Table of Content

15 July 2021, Volume 37 Issue 4

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Cognitive Development of Dual Vertical Space and Size Metaphors of Occupational Prestige Concepts in 3 to 5-year-old Children

HE Xiaoling, CHEN Jun, LIU Ling, ZHANG Tian

Psychological Development and Education. 2021, 37(4):  457-464.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2021.04.01

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Images with high-and low-prestige occupational characters were placed above and below a vertical space, and silhouette images of large and small characters were studied to explore the development law of occupational prestige cognition as well as dual vertical space and size metaphors of occupational prestige in children aged 3 to 5 years. Through two experiments and comprehensive analysis, it was determined that metaphor-comprehension ability of occupational prestige and the conceptual metaphor of the positive pole with high occupational prestige, such as ‘up’, begin to emerge at the age of 3 years. At the age of 4 years, children's metaphorical comprehension ability of occupational prestige is developed and has formed multiple metaphorical abilities with high occupational prestige, such as ‘up’ and ‘big’, and low occupational prestige, such as ‘down’ and ‘small’. The ability of a 5-year-old to use multiple metaphors for career prestige is further enhanced. Children between the ages of 3~5 years have a positive advantage in metaphor processing of professional prestige. The development of children's ability to understand multiple vertical space and size metaphors of occupational prestige is yet to be synchronised. Moreover, the development of vertical space metaphors of occupational prestige is better than that of size metaphors.

Can It Be Owner? Young Children's Understanding of Ownership Agents

LI Zhanxing, ZHU Liqi

Psychological Development and Education. 2021, 37(4):  465-471.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2021.04.02

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An essential component in the ownership relationship is the owner. To understand who is the owner of an object is important for the normal running of society. This study explored whether young children could discriminate the possible owner from the impossible owner like adults. With a rank-order method, we recruited 93 3~5-year-olds as subjects and a group of adults as comparison to detect preschoolers' intuitions about what can be the owner. The results showed that whether adults or young preschoolers, they all accepted that competent humans as well as incompetent humans could be owners, but denied that artifacts could be owners. The evaluation of 3~5-year-old children on the possibility that animals and plants are owners is significantly higher than that of adults, indicating that compared with adults, they still have the tendency to think that animals and plants are owners. The results demonstrate that there are consistencies and differences between young children and adults in the understanding of ownership agents. We can guide children to understand ownership concept correctly based on development of ownership cognition, so as to improve their social cognition in this field.

The Effect of Face Clues on Real and Cartoon Face Memory of 4~6-year-olds

ZHENG Chenye, HUANG Yan, WANG Jingmei, JIANG Cundui, LU Yingjun

Psychological Development and Education. 2021, 37(4):  472-480.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2021.04.03

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A comparative study of memory clues between real face and cartoon face can deepen the understanding of children's face recognition mechanism. With paradigm of learning-recognition and stimuli of internal-clue-face, external-clue-face and whole face, the effect of clues on preschoolers' real and cartoon face memory was explored in the present study. The results showed that:(1) females' real face recognition was significantly better than cartoon face recognition; (2) males' cartoon face recognition was better than females'; (3) for real face, recognition of whole face was significantly better than internal-clue-face and external-clue-face; for cartoon face, recognition of external-clue-face was best, followed by whole face and then internal-clue-face; (4) recognition of external-clue-face and internal-clue-face increased by age, and 6-year-olds' were significantly better than 4-year-olds'. To sum up, there was difference in children's memory pattern of real face and cartoon face; face category, gender, face clue and age all influence preschoolers' face memory.

Pronouns Processing in Mandarin-speaking Children with High-functioning Autism: Use of Mention Order Cue and Accent Cue

WANG Han, YU Jiayu, LIANG Dandan

Psychological Development and Education. 2021, 37(4):  481-488.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2021.04.04

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The current study applied sentence comprehension task to investigate whether 5~7 years old Mandarin-speaking children with high-functioning autism can use the sole mention order cue and co-occur mention order and accent cues to process pronouns. The result of the first experiment indicates that Mandarin-speaking children with high-functioning autism randomly chose the references of the pronouns, which means they cannot use mention order alone to process pronouns. However, 5~7 years old typically developing children whose IQ and working memory span are matched with the children with high-functioning autism can use this cue to choose the reference of the pronoun. When the mention order cue appears simultaneously with accent cue, no matter the accent order cue is congruency or incongruency with the mention order cue, typically developing children show the tendency to rely on the accent cue to process the pronouns. However, the children with high-functioning autism were insensitive to these cues, still randomly chose the references of the pronouns. The results of the two experiments indicate that 5~7 years old mandarin-speaking children with high-functioning autism cannot use mention order cue and accent cue to process pronouns, in other words, it is difficult for they to process pronouns by the discourse prominence cues.

