Level of emotional awareness in the general French population: Effects of gender,age, and education level

The Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS) developed by Lane et al. ( 1990 1990) measures the ability of a subject to discriminate his or her own emotional state and that of others. The scale is based on a cognitive‐developmental model in which emotional awareness increases in a similar fashion to intellectual functions. Because studies performed using North American and German populations have demonstrated an effect of age, gender, and level of education on the ability to differentiate emotional states, our study attempts to evaluate whether these factors have the same effects in a general French population. 750 volunteers (506 female, 244 male), who were recruited from three regions of France (Lille, Montpellier, Paris), completed the LEAS. The sample was divided into five age groups and three education levels. The results of the LEAS scores for self and others and the total score showed a difference in the level of emotional awareness for different age groups, by gender and education level. A higher emotional level was observed for younger age groups, suggesting that emotional awareness depends on the cultural context and generational societal teachings. Additionally, the level of emotional awareness was higher in women than in men and lower in individuals with less education. This result might be explained by an educational bias linked to gender and higher education whereby expressive ability is reinforced. In addition, given the high degree of variability in previously observed scores in the French population, we propose a standard based on our French sample.     

Statistical Significance Levels of Nonparametric Tests Biased by Heterogeneous Variances of Treatment Groups

The statistical significance levels of the Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test and the Kruskal-Wallis test are substantially biased by heterogeneous variances of treatment groups—even when sample sizes are equal. Under these conditions, the Type I error probabilities of the nonparametric tests, performed at the .01, .05, and .10 significance levels, increase by as much as 40%-50% in many cases and sometimes as much as 300%. The bias increases systematically as the ratio of standard deviations of treatment groups increases and remains fairly constant for various sample sizes. There is no indication that Type I error probabilities approach the significance level asymptotically as sample size increases.     

A minimal limit-cycle model to profile movement patterns of individuals during agility drill performance: Effects of skill level

Identification of control strategies during agility performance is significant in understanding movement behavior. This study aimed at providing a fundamental mathematical model for describing the motion of participants during an agility drill and to determine whether skill level constrained model components. Motion patterns of two groups of skilled and unskilled participants (n = 8 in each) during performance of a forward/backward agility drill modeled as limit-cycles. Participant movements were recorded by motion capture of a reflective marker attached to the sacrum of each individual. Graphical and regression analyses of movement kinematics in Hooke’s plane, phase plane and velocity profile were performed to determine components of the models. Results showed that the models of both skilled and unskilled groups had terms from Duffing stiffness as well as Van der Pol damping oscillators. Data also indicated that the proposed models captured on average 97% of the variance for both skilled and unskilled groups. Findings from this study revealed the movement patterning associated with skilled and unskilled performance in a typical forward/backward agility drill which might be helpful for trainers and physiotherapists in enhancing agility.     

The factors of female taxi drivers’ speeding offenses in Taiwan

Females choosing taxi driving as a career is rare, therefore, investigating such samples is often difficult. Speeding is one of the most common driving violations, however, there has been no research looking into female taxi drivers’ speeding issue. This study explores the factors of female taxi drivers’ speeding offenses in Taiwan. Data is based on a national survey and includes 235 professional female taxi drivers. The results indicate that female taxi drivers work approximately 27.37 days per month, at a mean of 9.76 h per day. Of the female taxi drivers represented in this study, 22.8% reported at least one speeding offense over a one-year period. The results of a logistic regression model reveal that the determinant factors associated with female taxi drivers’ speeding offenses are significantly related to age, educational level and mileage driven. However, job experience, business operating style, and vehicle engine size are not associated with committing speeding offenses. Practical implications for traffic safety of female taxi drivers are also discussed.     

