Visual attention is intrinsically rhythmic and oscillates based on the discrete sampling of either single or multiple objects. Recently, studies have found that the early visual cortex (V1/V2) modulates attentional rhythms. Both monocular and binocular cells are present in the early visual cortex, which acts as a transfer station for transformation of the monocular visual pathway into the binocular visual pathway. However, whether the neural site of attentional rhythms is in the monocular or binocular visual pathway needs further study. In the current study, we leveraged the anatomical features of the monocular and binocular pathway to design a paradigm with same-eye and different-eye presentations of cues and targets. By combining this approach with EEG recordings and analysis the impulse response function (TRF), we aimed to address this question. In Experiment 1, we reset the phase of attentional rhythms in one monocular channel (left eye or right eye) by a dichoptic cue and tracked the impulse response function (TRF) of the monocular channel in the left and right eye separately. We found no significant differences in the respective TRFs and their spectra for each eye, suggesting that attention rarely switched between the two eyes, indicating that the binocular visual pathway, not the monocular visual pathway, is the neural site of attentional rhythms. These results were verified when resetting the phases of attentional rhythms by a binocular cue in Experiment 2. These results suggest that attentional rhythms may be sensitive to activities in the binocular visual pathway.

Anhedonia is believed to be transdiagnostic symptom exist in various disorders including schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, and autism spectrum disorder. However, very few studies attempted to profile subclinical samples with schizophrenia, depressive, and autistic symptoms using measures of anhedonia scales. This study adopted a cluster analytical approach to examine the anhedonia profile in 46 individuals with schizotypal trait (ST), 43 subthreshold depression (SD), 27 autistic trait (AT), and 41 healthy controls. They completed a set of checklists capturing different dimensions of anhedonia including the anticipatory and consummatory interpersonal pleasure scale, the temporal experience of pleasure scale, the motivation and pleasure scale and the belief about pleasure scale. Cluster analysis was conducted on these measures among the merged sample of ST, SD, and AT. To validate the clusters, we administered measures on nonsocial reward processing, self-reported empathy, and social functioning. A three-cluster solution was found to be the best fit. Cluster 1 (n = 48) showed high pleasure experience, motivation, and belief about pleasure and spread evenly across three groups. Cluster 2 (n = 31) was characterized by low levels of anticipatory and consummatory pleasure specifically for the social domain, largely comprised of individuals with ST. Cluster 3 (n = 37) showed low levels of consummatory pleasure, motivation, and belief about pleasure, largely comprised of individuals with SD. The resultant clusters differed in social process and functioning. The current findings suggested distinct anhedonia subtypes within different subclinical populations. These findings may have implications for early detection and prevention for anhedonia.

Stressor forecasting predicts the likelihood of a stressful event occurring in an upcoming timeframe and can significantly influence everyday experiences. The current study aimed to understand how stressor forecasting may moderate links between hourly stress and affective experiences over the course of a day. An ecological momentary assessment approach was used to collect data from 304 participants about their predicted stressor forecasting and hourly stress to personally relevant stressors and affective experiences 10 times within a day. We predicted that stressor forecasting would moderate the relationship between stress and affective experiences (separately for negative and positive affect). Stressor forecasting significantly moderated the links between stress and negative affect, but not between stress and positive affect. These findings emphasize the meaningful implications that adverse stressor forecasting can have on daily wellbeing, which may lead to the development and maintenance of chronic stress.

The postgraduate entrance examination frenzy is a widespread and intense phenomenon in China. As the number of students who failed the examination surged, the ensuing mental health problems became prominent. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of an online ACT-based group resilience course, which incorporated the six core components of ACT and integrated elements of Chinese culture, in alleviating psychological distress among students who failed the examination. It also explored the mechanism by which the intervention affected changes in psychological distress. A total of 61 participants were randomly assigned to the intervention group (n = 31) and the control group (n = 30). They attended an 8-day group course, with 2-h sessions each day. The study outcomes were psychological distress, resilience, psychological flexibility (PF), and psychological inflexibility (PI). These outcomes were measured at baseline, post-intervention, and 1-month follow-up. Linear mixed models (LMMs) showed significant group × time interactions for all outcome variables, except for stress, which showed a marginally significant interaction. Post hoc analyses revealed significant improvements in depression, resilience, and PF at both post-intervention and at the 1-month follow-up. Additionally, significant reductions in anxiety and a marginally significant reduction in stress were observed at the 1-month follow-up. However, no significant reduction was found in PI. The multiple mediation model showed that the intervention improved psychological distress by increasing resilience and PF. These findings suggest that online resilience group intervention is generally effective in enhancing resilience and alleviating psychological distress and is acceptable to students who have failed the postgraduate entrance examination, as evidenced by high participant engagement and satisfaction.

