative studies using non-human primates is an important way to explore the essence, origin and evolution of theory of mind. This article reviews a large number of empirical studies and demonstrate that nonhuman primates exhibit some basic theory of mind components, including joint attention, goal understanding and level-1 perspective-taking. Nonhuman primates can follow or attract the attention of other individuals, understand the behavior of other individuals based on potential goals and intentions, and judge whether other individuals perceive something from their perspective. The paper explains the above conclusions from the perspective of evolutionary continuity hypothesis. Species that appeared earlier in the primate evolutionary lineage have been shown to have basic theory of mind. Phylogenetic reconstruction proved that theory of mind has deep evolutionary roots in primates. Research from neuroscience is consistent with this view. Brain imaging studies have shown that non-human primates and humans rely on common brain regions for mind-reading tasks. On the one hand, there are obvious anatomical and connectivity similarities between these parts of the human and non-human primate brains. On the other hand, these areas of the human brain have undergone significant expansion over the course of evolution. So theory of mind has evolutionary continuity across primate lineages. The similarity between nonhuman primates and humans in theory of mind stem from shared descent. The paper also concludes that non-human primates are unable to achieve second-order perspective selection and false belief understanding as humans do. The submentalizing hypothesis, vicarious representation hypothesis, minimal theory of mind hypothesis and awareness relations hypothesis attempt to explain the differences. Although specific views and perspectives vary, these theories all emphasize that there is a primary representational system before a mature theory of mind is mastered by the individual, and these representational systems lay the foundation for the development of a complete theory of mind. However, non-human primates only have a primary representation system, and they are unable to form representations of other individuals' psychological beliefs about the external world. Belief representation is an important dividing point between non-human primates and humans in theory of mind. Unfortunately, there is no single hypothesis that can explain all the current empirical research. One possibility is that higher-level theory of mind depend on many different sub-processing mechanisms. Different task paradigms depend on different processing mechanisms, thus resulting in seemingly contradictory performance of non-human primates in different experimental modes. The differences and related explanations between non-human primates and human psychological theories in theory of mind need to be tested more fully in future studies. For humans, theory of mind is a psychological mechanism that plays an important role in both competitive and cooperative scenarios. Non-human primates, on the other hand, seem to be more likely to initiate mind-reading in competitive situations, and competitive activities lead to more pronounced use of theory of mind. They are more likely to perceive competitive intentions from others than cooperative intentions or shared intentions. One reasonable speculation is that during human evolution, specific social pressures led humans to develop sensitivity to shared intentions. Theory of mind is further improved when individuals are able to establish common goals and coordinate with each other for common goals. Future research should focus on this hypothesis, and further explore the influence of shared intention on the development of primate theory of mind through empirical research. The relationship between language and theory of mind is another topic that needs to be explored in the future. On the one hand, a higher level of theory of mind allows the individual to step into the perspective of the person he is communicating with, allowing him to understand the true meaning of the sender of the information senders. So the improvement of mind-reading ability in humans may have been a key shift in the evolution of language. Theory of mind is an important basis for the realization of complex language. On the other hand, language system provides a necessary tool for mental representation system. When represented in language, subjects can encode complex nested recursive relationships. Future research should focus on the relationship between the characteristics of non-human primates' theory of mind and their communication systems, and seek enlightenment for revealing the mysteries of human theory of mind and language evolution through comparative studies of different non-human primates. Furthermore, as an important social cognitive feature, theory of mind is bound to be closely related to the social ecological environment of a species. In the future, more comparative studies on differences can enable researchers to explore the relationship between theory of mind and social attributes, and also enable researchers to test whether each sub-component of theory of mind has different social driving factors, providing important basis for understanding the evolutionary mechanism of theory of mind. Figures and Tables | References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The influence of atypical attention and memory on vocabulary delay in children with autism spectrum disorder HOU Wenwen, SU Yi (ESTHER) 2022, 30 (11):  2558-2569.