Part-list Cuing Effect in Working Memory: Effects of Task Presentation Mode

LIU Tuanli, SHAN Yafei, XING Min, BAI Xuejun

Psychological Development and Education. 2021, 37(4):  489-497.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2021.04.05

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When people are asked to recall words they have studied earlier from a list, those given a subset of these words as cues recall fewer words than people who do not receive any cues. This phenomenon is the so called part-list cuing effect. Whereas many studies have examined part-list cuing effect in long-term memory, the mechanisms and effects of part-list cuing effect within working memory are less well understood. The current study tests how part-list cuing instructions delivered in a working memory task influence veridical memory over the short term.
Using a modified item recognition task, and adopting category-sample words as stimulus, we investigated the part-list cuing effect in working memory through two experiments. The cue trials and uncue trials in Experiment 1 were presented in separate blocks. While in Experiment 2, the cue trials and uncue trials were presented in the same block with a pseudo-random order. The accuracy and reaction time were chosen as statistical indexes.
The results show that:(1) The part-list cuing effect exists in working memory; (2) When the cue trials and uncue trials were presented in separate blocks, participants' recognition accuracy and discriminability were lower in the part-list cuing condition than in the non-cue condition, and the reaction time was longer in the part-list cuing condition, whereas the response bias was higher in the part-list cuing condition; (3) When the cue trials were randomly interleaved with uncue trials, participants' recognition accuracy was lower in the part-list cuing condition than in the non-cue condition, the response bias was higher in the part-list cuing condition, whereas discriminability and reaction time were not significant different under the two conditions.
The results of this study imply that the task presentation mode has influence on memory performance for part-list cuing effect in working memory. Partial results provide evidence for the retrieval inhibition hypothesis, but the effect of part-list cues was constraint to a limited attention resource in working memory.

Group Bias in Children's Merit-based Resource Allocation: The Role of Theory of Mind

XIAO Xue, LIU Lu, LIU Lisha, XU Liangyuan, ZHANG Xuran, LI Yanfang

Psychological Development and Education. 2021, 37(4):  498-507.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2021.04.06

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The present study aimed to examine how children weigh the conflicting demands of allocating meritoriously and favoring in-groups during resource allocation and further explored the role of theory of mind in children's allocation in the Chinese cultural context. Children aged 6~8 years (N=63) allocated resources between recipients from different groups and with different merits. By comparing children's allocating behaviors and strategies, we found that:(1) Children allocated significantly more than half of the resources to the high-merit person. In addition, children allocated significantly fewer resources to the high-merit person in the "H-out, L-in" condition than in the other three conditions, where they gave more consideration to Group Membership when allocating; (2) Children with a higher level of theory of mind were prone to allocate more resources to the high-merit persons in the "H-out, L-in" condition and reasoned more about Merit but less about Group Membership. Overall, the current study showed that children aged 6~8 years prioritized moral concerns of merit and subordinated social concerns of group bias during resource allocation, but theory of mind could play an important role in overcoming the influence of group bias.

The Relationship Between Creative Personality and Deceptive Behaviors in Children Aged 9~11: The Moderating Effect of Parent-child Communication Quality

LIU Wen, WANG Yining, ZHANG Jiaqi, CHE Hanbo

Psychological Development and Education. 2021, 37(4):  508-516.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2021.04.07

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To explore the relationship between creative personality and deceptive behavior triggered by altruistic and egoistic motivation as well as the moderating effect of parent-child communication quality, the present study used the method of experiment and questionnaire and 317 children aged 9~11(M=9.77, SD=0.74) were selected as participants. The results showed that:(1) creative personality positively predicted children's altruistic and egoistic deceptive behavior; (2) both father-child and mother-child communication quality negatively significantly predicted children's egoistic deception, but didn't have prediction to altruistic deception; (3) father-child communication quality moderated the relationship between creative personality and children's egoistic and altruistic deceptive behavior, which buffered the impact of creative personality on children's egoistic deceptive behavior and protect the effect of creative personality on altruistic deception; (4) mother-child communication quality didn't have the moderating effect on the relationship between creative personality and children's altruistic as well as egoistic deceptive behavior.

