Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： The Bouba-kiki effect (i.e., BK effect) indicates the mapping between phonemes and shape features. The innate theory and acquired theory have heated debates on the mechanism of the BK effect. The innate theory holds that sensitivity to sound symbolism is inborn. On the contrary, the acquired theory holds that sound symbolism is the product of linguistic experience. The above-mentioned theories are both supported by many studies and neither of them can completely refute the other. This suggests that none of these theories fully reveal the mechanisms of the emergence of sound symbolism. Therefore, the present review systematically reviews previous findings that support the innate and acquired theories on the mechanism of the BK effect, respectively. Then, the present review first proposes the hypothesis of the sensitive period of the language-related BK effect and reviews recent studies that have provided preliminary evidence for the sensitive period of the BK effect. In addition, the present review also reviews potential factors that may affect the sensitive period of the BK effect. Specifically, the present study holds that the BK effect has a sensitive period that is similar to the critical period of language. The BK effect may be influenced by linguistic experience and the distribution of arbitrariness in language. On one hand, the early language learning experience may enhance the sensitivity of infants toward the BK effect. However, with the increase of age and language experiences, the sensitivity of the sound symbolism for adults gradually decreases. On the other hand, children mainly learn symbolic vocabulary in the early stage of language learning and children’s sound symbolism sensitivity gradually increases in this stage. When the proportion of arbitrary vocabulary gradually increases, children’s sensitivity to the sound symbolism gradually decreases. Furthermore, to integrate the above debates, the present review proposes the innate and acquired interaction model for sound symbolism based on the sensitive period of the language-related BK effect. This model holds that sound symbolism is supported by innate mechanisms and acquired experiences. In other words, sound symbolism is simultaneously influenced by the plasticity of the brain and the accumulated language experiences. In this way, children may have an innate “sound symbolism cognitive structure,” which enables them to map and integrate multi-modal inputs. Therefore, children are sensitive to all potential sound symbolism. In the early stage of language learning, the iconicity in language is prominent. Meanwhile, the sound symbolism cognitive structure can be triggered by children’s language expression and the sound symbolism schema is built through assimilation during this period. This process increases the brain’s sensitivity to sound symbolism. However, with the increase of vocabularies, the arbitrariness of the form-meaning mappings also increases. When the sound symbolism cognitive structure fails to assimilate the new vocabulary, the arbitrary schema is built through accommodation. In the accommodation process, the brain’s sensitivity to sound symbolism gradually decreases. As mentioned above, assimilation and accommodation simultaneously participate in language learning. The difference between assimilation and accommodation is that accommodation is gradually enhanced during the whole language learning period, while assimilation is only gradually enhanced during the sensitive period of sound symbolism and gradually decreased after this period. Eventually, with the increase of age and language experiences, assimilation and accommodation reach a dynamic balance. In particular, the proportion of the language’s arbitrariness and iconicity gradually tends to be stable and the sound symbolism cognitive structure is adapted to the external information. As a result, assimilation and accommodation maintain a relatively balanced state. Finally, the present study proposes future research directions for the sensitive period of sound symbolism.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： The stigma of mental disorders indicates the prejudice or discrimination against patients with mental disorders due to their illness. The stigma of mental disorders not only seriously affects the recovery of patients with mental disorders but also seriously impedes their integration into society and harms their social functioning. Nowadays, due to the large number of people suffering from mental illnesses worldwide, the stigma of patients with mental disorders has led to a wide range of social impacts. Therefore, previous studies have proposed many theories to interpret the generation of the stigma of mental disorders and propose many intervention programs to eliminate the stigma. However, these theories hold the view that the generation of the stigma of mental disorders is mainly due to the lack of public social knowledge about mental disorders, unreasonable attribution, or lower moral level. Moreover, these theories had drastic debates. For example, the effects of these intervention programs based on these theories were not always stable. To reduce such debates, the present study interprets the stigma of mental disorders from the underlying cognitive system of the stigma. To this end, the present study proposes a new theoretical explanation of stigma from the perspective of social categorization and proposes corresponding intervention programs. Specifically, the present study believes that people’s stigma of mental disorders is derived