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2022.02558 Abstract ( 913 )   HTML ( 29 )   PDF (649KB) ( 1260 )   Vocabulary delay is prevalent in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), yet there is no converging evidence regarding its underlying mechanisms. Although there is evidence that they can employ word learning constraints such as mutual exclusivity, cross-situational statistical learning to learn words, children with ASD still demonstrate vocabulary delay. This discrepancy can be ascribed to atypical general learning mechanisms supporting word acquisition in children with ASD. Attention and memory are two general cognitive mechanisms involved in word learning. Numerous studies have shown that atypical attention and memory are observed in children with ASD, which may have a downstream cascading effect on their word learning. Social attention provides critical information for word learning. Typically developing children can follow others’ gaze and show sustained attention to target objects in joint attention episodes to establish word-referent associations, whereas children with ASD show diminished sustained attention to target objects although they exhibit intact gaze following behavior. In addition, children with ASD are easily distracted by salient but irrelevant stimuli in the environment and have difficulty with attentional disengagement. As a result, word-referent relationships established by children with ASD are weak. After building word-referent associations, the consolidation of these associations is also critical to word learning. According to Complementary Learning Systems (CLS) account, episodic memory and semantic memory are involved in the consolidation of new words. At the initial stage of learning, also known as rapid initial familiarization stage, new words are encoded as discrete episodes of experiences in the episodic memory network. At the slow lexical consolidation stage, individuals experience a more systematic, lexicalized coding of the memory representation that occurs in the neocortex during sleep. In typically developing children, sleep contributes to the consolidation of new words, while children with ASD receive less benefit form sleep-associated consolidation specific to new words. Abnormalities in sleep might have negative consequences on children with ASD’s word consolidation and retention. Drawing upon these observations, we reasoned that word-referent links established by children with ASD are weak due to altered attention and these weak lexical traces may not be able to access consolidation through sleep, resulting in higher forgetting rate and vocabulary delays in children with ASD. Accumulating evidence suggests that vocabulary delay in children with ASD might be attributed to attenuated attention and memory, yet so far, the majority of studies have separately investigated the role of attention and memory in word learning and research that examines whether atypical attention contributes to poor consolidation of new words remains limited, which calls for more empirical evidence. In addition, further work is required to investigate the developmental trajectory and mechanisms underlie the link between joint attention and word learning, the influence of existing lexical knowledge of children with ASD on word retention. Moreover, previous studies on children with ASD’s word learning have extensively focused on whether children could use lexical constraints to learn words while the role of parent behaviors in children with ASD’s word learning is understudied. Therefore, in children with ASD, child-parent coordination and the contribution of parent behaviors in the word learning process require further investigation. Further, since language development in children with ASD is heterogeneous, future studies should investigate the influence of attention and memory on word learning in children with ASD with a wide range of cognitive and language abilities, which can inform the practitioners to develop targeted language interventions. Finally, it is also worth investigating whether attention and memory play a role specific to word learning but not in other domains of language acquisition such as grammar acquisition, which will enhance our understanding of the mechanisms of language acquisition. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The safety of meditation SUN Shasha, LI Xiaobing 2022, 30 (11):  2570-2585.