No evidence for the influence of head-heart conceptual metaphor on moral decision making and personality.

In English, head is associated with rationality and logic, whereas heart is related to feeling and emotionality. In Chinese, these head- and heart-related metaphors also exist. Could these head- and heart-related conceptual metaphors influence people's moral decision-making and personality? This seems so based on the previous findings that (a) simply pointing an index finger to heart (versus head) position caused participants to produce more emotional responses in a moral decision task, and (b) participants who believed themselves to be heart locators, relative to those who regarded themselves as head locators, scored higher in affect intensity, femininity, and intimacy related activities. The current study attempted to replicate these findings, following the same design and procedure of previous work, with Chinese participants from Hong Kong and Chinese mainland. In Experiments 1a and 1b, 203 participants performed the moral decision task on dilemmas with their index fingers pointing to head or heart. In Experiments 2a and 2b, 304 participants completed the scales of self-location, affective intensity, femininity, and intimacy related activities. In these high-powered experiments, we failed to replicate the findings of previous work. Bayesian analyses further showed that no head- and heart-related conceptual metaphor effect was likely to occur. Potential reasons for our inconsistent results with those of previous studies and the implications of our current findings were discussed.

Taboo language across the globe: A multi-lab study.

The use of taboo words represents one of the most common and arguably universal linguistic behaviors, fulfilling a wide range of psychological and social functions. However, in the scientific literature, taboo language is poorly characterized, and how it is realized in different languages and populations remains largely unexplored. Here we provide a database of taboo words, collected from different linguistic communities (Study 1, N = 1046), along with their speaker-centered semantic characterization (Study 2, N = 455 for each of six rating dimensions), covering 13 languages and 17 countries from all five permanently inhabited continents. Our results show that, in all languages, taboo words are mainly characterized by extremely low valence and high arousal, and very low written frequency. However, a significant amount of cross-country variability in words' tabooness and offensiveness proves the importance of community-specific sociocultural knowledge in the study of taboo language.

Decoding the essence of two-character Chinese words: Unveiling valence, arousal, concreteness, familiarity, and imageability through word norming.

Investigation of affective and semantic dimensions of words is essential for studying word processing. In this study, we expanded Tse et al.'s (Behav Res Methods 49:1503-1519, 2017; Behav Res Methods 55:4382-4402, 2023) Chinese Lexicon Project by norming five word dimensions (valence, arousal, familiarity, concreteness, and imageability) for over 25,000 two-character Chinese words presented in traditional script. Through regression models that controlled for other variables, we examined the relationships among these dimensions. We included ambiguity, quantified by the standard deviation of the ratings of a given lexical variable across different raters, as separate variables (e.g., valence ambiguity) to explore their connections with other variables. The intensity-ambiguity relationships (i.e., between normed variables and their ambiguities, like valence with valence ambiguity) were also examined. In these analyses with a large pool of words and controlling for other lexical variables, we replicated the asymmetric U-shaped valence-arousal relationship, which was moderated by valence and arousal ambiguities. We also observed a curvilinear relationship between valence and familiarity and between valence and concreteness. Replicating Brainerd et al.'s (J Exp Psychol Gen 150:1476-1499, 2021; J Mem Lang 121:104286, 2021) quadratic intensity-ambiguity relationships, we found that the ambiguity of valence, arousal, concreteness, and imageability decreases as the value of these variables is extremely low or extremely high, although this was not generalized to familiarity. While concreteness and imageability were strongly correlated, they displayed different relationships with arousal, valence, familiarity, and valence ambiguity, suggesting their distinct conceptual nature. These findings further our understanding of the affective and semantic dimensions of two-character Chinese words. The normed values of all these variables can be accessed via https://osf.io/hwkv7 .

