Qingguo Ma

Determinants of ERP implementation knowledge transfer

Our study examined the determinants of ERP knowledge transfer from implementation consultants (ICs) to key users (KUs), and vice versa. An integrated model was developed, positing that knowledge transfer was influenced by the knowledge-, source-, recipient-, and transfer context-related aspects. Data to test this model were collected from 85 ERP-implementation projects of firms that were mainly located in Zhejiang province, China. The results of the analysis demonstrated that all four aspects had a significant influence on ERP knowledge transfer. Furthermore, the results revealed the mediator role of the transfer activities and arduous relationship between ICs and KUs. The influence on knowledge transfer from the sources willingness to transfer and the recipients willingness to accept knowledge was fully mediated by transfer activities, whereas the influence on knowledge transfer from the recipients ability to absorb knowledge was only partially mediated by transfer activities. The influence on knowledge transfer from the communication capability (including encoding and decoding competence) was fully mediated by arduous relationship.

Event-related potential P2 correlates of implicit aesthetic experience.

Using event-related potential measures, the present study investigated the affective responses to aesthetic experience. To differentiate the objective aesthetic value from subjective aesthetic evaluation, an amended oddball task was used in which pendant pictures were presented as frequent nontarget stimuli, whereas the landscape pictures were presented as a rare target. The pendant pictures were chosen from the largest online store in China and divided into beautiful and less beautiful conditions by the sales ranking. A positive component, P2, was recorded for each condition on the participants’ frontal, central and parietal scalp areas. Less beautiful pendants elicited greater amplitudes of P2 than the beautiful ones. This indicates that emotion arousal seems to occur at the early stage of processing of aesthetics and can be detected by the P2 component, implying that the event-related potential methodology may be a more sensitive measure of the beauty-related attention bias. From the perspective of artwork design and marketing, our finding also shows that P2 can potentially be used as a reference measure in consumer aesthetic experience.

The neural process of hazard perception and evaluation for warning signal words: Evidence from event-related potentials

Warning signs have been widely applied to industrial production. As an important component of warning signs, warning signal words were mostly studied by using questionnaire. This study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to explore neural temporal features during the processing of warning signal words in human brain, and found that there were two stages involved in processing warning signal words, providing an electrophysiological evidence for a previous warning information processing model, the Communication-Human Information Processing Model (C-HIP). Previous behavioral studies indicated that the subjective hazard perception of participants facilitates their attention to the warning sign, and people can get hazard information from warning words. Our results provided direct evidence for these conclusions. The present findings of significant differences in subjective hazard perception for warning words among individuals showed the importance and necessity of training for people to get the similar understanding of these words. Our results implicated that the warning words reflecting the same hazard level used in the warning sign should be somewhat changed, at the same time, convey equally or similarly hazardous information, to avoid desensitization and habituation due to overuse of them.

I endeavor to make it: Effort increases valuation of subsequent monetary reward

Although it is commonly accepted that the amount of effort we put into accomplishing a task would exert an influence on subsequent reward processing and outcome evaluation, whether effort is incorporated as a cost or it would increase the valuation of concomitant reward is still under debate. In this study, EEGs were recorded while subjects performed calculation tasks that required different amount of effort, correct responses of which were followed by either no reward or fixed compensation. Results showed that high effort induced larger differentiated FRN responses to the reward and non-reward discrepancy across two experimental conditions. Furthermore, P300 manifested valence effect during reward feedback, with more positive amplitudes for reward than for non-reward only in the high effort condition. These results suggest that effort might increase subjective evaluation toward subsequent reward.

The dark side of monetary incentive: how does extrinsic reward crowd out intrinsic motivation.

It was widely believed that incentives could effectively enhance the motivation of both students and employees. However, psychologists reported that extrinsic reward actually could undermine individuals’ intrinsic motivation to a given interesting task, which challenged viewpoints from traditional incentive theories. Numerous studies have been carried out to test and explain the undermining effect; however, the neural basis of this effect is still elusive. Here, we carried out an electrophysiological study with a simple but interesting stopwatch task to explore to what extent the performance-based monetary reward undermines individuals’ intrinsic motivation toward the task. The electrophysiological data showed that the differentiated feedback-related negativity amplitude toward intrinsic success failure divergence was prominently reduced once the extrinsic reward was imposed beforehand. However, such a difference was not observed in the control group, in which no extrinsic reward was provided throughout the experiment. Furthermore, such a pattern was not observed for P300 amplitude. Therefore, the current results indicate that extrinsic reward demotivates the intrinsic response of individuals toward success–failure outcome, which was reflected in the corresponding reduced motivational-related differentiated feedback-related negativity, but not in amplitude of P300.

