| As individuals,people naturally live in social relationships and form networks of social relations through mutual communication and collaboration.When the schema in an individual’s mind matches the structure of social stimuli,it increases the efficiency of information learning processing and shows the dominant effect of social structure learning.Previous research has shown that there is a Chinese and Western cultural preference for the perception of social structure.As an important way of thinking in traditional Chinese culture,Yin and Yang Five Elements Structure greatly influences the way Chinese construct social relationships,so is there a learning advantage effect of Yin and Yang Five Elements Structure for Chinese subjects? This is not yet clear.The question relates to the issue of structural schemas specific to Eastern cultures,which may have theoretical and practical implications for the study of macro social structures and patterns of social interpersonal relationships.Referring to Tompson’s(2018)Random Walk Task procedure,this study investigates(1)whether there is a learning advantage effect for Yin and Yang Five Elements Structure.(2)whether social stimuli can enhance the dominance effect of Yin and Yang Five Elements Structure for learning.Study 1 investigated whether there was an advantage effect of learning the simple Five Elements Structure for Chinese by comparing the reaction time when learning the two structures implicitly,following Tompson’s(2018)Random Walk Task procedure,using abstract meaningless stimulus material as nodes,with the nodes linked to a single relationship and the relationship forming two control structures(simple Five Elements Structure vs.simple symmetric structure).The results showed that subjects learned both the simple Five Elements Structure and the symmetrical structure,while there was a separation between the processing of the two.Subjects learned the simple Five Elements Structure significantly more correctly than the simple symmetrical structure.The reaction time for learning the simple Five Elements Structure was significantly smaller than that of the simple symmetrical structure,and a learning advantage effect of the simple Five Elements Structure was found.Study 2 followed the core experimental procedure and stimulus materials of Study 1,with the inter-node association relationships adjusted to a more complex Yin and Yang relationship(mutual generation and mutual inhibition),with no change in the nodes,to investigate whether there was a learning advantage effect of Yin and Yang Five Elements Structure in the traditional Chinese cultural context in network structure learning with social relationships.The results showed that in the network structured learning with social relationships,subjects learned Yin and Yang Five Elements Structure significantly more correctly than the symmetrical structure and subjects responded significantly less often with Yin and Yang Five Elements Structure than with the symmetrical structure,verifying the advantage effect of Yin and Yang Five Elements Structure.Study 3 followed exactly the same procedure as Study 2,adjusting the nodes material to family role face profiles,while keeping the core procedure unchanged,as a way to increase the strength of the social signal in the stimulus material and to induce subjects’ social processing tendencies with stronger social stimulus material,to investigate whether there was a learning advantage effect of Yin and Yang Five Elements Structure in the traditional Chinese cultural context in the network structure learning with social situations.The results showed that subjects learned Yin and Yang Five Elements Structure significantly more correctly than the simple symmetrical structure and subjects responded significantly less to Yin and Yang Five Elements Structure than to the symmetrical structure in the socially situated network structure,further validating the advantage effect of Yin and Yang Five Elements Structure.The three series of studies used the same experimental procedures to detect the advantage effect of learning on Yin and Yang Five Elements Structure of this culture in Chinese subjects by incorporating social relations and enhancing the social information of the stimulus material.The results showed that subjects’ correctness gradually improved and subjects’ reaction time gradually decreased as the experimental material became more social.It suggests that social context stimuli significantly facilitate implicit learning of social network structures.In summary,the present study explored the advantage effect of individuals’ learning of the pentad structure at different levels of social situations,based on the learning of the simple pentad structure.The results indicate that Chinese subjects have an advantage effect on learning of Yin and Yang Five Elements Structure and that social situational stimulis promote learning of the social network structure,which provides evidence for the advantage effect of learning of Yin and Yang Five Elements Structure in Chinese culture and provides reference value for research and practice of traditional Chinese culture and social interpersonal patterns. |