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2022.02570 Abstract ( 1665 )   HTML ( 83 )   PDF (830KB) ( 2040 )   So far, the large and expanding body of research on meditation has mostly focused on the benefits of meditation on health and well-being. However, the rapid growth of research and applications of meditation has raised questions regarding its safety, since the potential for harm has not been comprehensively studied. Very little is known about the prevalence and potential causes of adverse events of meditation. In the context of millions of meditators worldwide, even low rates of adverse events become an important concern not only for the nascent field of contemplative science but for public health more generally. It is a serious ethical issue that must be paid more attention to. So far, the field of adverse effects of meditation conducted on easterners and Chinese is still blank. According to a systematic review by Farias et al. (2020), the overall prevalence of meditation adverse effects was 8.3%. Seven domains of meditation-related challenges (cognitive, perceptual, affective, somatic, conative, sense of self, and social) and four domains of influencing factors (practitioner-level factors, practice-level factors, relationships, and health behaviors) were yielded by a content-driven thematic analysis (Lindahl et al., 2017). The following research directions can be considered in the future: (1) Research on the local Chinese culture can be realized through two approaches: First, through dialogue with Western studies, establishing whether individuals in Oriental and /Western cultures have different presentations of adverse meditation effects, and identifying the different presentations and mechanisms of these adverse effects. Second, through deepening the relevant discourses on meditation in texts from Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, exploring the philosophical basis of safe meditation practice, and focusing on the processes and mechanisms of adverse meditation effect and transformation. (2) In view of the important role of the instructor in ensuring meditation safety, examining the competency of the meditation instructor is also an important direction for future research, as well as the multi-level interactions between both individuals in the instructor-practitioner relationship on meditation outcomes, will help clarify the mechanism of the effects of the meditation instructor on the practitioner. (3) Regarding the study method, the person-centered approach was adopted to explain and respond to the adverse meditation effects in the context of the individual’s society, religion, and culture. A longitudinal study design was used to examine whether adverse meditation effects can be transformed, and under what particular conditions transformation can occur. According to the predictions of Monitor and Acceptance Theory (MAT, Lindsay & Creswell, 2017; Lindsay et al., 2019), attention monitoring increases the level of individual awareness and enhances emotional response, which is considered the reason for the occurrence of adverse mediation effects. With the development of acceptance in the individual, the intensity of emotional response decreases and adverse mediation effects are transformed, thereby achieving healing in the individual through this process. The dismantling design was used to identify the different components of attention monitoring and acceptance, and to explore in depth the role of these components in the process of adverse mediation effects and transformation. Figures and Tables | References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The impacts of interpersonal gratitude on relationship maintenance LI Song, LIU Junjun, BAO Xiuqin, CHEN Xu 2022, 30 (11):  2586-2594.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2022.02586 Abstract ( 2197 )   HTML ( 148 )   PDF (687KB) ( 2692 )   Relationship maintenance helps individuals deal with threats, improve the probability of survival and reproduction, enhance individual happiness and promote social harmony, which is a series of strategies, including threat mitigation strategies (e.g., positive reframing), relationship enhancement strategies (e.g., social support), and maladaptive relationship maintenance strategies (e.g., compromise), used by individuals to establish, maintain, repair and enhance interpersonal relationships. Although relationship maintenance strategies play a role in forming good relationships with others and enhancing personal well-being, they also increase the risk and pain that accompanies rejection. Interpersonal gratitude, generated from high-quality interpersonal interaction, is a positive emotion pointing to praising others when individuals receive benefits or kindness from another person’s actions and their own needs are met which helps to inhibit self-protection motivation and activate relationship maintenance motivation. Previous studies have found that interpersonal gratitude has a positive impact on relationship maintenance, but, to our knowledge, there is still a lack of systematic combing of the manifestations of interpersonal gratitude in relationship maintenance and the underlying mechanisms of the effect of interpersonal gratitude on relationship maintenance. Therefore, the goal of the current study is to review the relationship maintenance function of interpersonal gratitude. The main functions of interpersonal gratitude in the interpersonal relationship are three aspects: threat mitigation, relationship enhancement, and maladaptive relationship maintenance. Specifically, when interpersonal relationships are threatened, interpersonal gratitude helps individuals to repair interpersonal relationships through threat mitigation strategies at the intrapersonal and interpersonal levels; When the threat is removed, interpersonal gratitude promotes the development of relationships by enhancing the willingness of individuals to maintain relationships, affirming the importance of partners and encouraging partners to further maintain interpersonal relationships. However, it is also worth noting that interpersonal gratitude may make individuals adopt maladaptive relationship maintenance strategies to