Resting Heart Rate Variability and Emotion Dysregulation in Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Emotion dysregulation is common among individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study examined the relationship between emotion dysregulation and resting heart rate variability (HRV), a marker of the autonomic nervous system, in ASD adolescents. Resting HRV data were collected from ASD (n = 23) and typically developing (TD) adolescents (n = 32) via short-term electrocardiogram. Parents/caregivers reported participants' level of emotion dysregulation with the Emotion Dysregulation Inventory (EDI). Controlling for the effects of age and gender, regression analyses revealed moderating effects of group, suggesting that lower resting HRV was more strongly associated with greater emotion dysregulation in ASD than TD adolescents. The results support the view that disruptions in autonomic functioning may contribute to emotion dysregulation in ASD.

Contact with nature for emotion regulation: the roles of nature connectedness and beauty engagement in urban young adults.

Contact with nature has emotional benefits, but the psychological mechanism and potential moderator underlying the association between nature contact and emotion regulation remain unclear. The present study investigated how self-reported frequency of nature contact is associated with the use of emotion regulation strategies and explored the mediating role of nature connectedness (i.e., psychological connection to nature) and the moderating role of engagement with natural beauty. Employing mediation and moderated mediation analyses, in a cross-sectional sample of 2097 young adults aged 18-35 years old (M = 24.01, SD = 4.80) residing in urban China, we obtained three major findings. First, nature connectedness mediated the associations between direct/indirect nature contact and cognitive reappraisal as well as expressive suppression. Second, engagement with natural beauty moderated the path from direct/indirect nature contact to cognitive reappraisal in the mediation models. Third, engagement with natural beauty moderated the path from indirect nature contact to nature connectedness in the mediation models. Our study is the first to reveal mediating and moderating factors in the relationships among direct/indirect contact with nature, nature connectedness, engagement with natural beauty, and emotion regulation strategies. These findings provide support for the emotional health of nature contact and have implications for nature-based education and urban planning.

The Chinese Lexicon Project II: A megastudy of speeded naming performance for 25,000+ traditional Chinese two-character words.

Using a megastudy approach, (Tse et al., 2017 Behavior Research Methods, 49, 1503-1519) established a large-scale repository of lexical variables and lexical decision responses for more than 25,000 traditional Chinese two-character words. In the current study, we expand their database by collecting norms for speeded naming reaction times (RTs) and accuracy rates, and compiling more lexical variables (e.g., phonological consistency and semantic neighborhood size). Following Tse et al.'s procedure, about 33 college-aged native Cantonese speakers in Hong Kong read aloud each word. We conducted item-level regression analyses to test the relative predictive power of orthographic variables (e.g., stroke count), phonological variables (e.g., phonological consistency), and semantic variables (e.g., semantic transparency) in naming performance. We also compared the effects of lexical variables on naming performance and Tse et al.'s lexical decision performance to examine the extent to which effects are task-specific or task-general. Freely accessible to the research community, this resource provides a valuable addition to other influential mega-databases, such as the English Lexicon Project (Balota et al., 2004 Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 133, 283-316), and furthers our understanding of Chinese word recognition processes.

Independent effects of word concreteness and word valence on immediate serial recall.

The present study examined the roles of word concreteness and word valence in the immediate serial recall task. Emotion words (e.g. happy) were used to investigate these effects. Participants completed study-test trials with 7-item study lists consisting of positive or negative words with either high or low concreteness (Experiments 1 and 2) and neutral (i.e. non-emotion) words with either high or low concreteness (Experiment 2). In serial recall performance, we replicated the typical item concreteness effect (concrete words are better recalled than abstract words) and obtained an item valence effect (positive/neutral words are better recalled than negative words). However, there was no concreteness × valence interaction. We conclude that both word valence and word concreteness independently contribute to the serial order retention of emotion words in the immediate serial recall task.

Controlled or automatic? Influence of congruency proportion and stimulus-onset asynchrony on the brightness-valence and spatial-valence metaphoric congruency effects.

