Suchergebnisse

The priming effect on creativity refers to the more effective creation of new uses for the second (vs. first) object in a two-item task. This, along with veridical memory loss in the Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) paradigm, is related to mental fixation, and both can be
improved when attention is given to item-specific features. We studied the cognitive mechanism of this priming effect by utilizing the DRM paradigm with a sample of 91 undergraduates recruited from a university in China. We used a two-item task and the DRM paradigm under rapid and slow presentation
conditions to verify our hypotheses by dividing words into high false memory (HFM) and low false memory (LFM) lists. The results showed that the veridical memory of the HFM lists was improved under the slow (vs. rapid) condition for individuals in the high priming effect group, but not for
those in the low priming effect group. Implications are discussed.

We investigated whether or not occupational status influences happiness and how overt and covert occupational characteristics lead to a hierarchy of happiness. Using data obtained from a subsample (N = 9,940) of a 2012 Chinese labor force survey, we found that higher occupational
status corresponded to greater happiness. Results of regression analysis confirmed the objectivity of the happiness hierarchy. Overt occupational characteristics of power and occupational prestige were significant as objective social factors promoting happiness. Covert characteristics of justice,
self-confidence, and mental health influenced happiness in a different occupational hierarchy. Our results further confirm that happiness can be stratified on the basis of occupational status, and our findings add to understanding of the mechanism behind how occupational status affects happiness.

We investigated the relationships among the severity of negative emotional response, personality, and coping style of adults affected by the Wenchuan earthquake. Participants completed the Revised NEO Personality Inventory, the Coping Style Questionnaire, and the Mental Health Scale
2 weeks after the earthquake. Most survivors in the high negative emotion group suffered property damage, saw corpses, had relatives who were killed, or witnessed houses collapsing. Compared with the low negative emotional response group, the high negative emotional response group demonstrated
more prominent openness to fantasy, excitement seeking, tender-mindedness, and openness to feelings, and less prominent gregariousness, compliance, competence, deliberation, and optimism. Further, people in the high negative emotional response group tended to use the coping styles of avoiding
problems, fantasizing, self-blaming, and asking for help. The traits of openness to fantasy and optimism and the coping styles of problem avoidance and self-blame predicted whether individuals experienced high or low negative emotional response. These findings can help governing authorities
to make a timely intervention after a natural disaster in order to reduce the effects of negative emotional response for earthquake survivors.

We investigated the incidence of posttraumatic stress disorder among 2,448 middle-school students in Sichuan Province, China, soon after the Wenchuan earthquake occurred on May 12, 2008. We also tested the reliability and validity of a Chinese version of the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Checklist–Civilian Version (Weathers, Litz, Huska, & Keane, 1994) with this group. PTSD occurred more frequently among females compared with males, and among those exposed directly, indirectly, or not at all to the earthquake, the highest incidence of PTSD was among the group
exposed directly. Among 3 groups aged between 11 and 13, 14 and 15, and 16 and 18, the highest incidence of PTSD was in students aged 14 and 15. Compared with other groups those with the highest incidence of PTSD were students with low socioeconomic status, who witnessed the earthquake, had
heavy loss of their houses and other possessions, and whose family members were casualties. Factor analysis showed that the 3-factor model of the PCL-C had good construct validity. The internal consistency of Cronbach's alpha and split-half reliability was also satisfactory. Therefore, the
PCL-C was determined to be a reliable instrument to detect PTSD among Chinese adolescents exposed to the earthquake.

Many studies have found that the orthographic neighborhood frequency (NF) effect plays a dominant role in word identification. Yet most research has been conducted on alphabetic languages rather than Chinese. We investigated the NF effect on Chinese character recognition in the context
of lexical decision tasks. Experiment 1 tested the NF effect in simple characters, Experiment 2 tested the NF effect in compound characters. Results showed that targets with higher frequency neighbors had longer response latencies for both simple characters and compound characters, and that
this inhibitory effect was more significant for low-frequency targets. The results overall imply there is an inhibitory NF effect existing in Chinese character recognition. The implications of the results are discussed with regard to character recognition.