Cognitive and emotional conflicts of counter-conformity choice in purchasing books online: An event-related potentials study

Using event-related potentials (ERPs), this study investigated the neural substrates of the conflicts in counter-conformity choices in purchasing books online. For each trial, a participant decided whether to buy a book according to the title keyword, as well as the numbers of positive and negative reviews on the book. A participants choice was termed conformity if she/he decided to buy the book under the condition of consistently positive reviews, or not to buy the book under the condition of consistently negative reviews, whereas the case was counter-conformity if a participant did the opposite. In the time window 300-600ms after the stimulus onset, a strong negative deflection of ERP (N500) was recorded when participants made counter-conformity choices. The topographic distribution of the N500 (N400-like) is not typical of the semantic N400. The N500 might be evoked by the cognitive and emotional conflicts faced by participants in counter-conformity choices. The present findings provide evidence that the N400 can be elicited by non-semantic conflicts.

Live as we choose: The role of autonomy support in facilitating intrinsic motivation

According to Self-determination Theory (SDT), autonomy is a basic psychological need, satisfaction of which may lead to enhanced intrinsic motivation and related beneficial outcomes. By manipulating the opportunity to choose between tasks of equal difficulty, throughout the motivational process, the effect of autonomy support was examined both behaviorally and electrophysiologically. More negative stimulus-preceding negativity (SPN) and an enlarged FRN loss-win difference wave (d-FRN) indicated an enhanced expectation toward the positive outcome (during the anticipation stage) as well as intensified intrinsic motivation toward the task (during the outcome appraisal stage) when choice was available. Taken together, results of the present study suggest d-FRN upon feedback as a real-time electrophysiological indicator of intrinsic/autonomous motivation and illustrate the important role of autonomy-supportive job design in the workplace.

How an uncertain cue modulates subsequent monetary outcome evaluation: An ERP study

People avert uncertain situations more than certain ones, and the neural correlates of such acts have gained increasing attention in past decade. However, the electrophysiological bases of how subjects respond to uncertain cues, and how such cues affect subsequent outcome evaluations have rarely been explored. In the present study, participants completed a gambling task while their neural activities were recorded through electroencephalography. The results indicated that subjects were sensitive to the uncertain cue as represented by feedback-related negativity (FRN). This uncertain cue further enhanced the neural response to outcome evaluation represented by P200, FRN, and P300 temporally. The enhanced P200 outcome may reflect the negative bias of the emotional reaction, which is a reflection of uncertain deviation at an early stage. The discrepancies of differentiated feedback-related negativity between uncertain and certain condition indicated increased motivation or prediction error toward the outcome. Finally, the increased P300 amplitude under uncertain outcome compared with certain one, as well as its sensitivity to the valence of the outcome under uncertain condition, embodies the increased arousal of the affective response. Therefore, uncertain cue effects observed in the current study suggest that uncertainty induces a larger motivational/affective and expectation response toward outcome revelation.

N400 and the activation of prejudice against rural migrant workers in China

Rural migrant workers (RMWs) are a special social group under the household registration system in China. Although RMWs work in the city, they are not issued a permanent city resident card, and are hardly integrated into the city life. City residents harbour strong negative stereotypes about RMWs. Facing a word-pair comprising a status noun (RMWs vs. Unban workers) followed by an adjective, 16 young participants were required to classify the adjective as being either negative or positive, while the event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded. An ERP component identified as the N400 was found, and was studied with the question whether its amplitude reflected the effects of prejudice against RMWs. The reaction times to identify the positive adjectives preceded by the nouns pertaining to RMWs were significantly longer than to those preceded by nouns denoting Urban workers. The amplitude of the N400 evoked in RMW-Positive adjective condition was significantly larger than in Urban worker-Positive adjective condition, possibly reflecting the higher conflict when participants identified the adjectives as positive primed by RMWs. These findings revealed that negative stereotypes about RMWs still exist today, although Chinese mainstream media has disseminated positive messages about the RMWs for decades.

You Have My Word: Reciprocity Expectation Modulates Feedback-Related Negativity in the Trust Game

Promise is one of the most powerful tools producing trust and facilitating cooperation, and sticking to the promise is deemed as a key social norm in social interactions. The present study explored the extent to which promise would influence investors’ decision-making in the trust game where promise had no predictive value regarding trustees’ reciprocation. In addition, we examined the neural underpinnings of the investors’ outcome processing related to the trustees’ promise keeping and promise breaking. Consistent with our hypothesis, behavioral results indicated that promise could effectively increase the investment frequency of investors. Electrophysiological results showed that, promise induced larger differentiated-FRN responses to the reward and non-reward discrepancy. Taken together, these results suggested that promise would promote cooperative behavior, while breach of promise would be regarded as a violation of the social norm, corroborating the vital role of non-enforceable commitment in social decision making.