死亡突顯性對注意力的影響－－以文化性線索為例

The Effect of Mortality Salience on Attention: An Example of Cultural Cues

根據恐懼管理理論（Terror Management Theory），當人們面臨死亡威脅時，會適時作出防衛。這種防衛有一套雙元歷程模式：近端防衛與遠端防衛。在遠端防衛中，文化世界觀尤為重要。在西方研究中，人們常以對自身文化持正向或偏好的態度，來防衛死亡威脅；然而在亞洲研究中卻難以得到驗證，因此本研究的目的在於重新檢驗文化世界觀的防衛方式。研究操弄參與者的死亡想法，藉由分心作業的方式，將死亡想法掉入意識邊陲中，以探究遠端防衛的本質。研究從注意力面向出發，探討文化世界觀與防衛死亡想法之間的關係。研究設計兩個實驗，實驗一以視覺搜尋作業進行研究，以正確率與反應時間當作依變項。結果發現當人們進行遠端防衛時，對於與自身文化有關的線索，表現出較高的正確率；但在反應時間上，未發現有顯著差異。實驗二以眼動追蹤儀器當作研究工具，以首次凝視位置的數量，及凝視時間作為依變項。結果發現當人們進行遠端防衛時，對於與自身文化有關的線索，表現出較長的凝視時間，但在首次凝視位置的數量上，並未有顯著差異。綜合以上的結果，本研究得到支持文化世界觀遠端防衛效果的證據：人們花較多時間觀看與自身文化相關的線索，亦能較正確的辨識與自身文化相關的物件，因此與西方研究相同。

According to terror management theory, people can manage a threat after thinking about death. This theory proposes a dual-process model to explain how people defend death thoughts. There are two defense routes: proximal and distal. The cultural worldview serves an important function in distal defense. Studies conducted in Western countries found that people were more positive or preferred the self-culture-worldview; however, mixed findings have been reported in the studies conducted in Eastern countries. To investigate the distal defense mechanism, this study manipulated participants' thought of death and let that thought descend into their unconscious through a distracting task. This study also examined the relationship between the cultural worldview and death defense from attentional paradigms by conducting two experiments. In the first experiment, we adopted the visual search paradigm, and the dependent variables were reaction time and the rate of accuracy. We found it was more accurate when participants were asked to search the cue within their own culture after reminding themselves of death thoughts compared to those that did not remind them about death. However, no significant differences in the reaction time were found. In the second experiment, we used an eye tracker, and the dependent variables were the index of number of first fixation and the duration of fixations. We found that the fixation duration was longer for the cues within one's own culture than those for non-selfrelated culture when the participants were reminded about their death. However, there were no significant differences in the number of first fixations. These two experiments provide evidence supporting that cultural worldview is an important function in distal defense, as was found in the studies conducted in Western countries.