Self-differentiation and College Students'Experiential Avoidance: Mediating Effect of Shyness and Its Gender Difference

DOU Fen, LI Qiaoling, WANG Shuhao

Psychological Development and Education. 2021, 37(4):  517-524.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2021.04.08

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Substantial literature has documented the important effect of self-differentiation on individuals' experiential avoidance. However,there exists scanty research on the mechanisms underlying the relationship between self-differentiation and college students' experiential avoidance. This study constructs a moderated mediation model to examine whether shyness mediated the relation between self-differentiation and experiential avoidance among college students, and whether this mediating process was moderated by gender. A total of 970 college students were selected, and completed differentiation of self inventory, shyness scale and acceptance and action questionnaire. The results indicated that:(1) Shyness and experiential avoidance were both negatively correlated with self-differentiation in college students. But shyness was positively correlated with experiential avoidance; (2) Self-differentiation could not only directly predict college students' experiential avoidance, but also indirectly predict experiential avoidance through the shyness; (3) Gender moderated the mediation effect of shyness. Specifically, the effects of self-differentiation on shyness and experiential avoidance on both male and female samples have reached the significant level, compared with female college students, the effects of self-differentiation on shyness and experiential avoidance were much stronger among male college students. While the effect of shyness on experiential avoidance was much stronger among female college students than among male college students.

Picture-text Horizontal Layout Enhances Recognition of Unfamiliar Words: Evidence from 8-year-old Children and Adults

YUAN Juanjuan, YANG Yang, ZHENG Zhiwei, LIU Pingping

Psychological Development and Education. 2021, 37(4):  525-538.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2021.04.09

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Although pictures and texts are widely used as written material in education, they are often arranged with high cognitive load regardless of their characteristics and readers' cognitive development. Generally, the familiar and feasible picture-text layout could be processed effectively, but the underlying cognitive mechanism is still unclear. In terms of the Cognitive Load Theory, this study explored how picture-text layout (horizontal/vertical) and familiarity (high/low) interactively affect children's and adults' word recognition using the old-new recognition task.
There were three major findings. First, there was a significant interaction between extraneous cognitive load (layout) and intrinsic cognitive load (familiarity) for word recognition. Both children and adults recognized the low-familiarity words more accurately at the horizontal layout, but the processing of high-familiarity words was not influenced by layout. Second, the effects of familiarity on word recognition were different for children and adults, respectively. High-familiarity words were recognized more accurately for children, while low-familiarity words were recognized more accurately for adults. Third, the vocabulary size was negatively related to processing speed for children, and the cognitive ability (i.e., attention and working memory) and vocabulary size were positively related to recognition accuracy for adults. Taken together, horizontal layout could enhance information processing by decreasing the extraneous cognitive load of unfamiliar words, while the picture-text layout could not influence the processing of high-familiarity words. These results verify the Cognitive Load Theory and provide clear suggestions for textbooks' picture-text arrangement and word recogniton for children.

The Effects of Prior Knowledge and Design Method on Learning Rules of Fraction Multiplication

QU Kejia, LIU Yingying

Psychological Development and Education. 2021, 37(4):  539-545.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2021.04.10

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The current study explored the effects of prior knowledge and different design methods on example learning by three experiments. There were a total of 240 6^th grade students who participated in the experiments. In Experiment 1, we investigated the effects of students' prior knowledge on learning fractional multiplication by single-content examples and double-content examples. In Experiment 2, in order to examine the effect of "Mark Method", two groups of students with low prior knowledge learned double-content examples designed with "Mark method" and common examples respectively. In experiment 3, we compared the effect of examples designed with "Mark+Annotation Method" and common double-content examples. The results were as follows:(1) There were no significant differences on the post-test performance between students with high prior knowledge in learning single-content examples and double-content examples; (2)Students with low prior knowledge performed better by learning single-content examples than by double-content examples; (3) For students with low prior knowledge, there was no significant difference on the post-test performance between the "Mark method" example group and the common example group, whereas those students learning examples designed by "Mark+Annotation Method" performed significantly better. These findings suggest that the examples learning effects were affected by prior knowledge level. Besides, students with low prior knowledge benefits from double-content examples designed by "Mark+Annotation Method", not examples designed with "Mark method".

