Table of Content

15 November 2011, Volume 27 Issue 6

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Attentional load has no Effect on Implicit Sequence Learning: Evidence from Event-Related Potential Studies

LU Zhang-long, LV Yong, SHEN De-li

Psychological Development and Education. 2011, 27(6):  561-568. 

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Cognitive psychologists have investigated the relationship between implicit sequence learning and attention for over two decades,but cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying this relationship is unclear.Some researchers suggest that implicit sequence learning requires attentional resources;Other researchers propose that implicit sequence learning is an automatic process that does not require attentional resources.Most previous studies used typical dual-task sequence learning procedure with a secondary tone-counting task.Unfortunately,there were inherent limitations in the secondary task used in the dual task sequence learning experiments which might make the relationship between implicit sequence learning and attention obscure.So we used a new method to explore the relationship between implicit sequence learning and attention,we manipulated the distinctness of stimulus.We hypothesized that there were sequence learning effect in both high attentional load sequence and low attentional load sequence;The amplitude of P1 and N1 evoked by detected stimulus of high attentional sequence was bigger than low attentional sequence;There were no significant difference in implicit sequence learning scores between high attentional load sequence and low attentional load sequence. Eighteen volunteers from University took part in this experiment,they were instructed to make a compatible key press to the letter as soon as possible,the response accuracy was also stressed.The EEG was recorded from 64 scalp sites using Ag/AgCl electrodes.Signals were averaged offline for 600ms with an additional 100ms recorded prior to stimulus onset to allow for baseline correction.The ERP were averaged separately for high attentional load and low attentional load detected trials.Peak amplitude values were computed for 80-120ms(P1);130-170ms (N1)time intervals,time locked to detected stimulus onset(time 0),these ERP measures were obtained from eight electrodes:O1、O2、PO3、PO4、PO5、PO6、PO7、PO8.A repeated measures AVOVA on the peak amplitude of each component was conducted. The results were as follows:(1)There were sequence learning effect in both high attentional load sequence and low attentional load sequence;(2)The amplitude of P1 and N1 evoked by detected stimulus of high attentional sequence was bigger than low attentional sequence,which indicated more attention was needed in high attentional sequence condition.(3)There were no significant difference in implicit sequence learning scores between high attentional load sequence and low attentional load sequence.These results suggested attentional load has no effect on implicit sequence learning.

A Preliminary Study on PASS Cognitive Processing Deficit of Chinese Developmental Dyslexia

WANG Xiao-chen, LI Qi-wei, LI Qing

Psychological Development and Education. 2011, 27(6):  569-576. 

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For the purpose of this study,we examined if Chinese dyslexia is associated with deficits in Planning, Attention,Simultaneous,and Successive(PASS)processing.Rather than comparing children with dyslexia with average readers alone,we employed a more sophisticated design in which grade 5 dyslexics were compared not only to the grade 5 average readers,but also to the grade 3 average readers whose reading ability was equivalent to the dyslexics.The Chinese version of DN:CAS was used to examine the PASS processing of the dyslexic children.The results indicated that Chinese developmental dyslexia was heterogeneous,i.e.,the Chinese developmental dyslexia was correlated with more than two PASS cognitive deficits.The dyslexic children could have difficulties in one or several aspects of PASS processing.Meanwhile,the Successive processing deficit was the main problem faced by the Chinese dyslexic children.This proportion resembles the one reported for temporal processing deficits in English-speaking dyslexic children.Next,a significant main effect of group was shown in Planning,Attention, Simultaneous and Successive.And the follow-up univariate analyses showed that the DYS group performed worse than the CA group on measures of Expressive Attention,Verbal-Spatial Relation and Successive processing but comparably to the RA group on these processing skills,which could caused by the developmental delay.

Age-of-Acquisition Effects of Chinese Character: Test of Phonological Completeness Hypothesis

ZHANG Zhen-jun, DING Guo-sheng, CHEN Bao-guo

Psychological Development and Education. 2011, 27(6):  577-583. 

