Narrative organisation at encoding facilitated children's long-term episodic memory

This study examined the effect of narrative organisation at encoding on long-term episodic memory in a sample of five- to seven-year-old children (N = 113). At an initial interview, children were asked to narrate a story from a picture book. Six months later, they were interviewed again and asked to recall the story and answer a series of direct questions about the story. Children who initially encoded more information in narrative and produced more complete, complex, cohesive and coherent narratives remembered the story in greater detail and accuracy following the six-month interval, independent of age and verbal skills. The relation between narrative organisation and memory was consistent across culture and gender. These findings provide new insight into the critical role of narrative in episodic memory.     

Outcome favorability as a boundary condition to voice effect on people's reactions to public policymaking

Regarding people's reactions to public policymaking, an organizational justice framework has been introduced. Although these studies showed a link between fairness perceptions and attitudes toward public policy and authority, results concerning more behavioral consequences and the moderation of outcome favorability are less clear. The present research explored the voice effect on people's reactions to public policymaking, as well as outcome favorability as a boundary condition to it. Two different settings and use of different designs (a scenario and an experiment) yielded convergent results that people's reactions to public policymaking were more favorable when they had voice than they did not and outcome favorability moderated the voice effect. More precisely, the voice effect was stronger when the outcome was unfavorable than favorable.     

行为的文化差异:几头大象还是一群蚂蚁?

本文综述了关于行为与文化之间关系的研究.综述分为如下几个部分:第一部分介绍了跨文化/文化心理学自20世纪中叶创立以来,在人类行为的共同性、差异性以及心理功能在多大程度上存在文化特异性的问题上的持续争论.第二部分探讨文化差异的魅力,论证为什么迄今的研究往往偏向于寻找行为的差异而不是跨文化的不变性.第三部分简要概述跨文化比较研究中的文化偏误、缺乏等价性等问题及其对数据解释的影响.第四部分重点阐述本文题目中的主题,即跨文化差异的心理组织.这部分内容对目前文化心理学研究中存在的倾向,即从宽泛的维度或笼统的心理功能角度来组织和解释行为差异提出了挑战.第五部分则通过跨文化心理学的历史回顾,以几个重要的传统研究领域为代表来具体说明这种过度泛化的倾向及近期的研究发展,其中也包括了中国研究人员贡献越来越大的文化神经科学领域.最后对跨文化心理学的前景与展望进行了讨论.     

Connectedness underlies the underestimation of the horizontal vertical illusion in L-shaped configurations

L-shaped configuration is a commonly used stimulus configuration in studying horizontal vertical illusion. Here, we report that the horizontal vertical illusion is substantially underestimated when the L-shaped configuration is used for evaluating the illusion. Experiment 1 found that, in a length perception task, the perceived length of a vertical bar was about 10% longer than that of a horizontal bar with the same physical size. Similar amount of HVI was found in a length comparison task, in which the length of a horizontal bar was compared to that of a vertical bar and the two bars were presented separately in space or in time. In contrast, when the length comparison task was conducted with the two bars being arranged in a connected L-shape, the illusion was halved in strength. Experiment 2 and 3 studied what might be the cause of this L-shape induced HVI-underestimation. Two factors were investigated: the connectedness of the two lines, and the 45° absolute orientation or the 45° inner angle information embedded in the upright isosceles L-shape. The results showed that the HVI strength was not much affected when the 45° absolute orientation and the 45° angle information was made useless for the length comparison task. In contrast, the illusion was significantly reduced in strength whenever the two lines were separated as compared to when they were connected. These results suggested that the connectedness of the two lines must underlie the underestimation of the horizontal vertical illusion in the L-shaped configurations.     

