从字形到语义：跨语言Stroop效应的ERP研究

According to the influential dual-route model of reading (Coltheart, Rastle et al. 2001), there are two routes to access the meaning of visual words: one directly by orthography (orthography-semantic) and the other indirectly via the phonology (phonology-semantic). Because of the dramatic difference between written Chinese and alphabetical languages, it is still on debate whether Chinese readers have the same semantic activation processes as readers of alphabetical languages. In this study, the semantic activation processes in alphabetical German and logographic Chinese were compared. Since the N450 for incongruent color words in the Stroop tasks was induced by the semantic conflict between the meaning of the incongruent color words and color naming, this component could be taken as an index for semantic activation of incongruent color words in Stroop tasks. Two cross-script Stroop experiments were adopted to investigate the semantic activation processes in Chinese and German. The first experiment focused on the the role of phonology, while the second one focused on the realative importance of orthography. Cultural differences in cognitive processing between individuals in western and eastern countries have been found (Nisbett & Miyamoto, 2005). In order to exclude potential differences in basic cognitive processes like visual discrimination capabilities during reading, a visual Oddball experiment with non-lexical materials was conducted with all participants. However, as indicated by the P300 elicited by deviant stimuli in both groups, no group difference was observed. In the first Stroop experiments, color words (e.g., “green”), color-word associates (e.g., “grass”), and homophones of color words were used. These words were embedded into color patches with either congruent color (e.g. word “green” in green color patch) or incongruent colors (e.g. word “green” in either red or yellow or blue color patch). The key point is to observe whether homophones in both languages could induce similar behavioral and ERP Stroop effects to that induced by color words. It was also interesting to observe to which extent the N450 was related to the semantic conflicts. Nineteen Chinese adult readers and twenty German adult readers were asked to respond to the back color of these words in the Stroop experiment in their native languages by pressing the corresponding keys. In the behavioral data, incongruent conditions (incongruent color words, incongruent color-word associates, incongruent homophones) had significantly longer reaction times as compared to corresponding congruent conditions. All incongruent conditions in the Geman group elicited an N450 in the 400 to 500 ms time window. In the Chinese group, the N450 in the same time window was also observed for the incongruent color words and incongruent color-word associates. These results indicated that the N450 was very sensitive to semantic conflict-even words with semantic association to colors (e.g. “grass”) could elicite similar N450. However, the N450 was absent for incongruent homophones of color words in the Chinese group. Instead, in a later time window (600-800 ms), incongruent homophones elicited a positivity over left posterior regions as compared to congruent homophones. Similar positivity was also observed for color words in the 700 to 1000 ms time window in the Chinese group and 600 to 1000 ms time window for incongruent color words and homophones in the Geman group. These results indicate that phonology plays an important role in Geman semantic activation processes, but not in Chinese. In the second Stroop experiment, color words and pseudowords which had similiar visual shape to color words in both languages were used as materials. Another group of eighteen Chinese and twenty Germans were involved in the Stroop experiment in their native languages.The ERPs were recorded during their performance. In the behavioral data, strong and comparable Stroop effects (as counted by substract the reaction times in the congruent conditions from reaction times in the incongruent conditions) were observed. In the ERP data, both incongruent color words and incongruent pseudowords elicited an N450 over the whole brain scalp in both groups. These results indicated that orthography played an equally important role in semantic activation processes in both languages. The results of the two Stroop experiments support the view that the semantic activation process in Chiense readers differs significantly from that in German readers. The former rely mainly on the direct route (orthography-semantic), while the latter use both direct route and incirect route (phonology-semantic). These findings also indicate that the characteritics of different languages shape the semantic activation processes.