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The present study investigated the age-of-acquisition effect in partially-retrieved phonological task with a phonological matching paradigm.In Experiment 1,wholly phonological matching task was used,in which the pinyin of Chinese characters were presented before characters with different age-of-acquisition,and the participants were asked to judge whether the pinyin of characters with different age-of-acquisition was the same as those presented previously.The purpose of Experiment 1 was to explore the validity of phonological matching paradigm. If age-of-acquisition effect,which had been detected in phonological naming task used by previous studies,was also found in this paradigm,then it can be said that such phonological matching paradigm was valid in investigating age-of-acquisition effect.Experiment 2 and 3 adopted consonant matching and vowel matching task respectively,in which the consonant or vowel of Chinese characters were presented before the characters with different age-of-acquisition,then the participants were asked to judge whether the consonant or vowel was the same as the phonological segments presented previously. In Experiment 1,results showed that the reaction times of early acquired Chinese characters were faster than that of late acquired ones,which was in accordance with the results in phonological naming task found in previous studies.Thus,the phonological matching paradigm used by the present study was valid and can be used to explore age-of-acquisition effect.Experiment 2 and 3 found that age-of-acquisition effect can also be detected in partially retrieved phonological task,in which no matter the consonant or vowel of early acquired Chinese characters both were retrieved much easier than that of late acquired ones. Results of the present study indicated that age-of-acquisition effect also existed in partially retrieved phonology.According to the Phonological Completeness Hypothesis,the phonology of early acquired characters was represented as a whole unit,while the phonological representations of late acquired characters were fragmented, therefore it was expected that the early acquired words will be disadvantageous in such partially retrieved phonological task compared with the late acquired characters.However,results of present study were contrary to predictions of the Phonological Completeness hypothesis,thus the present study did not support this hypothesis. While the Arbitrary Mapping Hypothesis put forward that it is the mapping relationship between input and output representations that determined the age-of-acquisition effect.The mapping from orthography to phonology in Chinese characters was relatively arbitrary,thus there should exist age-of-acquisition effect in phonological processing task and such effect may not depend upon whether the phonology was retrieved completely or partially.Therefore, results of present study can be better explained by the Arbitrary Mapping Hypothesis.

Self-Reference Effect in children’s self-other differentiation

ZHOU Ai-bao, XIA Rui-xue, SHI Zhan, DUAN Bao-jun, SUI Jie

Psychological Development and Education. 2011, 27(6):  584-590. 

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Research on when children can show self-reference effect has significant meaning for the exploration of self-other differentiation.This research was composed of three experiments,with children of age 4-9 as participants,to explore the age stage that self-reference effect appeared.We manipulated two types of self-awareness that were elicited by self-ownership and self-referential evaluation:object-based awareness and concept-based awareness.They were measured in a belonging categorization task(Experiment 1)and a trait evaluation task (Experiment 2 and 3),separately.The findings revealed:(a)Children as young as age five displayed an advantage in remembering their own belongings relative to other's belongings,which suggested at this stage children can differentiate self from others in the object-based condition;(b)Children aged seven showed self-advantage in remembering the trait adjectives evaluated in reference to themselves relative to familiar others,which suggested children can differentiate self from others in the concept-based condition.These results demonstrated a clear dissociable contribution between self-ownership and self-reference evaluation in young children's differentiating self from others.

The Role of Education in Cognitive Aging

GAO Yue, PENG Hua-mao, WEN Jing, WANG Da-hua

Psychological Development and Education. 2011, 27(6):  591-598. 