中学生物理学科问题分类表征层次的研究

以三套分别含有按照解题方法可以分为二类、三类、四类的物理学科问题分类实验材料,对济南市6所中学3个年级766名中学生进行研究,结果表明:不同年级、不同学业水平学生分类表征层次的差异显著,呈现随年级升高而升高的趋势,学优生的水平明显高于学困生,学优生更多地倾向内在分类表征;随着分类任务的类别数量增多,更多学生倾向外在分类表征;不同性别学生的分类表征层次没有显著差异;不同物理学科问题分类表征层次学生的物理成绩之间存在显著差异。     

“Making it explicit” makes a difference: Evidence for a dissociation of spontaneous and intentional level 1 perspective taking in high-functioning autism

The ability of perspective taking is a fundamental aspect of social cognition. The ability to decide, what another person can or cannot see is referred to as “level 1 perspective taking.” This is thought to be a process that we can make use of intentionally, but which also takes place spontaneously. Autism is characterized by impairments of social interaction, which are thought to be related to deficits in implicit rather than explicit perspective taking. In order to assess both levels of processing with regard to perspective taking, we employed an established task in patients and controls. Our results demonstrate that both groups engage in spontaneous level 1 perspective taking. In contrast to controls, however, patients reacted more slowly if they had to verify the other’s as compared to their own perspective, which shows that participants with high-functioning autism have selective difficulties in explicit, but not implicit, level 1 perspective taking. These findings demonstrate that while spontaneous level 1 perspective taking appears to be intact in autism, this ability is impaired in patients when used explicitly.     

不同社交媒体平台上口碑信息是如何影响购买意愿的？——解释水平和加工流畅性的中介作用

研究基于解释水平理论,探讨了不同社交媒体平台上口碑信息对购买意愿的影响及机制。结果发现：（1）不同社交媒体平台可以激发不同社会距离感;（2）接收高解释水平口碑时,社会距离远平台的用户购买意愿更高,接收低解释水平口碑时,社会距离近平台的用户购买意愿更高,平台类型与口碑类型在解释水平上匹配时影响力最大;（3）其机制是：口碑类型通过调节用户心理表征的解释水平对加工流畅性的影响,进而调节了“平台类型→解释水平→加工流畅性→购买意愿”这一链式中介路径。     

The effect of distance-dependent construals on schema-driven impression formation

Two experiments examine how distance-dependent construal can affect trait aggregation in impression formation. We propose that, because higher- versus lower-level construals promote the tendency to impose schematic structure on information processing, higher-level construals should enhance schema-driven trait aggregation. We test this by examining a classic impression formation phenomenon: the primacy effect (Asch, 1946). Increasing temporal distance (Study 1a) and priming higher-level construals (Study 1b) led participants to form more favorable impressions of targets described initially as intelligent versus envious. Decreasing temporal distance and priming lower-level construals, in contrast, reversed the primacy effect. Thus, the distance of a target, with its associated construal, can impact the aggregation of traits and consequently impacts people's evaluations of others.     

Korean deaf adolescents' recognition of written words for taxonomic categories of different levels

Deaf college students seem to have relatively stronger associations from words for taxonomic categories of basic (e.g., snake) to those of super-ordinate (e.g., reptiles) level than vice versa compared with hearing students in word association (Marschark, Convertino, McEvoy & Masteller, 2004). In deciding whether two sequentially presented words for taxonomic categories of different levels are conceptually related, deaf adolescents might therefore have a poorer performance when they see a category name before than when they see it after one of the corresponding exemplar words. Deaf Korean adolescents were found to recognize words for taxonomic categories of super-ordinate level with lower efficiencies than those of basic level. Their accuracy seemed to reflect a reversed typicality effect when they decided that first-presented words for taxonomic categories of basic level were conceptually related to second-presented words for those of super-ordinate level. It was argued that deaf Korean adolescents went through a temporary stage of having iconic representations of several exemplars of the category aroused in working memory before the abstract semantic representation was fully activated when they saw the word for a taxonomic category of super-ordinate level.     

Seeing love, or seeing lust: How people interpret ambiguous romantic situations

Interpreting ambiguous situations is a task individuals face on a daily basis. In romantic contexts the accurate interpretation of these situations is of particular importance. In the present set of studies we investigated how level of construal guides individual perception in these cases. When a high level of construal was induced participants likely interpreted a given interpersonal situation as the start or the continuation of a long lasting relationship. When a low level of construal was induced the same situations were more likely interpreted as leading to a one-night stand (in a dating situation) or involving little chance of a common future for both actors (in a break-up situation). In sum, the present studies demonstrate construal level to be a crucial determinant of the interpretation of ambiguous romantic situations. We discuss these findings in relation to the functional independence of love and sex, level of construal, and social perception.