Cumulative Contextual Risk and Subjective Well-being in Migrant Children: The Compensatory Effect and Protective Effect of Individual Protective Factors

YUAN Keman, LI Bailu, LIANG Lichan, BIAN Yufang

Psychological Development and Education. 2021, 37(4):  546-557.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2021.04.11

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This study recruited 511 migrant children who were in the second grade of middle school (Mean age:14.37±0.78) and their parents to complete questionnaires in order to explore the relationship between cumulative contextual risk and subjective well-being, and the different roles of self-esteem, resilience and emotion regulation as well as their cumulative effect on the relationship between cumulative contextual risk and subjective well-being. The results indicated that cumulative contextual risk predicted subjective well-being of migrant children significantly and negatively, and the role of risk prediction in various fields from large to small was followed by family relationship risk, peer risk and school risk, but the prediction effect of family socioeconomic status risk was not significant. Secondly, self-esteem played a compensatory effect on subject well-being in all field of risk, resilience played a compensatory effect in fields of peer and school risks as well as played a protective effect in the field of family relationship risk, emotion regulation only played a protective-reactive effect in the field of peer risk. Thirdly, the more risk factors individual faced, the less individual protective factors individual owned, the lower level of subjective well-being was.

The Effects of Parental and Peer Attachment on Development of Psychological Suzhi among Middle School Students: From Personal-centered Perspective

PAN Yangu, ZHANG Dajun, LI Zhiyang

Psychological Development and Education. 2021, 37(4):  558-567.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2021.04.12

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This study explored the trajectory subgroups of adolescents' psychological suzhi and the effects of parental and peer attachment on that by using growth mixture model through person-centered approach. Participants were 943 secondary school students (grades 7~8) from three junior high schools. Participants were measured once every half a year, total three times. The mean age of participants was 12.83 years, SD=0.74 years at T1. Results indicated that, for 7^th grade students, there were two subgroups, namely moderate-decline group (79%) and high-increase group (21%); and if initial level of paternal or maternal attachment was higher, the trajectory of psychological suzhi was more likely to be classified as high-increase group relative to moderate-decline group. For 8^th grade students, there were also two trajectory subgroups of psychological suzhi, namely low-stable group (84%) and high-increase group (16%); and if initial level of paternal attachment was higher, the trajectory of psychological suzhi was more likely to be classified as high-increase group relative to low-stable group. This study suggested that the developmental trajectory of junior high school students' psychological suzhi could be divided into different subgroups. Parent-child attachment relationship quality has a positive effect on the development of psychological suzhi for junior high school students. These findings have certain guiding significance for the cultivation of psychological suzhi among junior high school students.

The Fusion of Small-ego and Large-ego: The Positive Implications of Syncretic Self-esteem

WANG Yinan, LIU Jia

Psychological Development and Education. 2021, 37(4):  568-575.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2021.04.13

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Identity modulation theory suggests that self-esteem is a function of finding harmony between the two competing values of uniqueness and similarity. We refer to the form of self-esteem that is built on balance between uniqueness and similarity as syncretic self-esteem. As a "just-right" expression of self-esteem, syncretic self-esteem is proposed to facilitate individuals' intrapersonal, interpersonal, and collective well-being. The results of two studies support our hypothesis:(1) Syncretic self-esteem was positively correlated with adolescents' subjective well-being, and it can boost the positive effects of parents' syncretic self-esteem on adolescents' subjective well-being; (2) Syncretic self-esteem predicted university freshmen's basic needs satisfaction through collective self-esteem and personal self-esteem in a longitudinal study. Overall, the present research on syncretic self-esteem has important theoretical and practical implications for understanding self-esteem among Chinese individuals and finding ways to promote their well-being.