maintain contact with others as well which is against their own will and social norms. In addition, based on the risk management theory of relationship maintenance, the current study proposes a risk management model to explore how interpersonal gratitude influences relationship maintenance. The model suggests that interpersonal gratitude makes individuals more willing to adopt relationship maintenance strategies to repair and promote interpersonal relationships through the improvement of self-evaluation and others-evaluation. Interpersonal gratitude, on the one hand, will broaden personal resources and improve self-evaluations; on the other hand, it also contributes to finding high-quality partners and binds individuals by building close interpersonal relationships to improve others-evaluation. Although previous studies have examined the relationship between interpersonal relationships and relationship maintenance, there are still some questions that need to be deeply discussed to better improve interpersonal relationships by enhancing interpersonal gratitude. First of all, given that interpersonal gratitude derives from interpersonal interaction between the benefactor and the recipient, future research thus should focus on the positive effects of interpersonal gratitude on relationship maintenance from a dyadic perspective to explore whether and how the expression of gratitude from the recipient enhances the benefactor’s motivation of relationship maintenance by the mediating effects of self-evaluations and others-evaluations; Second, exploring the role of self-evaluation and others-evaluation in the impact of interpersonal gratitude on relationship maintenance from the perspective of multi-evaluation; for example, the role of self-evaluation and others-evaluation could be taken into account at the same time and compare the different effects between implicit and explicit evaluations. In the end, the study of the relationship maintenance function of interpersonal gratitude could be further tested using various methods. it is necessary to explore whether there are cultural differences in the effect of interpersonal gratitude on relationship maintenance. A longitudinal study design should be used to test the impact of social change. Meanwhile, verifying the risk regulation theory of interpersonal gratitude influencing relationship maintenance is an effective way to reveal the underlying mechanisms of the effect of interpersonal gratitude on relationship maintenance from the perspective of multimodal neuroimaging. Figures and Tables | References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Residential mobility and consumption: Explanation based on regulatory focus theory LIU Wumei, XIAO Haiyi, WANG Xuefeng 2022, 30 (11):  2595-2606.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2022.02595 Abstract ( 1110 )   HTML ( 46 )   PDF (806KB) ( 1239 )   Residential mobility refers to the frequency with which people change their place of residence (i.e. move). As one of the key socio-ecological factors, it has a significant impact on individual’s cognition, emotions, and behaviors. Although the important effects of residential mobility on consumer psychology and behavior have already been outlined, no review studies have been found to summarize the consumer behavioral responses triggered by residential mobility or to explain this influence mechanism in a theoretical way. Based on this, this paper presents a review of studies on consumer psychological and behavioral responses to residential mobility, and categorizes the relevant research findings based on the regulatory focus theory, indicating that residential mobility leads consumers to adopt either a facilitative or a preventive response strategy. Furthermore, it is proposed that the autonomy and directional characteristics of residential mobility can explain the differences in the strategic choices of movers. Finally, a framework of facilitative and preventive strategies of residential mobility is constructed and several potential research questions are proposed. By reviewing the research on consumer psychological and behavioral responses to residential mobility, we found two behavioral response paths. On the one hand, movers adopt a series of facilitative behaviors, such as expanding social networks, seeking uniqueness, and cooperating and assisting across groups, in order to obtain social resources, strength their individual selves, and pursue their identities. Such behaviors of actively acquiring resources for self-improvement fit well with the facilitative responses in the regulatory focus theory. On the other hand, the risk-averse behaviors of familiarity seeking, nostalgic consumption, and preference for short-term venture capital products to relieve anxiety and other negative emotions, reduce uncertainty, and increase the sense of control in life are consistent with the preventive responses of the regulatory focus theory. Therefore, this paper uses the regulatory focus theory to rationalize the findings of the relevant studies, and points out that different dimensions of residential mobility will lead consumers to adopt different response strategies of promotion or prevention. Further analysis revealed that the autonomous and directional characteristics of residential mobility can indicate when mobile individuals adopt different response strategies. Specifically, when individuals