Personality,Leisure Experiences and Happiness

This study explored the relationships among personality, leisure involvement, leisure satisfaction and happiness in a representative sample of Chinese university students (n = 423). We found that (1) extraversion significantly correlated with almost all kinds of leisure involvement, but neuroticism did not correlate with leisure activities at all; (2) extraversion significantly positively correlated with leisure satisfaction while neuroticism significantly negatively correlated with leisure satisfaction; and (3) while extraversion and neuroticism were significant predictors of happiness, leisure satisfaction had its incremental effects after those of personality traits and other domain satisfaction were controlled. Implications of these findings for developing a Chinese psychology of leisure were discussed.     

Extending General Processing Tree Models to Analyze Reaction Time Experiments

General processing tree (GPT) models are usually used to analyze categorical data collected in psychological experiments. Such models assume functional relations between probabilities of the observed behavior categories and the unobservable choice probabilities involved in a cognitive task. This paper extends GPT models for categorical data to the analysis of continuous data in a class of response time (RT) experiments in cognitive psychology. Suppose that a cognitive task involves several discrete processing stages and both accuracy (categorical) and latency (continuous) measures are obtained for each of the response categories. Furthermore, suppose that the task can be modeled by a GPT model that assumes serialization among the stages. The observed latencies of the response categories are functions of the choice probabilities and processing times (PT) at each of the processing stages. The functional relations are determined by the processing structure of the task. A general framework is presented and it is applied to a set of data obtained from a source monitoring experiment. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.     

Brief report: Publications from mainland China,Hong Kong,and Taiwan in behavioral journals 1980–2021

Research involving international research communities has been advocated in the field of behavior analysis (Dymond et al., 2000; Martin et al., 2016). The purpose of the present study was to report the status of behavioral research in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, in terms of number of publications, types of research, and frequency of collaboration with international researchers. Fifteen behavioral journals were selected from the list by Cooper et al. (2020). These were searched by hand to find publications conducted in or authored by researchers from mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan dating from each journal's inception to December 2021. The earliest publication we found appeared in 1980 in The Psychological Record. Over the following four decades (1980–1989; 1990–1999; 2000–2009; 2010–2021), the number of publications per decade increased dramatically and continues in recent years to rise. Publications include research reports, review papers, and conceptual articles, with the majority being basic research reports published in Behavioral Processes. Approximately half the publications involve collaboration with international researchers, mostly in North America. Implications for behavioral research, practice, and policy in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan are discussed.     

Unpacking the effects of information overload on the purchase intention of electric vehicles

China is currently under tremendous pressures to improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions. As an energy-saving transportation innovation, electric vehicles (EVs) can alleviate this dilemma. This study adopts the Stimuli-Organism-Response (SOR) framework to explore the effect of information overload on consumers' psychological state and subsequent adoption intentions of EVs. Based on the 367 valid samples from Auto 4S shops in EV pilot cities in Mainland China, this study reveals that information overload negatively impacts perceived value and perceived effectiveness but positively impacts perceived risk. Furthermore, information quality offsets the negative impact of information overload on perceived value and enhances the positive impact of information overload on perceived risk. Interestingly, information quality not significantly affect the relationship between information overload and perceived effectiveness. In addition, perceived value and perceived effectiveness are positively related to purchase intentions, while perceived risk is negatively correlated with consumers' purchase intentions. On the basis of these findings, we discuss the policy implications of EVs and provide suggestions for future development.     

Behavioral and brain wave evidence for automatic processing of orthographically regular letter strings

Evidence for the automatic processing of nonword letter strings was sought in subjects who performed two different perceptual tasks. Twelve subjects detected valid words. Twelve other subjects detected Gestalt patterns that contained no letters. The targets and two types of nonword letter strings were interspersed in a stream of nonletter images. Behavioral data showed significant effects of orthographic regularity of letter strings in the group that detected words, but not in the group that detected Gestalt patterns. Brain-wave responses showed the effect of orthographic regularity in both groups. The responses were significantly larger for regular than for irregular strings. This showed that brain waves can be used to study the operation of reading processes in subjects who are performing a task that does not require reading ability.     

Feeling Better About Self After Receiving Negative Feedback: When the Sense That Ability Can Be Improved Is Activated

Past studies suggest that managers and educators often consider negative feedback as a motivator for individuals to think about their shortcomings and improve their work, but delivering negative feedback does not always achieve desired results. The present study, based on incremental theory, employed an intervention method to activate the belief that a particular ability could be improved after negative feedback. Three experiments tested the intervention effect on negative self-relevant emotion. Study 1 indicated conveying suggestions for improving ability reduced negative self-relevant emotion after negative feedback. Study 2 tested whether activating the sense of possible improvement in the ability could reduce negative self-relevant emotion. Results indicated activating the belief that ability could be improved reduced negative self-relevant emotion after failure, but delivering emotion management information alone did not yield the same effect. Study 3 extended the results by affirming the effort participants made in doing the test, and found the affirmation reduced negative self-relevant emotion. Collectively, the findings indicated focusing on the belief that the ability could be improved in the future can reduce negative self-relevant emotion after negative feedback.     

A Critical Survey of Some Recent Philosophical Research in China

In this paper, I survey some recent literature produced by the established Chinese philosophers who regularly publish in Chinese philosophy journals and work in Mainland China. Specifically, I review the recent research of these philosophers in two areas: Chinese Philosophy and epistemology. In each area, I focus on two topics that have caught the attention of a lot of Chinese philosophers. I argue that the Chinese philosophers’ research on these topics has two prevalent problems: (i) a lot of arguments they make are weak; (ii) they tend not to critically engage with others. I discuss a metaphilosophical objection that weak argumentation and disengagement are not vices of philosophical research. I also try to make sense of (i) and (ii) in terms of some cultural factors.     

Interfacial precipitation of the M5B3-type boride in Ni-based superalloys

Microstructural characteristics of an experimental Ni-based superalloy with boron addition subjected to a long-term ageing treatment were systematically investigated by various kinds of transmission electron microscopy technique. Based on detailed electron diffraction analyses, we found that there are many nanosized M₅B₃ precipitates in our long-term ageing alloys, which keeps a good orientation relationship with the γ/γ′ matrix. Furthermore, the precipitation characteristics of M₅B₃ phase were clarified. It is found that the M₅B₃-type boride prefers to precipitate at the γ/γ′ interfaces and low-angle grain boundaries. These interfacial nanosized precipitates can play the role of pinning effect and are expected to be advantageous for postponing the γ′ rafting and low-angle grain boundary migration to some extent at high temperature.