Acta Psychologica最新文献

When speakers refer to objects using demonstratives, they must choose among the available forms. In Japanese, speakers select from the ko-series (proximal), so-series (medial), and a-series (distal). Previous studies have investigated factors that influence this choice, and have highlighted the role of referent reachability to both the speaker and the addressee, but the effect of referent visibility remains unclear. We conducted two experiments focusing on the effects of referent reachability and visibility. Experiment 1 replicated previously reported patterns of demonstrative choice, confirming the validity of our procedure and analysis. Experiment 2 showed that referent visibility clearly influenced Japanese demonstrative choice. When the referent was not visible to the speaker, they tended to use medial and distal forms more than when it was visible and partially visible. When the referent was not visible to the addressee, the speaker tended to use proximal form more than when that was visible and partially visible. In both experiments, the patterns around 100 cm from the speaker suggest that, when referent reachability to the speaker was not clear, factors other than reachability differently influenced demonstrative choice than in the other distance conditions. Furthermore, the results suggest that the referent visibility to the addressee influenced how speakers chose between the two non-proximal forms when the referent was near the addressee. These findings elaborate the territory model by highlighting a key role for monitoring the visual accessibility of the referent to the addressee.

As social media usage continues to grow, the challenge of academic delay of gratification has become more pronounced among university students. Academic delay of gratification refers to the ability of students to postpone immediate satisfaction in order to achieve long-term academic goals. Although previous studies have examined related factors, little empirical research has explored how passive social media use relates to academic delay of gratification or how time management tendency and fear of missing out contribute to this process. To address this gap, this study investigates the relationship between passive social media use and academic delay of gratification through the mediating role of time management tendency and the moderating role of fear of missing out, constructing a moderated mediation model. A survey was conducted involving 1099 university students, collecting self-report data. The study utilized the Resource Allocation Theory and Self-Regulation Model as theoretical frameworks to explore the relationships between passive social media use, time management tendency, fear of missing out, and academic delay of gratification. Data analysis was performed using structural equation modeling (SEM) for path analysis. The findings showed a strong negative correlation between passive social media use and academic delay of gratification, with time management tendency partially mediating this relationship. Additionally, the moderating effect of fear of missing out was partially supported. This study offers fresh insights into how university students regulate emotions and academic behaviors, thereby extending the application scope of Resource Allocation Theory and the Self-Regulation Model to digital learning contexts. The findings suggest that reducing passive social media use and enhancing time management tendency can improve academic delay of gratification, particularly among students with high fear of missing out. Practically, universities should focus on time management training and emotional regulation to help students better balance academic tasks and social media use. This study provides theoretical support for developing mental health intervention strategies for university students, although longitudinal research is needed to further verify the causality of these relationships.

Despite the recognition that health is related to physical and social environments, few studies have explored this relationship in the greater China area, where approximately 18% of the worlds population currently lives. This study attempts to narrow this gap by examining the associations of housing, economic, and neighborhood conditions with perceived physical health in Macao. Using survey data collected from 3493 residents in Macao, living conditions are conceptualized as encompassing housing conditions, economic conditions, and neighborhood conditions. Multiple regression analyses revealed significant relationships between living conditions and perceived physical health. The findings indicate that specific housing and economic factors are significantly associated with health perceptions and that a notable relationship exists between neighborhood conditions and perceived health status. This research underscores the importance of designing interventions to improve perceived health status that are tailored to address diverse living conditions.

Although workplace ostracism has been widely recognized as a harmful organizational stressor, its cross-domain spillover effects on employee' family behaviors and the underlying mechanisms remain insufficiently explored. This study investigates the relationship between workplace ostracism and employees' family undermining, focusing on the underlying mechanisms from the perspective of emotional resource depletion, specifically regulatory emotional self-efficacy and surface acting. A total of 609 employees from private enterprises in China were surveyed using the Workplace Ostracism Scale, Regulatory Emotional Self-Efficacy Scale, Surface Acting Scale, and Family Undermining Scale. The results indicate that workplace ostracism is significantly positively associated with employee family undermining, and is linked to family undermining through three pathways: (1) the independent mediating role of regulatory emotional self-efficacy; (2) the independent mediating role of surface acting; (3) the serial mediation of regulatory emotional self-efficacy and surface acting. These findings deepen understanding of the mechanisms underlying the association between workplace ostracism and family interactions and provide theoretical and practical implications for organizational management and employee mental health.

This study examined how different activity types, high-intensity physical activity (HI-PA), moderate-intensity physical activity (MI-PA), and sedentary cognitively engaging activity (CA), influence distraction resistance in preschool children. Given the developmental immaturity of attentional control systems at this age, the study aimed to assess whether acute activity could enhance children's ability to filter irrelevant stimuli across visual and auditory modalities. Thirty-one preschool children (M_age = 5.38, SD = 0.44) participated in a within-subjects experiment involving two computerized attention tasks: a visual search task with salient cartoon distractors, and an auditory oddball task. Each child completed the tasks following three intervention conditions (HI-PA, MI-PA, CA) and a pre-activity baseline. Reaction times (RTs) were analyzed using linear mixed-effects models. In the visual task, distractors slowed RTs (F = 33.59, p < .001). Post-activity RTs were faster than baseline for all three conditions (pre vs. HI-PA: d = 0.98; pre vs. MI-PA: d = 0.82; pre vs. CA: d = 0.80), with no reliable differences among post-activity conditions. In the oddball task, post-activity responses were faster than baseline and HI-PA conferred an additional benefit over CA; deviant presence did not affect performance. Findings support that brief, feasible classroom activities, physical or sedentary-cognitive, enhance general attentional readiness in preschoolers, while strong bottom-up distraction remains hard to override acutely. This has implications for the design of low-cost, developmentally appropriate interventions targeting attention in early education.