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In order to investigate the role of education in cognitive aging,cross-sectional data and intervention data were used to analyze the impact pattern of education on cognitive aging.51 community-dwelling order adults, ranging in age from 58 to 83 years,participated this study.The subjects took two baseline tests of processing speed and a battery of primary mental abilities tests.The training group including 25 participants received five sessions of training in processing speed.All participants undertook a post-training test with the same measuring tools 8 weeks later.The analysis of cross-sectional data showed that in four primary mental abilities tests,education had a moderating effect on age differences in cognitive ability,that is to say,to the subjects with higher educational level, the rate of cognitive decline with age was slower than those with lower educational level.Intervention data showed that there was a significant effect of intervention on processing speed,and a transfer effect to verbal fluency test was observed.However,the results of correlation and regression analysis showed that there was no significant positive effect of education on training gains and transfer gains for old people.For obtaining and using new knowledge,the effect of education is not significant.The role of education in cognitive aging may lie more in protecting the inherent cognitive abilities.

Stability and Association with Toddler’s Behavioral Problems of Father’s Parenting Stress

LIU Ya-peng, ZHANG Guang-zhen, LIANG Zong-bao, DENG Hui-hua, LU Zu-hong

Psychological Development and Education. 2011, 27(6):  599-606. 

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Using longitudinal design and multiple reporters,the present study aims to investigate the stability and dynamic characteristics of early father's parenting stress and its three subscales,and study whether father's parenting stress at 6 months of infants and at 14 months of toddlers can predict internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems of toddlers aged 24 months.254 fathers completed the Parenting Stress Index-Short Form at two times within an 8-month interval.254 pairs of parents completed the Infant-Toddlers Social and Emotional Assessment of toddlers aged 24 months.Pearson correlation analysis showed that the total father's parenting stress and its three dimensions at 6 months of infants showed moderate association with those at 14 months.Across periods ranged from 6 to 14 months,mean scores of total parenting stress and parenting distress remained unchanged,and stress in parent-child dysfunctional interaction was decreased,while stress in difficult child was increased. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that father's parenting distress of infants aged 6 months predicted the internalizing behavior problems of toddlers aged 24 months,and that of toddlers aged 14 months predicted the externalizing behavior problems of toddlers aged 24 months.Parenting stress in difficult child dimension of children aged 6 and 14 months both predicted the externalizing behavior problems of toddlers aged 24 months.

Relational Cognition of Resilient Children

XI Ju-zhe, SANG Biao, ZUO Zhi-hong, WU Wei

Psychological Development and Education. 2011, 27(6):  607-618. 

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The present study explores resilient and nonresilient children's relational cognition at the very beginning when they seek to build trusting relationship with and ask for help from other people,examining the hypotheses that,in comparison with nonresilient children,resilient children have more accurate and quicker cognition of interpersonal relationship type,hold more positive and quicker cognition of interpersonal relationship characteristics in neutral/ambiguous situation.Two self-developed experimental programs,including one set of interpersonal relationship type cognition tasks and another set of interpersonal relationship characteristics cognition tasks,were administered to 99 resilient and 176 nonresilient children who were identified by a converging technique.Subjects' response including response time on the two sets of relational cognition tasks were automatically recorded on computer.ANCOVAs with covariates of age and gender were conducted to test group differences in scores and natural log-transformed response times of the two tasks.Results turned out to partially support the hypotheses: Resilient children scored higher on the interpersonal relationship type cognition tasks,while on the tasks of interpersonal relationship characteristics cognition,they got lower scores in both the positive and negative dimensions in a neutral/ambiguous interpersonal relationship situation,with their scores falling within a significantly narrower range on the negative-positive continuum than nonresilient children.No significant differences were found in response time on both tasks.It was implied that accurate and relatively cautious but positively biased cognition of interpersonal relationships,as an important subjective factor,could empower a child to efficiently seek from and build interpersonal relationships with other poeple to gain richer social support resources,which is beneficial for him/her to better cope with severe stresses/adversities.

The Trait of Filial Piety Belief and the relationship of filial piety belief,attachment and interpersonal adaption of Middle School Students

JIN Can-can, ZOU Hong, YU Yi-bing

Psychological Development and Education. 2011, 27(6):  619-624. 