are actively or upwardly mobile, they exhibit promotion focus and thus adopt facilitative behaviors,whereas when individuals are passively or downwardly mobile, they exhibit prevention focus and thus adopt preventive behaviors. Based on the above perspectives, we further explain the differences between the findings of existing research and construct a framework of facilitative and preventive strategies for residential mobility. The generalization and explanation of the differential consumption behaviors caused by residential mobility can, on the one hand, provide a reference marketing practices such as identifying target customers; on the other hand, by constructing a framework of residential mobility promotion and prevention strategies, it can provide a direction and clarification for marketing scholars to conduct empirical research on residential mobility and related characteristics. Based on this, we propose that further research on the topic of residential mobility can be conducted in the following aspects in the future: (1) using residential mobility as an antecedent to investigate the interactive effects of residential mobility and trait-regulated orientation on consumer behavioral responses (2) using residential mobility as an outcome to investigate the interactive effects of trait-regulated orientation and state-regulated orientation on residential mobility and related consumer behavioral responses; (3) exploring the boundary conditions of the consequences of residential mobility; and (4) discussing the impact of the effects of residential mobility autonomy and orientation on consumer behavior in a more realistic context. Figures and Tables | References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The effect of gaze cues on consumers LI Danhui, DU Jiangang, LI Xiaonan 2022, 30 (11):  2607-2618.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2022.02607 Abstract ( 950 )   HTML ( 64 )   PDF (669KB) ( 1101 )   The gaze cues of the eyes of others in the environment is an important social information that can guide the individual's attention and further affect the individual's cognitive processing and memory of the object being looked at. More importantly, gaze clues can also give some new characteristics to the object being looked at, which affects the individual's judgment and attitude towards the value of the object. The gaze cue effect and the gaze liking effect respectively reflect how the gaze cues affect the individual's cognition and attitude, and further draw on the views of the theory of mind and the shared signal theory to explain the impact of the gaze cues on the consumer's cognition and attitude. Among them, the influence of gaze cues on consumer cognition is mainly reflected in three aspects: (1) Guide consumers to pay attention. Gaze cues, as an indicative clue, can effectively guide consumers' attention. When consumers see the gaze direction of others, they tend to follow the gaze of others and look in the same direction or things. (2) Affect the depth of information processing by consumers. The study found that the gaze direction affects consumers' attention to the brand and text information in the advertisement. When the model in the advertisement is looking towards the product, consumers will look at the brand and text information in the advertisement for a longer time. The length of the gaze reflects the depth of the participants’ processing of the advertisement information, the gaze cues affect the depth of consumer information processing. (3) Affect consumers' memory of advertisements and other information. When the model in the advertisement is facing the product, it will enhance the consumer's memory effect of the brand and advertisement content, and the participants scored higher on the implicit test. The influence of gaze cues on consumer attitudes is mainly reflected in three aspects: (1) influence consumers' evaluation of products/advertising (2) influence consumers' willingness to buy. Regarding how different gaze cues affect consumers' product evaluation or purchase intention, the current research conclusions are not uniform, and there should be more research to further explore possible moderating variables in the future. (3) Affect consumers' evaluation or perception of spokespersons/service personnel. When the front desk staff look directly at the customers, the customers have a better impression of the front desk staff, believing that they are more friendly, warmer, and more trustworthy, and therefore have a better evaluation of the service quality. Future research can start from the following aspects: (1) Starting from product-related factors, investigate the moderating effect of product types on the effect of gaze cues. (2) From the consumer's point of view, examine whether different gaze cues will further affect consumers' attitudes or impressions towards models/spokespersons, and even their attitudes towards products when consumers feel different levels of loneliness? (3) From the perspective of consumption scenarios, explore how gaze cues affect consumer perceptions and attitudes in a crowded shopping environment? (4) From the perspective of the initiator of the gaze cues, can the gaze cues of the anthropomorphic image have the same effect as the human gaze cues? What impact will the anthropomorphic gaze cues have on consumers? Figures and Tables | References | Related Articles | Metrics