面孔身份与面部表情识别中的区分度效应

Whether facial identity and facial expression was processed independently has long been a controversy. Studies at levels of experimental, neuropsychological, functional imaging and cell-recording all failed to consistently support either independent or interdependent processing. Present study proposed that familiarity and discriminability of facial identity and expression was important variable in mediating the relation between facial identity and facial expression recognition. Effects of familiarity on recognition of facial identity and expression had been examined (e.g. Ganel & Goshen-Gottstein, 2004) but the role of the discriminability in recognition of facial identity and expression has not yet been carefully examined. To examine the role of discriminability of facial identity and expression, 8 experiments were conducted with Garner’s speeded classification task in recognition of identity and expression of unfamiliar faces. The discriminability of facial identity and expression was manipulated, and the measurements of Garner interference and facilitation indicated that: 1. The discriminability of facial identity and expression mediate the relation between facial identity and expression recognition. Four possible discriminability combinations between identity and expression predicted 4 interference patterns between them. Low discriminability accounted for the interference either in facial identity judgment or in facial expression judgment task. 2. The measurements of eye movements indicated that either in facial identity or in facial expression recognition low discriminability led to a narrowly-distributed eye fixation pattern while high discriminability led to a widely-distributed eye fixation pattern. 3. By combining the morphing technique with the Garner paradigm, study 2 successfully demonstrated the linar relation between discriminability and Garner facilitation effects, confirmed the discriminability effects in the measurements of Garner facilitation effects.. 4. By providing the varying information of facial expression, study 2 revealed that varying information improved the discriminability of facial expression, and then enhanced the recognition of facial expression. All the results indicated that the discriminability of facial identity and expression could mediate the independent or interdependent processing between them, and the discriminability effects on recognition of identity and expression of unfamiliar faces was identified. The results from interference effects and facilitation effects both indicated that the dimensional relation between facial identity and expression was separable but not asymmetric claimed by previous studies（Schweinberger et al, 1998, 1999）. Absolutedly independent or interdependent processing between facial identity and expression recognition were both impossible, discriminability of identity and expression mediated the relation between them. The discriminability effects revealed in present study could explain the conflicts between existing findings well.

注意在视觉刺激位置编码中的作用

There is extensive agreement that attention may play a role in spatial stimmlus coding (Lu & Proctor, 1995). Some authors investigated the effects of spatial attention on the spatial coding by using spatial cueing procedure and spatial Stroop task. The finding was that the stroop effects were modulated by spatial cueing. Three hypotheses including attentional shift account, referential coding account, and event integration account were used to explain the modulation of spatial cueing over the spatial Stroop effects. In these previous studies, on validly cued trials, cue and target not only appeared at the same location, but also in the same object, which resulted in both location and object cued. Consequently, the modulation of spatial attentional cueing over spatial Stroop effects was confounded with the role of object-based attention. In the third chapter of this dissertation, using a modification of double rectangles cueing procedure developed by Egly, Driver and Rafal (1994) and spatial Stroop task employed by Lupiáñez and Funes (2005), separate effects of spatial attention and object-based attention on the location code of visual stimuli were investigated. Across four experiments, the combined results showed that spatial Stroop effects were modulate by object-based attention, but not by location-based attention. This pattern of results could be well explained by event integration account, but not by attentional shift account and referential coding account. In the fourth chapter, on the basis of the prior chapter, whether the modulation of attentional cueing on location code occurred at the stage of perceptual identification or response choice was investigated. The findings were that object-based attention modulated spatial Stroop effects and did not modulate the Simon effects, whereas spatial attention did not modulate Stroop and Simon effects. This pattern of results partially replicated the outcome of the previous chapter. The previous studies generally argued that the conflicts of spatial Stroop task and Simon task respectively occurred at at the stage of perceptual identification and response choice. Therefore, it is likely to conclude that the modulation of attention over spatial Stroop effect was mediated by object-based attention, and this modulation occurred at the stage perceptual identification. Considering that the previous studies mostly investigated the effects of attention captured by abrupt onset on the spatial Stroop effects, few studies investigated the effects of attention captured by offset cue on the spatial Stroop effects. The aim of the fifth chapter was to investigate the role of attention induced by offset and abrupt onset cue in the spatial Stroop task. These results showed that attention elicited by offset cue or abrupt onset cue modulated the spatial Stroop effects, which reconciled with event integration account.

