Assertive Ads for Want or Should? It Depends on Consumers’ Power

Advertisements using assertive language are commonly seen in marketing communications, yet assertive language has often been shown to be ineffective in communication and even decrease compliance. Recent research began to examine factors that influence the effectiveness of assertive advertising messages, but little research has studied the potential moderating role of consumer‐related factors. The current research fills this gap by investigating the moderating role of consumers’ power. Across five studies, the authors find that for high‐power consumers, assertive ads are effective in promoting want products but ineffective in promoting should products. For low‐power consumers, however, assertive ads are effective in promoting should products but ineffective in promoting want products. Moreover, the authors show that this pattern of results is driven (mediated) by consumers’ perception of the fit between the advertising message and the advertised product. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.     

Mapping differential responses to cognitive training using machine learning

We used two simple unsupervised machine learning techniques to identify differential trajectories of change in children who undergo intensive working memory (WM) training. We used self‐organizing maps (SOMs)—a type of simple artificial neural network—to represent multivariate cognitive training data, and then tested whether the way tasks are represented changed as a result of training. The patterns of change we observed in the SOM weight matrices implied that the processes drawn upon to perform WM tasks changed following training. This was then combined with K‐means clustering to identify distinct groups of children who respond to the training in different ways. Firstly, the K‐means clustering was applied to an independent large sample (N = 616, M_age = 9.16 years, range = 5.16–17.91 years) to identify subgroups. We then allocated children who had been through cognitive training (N = 179, M_age = 9.00 years, range = 7.08–11.50 years) to these same four subgroups, both before and after their training. In doing so, we were able to map their improvement trajectories. Scores on a separate measure of fluid intelligence were predictive of a child's improvement trajectory. This paper provides an alternative approach to analysing cognitive training data that go beyond considering changes in individual tasks. This proof‐of‐principle demonstrates a potentially powerful way of distinguishing task‐specific from domain‐general changes following training and of establishing different profiles of response to training.     

四组中国被试的归因在维度上相对位置的评定

本文研究了中国被试对十项归因(心境、技巧、知识、机会、努力、帮助、能力、任务、偏好和运气)在五个维度(基源性、稳定性、控制性、预见性和普遍性)上相对位置的评定。并与钱德拉等人(Cbandler & Spies,1984),用美国被试所得的结果进行了比较。实验结果表明中国被试与美国被试评定的一致性达62%。此外,没有一项归因的评定是在维度的极端等极(1.0-2.0或6.0-7.0)。     

阅读中自然学习生词的实验研究

本研究对儿童阅读时从语境中自然学习生词的过程及其多个影响因素进行了探讨。301名三、五年级小学生参加了实验。首先要求他们阅读文章,然后测验他们对文章中生词的知识。本研究在不同年级和能力的儿童中都发现了显著的自然学习效应。结果还表明,词的概念难度、词结构的语义透明度、语境线索强度和儿童课外阅读量对儿童的自然学习有重要影响。     

Culture,psychological proximity to the past and future,and self-continuity

The present research explores how culture influences individuals’ psychological proximity to the past and future, which may predict differences in perceived self-continuity across time. In Studies 1 and 2, we hypothesized and found that Chinese participants saw the past and future as more connected and subjectively closer to the present compared to Euro-Canadians. Following this, we expected and found in Studies 3 and 4 that Chinese participants perceived greater self-continuity over time than Euro-Canadians. Additionally, perceived closeness to the past mediated the effect of culture on past–present self-continuity, which subsequently predicted present–future self-continuity. Study 5 further documented a causal effect of perceived distance to the past on self-continuity. These results suggest that cultural differences in temporal attention to the past and future play a pivotal role in people's sense of self-continuity across time. This has important implications for temporal focalism, intertemporal discounting, and social interactions between Chinese and Euro-Canadians.     

Not all cultural values are created equal: Cultural change in China reexamined through Google books

Given its major transformations in recent decades, China has figured prominently in research on cultural change. Previous research converges in showing a general trend towards individualism in contemporary China while noting that rising individualism tends to coexist with enduring collectivism. To further understand this, we tested whether perceived traditional importance of cultural values would modulate the trajectory of cultural change reflected in word usage frequencies in published books. We re‐analysed Google's Chinese corpus since 1980 based on a broad sample of words associated with individualism–collectivism. We replicated the pattern of rising individualism and declining collectivism among words of modest and low perceived traditional importance. Most important, however, collectivistic words of high perceived traditional importance increased in usage frequencies with time, thus departing from the general trend towards individualism. Overall, our research underscores the role of core culture in cultural maintenance during times of rapid cultural change.     

Examining Effects of Self-Efficacy on Research Motivation Among Chinese University Teachers: Moderation of Leader Support and Mediation of Goal Orientations

Utilizing the Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) as the theoretical framework, this study proposed a moderated mediation model investigating the complex functioning mechanisms of how self-efficacy beliefs and leader support can be related to research motivation among Chinese university teachers. A group of 310 Chinese teachers working in different universities completed an online survey. Results from structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis revealed distinct influencing paths from the predictor variables (i.e., self-efficacy and leader support) to the outcome variables (i.e., intrinsic and extrinsic research motivation). Specifically, self-efficacy beliefs predicted both mastery and performance goal orientations; mastery goal orientation, in turn, positively affected intrinsic and extrinsic research motivation. In contrast, leader support was non-significant for the both types of goal orientations, but exerted strong direct influences on the both types of research motivation. Bootstrapping methods in SEM showed that it was primarily the mastery goal orientation that mediated the relationships between self-efficacy beliefs and research motivation. Furthermore, the results from the SEM and simple slope analysis revealed that leader support moderated the association between self-efficacy and extrinsic research motivation.     

Effect of pressure on the mechanical and dynamical stability of NaAlSi

The effects of pressure on the mechanical and dynamical stability of NaAlSi have been fully investigated by first-principles calculations within the generalised gradient approximation (GGA). The obtained results show that the optimised lattice constants, atomic positions and elastic constants at ambient pressure are in good agreement with the available experimental and theoretical data. The lattice constants decrease monotonically with increasing pressure. The elastic constant C₁₁, C₁₂, C₁₃, C₃₃ and C₆₆ increase while C₄₄ decreases with increasing pressure. It is found that NaAlSi is mechanically unstable when the pressure is above 25.97?GPa. The phonon-dispersion curves along several high symmetry lines are obtained. The phonon frequencies at the Z point decrease with increasing pressure and completely soften to zero at 27.52?GPa, further confirming the structural instability of NaAlSi.