Whether a cognitive process is operated automatically or in a controlled manner has been a long-standing question in cognitive psychology. However, this issue has not been investigated in the activation of metaphoric association. A primed word valence judgement task is often used to test the activation of metaphoric association, in which participants first see a prime (bright/dark square or fixation point moving up or down from the centre of the screen) and then make a valence judgement to a target word. Metaphoric congruency effect occurs when participants make faster judgements to the target with valence being matched with the prime (good followed bright/top prime) than being mismatched with the prime (good followed dark/bottom prime). In the present two experiments, we manipulated prime-target stimulus-onset asynchrony (SOA) and proportion of metaphorically congruent trials (congruency proportion) to tease apart the effects of automatic and controlled activation of brightness-valence and spatial-valence metaphoric associations on word valence judgements. Results showed an overall effect of congruency proportion on brightness-valence and spatial-valence metaphoric congruency effect, which was independent of prime-target SOA. The effect was enhanced or reversed when congruency proportion was higher or lower than 0.5, respectively, suggesting that the activation of metaphoric association could be modulated by strategic control. The implications of these findings on the Conceptual Metaphor Theory and semantic priming theories are discussed.

The influence of congruency proportion, target eccentricity, and valence strength on the spatial-valence metaphoric congruency effect in a word valence judgment task.

In a word valence judgment task, positive words (e.g., excellence) are judged faster when presented at the top (congruent position) than at the bottom of the screen (incongruent position), whereas the opposite pattern occurs for negative words (e.g., disaster). This spatial-valence metaphoric congruency effect reflects top-positive/bottom-negative metaphoric association and may be attributed to at least three possible mechanisms: spreading activation between spatial and valence concepts (activation account), epistemic function that a conceptual metaphor serves to reduce the uncertainty associated with valence concepts (epistemic account), and/or the extent to which spatial-valence metaphoric association is relevant to task demand (relevance account). In three experiments, we manipulated congruency proportion, target eccentricity, and valence strength in a word valence judgment task to test these three possible accounts. Results showed that the metaphoric congruency effect was larger when a high (vs. equal) proportion of targets appears in congruent, relative to incongruent, position, and for targets with strong (vs. weak) valence. However, the effect in reaction time measure was not modulated by whether the target appeared in the position being near vs. far away from the center of the screen. The overall findings are better accommodated by the relevance account. The implications of the current findings on other theoretical accounts, such as Conceptual Metaphor Theory and polarity correspondence account, are also discussed.

Age differences in facial trustworthiness judgement based on multiple facial cues.

Multiple facial cues such as facial expression and face gender simultaneously influence facial trustworthiness judgement in adults. The current work was to examine the effect of multiple facial cues on trustworthiness judgement across age groups. Eight-, 10-year-olds, and adults detect trustworthiness from happy and neutral adult faces (female and male faces) in Experiment 1. Experiment 2 included both adult and child faces wearing happy, angry, and neutral expressions. Nine-, 11-, 13-year-olds, and adults had to rate facial trustworthiness with a 7-point Likert scale. The results of Experiments 1 and 2 revealed that facial expression and face gender independently affected facial trustworthiness judgement in children aged 10 and below but simultaneously affected judgement in children aged 11 and above, adolescents, and adults. There was no own-age bias in children and adults. The results showed that children younger than 10 could not process multiple facial cues in the same manner as in older children and adults when judging trustworthiness. The current findings provide evidence for the stable-feature account, but not for the own-age bias account or the expertise account.

Construal-level priming does not modulate memory performance in Deese-Roediger/McDermott paradigm.

Construal level refers to the level of abstractness that events and objects are represented, with high construal level promoting relational processing, whereas low construal level, item-specific processing. Three experiments (total N = 432) were conducted to investigate how priming construal level affects encoding of Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM) lists (e.g., bed, dream … converged to a critical item sleep), and then modulates free recall and recognition memory performance. Before and during list encoding, participants were primed with high/low construal level by identifying global/local letter in composite letters in a Navon task, choosing category (e.g., body)/exemplar (e.g., liver) to common objects (e.g., internal organ) in a two-alternative-forced-choice task, or by narrating on a particular incident they had power over other people or someone else had power over them. Half of critical items (and yoked associates) were studied and half were not, so their hit rates, false alarm rates, and memory sensitivity were measured. Results showed the typical false memory effect and lower memory sensitivity for critical items (vs. yoked associates), but there was no significant effect of primed construal level on memory performance in all experiments, despite our sample sizes ensuring strong statistical power. Hence, construal-level priming does not modulate memory performance in the DRM task.

