In the present study, we examined the relative contributions of word frequency and contextual diversity in Chinese lexical recognition by using the ERP technique. Word frequency effect and contextual diversity effect were examined in separated models, and both were observed between 300~800 ms, which suggests the two effects occur at later stages of lexical identification. However, when incorporated word frequency, contextual diversity, and the interaction into the model, word frequency effect decreased and occurred in 300~400 ms, whereas contextual diversity effect maintained from 300 ms to 700 ms. It suggests that contextual diversity plays a more significant role than word frequency in Chinese word recognition, which provides support for the “principle of likely need” rather than the “principle of repetition” in visual word recognition.

This study investigated whether predictive processing during Chinese reading predominantly occurs at the lexical level or semantic level by employing eye-tracking technology. The experiment manipulated target words within sentences to create conditions with either high-predictable or low-predictable words across three levels, with the semantic similarity between high-predictable and low-predictable words decreasing progressively (L1>L2>L3). The results revealed that as the semantic similarity between low-predictable and high-predictable words decreased, the processing time for low-predictable words increased in early eye movement measures. This finding demonstrates a significant semantic similarity effect, highlighting the graded nature of semantic prediction. Additionally, contextual constraints are shown to modulate predictive processing. These results provide support for the “semantic prediction” account.

This study aimed to explore the role of morphological awareness in reading of Chinese second language learners. Participants’ morphological awareness were measured, and the eye movements were recorded by using eye-tracking technology while they read sentences and passages. The results showed that: 1) Morphological awareness significantly predicted fixation times on two-character words during sentences reading, with different effects in different components of morphological awareness. 2) Morphological awareness not only directly predicted the fluency and accuracy of reading texts, but also indirectly affected the fluency and accuracy of passages reading via vocabulary recognition in different direction. The results indicate that morphological awareness is an important factor to predict reading of Chinese second language learners, with different components play different role in such effects.

Previous studies have found that people are more inclined to use additive strategies and ignore favorable subtractive strategies when solving problems, however, what factors influence this preference for addition remains unclear. The present study explored this issue by using a Chinese character conversion task. Experiment 1 found that when using a single strategy (either adding or subtracting one stroke alone) to convert a false character into a valid one, the frequency of subtractive answers was higher than that of additive ones, which suggests that subtraction is easier than addition. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the frequency of additive answers was higher than subtractive ones under a free-choice strategy condition where participants could choose to add or subtract one stroke. Additionally, the high perceptual integration condition caused higher proportion of additive answers compared to the low perceptual integration condition. This study validates the additive tendency and reveals a new finding, that is, the intercomponent perceptual integration enhances the additive tendency.

The Attentional Boost Effect (ABE) refers to the phenomenon that the memory of background materials presented simultaneously with the detection stimuli is enhanced in learning phase. Previous studies have found that incidental encoding of memory materials can also produce a significant ABE. To further explore the impact of intentionality of encoding on ABE, the present study adopted a learning-test paradigm, in which the intentional and incidental encoding conditions were manipulated in learning phase with detection stimulus and vocabulary were presented together for 500 ms (Experiment 1) or 200 ms (Experiment 2), and setting a recognition task and “remember/know” (R/K) judgment task in the test phase. The results showed that in the intentional encoding condition, a significant ABE was found in both experiments, and the target detection mainly promoted the “R” response of the words; in the incidental encoding condition, significant ABE was found in Experiment 1, but not in Experiment 2. Therefore, ABE is stable in the intentional encoding condition, but the generation of it in the incidental encoding condition is conditional, and if the background materials fail to receive any attention resources, ABE will not occur.

Positive moral emotions, such as gratitude, have numerous positive effects, but it remains unclear how they affect malevolent creativity. This study examined the effects of gratitude on malevolent creativity and its underlying mechanisms through two survey studies and one experimental study. The results showed that: 1) trait gratitude negatively predicted malevolent creativity; 2) moral disengagement partially mediated the effect of trait gratitude on malevolent creativity; 3) dark personality moderated the effect of state gratitude on moral disengagement, with an indirect effect of “state gratitude-moral disengagement-malevolent creativity” being significant when the level of dark personality was high. The findings highlight the important role of gratitude in preventing and reducing individuals’ malevolent creativity and reveal the underlying mechanisms.

Utilizing a comprehensive data survey involving 511 adolescents, this study explored the pivotal symptoms of adolescents’ interpersonal distress. Also, we examined the influence of parent-child attachment and psychological boundaries on adolescents’ interpersonal distress by using network analysis method. The results showed that: 1) The core symptoms of adolescents’ interpersonal distress were “ostracism and indifference from others”, “highly susceptible to embarrassment”, “having no one to confide in one’s worries”, and “not knowing how to stop at the right boundaries with the opposite sex”. 2) No significant gender differences were observed in the network structure, global strength and centrality of adolescents’ interpersonal distress. However, significant gender differences existed in the intensity of symptom d23. 3) Interpersonal communication distress was the center node of the network; parent-child alienation and psychological boundaries were the important bridging nodes connecting parent-child attachment and interpersonal distress. This study reveals the influence of parent-child attachment and psychological boundaries on adolescents’ interpersonal distress.