非熟练双语者言语产生中非目标语言的激活范围

采用图-图干扰范式来考察非熟练中-英双语者言语产生中非目标语言的激活范围。实验1探讨用汉语命名时,干扰图的英语名称能否得以激活。结果发现,干扰图的词汇熟悉度高时,音译词的反应时显著长于音韵无关词,而熟悉度低时,二者无显著差异,说明在一语的产生过程中只能激活二语中高熟悉的非目标词。实验2探讨用英语命名时,干扰图的汉语名称能否激活。结果发现,不论熟悉度高还是低,音译词的反应时均显著长于音韵无关词,说明在二语的产生过程中会激活一语中的非目标词。总的结果说明,非熟练中-英双语者在言语产生过程中非目标语言中的非目标词也会激活,并且激活范围既受非目标语言的熟练程度的影响,也受非目标词熟悉度的影响。     

Unraveling the daily stress crossover between unemployed individuals and their employed spouses

This study examined the dynamic relationship of distress levels between spouses when one is unemployed (and looking for a job) while the other is engaged in full-time employment. Using the diary survey method, we sampled 100 couples in China for 10 days and tested a model comprising three stress crossover mechanisms: the direct crossover, the mediating crossover, and the common stressor mechanisms. Results supported the direct crossover and common stressor mechanisms. Other stressors (e.g., work–family conflict and negative job search experience) were also related to distress of the unemployed individuals and their employed spouses. Additionally, we found a three-way interaction involving gender, marital satisfaction, and distress levels of employed spouses. We discuss how the study contributes to the unemployment and stress crossover literatures.     

Investigating the Impact of Uncertainty About Item Parameters on Ability Estimation

Asymptotic expansions of the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) and weighted likelihood estimator (WLE) of an examinee’s ability are derived while item parameter estimators are treated as covariates measured with error. The asymptotic formulae present the amount of bias of the ability estimators due to the uncertainty of item parameter estimators. A numerical example is presented to illustrate how to apply the formulae to evaluate the impact of uncertainty about item parameters on ability estimation and the appropriateness of estimating ability using the regular MLE or WLE method.     

Contextual illusions reveal the limit of unconscious visual processing

The perception of even the most elementary features of the visual environment depends strongly on their spatial context. In the study reported here, we asked at what level of abstraction such effects require conscious processing of the context. We compared two visual illusions that alter subjective judgments of brightness: the simultaneous brightness contrast illusion, in which two circles of identical physical brightness appear different because of different surround luminance, and the Kanizsa triangle illusion, which occurs when the visual system extrapolates a surface without actual physical stimulation. We used a novel interocular masking technique that allowed us to selectively render only the context invisible. Simultaneous brightness contrast persisted even when the surround was masked from awareness. In contrast, participants did not experience illusory contours when the inducing context was masked. Our findings show that invisible context is resolvable by low-level processes involved in surface-brightness perception, but not by high-level processes that assign surface borders through perceptual completion.     

企业幽默能否化解消费者抱怨:幽默类型与关系范式的匹配

幽默可以促进沟通效果,实践中许多企业运用幽默来回应消费者抱怨。然而既有文献对于幽默能否以及如何有效化解抱怨缺乏系统深入的研究。本文则基于良性冲突理论与关系范式理论探究了企业幽默式抱怨回应策略对不同关系范式下消费者的影响。通过二手数据分析和实验法,本文发现:对于唤醒度较低的负面情感导致的消费者抱怨,企业幽默(相较于非幽默)的抱怨回应策略更有助于改善消费者品牌态度;而且,不同类型的幽默化回应作用不同,自强型幽默的抱怨回应对改善共有关系范式下消费者品牌态度更有效,自嘲型幽默的抱怨回应则有助于改善共有和交易关系范式下消费者的品牌态度;幽默回应策略与关系范式通过影响消费者的良性评价而作用于品牌态度。     

宗教信仰对亲社会行为的影响

以往研究发现宗教信仰与亲社会行为之间存在显著的正相关, 据此研究者提出“信仰-亲社会假设”试图证实两者的因果关系。本文主要从研究方法、影响因素及心理机制三个方面对信仰影响亲社会行为的研究进展进行介绍和评述。在研究早期, 研究者主要考察宗教信仰的归属身份对个体亲社会行为的影响; 而近年来, 研究者则越来越关注信仰启动对亲社会行为的影响。信仰对亲社会行为的作用受到信仰程度、文化背景、信仰认知和信仰取向等多种因素的影响。未来研究需要有效控制宗教信仰身份对亲社会测量的影响, 明确宗教信仰的操作性定义并改进相关的测量指标, 关注精神性的作用机制、“信仰-亲社会假设”的跨文化效应以及信仰概念对非宗教信仰群体的影响。