研究通過知覺線索(臨近性和共同命運)來操縱社會群體信息,探究了人們能否以及如何利用社會群體信息進行行為預測。結果發現,當被預測對象的行為與組內其他成員一致時,被試對其行為(指向性或動作形式)進行辨別的速度,快于當此成員與組內其他成員行為不一致的條件;但,當被預測對象來自組外以及群體信息不存在時,上述效應消失。該結果提示,觀察者基于知覺線索所形成的社會群體信息,建立了群體成員行為具有一致性的預期。

This study simulated group interaction situations with animated depictions,and used perceptual cues(spatial proximity and synchronous movements) to manipulate social group information,in order to explore whether and how people can establish expectation for the behavior according to social group information.The results showed that:(1) Compared to the inconsistent condition(i.e.,the directivity of action or action means of the predicted agent was different from other agents’),participants responded faster in the consistent condition,in which the directivity of action(Experiment 1 a) or action means(Experiment 2 a) of the predicted agent was consistent with other agents’,when all agents belonged to the same social group.(2) When the social group information was eliminated(i.e.,the members moved solely and spaced at interval in Experiment 1 b & Experiment 2 b) or the predicted agent belonged to a different group as two members for demonstrating actions,there was no significant difference of response time between the consistent and inconsistent conditions.On the basis of these results,we suggest that observers can make action prediction for group members based on the social group information formed by the perceptual cues,and they expect that the members of social groups should act consistently.