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To investigate the situation of filial piety belief and the relationship of filial piety belief,attachment and interpersonal adaption(close social tendency and interpersonal disenchanted),a questionnaire was administered to 2327 middle school students from six cities.The findings suggested that(1)the scores of reciprocal filial piety of boys were higher than those of girls.The scores of reciprocal and authoritarian filial piety of junior middle school students were higher than those of senior middle school students.The scores of reciprocal filial piety of subjects from two-parent family were higher than those from single-parent family and totally not original family;(2) Reciprocal filial piety had significant positive associations with close social tendency and significant negative associations with interpersonal disenchanted,however,authoritarian filial piety had no significant associations with close social tendency and interpersonal disenchanted;(3)Reciprocal filial piety can mediate the prediction of attachment on interpersonal adaption.

Cross-cultural Comparison of Linkage Between School Climate and Students’ Mathematical Achievement:A Multilevel Analysis

ZHANG Ping-ping, LI Ling-yan, XIN Tao

Psychological Development and Education. 2011, 27(6):  625-632. 

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School climate is defined as the relatively lasting and stable feature of the school environment, experienced by its members,and making difference to their behavior.Based on the common perception of its members,school climate plays an important role in the school's development and student's improvement.In this study,Hierarchical Linear Model(HLM)was employed to analyze the effects of students and their principals' perception of school climate on students'mathematical achievement,with data from Hong Kong China,Japan,the United States and Turkey in the Program for International Students Assessment(PISA)2003.The results indicated that:15-year-old student-perceived teacher-student relationship,mathematics classroom discipline;principal-perceived student morale,students'behavior had similar effects on students'mathematical achievement across different countries/regions,teacher support in mathematics classroom,teachers'behavior,and consensus among mathematics teachers significantly affected students'mathematical achievement in some countries.But students' attitude towards school and principal-perceived teacher morale had no effect on the mathematical achievement.

Relationship among teacher professional identity,learning motivation,and education achievement of tuition-free normal college students

ZHANG Yan, ZHAO Hong-yu, QI Ting-ting, ZHANG Xiao-hui

Psychological Development and Education. 2011, 27(6):  633-640. 

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The study investigated 714 tuition-free normal college students'teacher professional identity,internal and external learning motivation by scales,and the relationship among the two variables and their education achievement.The result indicated:(1)the intrinsic value identity of teacher professional identity is higher than that of extrinsic.The extrinsic value identity was found to be better than volitional behavior identity.Furthermore, the level of the teacher professional identity is little above average level but still has space for promotion;(2)the internal learning motivation was better than average level,and was better than external motivation;(3)the relationship between teacher professional identity and learning motivation is significantly positive,and that is the same between learning motivation and education achievement;moreover,teacher professional identity showed equable predictability on the education achievements;(4)external learning motivation is a mediator variable between teacher professional identity and education achievement.

Parents-Adolescents relations and adolescent’s Internet Addiciton:the mediaiton effect of Loneliness

ZHANG Jin-tao, LIU Qin-xue, DENG Lin-yuan, FANG Xiao-yi, LIU Chao-ying, LAN Jing

Psychological Development and Education. 2011, 27(6):  641-647. 

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A cross-sectional study was conducted in Beijing to explore the relationship between Parents-adolescents relation,loneliness and Internet addiction.3766 middle schools students from 2 key middle schools,5 general middle schools,and 2 vocational schools were asked to report their perceived relationship quality with their father and mother respectively in Buchnan scale of closeness to parents,loneliness in Asher scale loneliness in children and the extent of Internet addiction in Leili scale of adolescent's pathologic Internet use.Based on correlation analysis and structure equation models,the results showed that:(1)the incidence of Internet addiction among middle school students in the study was 11.2 percents,with the percents among boys was higher than that of girls, and the percents among key middles schools was lower than that of general and key middle schools.(2)parents-adolescents relationship was negatively associated with their loneliness and Internet addiction,while Loneliness was positively associated with their Internet addiction.(3)Father-adolescents relationship not only has a direct negative effect on Internet addiction,but also has an indirect effect through loneliness.While mother-adolescents relationship just has an indirect negative effect on Internet addiction through loneliness.This results showed the loneliness play a partial mediation effect in the relationship between father-adolescent relationship and Internet addiction and a fully mediation effect in the relationship between mother-adolescent relationship and Internet addiction.

