Is Contemporary Chinese Society Inhumane? What Mencius and Empirical Psychology Have to Say

This essay discusses the tragic news story of a Chinese toddler, Xiao Yueyue 小悅悅, in light of Mencius’ ethical philosophy and modern studies of moral psychology, which help in understanding the problem of passive bystanders that has long vexed the Chinese public. Mencius never said that every person would act to help when a child is in danger; he did not even say that people would feel sympathetic for every child in a real life dangerous situation. He simply asserted the existence of a fragile sprout of sympathy that demands constant cultivation and a proper environment to be grown into actual altruistic behavior. This essay also compares and contrasts Mencius’ theory to the works of Martin Hoffman and Daniel C. Batson and shows some of the ways modern empirical psychology supports Mencius’ understanding of sympathy and altruism.     

Working memory biasing of visual perception without awareness

Previous research has demonstrated that the contents of visual working memory can bias visual processing in favor of matching stimuli in the scene. However, the extent to which such top-down, memory-driven biasing of visual perception is contingent on conscious awareness remains unknown. Here we showed that conscious awareness of critical visual cues is dispensable for working memory to bias perceptual selection mechanisms. Using the procedure of continuous flash suppression, we demonstrated that “unseen” visual stimuli during interocular suppression can gain preferential access to awareness if they match the contents of visual working memory. Strikingly, the very same effect occurred even when the visual cue to be held in memory was rendered nonconscious by masking. Control experiments ruled out the alternative accounts of repetition priming and different detection criteria. We conclude that working memory biases of visual perception can operate in the absence of conscious awareness.     

初中流动儿童的内隐群体偏爱、社会支持及其对学校适应的影响

以群体偏爱的IAT测验为实验材料,结合社会支持和学校适应问卷,考察初中流动儿童在内隐群体偏爱、社会支持上与本地儿童之间的差异,并探讨这两种变量对流动儿童学校适应的影响.结果表明：（1）流动儿童存在内隐外群体偏爱,对自身所属群体表现出内隐的消极认同;本地儿童存在内隐内群体偏爱,对流动儿童具有内隐的消极认知;（2）流动儿童在父亲、教师以及同性朋友的社会支持上显著差于本地儿童;（3）在对流动儿童学校适应的影响上,社会支持的主效应显著,内隐群体偏爱和社会支持的交互作用显著;高内隐群体偏爱组中,高社会支持流动儿童的学校适应优于低社会支持儿童.     

Effects of display complexity on location and feature inhibition

Inhibition of return refers to the lengthening of reaction times (RTs) to a target when a preceding stimulus has occupied the same location in space. Recently, we observed a robust inhibitory effect for color and shape in moderately complex displays: It is more difficult to detect a target with a particular nonspatial attribute if a stimulus with the same attribute was recently the focus of attention. Such nonspatial inhibitory effects have not generally been found in simpler displays. In the present study, we test how location-based and nonspatial inhibitory effects vary as a function of display complexity (eight, six, four, and two locations). The results demonstrated that (1) location-based inhibition effects were much stronger in more complex displays, whereas the nonspatial inhibition was only slightly stronger in more complex displays; (2) nonspatial inhibitory effects emerged at longer stimulus onset asynchronies than did location-based effects; and (3) nonspatial inhibition appeared only when cues and targets occurred in the same locations, confirming that pure feature repetition does not produce a cost. Taken together, the results are consistent with perceptual processes based on object files that are organized by spatial location. Using somewhat more complex displays than are most commonly employed provides a more sensitive method for observing the role of inhibitory processes in facilitating visual search. In addition, using a relatively wide set of cue–target timing relationships is necessary in order to clearly see how inhibitory effects operate.     

Individual differences in disgust sensitivity and health-related avoidance: Examination of specific associations

This present study examined the specificity of disgust sensitivity in predicting health-related anxiety and behavioral avoidance. Participants (n = 60) completed self-report measures of disgust sensitivity, health anxiety, anxiety, and depression. They then completed three randomly presented health-related behavioral avoidance tasks (BATs) that consisted of potential exposure to the common cold, the flu, and mononucleosis. Results indicated that disgust sensitivity was significantly associated with anxious and avoidant responding to the health-related BATs. This association also remained largely intact after controlling for gender, anxiety, depression, and health anxiety. These findings indicate that disgust sensitivity has a specific and robust association with health-related anxiety and avoidance commonly observed among those with excessive health anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder. The unique role of disgust sensitivity in relation to health anxiety is discussed in the context of a disease-avoidance model.     

Organizational Innovation Climate and Creative Outcomes: Exploring the Moderating Effect of Time Pressure

Time pressure, one of the factors of organizational innovation climate, has an inconsistent effect on employee creativity. Based on the interactional approach, this study attempted to describe time pressure as a moderator. Data were collected from two surveys of R&D employees at Taiwanese national research institutions in 2007 and 2009. The results showed that time pressure moderated the relationship between organizational innovation climate and creative outcomes. As most theorists had predicted, in a strong organizational innovation climate, time pressure hindered creative outcomes. However, as many practitioners advocate, time pressure enhanced creative outcomes in a weak organizational innovation climate. The implications in a time pressure/organizational innovation climate matrix are discussed.     

方言和外语学习对词汇通达能力的影响

使用图片命名任务和TOT(舌尖现象)任务考察方言和外语学习对词汇通达能力的影响。实验结果发现,在图片命名任务和TOT任务中,单语者的表现均好于粤语-普通话双言者和粤语-普通话-英语三语者,粤语-普通话双言者和粤语-普通话-英语三语者的表现没有显著差异。该结果说明,与外语学习一样,方言也会影响个体的词汇通达能力,但方言和外语学习对词汇通达能力的影响依赖于他们的使用频率。     

知识型员工共享领导对团队绩效的影响:团队学习能力的中介效应

对27个单位,92个团队共687名知识型员工调查,目的是基于团队学习能力视角探讨知识型员工共享领导对团队绩效的影响。首先用HLM6.08将收集到的数据从个体层面上升到团队层面,然后采用共享领导二阶模型初步得出团队学习能力在共享领导与团队绩效之间起中介作用,最后借助LISEREL8.70统计软件从共享领导各维度探讨团队学习能力的中介效应。结果表明共享领导与团队绩效之间具有显著的正相关关系,且共享领导通过团队学习能力的中介效应影响团队绩效。     

Relations between Shyness-Sensitivity and Internalizing Problems in Chinese Children: Moderating Effects of Academic Achievement

Shy-sensitive children are likely to develop adjustment problems in today’s urban China as the country has evolved into an increasingly competitive, market-oriented society. The main purpose of this one-year longitudinal study was to examine the moderating effects of academic achievement on relations between shyness-sensitivity and later internalizing problems in Chinese children. A sample of 1171 school-age children (591 boys, 580 girls) in China, initially at the age of 9 years, participated in the study. Data on shyness, academic achievement, and internalizing problems were collected from multiple sources including peer evaluations, teacher ratings, self-reports, and school records. It was found that shyness positively and uniquely predicted later loneliness, depression, and teacher-rated internalizing problems, with the stability effect controlled, for low-achieving children, but not for high-achieving children. The results indicate that, consistent with the stress buffering model, academic achievement may be a buffering factor that serves to protect shy-sensitive children from developing psychological problems.