published_or_final_version / abstract / Social Work and Social Administration / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Sociology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

published_or_final_version / Medical Sciences / Master / Master of Medical Sciences

published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Chinese Historical Studies / Master / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / Politics and Public Administration / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

The primary purpose of the present study was to investigate the joint effects of culture and attribution of outcome feedback on reasoning performance. This study attempted to address four major research questions: (a) Do Canadian and Chinese students have different cultural values and causal attribution patterns? (b) Do pre-experimental individual differences in causal attribution patterns lead to differences in Canadian and Chinese students' inductive reasoning performance? (c) Does attribution of outcome feedback affect Canadian and Chinese students' inductive reasoning performance? (d) Do Canadian and Chinese students conduct deductive reasoning differently as a function of outcome feedback and reasoning task contents? A total of 120 college students (60 Canadian and 60 Chinese) performed three phases of computerized experimental tasks. The research design involved 2 types of culture groups (Canadian and Chinese) under 3 conditions of outcome feedback (success, failure, and control) as two independent variables. The dependent variables observed were the number of instances used or correct responses made and response time, when possible. In terms of culture differences, Canadian students appear to be distinct and articulate about the matters of socio-cultural values, while Chinese students are relatively less distinct and articulate. When making attribution for other people's success, both Canadian and Chinese students held internal factors (i. e., good effort and high ability) as responsible. When accounting for other people's failure, Canadian students picked controllable factors (i.e., lack of effort), while Chinese students picked both controllable and uncontrollable factors (i.e., largely lack of effort and occasionally difficult task) as the reasons. However, following the success outcome feedback about their own reasoning performance, Canadian students emphasized mostly high ability and, occasionally, effort as the reasons, while Chinese students picked mostly good luck and, occasionally, high ability. Given the failure outcome feedback about their own task performance, Canadian students attributed to lack of effort and bad luck as causes, while Chinese students exclusively picked lack of effort as the explanation. Chinese subjects' inductive and deductive reasoning performances remained relatively unswayed by success or failure outcome feedback, whereas Canadian subjects' reasoning performance remained good only when success feedback was received. When failure feedback was provided, Canadian subjects' reasoning performances deteriorated and remained poor throughout the experiment. While Chinese students' reasoning performance is not predictable from their low-ability attribution of other people's failure outcome, Canadian students' reasoning performance is highly predictable; that is, the more they attributed others' failure to low ability, the faster they completed the culture-fair inductive reasoning task. On the other hand, when making attribution based on their own experience, given success feedback, Canadian students attributed their performance to their high ability. Given failure feedback, Canadian students attributed their performance to their lack of effort, with improved performance commensurable to their verbal causal attribution. The present findings indicate that Canadian and Chinese college students showed differences in causal attribution patterns, depending on when they explain others' success/failure experiences or their own, and further that upon receipt of failure outcome feedback, Canadian students' reasoning performance deteriorated, while Chinese students' performance remained insensitive to success or failure outcome feedback. Further fine-grained analyses of such causal attribution patterns interacting with outcome feedbacks and cognitive performance needs some more careful studies.

This research compared structured physical activity patterns to changes in body mass index (BMI) of Chinese university students. Chinese students attending Midwestern universities completed a 26-itemized, validated and reliable physical activity questionnaire. The questionnaire assessed demographics, time spent in various physical activities, BMI, and perceived barriers to exercise prior to and after residing in the U.S. for at least three months. Analysis of variance revealed that, after residing in the U.S., males had a greater increase in time spent in moderate-intensity physical activity compared to females (p < .01), while females had a greater increase in time spent in vigorous-intensity physical activity when compared to males (p < .01). Also, students 21 years of age or older were more likely to increase their time spent in moderate- and vigorous-intensity physical activities combined than those 20 years of age or younger. Lastly, change in BMI appeared to be affected by geographical region of origin (p < .05), where participants from the Eastern region of China had a greater increase in BMI than those from the Western, Northern, and Southern regions. Overall, educating Chinese university students on the importance of incorporating structured physical activities may help prevent future increases in BMI after immersion into the U.S lifestyle. / Department of Family and Consumer Sciences