Changes in College Students’ Anxiety Level in 1993-2009:A Cross-Temporal Meta-Analysis

XIN Zi-qiang, XIN Su-fei, ZHANG Mei

Psychological Development and Education. 2011, 27(6):  648-653. 

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In the present study,a cross-temporal meta-analysis was applied to examine the changes in Chinese college students'anxiety level from 1993 to 2009.We collected the literature investigating college students by Spielberger's State-Trait Anxiety Inventory(STAI)in the past 17 years,and obtained 63 previous studies on state anxiety(N=29543)and 66 studies on trait anxiety(N=29694)for the present meta-analysis.The results showed that:(1)Correlations between state or trait anxiety mean scores and the year of data collection were positive and in a moderate level(0.40,0.27),suggesting that both the state and the trait anxiety levels of Chinese college students have been slowly increasing from 1993 to 2009.(2)The growth speed of college students'state anxiety was faster than that of trait anxiety,and the variation of state anxiety explained by the year was higher than that of trait anxiety.(3)The state and trait anxiety levels of both male and female college students had a significantly increasing trend between 1993 and 2009,and the college students'state and trait anxiety levels had not significant gender differences.

The Effect of Perceived Discrimination on Collective Well-being among Migrant Children in China

XING Shu-fen, LIU Xia, ZHAO Jing-xin, SHI Bao-guo

Psychological Development and Education. 2011, 27(6):  654-661. 

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With the growth of Chinese migrant children,it has been an important research problem to explore migrant children's psychological characteristics and its internal mechanism,especially for their perception of discrimination.Compared with the children in the research on ethnic discrimination,gender discrimination etc,one of the unique qualities of Chinese migrant children is that their group membership is concealable and can be changed.This quality provides a good opportunity to investigate the generality and specificity of children's perceived discrimination from different background.The present study was aimed to examine the relationship between perceived academic and social discrimination and collective well-being among Chinese migrant children in Beijing, and to investigate the Effect of emotional identity,cognitive identity,and perceived group status on those relationships.1350 elementary and Junior Middle School students were recruited to complete a self-report assessment on testing the perceived academic and social discrimination,collective well-being,group identity,and the perceived group status.The results indicated that perceived academic discrimination had significantly negative effects on the group well-being of migrant children.Perceived discrimination from social context also had significantly negative effects on the group well-being of migrant children,but its contribution was small than that of perceived academic discrimination.Moreover,Perceived academic discrimination only had indirect effect on group well-being via the mediation effect of migrant children's emotional identity and perceived group status,perceived discrimination from social context both had the direct effect and had the indirect effect via the mediation effect of perceived group status.These findings suggested that more attention should be paid to the intervention of migrant children's perceived academic discrimination,to reduce their perception of discrimination,change their coping and enhance their collective well-being.

Professional Value and Professional Efficacy:The Dual Core Factor Model of Professional Identity in Normal Students

WANG Xin-qiang, ZHANG Da-jun, ZENG Li-hong

Psychological Development and Education. 2011, 27(6):  662-669. 

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Extant studies on professional identity of normal students either focus on "professional efficacy" or "professional value",such single dimensional perspective is prone to overestimation or underestimation.Based on both perspectives,the present study put forward the dual core factor model,and tested it by investigating professional identity of 1237 tuition-free normal college students from three normal universities in China.Results show that:1)four groups were identified based on the survey:31.69% of students are low efficacy-low value, 6.63% are low efficacy-high value,40.01% are high efficacy-low value,and 21.67% are high efficacy-high value,and the result is better than single dimensional assessment;2)the four groups differed significantly in terms of professional identity outcomes(involve professional volition and professional expectation),academic satisfaction, life satisfaction,and the worry about the future.Results also show that,among these tuition-free normal college students,those with high professional efficacy and high professional value have best professional identity,academic satisfaction,general life satisfaction,and least worry about the future.