Past studies have illustrated that we tend to prioritize remembering information that is relevant to ourselves, resulting in a self-reference effect. This effect is often influenced by emotions associated with the stimuli, frequently showcasing a self-positivity bias. However, these effects have only been observed in individual memory, without any consideration given to a social collaboration setting. The current study intended to clarify these effects in ongoing and enduring social collaboration. Participants were instructed to encode personality trait adjectives, displayed in different colors with various emotional valences, using either self-reference or other-reference methods. They were then tasked with individually or collaboratively recalling the words along with their associated encoding task, followed by individual recall. Our data indicated evidence of the self-reference effect in item memory during both ongoing and enduring collaborative sessions. This effect was evident for words studied in red, but the pattern was reversed for those in green. Additionally, the self-positivity bias was observed when retrieving the source of the encoding task during ongoing collaborative sessions. A reversed self-positivity bias was observed in item memory for words that were studied in green. An unexpected finding was that whether participants collaborated or not did not influence the effects we were investigating. Overall, we have extended the self-reference effect and self-positivity bias to the social collaboration setting, demonstrating that these effects remain consistent even in collaborative environments. This suggests that the underlying theories driving the effects are not contingent on social interaction. Moving forward, potential future directions for research are considered.

Social desirability affects several aspects of human life. However, the neuropsychological mechanisms underlying individual differences in social desirability remain unclear. This study explored the neuroanatomical basis of individual differences in social desirability using regional gray matter density (rGMD) as a brain indicator in a sample of 158 Chinese college students (79 males; M_age = 21.42, SD = 1.96). Next, we tested the serial effects of callous–unemotional traits (a personality inhibitor of social desirability) and the uncovered brain structural correlation on individual differences in social desirability. Our results indicated that rGMD in the right dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) is associated with individual differences in social desirability. Additionally, callous–unemotional traits were negatively associated with individual differences in social desirability through lower rGMD in the right dmPFC. This study provides the serial effects of personality inhibitor and neural correlate on individual differences in social desirability, which facilitates a more complete understanding of social desirability from the perspective of inhibition, and suggests a neuropsychological mechanism underlying lower-order personality traits.

Retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) occurs when selective retrieval of certain information leads to the forgetting of other related information. Previous studies have shown that individuals with varying inhibition abilities can exhibit similar RIF magnitudes, a finding not entirely consistent with existing theories. This study aimed to investigate the interaction between item competitive strength and inhibition ability in modulating RIF. Items were categorized into high-, medium-, and low-competitive strength groups based on taxonomic frequency ratings. Participants' inhibition abilities were assessed using the Stroop task, and RIF was examined across these groups. The results revealed that at high-item competitive strength, only high-inhibition participants showed RIF. At medium item competitive strength, both groups demonstrated RIF, with no difference in magnitude. At low-item competitive strength, neither group exhibited RIF. These findings suggest that both item competitive strength and inhibition ability modulate RIF, supporting the inhibition theory of RIF.

During a public health emergency, such as the widespread transmission of COVID-19 following loosened COVID-19 policies in China, people's mental health is impacted along with their physical well-being. In order to investigate ways to mitigate these negative effects, this study examined how dispositional awe can predict mental health outcomes during such emergencies using a three-wave longitudinal design. Five hundred twenty seven participants (mean age = 21.18, SD = 3.39; 368 males) took part in the study within the first 2 months after the implementation of loosened COVID-19 policies, with one-month intervals between waves. Cross-lagged analysis revealed that dispositional awe in Wave 1 significantly predicted higher positive and lower negative interpretation bias in Wave 2, which in turn promoted positive mental functioning in Wave 3. Furthermore, negative interpretation bias in Wave 2 acted as a mediator for the predictive role of dispositional awe in Wave 1 on psychosomatic symptoms in Wave 3. These findings suggest that dispositional awe can act as a protective factor for mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic by influencing people's interpretation orientation.