from social classification. People spontaneously categorize patients with mental disorders as out-group members, which results in out-group bias and prevents people from maintaining objective and rational perceptions of patients with mental disorders, and eventually generates stigma. Based on the innovational theories above, the present study also extends the theoretical perspective of continuum beliefs and proposes an innovational stigma intervention system. The continuum beliefs intervention is a potential intervention method to eliminate the stigma of mental disorders, which has been tested widely. The continuum beliefs intervention attempts to blur the boundaries between people and patients with mental disorders. This approach intends to affect the instinct categorization processing of human beings to minimize stigma. The continuum beliefs intervention holds that there is no absolute difference between typical people and patients with mental disorders, which suggests that they are similar and cannot be separated. Therefore, continuum beliefs intervention focuses on the core mechanism of the stigma of mental disorders, i.e., social categorization. This approach helps people believe patients with mental disorders are similar to themselves, which will significantly reduce the stigma of mental disorders. The present study further extended the continuum beliefs intervention by proposing a social classification-based continuum beliefs intervention program, which highlights the role of social classification in the continuum beliefs intervention program. Furthermore, the present study constructs a social classification-based continuum beliefs intervention model. The social classification-based continuum beliefs intervention model holds that: (1) the intervention aim is reducing incorrect social categorization; (2) the contents of the intervention are used to eradicate incorrect social classification; (3) the one’s level of incorrect social categorization can be used as the indicator to measure the intervention effect. In addition, the effect of the classification-based continuum beliefs intervention depends on three factors: perceived threats, disease attribution, and personal traits. The present paper also interpreted how these factors improve or decrease the intervention effects of the classification-based continuum beliefs intervention. Furthermore, the present paper also interpreted how the classification-based continuum beliefs intervention changed social categorization and then influenced the generation of the stigma of mental disorders. Future studies should examine the theoretical model of the classification-based continuum beliefs intervention in cross-cultural situations. Meanwhile, future studies may develop online continuum beliefs intervention methods to extend the application of the continuum beliefs intervention. Furthermore, future studies may also develop individualized continuum beliefs intervention programs to improve the intervention effect.
Subjects: Psychology >> Clinical and Counseling Psychology submitted time 2022-08-13
Abstract： Many studies have investigated the mechanisms of the stigma of people with mental disorders. These studies also proposed corresponding intervention methods. However, the intervention effect of these intervention methods is unsatisfactory, which also induces many theoretical debates. The key to dealing with these debates is to reveal the core cognitive mechanism of stigma generation, i.e., the stigma of mental disorders arises from the spontaneous processing of social classification. Revealing the core cognitive mechanism of stigma generation will inspire an innovative intervention approach that is based on the continuum beliefs. This intervention approach may integrate the theoretical debates on the elimination of the stigma of mental disorders and then propose a theoretical model and practical schema of continuous belief intervention.
Peer Review Status:
Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Cognitive Psychology submitted time 2022-06-02
Abstract：
Bouba-kiki effect (i.e., BK effect) indicates the mapping between phonemes and shape features. The innate theory and acquired theory have heated debates on the mechanism of the BK effect. The innate theory holds that sensitivity to sound symbolism is inborn. On the contrary, the acquired theory holds that sound symbolism is the product of linguistic experience. The above-mentioned theories are both supported by many studies and neither of them can completely refute the other. This suggests that none of these theories fully reveal the mechanisms of the emergence of sound symbolism. Therefore, the present review systematically reviews previous findings that support the innate and acquired theories on the mechanism of the BK effect, respectively. Then, the present review first proposes the hypothesis of the sensitive period of the language-related BK effect and reviews recent studies that have provided preliminary evidence for the sensitive period of the BK effect. In addition, the present review also reviews potential factors that may affect the sensitive period of the BK effect. Furthermore, to integrate the above debates, the present review proposes the innate and acquired interaction model for sound symbolism based on the sensitive period of the language-related BK effect. Finally, the present study proposes future research directions for the sensitive period of sound symbolism.
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Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
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