社会困境中的行为决策――社会身份与地位的影响

Social dilemmas are defined as such situations in which short-term individual and long-term collective interests are at odds (Hardin, 1968; Messick & Brewer, 1983). Severe social problems lead more and more researchers to pay attention to the issue of social dilemmas. Until now, research has widely examined the factors influencing cooperation in social dilemmas, and provided solutions to social dilemmas. In the need of theory development, previous research generally simplified the situation of realistic social dilemmas. Therefore, few studies have explored the issue of cooperation in social dilemmas in an intergroup situation. On the other hand, there has been little empirical attention for such issues in countries outside of United States and Western Europe. To meet this gap, the present study grounded itself in social identity theories and examined the effect of unequal group status on behavioral decision making in social dilemmas. To this end, the study designed three experiments to examine how individuals with different group status response psychologically and behaviorally to cooperation in intragroup and intergroup social dilemmas. In experiment 1, the study examined how independent and interdependent self- construals affect cooperative behavior in an intragroup social dilemma. The results showed that when individuals were primed with interdependent (as opposed to independent) self-construal, they consistently contributed highly, regardless of context manipulation. In contrast, those primed with independent self-construal contributed less in the investment game but only when placed in a context where group members were encouraged to think about their individual (versus shared) fate. Results supported the idea that independent self-construal in a low interdependent context produces the most competitive behavior and that this effect was partially mediated by the feeling of interaction within a group. In experiment 2, the study examined how the effect of group status on different level of cooperation in a nested social dilemma was moderated by individual status, and what roles ingroup and superordinate identifications played in the above effect. Results found that individuals in higher status groups tended to allocate more to private account and less to subgroup account compared to those in lower status group; individuals in higher status groups allocated more to higher level accounts than to private account, whereas those in lower status acted in a reverse way. The results indicated that group status (compared to individual status) exerted a positive influence on behavioral decision making in social dilemmas, with higher group status contributing more to subgroup as well as collective interests. Results also found that the effect of group status and/or individual status on cooperation in social dilemmas was moderated by sex. As for individual status, results showed that the effect of individual status on subgroup interest was significantly moderated only by the combination of higher ingroup identification and lower superordinate identification. In experiment 3, the study explored how group stability and cognitive categorization interactively influenced the relationship between group status and behavioral decision making in a social dilemma. Results did not support the prediction that group status and stability interactively affected behavioral decision-making in social dilemmas. However, it was found that this relationship was moderated by which level individuals categorized themselves at. When categorization at the individual level was salient, individuals in high status group contributed more to subgroup account than those in low status group if they perceived a stable status hierarchy; whereas they contributed more to private account and less to collective account if they perceived that the status was instable. On the other hand, when categorization at the subgroup level was salient, individuals in high status group contributed less to collective account than those in low status group if they perceived that the status was stable; whereas they contributed less to private account and more to subgroup account if they perceived an instable status relation. In summary, the present study suggests that cooperation with ingroup forms the basis of social harmony, and higher status for everyone in any given group is a necessary for social development. On the other hand, individuals in higher status group tend to be more selfish once they realize that their current status hierarchy is unstable. However, activating their collective identity will to some degree increase the level of their cooperation with the collective. The study thus provides psychological explanations on how to construct group harmony and management suggestions on how to solve social conflicts.

