Group-Reference Effect of Chinese Students

We investigated the positivity effect of group-reference memory. A positivity effect refers to the favoring of positive over negative stimuli during cognitive processing, which wasinitially found in the self-reference effect. Previous studies have suggested that the group-reference effect derives from the self-reference effect; however, a positivity effect has not been observed in individualistic cultures. The current study expanded this exploration to a collectivistic cultural context, which emphasizes the role of the collective self in the self-construct.Ninety-six high-school students from three ethnic minorities in China (Hui, Korean, and Daur) and from the Han participatedin the current study. Participants were asked to determine whether personality trait-related words described themselves (self-reference task), their ethnicity (group-reference task), or a celebrity (other-reference tasks) when encoding information. After a distraction task, they completed a surprise recognition memory test. The results suggested that the positivity effect of group-reference memory was present in the ethnic minority groups, except for the Korean students; significant group-reference effects were all observed in the other minority groups. Although the group-reference effect was not detected in the Han students, a marginal significant group-reference positivity effect was present. Our study confirmed that the positivity effect in group-reference memory is similar to that inself-reference memory. In addition, by using the experimental paradigm of two experimental groups, the results suggested that there was not only a significant difference in the relationship between the collective self and individual self in the ethnic minorities and the Han, but also a significant difference between the two experimental groups of the ethnic minorities. We also discuss the cultural difference in the self-structure in the collectivistic cultural background.

本研究探讨了群体参照记忆的积极效应（positivity effect）。积极效应指认知加工过程中个体更偏好积极刺激而非消极刺激，该效应最初在自我参照效应（self-reference effect）的研究中被发现。既往研究表明，群体参照效应（group-reference effect）源于自我参照效应，但在个体主义文化（individualistic cultures）中尚未观测到此类积极效应。本研究将这一探索拓展至强调集体自我（collective self）在自我建构（self-construct）中作用的集体主义文化背景下。本研究共招募96名高中生作为被试，他们分别来自中国的3个少数民族：回族（Hui）、朝鲜族（Korean）、达斡尔族（Daur）以及汉族（Han）。在信息编码阶段，要求被试判断与人格特质相关的词汇是否适用于自身（自我参照任务）、其所属民族（群体参照任务），抑或是某位公众人物（他人参照任务）。完成分心任务后，被试需完成一项意外再认记忆测验（recognition memory test）。结果显示，除朝鲜族学生外，各少数民族群体均表现出群体参照记忆的积极效应；其余少数民族样本均观测到显著的群体参照效应。尽管未在汉族学生中观测到群体参照效应，但仍呈现出边缘显著的群体参照积极效应。本研究证实，群体参照记忆的积极效应与自我参照记忆的积极效应高度相似。此外，本研究采用双实验组实验范式（experimental paradigm）开展研究，结果显示：少数民族群体与汉族群体在集体自我与个体自我的关联模式上不仅存在显著差异，且少数民族内部的两个实验组之间同样存在显著差异。本研究同时探讨了集体主义文化背景下自我结构的文化差异。