The Taste of Emotion: Metaphoric Association Between Taste Words and Emotion/Emotion-Laden Words.

According to the Conceptual Metaphor Theory, abstract concepts can be metaphorically associated with more concrete, physically embodied concepts, such as gustatory experience. Studies on taste-emotion metaphoric association reported that people associate love with sweet, jealousy with sour and bitter, and sadness with bitter. However, few studies have systematically examined the metaphoric association between taste and words referred to emotion (e.g., "sad") or emotion-laden concepts (e.g., "funeral"). In the current four studies (total N = 357), we examined this metaphoric association by having participants come up with a taste word when reading an emotion and emotion-laden word (Study 1-explicit association of taste words-to-emotion/emotion-laden words), come up with an emotion word when reading taste words (Study 2-explicit association of emotion words-to-taste words), rate the association between taste words and basic or non-basic emotion words (Study 3), and rate the association between taste words and a more expanded pool of emotion/emotion-laden words (Study 4). Results showed that sweet was mostly associated with positive emotion and emotion-laden words, whereas bitter, followed by sour and spicy, was mostly associated with negative emotion and emotion-laden words. The bidirectionality of taste-emotion metaphoric association was supported by our dataset. The implications of these findings on the Conceptual Metaphor Theory and embodied cognition are discussed.

Individual differences in Cantonese Chinese word recognition: Insights from the Chinese Lexicon Project.

The Chinese Lexicon Project is a repository of lexical decision data for 25,286 Cantonese Chinese two-character compound words. To create that repository, 594 participants responded to approximately 1,404 words and 1,404 nonwords over three sessions. Using the data in this repository, the present study examines the variability and reliability of Chinese lexical decision performance, along with the moderating influence of individual differences on lexical processing. We generally found high to very high within- and between-session reliabilities for mean response times, ex-Gaussian parameters, accuracy rates, and a composite proficiency measure tapping lexical processing fluency. Using linear mixed effects models, we also found reliable interactions between fluency and two lexical effects. Specifically, more fluent readers showed larger effects of word frequency and semantic transparency. These results attest to the stability of Chinese word recognition performance, and are most consistent with a flexible lexical processing system that adapts optimally to task demands.

Factors that modulate the intergenerational transmission of autobiographical memory from older to younger generations.

The present study examined the intergenerational factors in transmitting autobiographical memories from one generation to the next. Older adults from Beijing, China reported a collection of personally important autobiographical memories and their middle-aged children recalled important parental memories. The parent-child dyads independently recalled and provided ratings of mnemonic characteristics for the memories. Across generations, consensus memories, which refer to the memories that both parents and children considered as important in the parent's life, were characterised by the substantial material change that the events brought about in their lives. While parent-child interaction affected the number of events passed onto children, it only affected the number of script-divergent events that were not recorded in the life script of a culture, but not the number of script-consistent events. In addition, children whose parents were rusticated and relocated to rural areas during the Cultural Revolution remembered more historical memories than children whose parents were not rusticated. The findings shed light on the process that one generation gains the biographical knowledge and historical experience of a prior generation. Theoretical implications are discussed.

Does the mortality salience effect on worldview defence depend on the cultural orientation of Chinese people?

According to the terror management theory, people tend to favour their worldview and in-group members after being reminded of death (i.e., mortality salience [MS] effect). However, inconsistent findings of the MS effect were found among Chinese people. In the present study, we examined the MS effect with Chinese samples and tested whether the effect would depend on participants' cultural orientation and relational self-esteem. In Studies 1 (N = 227) and 2 (N = 221), we examined the roles of participants' cultural orientations and relational self-esteem in their evaluations on moral transgression and/or perceived regard from people around after being primed with mortality (vs. dental pain) salience. We obtained the interaction effects of mortality salience, cultural orientations, and relational self-esteem. The implications of these results are discussed in the context of Chinese culture.