The present study recruited a sample of 339 fourth-grade students from rural public primary schools to examine the association between children’s creativity and internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors. After controlling for gender and intelligence, the results showed the following: 1) there was a negative correlation between originality and appropriateness; 2) both originality and appropriateness significantly negatively predicted internalizing problem behaviors; 3) originality significantly negatively predicted externalizing problem behaviors, with a significant interaction effect observed between originality and appropriateness, which indicates that the negative predictive effect of originality on externalizing problem behaviors is only significant at high levels of appropriateness. The results of this study help us understand the relations between children’s creativity and problem behaviors in rural settings.

The capacity of infants to perceive emotions in music has been debated. Previous studies often mixed music emotion perception with acoustic processing. To address this, the violation-of-expectation (VoE) paradigm was employed to investigate whether infants aged 10~20 months form emotional expectations about facial expressions after listening to music. Infants were presented with either happy or sad music, followed by adult facial expressions that were either consistent or inconsistent with the emotion of the music. Eye-tracking technology was used to measure infants’ looking time and pupil response to the facial expressions. The results revealed that infants looked significantly longer at facial expressions inconsistent with the emotion of music, which indicates a violation of their expectations. Furthermore, greater pupil dilation was observed when facial expressions were consistent with the emotion of music, which suggests that music and facial expressions may evoke similar emotional responses in infants. These findings indicate that infants as young as 10~20 months can distinguish between happy and sad emotions in music and form emotional expectations that guide their subsequent processing of facial expressions.

Two experiments were conducted by using the Balloon Analog Risk Task (BART) to examine the influence of peer observing, peer distance, and number of peers on early adolescent risk-taking behavior. Experiment 1 recruited 90 junior high school students to explore the effects of peer onsite observing versus online observing on adolescent risk-taking behavior. Compared to the solitary situation, we found that peer observing increased adolescent risk-taking behavior and that adolescents’ risk-taking level was higher when peer was onsite than when peer was observing online. Experiment 2 recruited 81 junior high school students to examine the effects of mode and amount of peer presence on adolescents’ risk-taking behavior. The results revealed that adolescents’ risk-taking level was higher when peers observed next to each other than when peers observed across from each other, which was higher than when peers were only present. Adolescents’ risk-taking levels were higher when two peers were present than when one peer was present. The study demonstrates that closer peer distance and a greater number of peers increased adolescent risk-taking behaviors, which proves the applicability of dual-systems theory in explaining adolescent risk-taking behavior in peer context, and reveals the important role of peer presence on adolescent risk-taking behavior.

In order to explore the relationship between technoference and college students’ phubbing, as well as the roles of nomophobia, environmental sensitivity and social comparison orientation, this study used the Technoference Scale, Environmental Sensitivity Scale, Chinese Version of Nomophobia Scale, Social Comparative Orientation Scale and Phubbing Scale to survey 2000 students. The results showed that: 1) technoference significantly negatively predicted college students’ phubbing when the influences of gender and age were controlled; 2) nomophobia partially mediated the relationship between technoference and phubbing; 3) the first and second half of the mediating pathways of technoference, nomophobia, and college students’ phubbing were moderated by environmental sensitivity and social comparison orientation. In short, there are both mediating and moderating effects between technoference and college students’ phubbing. The current study reveals the relationship between technoference and college students’ phubbing and individual differences, which provides empirical support and theoretical basis for reducing college students’ phubbing behavior.

A survey study was conducted on 612 middle school students. Based on the ecological systems theory, childhood socioeconomic status, parent-child attachment, and emotion regulation strategies were considered as variables at different system levels. Using the family stress model and attachment theory, this study systematically investigated the formation and influencing mechanism of adolescents’ prosocial behavior. Mediation analyses showed that: 1) there was a significantly positive correlation between childhood socioeconomic status and adolescents’ prosocial behavior; 2) insecure attachment and adaptive emotion regulation strategies respectively mediated the relationship between childhood socioeconomic status and prosocial behavior, and together they constituted a sequential mediation pathway. These findings expand relevant theories and provide practical guidance for effectively promoting the cultivation and development of adolescents’ prosocial behavior.

To investigate the relationship between the perception of aesthetic education practices and life satisfaction among disadvantaged adolescents, as well as the role of gratitude tendency and parent-child communication in this relationship, this study conducted a questionnaire survey of 1811 high school students. The results showed that: 1) The perception of aesthetic education practices significantly and positively predicted the life satisfaction of disadvantaged adolescents. 2) Gratitude tendency played a mediating role in the relationship between the perception of aesthetic education practices and life satisfaction among disadvantaged adolescents. 3) Parent-child communication also played a mediating role in the relationship between the perception of aesthetic education practices and life satisfaction among disadvantaged adolescents. 4) Gratitude tendency and parent-child communication together played a chain mediating role in the relationship between the perception of aesthetic education practices and life satisfaction among disadvantaged adolescents. Our findings provide useful insights for schools to carry out aesthetic education practices to improve the quality of life and promote the mental health of disadvantaged adolescents.

