Wu Xiangci, Jia Huibin, Wang Enguo, Du Chenguang, Wu Xianghua, Dang Caiping
Institute of Psychology and Behavior, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, China.
Key Laboratory of Human Development and Mental Health of Hubei Province, School of Psychology, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China.
Int J Psychophysiol. 2016 Apr;102:55-61. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2016.03.005. Epub 2016 Mar 14.
The present study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to explore the influence of vertical position on power judgments. Participants were asked to identify whether a Chinese word represented a powerful or powerless group (e.g., "king" or "servant"), which was presented in the top or bottom of the screen. The behavioral analysis showed that judging the power of powerful words were significantly faster when they were presented at the top position, compared with when they were presented at the bottom position. The ERP analysis showed enhanced N1 amplitude for congruent trials (i.e., the powerful words in the top and the powerless words in the bottom of the screen) and larger P300 and LPC amplitude for incongruent trials (i.e., the powerful words in the bottom and the powerless words in the top of the screen). The present findings provide further electrophysiological evidence that thinking about power can automatically activate the underlying spatial up-down (verticality) image schema and that the influence of vertical position on the power judgments not only occurs at the early perceptual stage of power word processing, but also at the higher cognitive stage (i.e., allocation of attention resources, conflict solving and response selection). This study revealed the neural underpinnings of metaphor congruent effect which have great significance to our understanding of the abstract concept power.
本研究使用事件相关电位（ERP）来探究垂直位置对权力判断的影响。参与者被要求识别一个中文单词代表的是有权势还是无权势的群体（例如，“国王”或“仆人”），这些单词呈现在屏幕的顶部或底部。行为分析表明，与呈现在屏幕底部时相比，呈现在顶部位置的有权势单词的权力判断显著更快。ERP分析表明，在一致试验（即屏幕顶部的有权势单词和屏幕底部的无权势单词）中N1波幅增强，在不一致试验（即屏幕底部的有权势单词和屏幕顶部的无权势单词）中P300和晚期正成分（LPC）波幅更大。本研究结果提供了进一步的电生理证据，表明对权力的思考可以自动激活潜在的空间上下（垂直性）意象图式，并且垂直位置对权力判断的影响不仅发生在权力单词处理的早期感知阶段，也发生在更高的认知阶段（即注意力资源分配、冲突解决和反应选择）。本研究揭示了隐喻一致效应的神经基础，这对我们理解抽象概念权力具有重要意义。