Normative data for Chinese-English paired associates.

Paired-associate learning is one of the most commonly used paradigms to study human memory. In many of these studies, participants are typically told to learn foreign language-English translations, such as Swahili-English or Lithuanian-English pairs. One limitation of these currently available foreign language-English translation norms is that their foreign languages are based on the alphabetic writing system, thereby preventing researchers from generalizing their findings to languages based on logographic writing systems. In the present study we collected normative data for 160 Chinese-English word pairs. Participants completed three study-test cycles, followed by metacognitive judgments on their learning experience. For each pair, we report recall performance, recall latency, ease of learning, and judgments of learning. A simultaneous multiple regression analysis with frequency (of both the English word and the Chinese character), word length (English), and number of strokes (Chinese) as predictors revealed that a greater number of strokes (or higher visual complexity) for the Chinese characters predicted lower target recall.

Examining the Effect of Semantic Relatedness on the Acquisition of English Collocations.

This study examines whether semantic relatedness facilitates or impedes the acquisition of English collocations by conducting two experiments respectively on Chinese undergraduates. Each experiment was composed of a reading session, a productive test, and a receptive test. Experiment 1 began with the reading session of 28 paired-up words and their collocations (in sentence context). Those words were counterbalanced between two randomly selected groups by cross-matching on semantic relatedness. Results of the productive test revealed that the participants scored significantly higher on test items that were semantically related than the randomly cross-paired counterparts. However, for the receptive test, the participants performed significantly better on semantically unrelated items. Experiment 2 was similar to Experiment 1 except that the word pairs selected were only semantically related and did not have any shared morphemes. Experiment 2 also revealed consistent results. The results of the two experiments consistently illustrate that semantic relatedness may exert a facilitatory effect on language output but an inhibitory effect on the process of language input.

Language Training Leads to Global Cognitive Improvement in Older Adults: A Preliminary Study.

Purpose We report a preliminary study that prospectively tests the potential cognitive enhancing effect of foreign language (FL) learning in older adults with no clear signs of cognitive decline beyond what is age typical. Because language learning engages a large brain network that overlaps with the network of cognitive aging, we hypothesized that learning a new language later in life would be beneficial. Method Older adults were randomly assigned to 3 training groups: FL, games, and music appreciation. All were trained predominately by a computer-based program for 6 months, and their cognitive abilities were tested before, immediately after, and 3 months after training. Results FL and games, but not music appreciation, improved overall cognitive abilities that were maintained at 3 months after training. Conclusion This is the 1st randomized control study providing preliminary support for the cognitive benefits of FL learning.

Can the Testing Effect for General Knowledge Facts Be Influenced by Distraction due to Divided Attention or Experimentally Induced Anxious Mood?

Studies on testing effect have showed that a practice test on study materials leads to better performance in a final test than restudying the materials for the same amount of time. Two experiments were conducted to test how distraction, as triggered by divided attention or experimentally induced anxious mood in the practice phase, could modulate the benefit of testing (vs. restudying) on the learning of interesting and boring general knowledge facts. Two individual difference factors (trait test anxiety and working memory (WM) capacity) were measured. Under divided attention, participants restudied or recalled the missing information in visually presented general knowledge facts, while judging whether auditorily presented items were from a pre-specified category. To experimentally induce anxious mood, we instructed participants to view and interpret negative pictures with anxious music background before and during the practice phase. Immediate and two-day delayed tests were given. Regardless of item type (interesting or boring) or retention interval, the testing effect was not significantly affected by divided (vs. full) attention or anxious (vs. neutral) mood. These results remained unchanged after taking into account the influences of participants' trait test anxiety and WM capacity. However, when analyses were restricted to the study materials that had been learnt in the divided attention condition while participants accurately responded to the concurrent distracting task, the testing effect was stronger in the divided attention condition than in the full attention condition. Contrary to previous studies (e.g., Tse and Pu, 2012), there was no WM capacity × trait test anxiety interaction in the overall testing effect. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.