The Learning Superiority Effect Of Circular Social Structure:Evidence From Behavior And ERP

The relationship schema corresponding to traditional culture is acquired through daily social interaction,which has an important impact on the individual’s future learning,memory,thinking and other social cognitive activities.It is found that individuals under the background of Chinese culture show more cognitive preference for circular social structure,while those under the background of western culture show more cognitive preference for linear social structure.Therefore,it is still unclear whether Chinese subjects have the learning superiority effect of circular social structure in the process of triadic relation acquisition.This study uses a single-factor internal design and refers to Tompson’s(2018)random walk task paradigm to explore:(1)Whether there is a learning superiority effect in circular social structure.(2)Neural basis of circular/linear social structure processing mode separation.Study 1: with reference to random walk task program,the chinese participants conducted implicit learning on a triadic circular/linear social structure nested in the five-line graph,and explored its cognitive processing differences.The results show that the response time of circular social structure was significantly less than linear social structure,which indicates that individuals can acquire the circular/linear social structure and have the learning superiority effect of circular social structure.Study 2: The neural mechanism of circular/linear social structure processing was investigated by using the event-related potential technique(ERPs).The results showed that in the N100 time window,the main effect of structure was significant,and the circular social structure induced a larger amplitude than the linear social structure,indicating that the subjects has an expectation effect on the circular social structure and process it from top to bottom.In the P100 time window,the main effect of structure was significant,and the linear social structure induced a larger amplitude than the circular social structure,indicating that the subjects are aware of the stimulus(circular/linear)difference,and thus distinguish it,which consumes more attention resources.In the N170 time window,the structure type had significant interaction with the brain region.In the posterior brain region,the circular social structure induced a larger amplitude than the linear social structure,indicating that the Chinese subjects has expert experience in circular social structure.in the P200 time window,the structure type had a significant interaction with the brain region.In the posterior brain region,the linear social structure induced a larger amplitude than the circular social structure,indicating that the circular social structure matches the internal structural representation of the Chinese subjects and carries out rapid and top-down cognitive processing,which consumes less cognitive resources.The results of both behavior and ERP indicate that there are differences in the cognitive processing modes of circular/linear social structure,and the circular social structure has the global processing tendency,that is,the subjects under the traditional Chinese cultural background have the learning superiority effect of circular social structure.This paper explores the learning superiority effect of circular social structure,which is helpful to reveal the influence of Chinese cultural schema on individual socialization,and provides some reference for autism diagnosis.In the future,more in-depth research can be conducted on the circular/linear social structure and education level,family therapy,autism diagnosis and other aspects.