Language changes are among the earliest indicators of cognitive decline in aging. Perplexity, a linguistic measure derived from information theory that quantifies speech predictability, has emerged as a potential marker for detecting early cognitive changes. However, its underlying neural substrates remain unclear. This study investigated the structural brain correlates of perplexity in 38 elderly participants (26 cognitively healthy, 12 with mild cognitive impairment) using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Perplexity was computed automatically from autobiographical interviews using single-word (1-g) and word-pair (2-g) models. Voxel-based morphometry analyses, adjusted for total intracranial volume, sex, and education, revealed distinct associations between perplexity measures and regional gray matter volume. Region-of-interest analyses confirmed significant positive correlations between 1-g perplexity and left middle temporal gyrus volume as well as between 2-g perplexity and left precuneus. These findings suggest that perplexity reflects both linguistic processing and autobiographical memory, as evidenced by its associations with language-relevant temporal regions and memory-related precuneus. This study provides initial insights into the neural basis of perplexity as a measure that captures both linguistic and content-related aspects of language production in cognitive aging.

An occasional presence of bivalent stimuli in a block of univalent trials can elicit a slowing of the response on all subsequent univalent trials. This type of modulation of cognitive control is termed the bivalency effect. To explore whether this modulation is task specific, this study used a triplet task switching paradigm, with three following tasks that were presented concussively: a shape color judgment (red vs. blue), a number parity judgment (odd vs. even), and a letter case judgment (lowercase vs. uppercase). The event-related potential (ERP) results showed that (1) the bivalency effect was reflected by the decreased amplitude of N2 and P3a over the frontal region for both the color and letter tasks; (2) the bivalency effect occurred earlier for the color task compared with that for the letter task; (3) for the number parity task, the bivalency effect was observed in the increased N1 and the decreased P2p over the parietal region. These findings indicate that the modulation of cognitive control is task-specific after the presentation of bivalent stimuli in task switching.

To gain more insight into why adolescents exercise, based on Schwartz's personal values model and self-determination theory, this study examined whether personal values affect leisure-time exercise behavior and their underlying mechanisms. Five hundred twenty-two participants (193 Females and 329 Males; M_age = 19.32, SD = 1.02) in China were included. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the mediating and moderating effect. The results indicated that security-personal can predict leisure-time exercise, identified regulation, and exercise intention can mediate this relationship. Achievement can predict leisure-time exercise, introjected regulation and exercise intention can mediate this relationship, and emotional social support for exercise can moderate the relationship between achievement and introjected motivation. Hedonism can predict leisure-time exercise, intrinsic motivation and exercise intention can mediate this relationship. Conformity-interpersonal is not related to leisure-time exercise.

Workplace harassment has garnered considerable attention in organizational research due to its profound impact on employee well-being and organizational outcomes. Harassment in the workplace can take various forms, including verbal abuse, bullying, and other forms of psychological aggression, which collectively contribute to a toxic work environment. Such negative experiences can lead to severe consequences, including diminished job satisfaction, increased stress levels, and a heightened intention to leave the organization. The present study aims to test the impact of workplace harassment on employees' turnover intentions, highlighting the mediating role of organizational tolerance and the moderating effect of supervisor–subordinate guanxi. Additionally, the study considers the influence of gender and professional category to be covariates in the analysis. The sample for this study comprises 821 law enforcement officers (58.5% male) from various agencies within China. Workplace harassment was found to significantly and positively correlate with employees' turnover intentions. Organizational tolerance mediated this relationship. While the direct moderating effect of supervisor–subordinate guanxi was not statistically significant, the quality of guanxi moderated the mediated pathway. High-quality supervisor–subordinate guanxi reduced the negative impact of workplace harassment by weakening the mediating role of organizational tolerance. Gender and professional category significantly influenced the results, with women and lower-ranking officers demonstrating higher sensitivity to workplace harassment and organizational tolerance, thereby exacerbating turnover intentions. The findings underscore the importance of addressing workplace harassment and fostering high-quality supervisor–subordinate relationships to mitigate its adverse effects. Furthermore, targeted interventions should account for the unique vulnerabilities associated with gender and professional category to enhance retention strategies and foster supportive organizational environments.

This study examined the impact of facial attractiveness and group identity of male proposers on the fairness decision-making of female participants in an ultimatum game. Results showed that participants were more likely to accept unfair offers from both attractive proposers and in-group proposers.

This study examined how voice attractiveness and group identity influence ultimatum decisions. Attractive voices only increased acceptance of 8:2 offers, suggesting a weak beauty premium effect. In-group proposers' unfair offers also had elevated acceptance, supporting Social Identity Theory.

This EEG and eye-tracking study investigated affective influences on cognitive preparation using a precued pro−/antisaccade task with emotional faces as cues. Negative information interfered with preparatory processes with high but not low executive function load.