金融工作者的抑郁症状的影响因素及其形成机制研究

Ill-health prevails in the workplace. A key problem encountered in the area of stress management is a lack of research into the way job burnout turns into mental problems, especially depressive symptoms, the most prevalent and costly psychiatric condition in the workplace. This research belongs to a cross-discipline area of industrial psychiatry and organizational behavior, which has seldom been investigated before. This research will contribute to the theoretical development of organizational behavior, especially to stress management and industrial psychiatry. This study aims to explore etiological factors and mechanisms of depressive symptoms of workers in the financial industry. By using literature review, semi-structured interviews and surveys as the major research methods, this Ph.D. study systematically investigated the risk factors of workers’ depressive symptoms within and outside of the work area. These risk factors are worker-work environment fits, work family conflicts, and workers’ psychological vulnerabilities to depression. A thorough literature review and 20 semi-structured interviews of brokers in different kinds of financial markets show the feasibility and necessity of this Ph.D. study when it comes to the issue of financial workers’ depressive symptoms. Two surveys of workplace-etiological factors of depressive symptoms were conducted among 244 financial workers and 1024 financial workers. This cross-sample verification showed that worker-work environment fit was a good framework to study risk factors of workers’ depressive symptoms. Results revealed that job demands-abilities misfit could lead to job burnout which in turn contributed to worker’s depressive symptoms; besides this, work effort-reward imbalance could directly cause workers’ depressive symptoms. Emotional labor enhanced the positive effect of job burnout on workers’ depressive symptoms. In the third study, a prominent risk factor outside of the work area, namely work family conflict, and workers’ psychological vulnerabilities of depression were included with workplace etiological factors to investigate the overall predictive model of depressive symptoms of financial workers. The survey was conducted among the same 1024 financial workers. Results indicated that work effort-reward imbalance, job burnout and work interfering in family life were three external etiological factors of workers’ depressive symptoms. Neuroticism, autonomy and low emotional intelligence were three individual etiological factors which had a positive effect on workers’ depressive symptoms. Moreover, neuroticism enhanced the relationship between job burnout and depressive symptoms as well as between work interfering in family life and depressive symptoms. Autonomy aggravated the relationship between job burnout and depressive symptoms. However, emotional intelligence attenuated the relationship between job burnout and depressive symptoms as well as between work effort-reward imbalance and depressive symptoms. Besides, workers’ dysfunctional attitudes played a partial mediating role in the relationships between above etiological factors and depressive symptoms. In the same sample, research evidence of impairments of workers’ depressive symptoms to their work-life quality was also obtained. Specifically, depressive symptoms could predict workers’ presenteeism, absenteeism and turnover intention. Their subjective well-being was also lowered when suffering more severe depressive symptoms. This research provides a theoretical basis to management practices targeted to set up the Employee Assistance Program or even more specilised rehabilitation programs for workers with depressive symptoms so as to improve their work-life quality and and establish a harmonious enterprise.

中小学生欺负行为及其主要影响因素研究

The present paper studied the school bullying and the primary impact factors, for understanding the nature of bullying, and providing measures and references to the elimination and controlling of school bullying. Primarily with methods of questionnaires and psychometrics, combined with case study and interviews, the following findings were found: in Chinese culture, bullying is a behavior intentionally causing harm to the weaker or weakers. There were 5 types of bullying-physical, social exclusion, threat, breakage and verbal. In Chinese schools the occurrence of bullying had regular patterns. The factor that impact children's bullying behavior was personality traits, interpersonal techniques, family atmosphere, education and upbringing styles. In personality traits, bullies tended to be more extroversive, impulsive, obstinate, obdurate and lack of sympathy. Victims tended to be more introversive, self-restrained, lack of confidence, lonely, anxious and depressive. Both of them expressed more mental problem tendencies than normal children did. When confronted with interpersonal conflicts, they used little problem solving strategies. Bullies had more extroverted emotional responses, and victims had more social support strategies. In the light of family influence, bullies were relatively superior in family's social economic conditions. But their parents had little time and energy spent on them. They tended to be punitive, and had indulgent, reject or despotic upbringing styles. The role of victim might be related to the disadvantage of family's social economic status. Their parents had the tendency of spoiling and overindulgence. The research concluded that in different cultures the connotation of bullying was not homogenous. The occurrence of school bullying had regular patterns. Bullying behavior was primarily influenced by the personality traits of both bullies and victims, the coping strategies of interpersonal conflicts, family's social economic status, parents' basic emotional attitudes, ways of educating, punitive tendencies and school atmosphere. The occurrence of bullying behavior was the result of the combined process of past experience, behavior habits, personality traits, cognitive evaluation, certain evocative clues and the environment conditions. It reminded that quality education and mental health education in schools was essential. Strengthening basic social skill training in school, creating positive family atmosphere, having more communications between schools and families and implementing strict regulations against bullying was essential to interfere and eliminate the school bullying.