The purpose of this study was to develop tests for assessing individual differences in reading abilities among proficient Chinese readers. The results showed that the reliability and validity of the tests met the rigorous standards set by psychometrics. Specifically, the spelling test effectively evaluated potential spelling abilities, the vocabulary knowledge test accurately measured differences in vocabulary levels, and the reading comprehension test demonstrated strong reliability and validity. In conclusion, the spelling, vocabulary, and reading comprehension tests developed in this study effectively assess individual differences in the reading abilities of proficient Chinese readers, which provides valuable tools for future research in this field.

This study aimed to explore how social scenes impact responding joint attention process in children with ASD. Thirty-two ASD children aged 3~6 and forty typically developing (TD) children of the same age participated in two eye-tracking experiments: one involving a person-object social scene and the other an interpersonal social scene. The findings revealed that changes in the intensity of social information had a noticeable impact on the gaze perception of responding joint attention in ASD children compared to TD children. ASD children demonstrated significant impairments in their ability to follow gazes in both types of social situations.

The disfluency effect indicates that reducing the perceived fluency of learning materials can improve the multimedia learning effect. Recent research has found that adding cues, such as color labels, might affect the disfluency effect. The current study explored the relationship between cues and the disfluency effect in multimedia learning. Experiment 1 validated the disfluency effect in multimedia learning under an “appropriate” level of disfluency. Experiment 2 employed a 2 (cues: yes, no) × 2 (fluency: fluent, disfluent) between-subjects design. The behavior and eye movements results showed that the processing fluency in the cues group was significantly higher than that in the no-cues group. Additionally, the disfluent group had longer fixation times and more fixations in the cue area. The cues moderated the influence of fluency on learning. The results indicate that adding cues can promote attention guidance for disfluent text, but it may inhibit processing of other content. It is noteworthy to balance the fluency and effectiveness of cues in design multimedia instructional materials.

The shared experience of social exclusion promotes cooperation, but the neural mechanisms, particularly interpersonal ones, are unclear. In the present study, 82 female participants (41 pairs) were recruited to investigate the effects of shared experience of social exclusion on the cooperative tendency from an interbrain perspective using cyberball and prisoner’s dilemma paradigm. The results showed that the group who experienced shared social exclusion significantly exhibited higher level of cooperative tendency and increased interpersonal brain synchronization (IBS) in the right medial prefrontal gyrus(r-MFG) compared to the control group. Furthermore, a significant positive correlation was observed between cooperative tendency and IBS in the r-MFG. This suggests that the increase in the r-MFG IBS during cooperation may be an interbrain neural mechanism for increasing the cooperative tendency through the shared experience of social exclusion. This finding provides new evidence for understanding the interbrain neural basis of cooperative behaviour which provides implications for team management.

Perceptual anticipation is a pivotal factor determining the level of motor skills. High-level athletes may possess advantages in perceptual anticipation, yet the eye-brain interactive processing mechanism that enhances perceptual anticipation through sports experience remains to be further explored. This study selected volleyball match video materials and utilized eye-tracking and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to investigate the behavioral performance and cognitive processing characteristics of the brain during perceptual anticipation of receiving smashes among volleyball players of different skill levels. The results showed that the accuracy rate was significantly higher and the reaction time was significantly shorter for the expert group than those for the novice group. Furthermore, the pupil diameter and saccade amplitude of the expert group were significantly shorter compared to the novice group. Regarding brain activation, the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex exhibited significantly lower activation levels in the expert group than that in the novice group. Notably, the activation level of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and pupil diameter showed significant positive correlation; also, the activation level of the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and pupil diameter, and saccade amplitude respectively showed significant positive correlation. These findings suggest that high-level volleyball players possess advantages in perceptual anticipation, and long-term volleyball training facilitates coupling of visual and brain information processing rapidly.

Based on the theory of psychological contract, this study investigated the impact of authoritative leadership on employees’ feedback avoidance behavior and its underlying mechanism. The questionnaire data from 283 employees were analyzed. The results showed that authoritative leadership had a significant positive influence on feedback avoidance behavior. This relationship was partially mediated by organization-based self-esteem. Additionally, employee psychological resilience played a crucial role in moderating the negative association between authoritative leadership and organization-based self-esteem, such that higher level of psychological resilience weakened this relationship. Furthermore, employee psychological resilience also served as an additional moderator in the mediating effect of organization-based self-esteem on the relationship between authoritarian leadership and feedback avoidance behavior. Specifically, when the level of psychological resilience was high for employees, the indirect impact of authoritarian leadership on feedback avoidance behavior through organization-based self-esteem was attenuated.