The Relationship between the Intensity of WeChat Use and College Students' Self-esteem: The Role of Upward Social Comparison and Closeness to Friends

KONG Lian, CUI Xinyue, TIAN Lumei

Psychological Development and Education. 2021, 37(4):  576-583.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2021.04.14

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In order to explore the relationship between the intensity of WeChat use and college students' self-esteem and the mechanism underlying this relationship, 330 undergraduates' experiences in WeChat use and their self-esteem were surveyed using a series of questionnaires to test a moderated mediation model. The results showed that:(1) the intensity of WeChat use was significantly negatively related to college students' self-esteem, which was mediated significantly by their upward social comparison; (2) closeness to friends played a moderating role in the relationship between upward social comparison and self-esteem:when the levels of closeness to friends were lower, higher levels of upward social comparison were significantly associated with lower levels of self-esteem, whereas no significant relationship was found between upward social comparisons and self-esteem when higher levels of closeness to friends. The results suggest that more upward social comparison during WeChat use is a risk factor of lower self-esteem among college students, but high level of closeness to online friends can alleviate this risk.

The Relationship between Vocational Self-concept Crystallization and Depression of College Students: The Moderator Effects of Gender and Gender Egalitarianism

XU Jia, XIE Baoguo

Psychological Development and Education. 2021, 37(4):  584-591.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2021.04.15

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Although factors influencing college students' depression have attracted considerable attention, the relationship between vocational self-concept crystallization and depression and the role of gender and gender egalitarianism have received little empirical attention. Based on vocational development theory and self-discrepancy theory, this study constructed a three-way interaction model of vocational self-concept crystallization, gender and gender egalitarianism on college students' depression. Through the empirical analysis of 463 college students' data, this study found that:(1) vocational self-concept crystallization is significantly negatively correlated with depression of college students;(2) there are obvious gender differences in relationship of vocational self-concept crystallization and depression;(3) with different level of gender egalitarianism, gender exerts distinct effects on the relationship between vocational self-concept crystallization and depression. When individuals hold a high level of gender egalitarianism, both male and female's vocational self-concept crystallization is negatively related to their depression. When individuals hold low level of gender egalitarianism, women's vocational self-concept crystallization is positively related to depression. The research results have important practical significance for college students' career development and psychological health education.

Victim Justice Sensitivity and Life Satisfaction: The Mediating Roles of Upward Social Comparison and Envy

HONG Youjuan, LIN Fei, LIU Liting, LIN Wanru, LIAN Rong, LIN Rongmao

Psychological Development and Education. 2021, 37(4):  592-600.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2021.04.16

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This study aimed to explore the relationship between victim justice sensitivity and life satisfaction, as well as its underlying mechanism. Based on cluster sampling, a sample of 638 of three universities from Fujian Province were recruited for the study. The results indicated:(1) The correlations between victim justice sensitivity and life satisfaction were significantly negatively, but victim justice sensitivity was positively correlated with upward social comparison and envy. The correlations between upward social comparison, envy and life satisfaction were significantly negatively; (2) The effect of victim justice sensitivity on life satisfaction was explained by the simple mediating role of envy, and it was also explained by the chain mediation role of upward social comparison and envy, but the chain mediation was weak. In sum, these findings highlight the complex mechanism underlying the relationship between victim justice sensitivity on life satisfaction, and it plays a positive impact on reducing the negative effect of victim justice sensitivity on life satisfaction, and then promote the undergraduates' satisfaction.

The Mediating Effects of Pursuing Pleasure between Self-regulatory Fatigue and Smartphone Addiction among Undergraduate Students: The Moderating Effects of Connectedness to Nature

WANG Caiyu, LEI Li, QIAO Xue

Psychological Development and Education. 2021, 37(4):  601-608.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2021.04.17

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To investigate the impact of self-regulatory fatigue on the smartphone addiction, 564 undergraduate students were recruited to participate in this study, and they anonymously filled out questionnaires regarding self-regulatory fatigue, the pursuit of pleasure, connectedness to nature, smartphone addiction. This study indicated that:(1) Self-regulatory fatigue had a significantly positive prediction for smartphone addiction of undergraduate students; (2) The pursuit of pleasure of undergraduate students mediated the relationship between self-regulatory fatigue and smartphone addiction; (3) The relationship between self-regulatory fatigue and pursuit of pleasure was moderated by connectedness to nature. That is, with connectedness to nature being strengthen, the influence of self-regulatory fatigue on the smartphone addiction of undergraduate students was decreased. Therefore, there was a moderated mediation model between self-regulatory fatigue and smartphone addiction.