Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： Interpersonal sensitivity reflects one’s ability to understand others’ feelings and thoughts. Power is one of the factors that could influence interpersonal sensitivity. Up to now, it has been controversial to determine whether people with high power or low power could better understand the feelings or thoughts of others. People with high (vs. low) power status have long been thought to have poorer interpersonal sensitivity. The underlying reason is that people with high power (vs. low) have less willingness to understand others. However, this viewpoint has been challenged by recent findings, which suggest that people with high power tend to have stronger interpersonal sensitivity than those with low power. In some specific circumstances, power could enhance interpersonal sensitivity, such as when people with high power take an other-focused perspective or have a higher prosocial tendency, etc. These two opposing viewpoints can be explained theoretically in a variety of ways. The approach-inhibition theory suggests that individuals with high power are more likely to adopt a top-down and heuristic information processing mode, which leads to their lower interpersonal sensitivity. However, those with low power tend to use a more elaborated information processing mode, which results in higher interpersonal sensitivity. Nevertheless, when considering from the emotional perspective of approach-inhibition theory, it could lead to an opposite conclusion. For example, some studies suggest that individuals with high power tend to experience more positive emotions, which contribute to their higher interpersonal sensitivity. In addition, social distance theory has also been mentioned. Previous related research indicates that power increases social distance among people, which in turn decreases their motivation to care about others and leads to lower interpersonal sensitivity. Therefore, there is still a dearth of theoretical analysis to clearly explain the relationship between power and interpersonal sensitivity. This study, embedded within an integrative cognitive framework which also involves emotions and motivations, seeks to unveil the mechanism of how power exerts an influence on interpersonal relationship. From the perspective of cognition, it shows that individuals with high power have greater interpersonal sensitivity in more complex situations, and those with low power are more interpersonally sensitive in less complex situations, which suggests that the relationship between power, cognition and interpersonal sensitivity is situationally dependent. From the view of emotions, research has found that emotional experiences can broaden attention and scope of cognition, leading people to adopt a more elaborated information processing mode, and facilitate their memory ability, which is similar to the explanation for why individuals with high power show greater interpersonal sensitivity in more complex situations from the perspective of cognition. By taking an integral framework of cognitions, emotions and motivations, contradictory views in previous research can be explained in a more general way. In future research, according to this integral framework, how individual and social factors influence the relationship between power and interpersonal sensitivity could be examined.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： Forgetting is a cognitive process that individuals tend to avoid under many circumstances, but it does not always have negative effects. Erasing some outdated information (e.g., phone numbers a long time ago) or negative information (e.g., negative emotions) from memory will not only improve one’s efficiency of memorization, but also improve one’s mental health. In psychology, this kind of forgetting is named ‘intentional forgetting’ or ‘directed forgetting’. In a typical experimental paradigm to study directed forgetting, the participants are asked to remember or forget certain items following corresponding cues in the learning stage, and then to recall or recognize these items in the subsequent testing stage. Results of previous studies have consistently shown that the score of memorization on the to-be-forgotten items is significantly lower than on the to-be-remembered items. Regarding whether directed forgetting requires cognitive effort, however, there have been controversial views including two opposing theories, namely passive decay theory and active inhibition theory. In the view of passive decay theory, directed forgetting is not necessarily a mechanism of active inhibition of memory; instead, it is a passive process that does not require cognitive effort-the to-be-forgotten items just decay passively with time for lacking an effective rehearsal as there is a selective rehearsal of the to-be-remembered items. On the contrary, active inhibition theory maintains that directed forgetting is a process of active inhibition of memory induced by the forgetting cues and hence it requires cognitive effort-this theory has not only been supported by behavioral studies but also been evidenced by the ERPs in the frontal lobe as shown in neurocognitive studies. Although the two theories attribute directed forgetting to opposing mechanisms, they are not entirely conflicting as they have consensus on the encoding mechanism of the to-be-remembered items. In addition to these two mainstream theories, there is also a viewpoint that the encoding stage of directed forgetting may involve both active inhibition and passive decay which are two processes independent in time and space, but how the two processes interact and integrate is yet to be explored. Notably, some other studies reported that the performance of forgetting on the to-be-forgotten items was even worse than on the items without any cues（these words don't need to be remembered or forgotten）, suggesting that the to-be-forgotten items have partly entered the memory, which seems to challenge both active inhibition and passive decay theories. Despite a wealth of experimental evidence, the controversy in the theory remains. To further clarify the cognitive mechanism of the encoding stage of directed forgetting, future study needs to take non-cognitive factors such as motivation and emotion into investigation, and to inspect various populations.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2022-07-22
Abstract： As regards interpersonal relationship, it is inconclusive to determine whether an individual with high power or low power could better understand the feelings or thoughts of others. For a long time, research suggests that people with high (vs. low) power status exhibit lower interpersonal sensitivity. However, this viewpoint has been challenged by more recent findings that under some circumstances, an individual with high power tends to have stronger interpersonal sensitivity than those with low power. Although these two conflicting views are backed up by their empirical findings, there is still a dearth of theoretical analysis in this context. An integrative cognitive framework which also involves emotions and motivations, is used to unveil the mechanism of how power exerts an influence on interpersonal relationship. It is hoped that the findings will not only help explain the contradictory views but also lead to future research examining individual and social factors involved in this issue.
Peer Review Status:
Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Cognitive Psychology Subjects: Psychology >> Experimental Psychology submitted time 2021-02-28
Abstract： Abstract: Does intentional/directed forgetting require cognitive effort? In some studies, directed forgetting is deemed to be a result of passive decay, i.e., an effective rehearsal of F items (i.e., the items to be forgotten) is suppressed by the selective rehearsal of R items (i.e., the items to be remembered), and this process does not require cognitive effort. Other studies, however, have shown that directed forgetting involves forgetting-cue induced active inhibition of memory processing (this apparently requires cognitive effort), which has been evidenced by the ERPs in the frontal lobe as shown in brain cognitive research. In addition, there is also a point that directed forgetting may involve both active inhibition and passive decay, but how the two processes interact and integrate is yet to be explored. To clarify the cognitive mechanism in the encoding stage of directed forgetting, future study needs to take non-cognitive factors into investigation, and to inspect different populations.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
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