Rorschach Comprehensive System data for a sample of 190 Japanese nonpatient children at five ages

This study is a part of our series of studies of nonpatient, Japanese children. In total, 346 children were administered the Rorschach. Thirty-two children had fewer than 10 responses, 112 children had more than 10 but fewer than 14 responses, and 12 children were maladjusted or mentally retarded, for a total of 156. In this study, we analyzed the remaining 190 children not excluded by the above criteria in the following age groups: 5 years (n = 24), 8 years (n = 43), 9 years (n = 42), 12 years (n = 42), and 14 years (n = 39). Japanese children showed few responses generally, with an average of 18 ~ 20 responses. In addition to having fewer responses, other features of Japanese children are high Lambda, low EA, very high X-%, and low X+%. The fact that the Rorschach test depends on verbal expression may be one factor in all these features, and we should consider this study in view of these Japanese cultural factors. Interrater reliability findings and Rorschach Comprehensive System (CS; Exner, 1995; Matsumoto, 2003; Matsumoto et al., 2002) data are presented.     

Shaping of scientific psychology in Japan

Japanese scientific psychology began with Y. Motora's lecture on pyschophysics at the University of Tokyo in 1888. He had just received his PhD under G.S. Hall at Johns Hopkins University, in the USA. He became the first professor of psychology in 1890 and founded the first psychological laboratory at the University of Tokyo in 1903. He studied many psychological problems, including attention, experimentally and theoretically. One of his first students, Matataro Matsumoto, founded the second psychological laboratory at Kyoto University and then succeeded to Motora's position in Tokyo. Matsumoto was interested in experimental studies of human performance and their applications. He trained many able psychologists and organized the Japanese Psychological Association in 1927. Some of his students founded more psychological laboratories in major universities of Japan. They introduced psychological tests, Gestalt psychology, and behaviourism in the 1920s and 1930s. Psychoanalysis was introduced through mainly nonacademic roots and became familiar to Japanese psychologists in the 1930s. After World War II, a strong influence of American psychology came to Japanese psychologists who had already trained in scientific methodology. The areas of research and applications have been greatly widened and the number of psychologists has increased rapidly up to the present day. Promotion of international interactions and indigenous traditions are both expected.     

Irrelevant sound disrupts speech production: Exploring the relationship between short-term memory and experimentally induced slips of the tongue

To explore the relationship between short-term memory and speech production, we developed a speech error induction technique. The technique, which was adapted from a Japanese word game, exposed participants to an auditory distractor word immediately before the utterance of a target word. In Experiment 1, the distractor words that were phonologically similar to the target word led to a greater number of errors in speaking the target than did the dissimilar distractor words. Furthermore, the speech error scores were significantly correlated with memory span scores. In Experiment 2, memory span scores were again correlated with the rate of the speech errors that were induced from the task-irrelevant speech sounds. Experiment 3 showed a strong irrelevant-sound effect in the serial recall of nonwords. The magnitude of the irrelevant-sound effects was not affected by phonological similarity between the to-be-remembered nonwords and the irrelevant-sound materials. Analysis of recall errors in Experiment 3 also suggested that there were no essential differences in recall error patterns between the dissimilar and similar irrelevant-sound conditions. Weproposed two different underlying mechanisms in immediate memory, one operating via the phonological short-term memory store and the other via the processes underpinning speech production.     

Minimum Muscle-Tension Change Trajectories Predicted by Using a 17-Muscle Model of the Monkey's Arm

Four computational problems to be solved for visually guided reaching movements, hand path, and trajectory formations, coordinate transformation, and calculations of muscle tensions are ill-posed in redundant biological control systems. These problems are ill-posed in the sense that there exist an infinite number of possible solutions. In this article, it is shown that the nervous system can solve those problems simultaneously by imposing a single global constraint: finding the smoothest muscle- tension trajectory that satisfies the desired final hand position, velocity, and acceleration. Horizontal trajectories were simulated by using a l7-muscle model of the monkey's arm as the controlled object. The simulations predicted gently curved hand paths for lateral hand movements and for movements from the side of the body to the front, and a roughly straight hand path for anterioposterior movements. The tangential hand velocities were roughly bell shaped. The simulated results were in agreement with the actual biological movements.     

Constructing a continuum of predicate extensions of each intermediate propositional logic

Wajsberg and Jankov provided us with methods of constructing a continuum of logics. However, their methods are not suitable for super-intuitionistic and modal predicate logics. The aim of this paper is to present simple ways of modification of their methods appropriate for such logics. We give some concrete applications as generic examples. Among others, we show that there is a continuum of logics (1) between the intuitionistic predicate logic and the logic of constant domains, (2) between a predicate extension ofS4 andS4 with the Barcan formula. Furthermore, we prove that (3) there is a continuum of predicate logics with equality whose equality-free fragment is just the intuitionistic predicate logic.Dedicated to the memory of the late Professor S. MaeharaThis research was supported in part by Grant-in Aid for Encouragement of Young Scientists No. 06740140, Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, Japan.Presented byHiroakira Ono     

Effectiveness of color in picture recognition memory

Investigations were conducted into the effectiveness of color in picture recognition memory. In the study phase, half of the pictures were presented in color and the other half in black and white. In the test phase, half were presented in the same color mode as the study pictures and the other half in the other mode. In immediate and 1-week-delayed tests, the recognition performance was highest when color pictures were used in both the study and test phases. The recall for the color mode of the study pictures, however, was not as good, even with the color pictures. This suggests that the effectiveness of color in picture recognition is not necessarily due to the memory for colors in the pictures themselves, but is probably due to the distinctiveness of features highlighted by the colors. We also found that in the recall performance for the color mode it was more difficult to detect the deletion of colors than to detect their addition.     

Genetic and Environmental Influences on Personal and Rhythmic‐Motor‐Activity Tempo in Children: A Twin Study

In this study, we investigated the degree to which genetics and environmental factors influence the tempo and tempo stability of rhythmic motor activity in young children, using a twin study design. A total of 116 twin children, aged 4 years, were asked to strike two small clash cymbals together in a cyclical manner, in three phases. In the first phase, children were asked to maintain a comfortable personal tempo of rhythmic motor activity (spontaneous motor phase). In contrast, in the other phases, children were required to synchronize rhythmic motor activity in response to the timing of a stimulus tone, or a memorized tempo. Large additive genetic, although negligible shared environmental influences, were observed in the spontaneous motor phase. However, environmental factors were estimated in the other two phases, while the additive genetic factor was nearly zero. These results indicate that the extent of genetic and environmental influences on individual differences in rhythmic motor activity can be modulated under different situations.     

Effects of an indoor plant on creative task performance and mood

In this study, we investigated the effect of an indoor plant on task performance and on mood. Three room arrangements were used as independent variables: a room with (1) a plant, or (2) a magazine rack with magazines placed in front of the participants, or (3) a room with neither of these objects. Undergraduate students (M= 35, F= 55) performed a task of associating up to 30 words with each of 20 specified words in a room with one of the three room arrangements. Task performance scores showed that female participants performed better in view of the plant in comparison to the magazine rack (p < 0.05). Moreover, mood was better with the plant or the magazine rack in the room compared to the no object condition (p < 0.05). However, the difference in task performance was highly influenced by the evaluation about the plant or the magazine rack. It is suggested that the compatibility between task demand and the environment is an important factor in facilitating task performances.     

Validation study on self-reported height, weight, and blood pressure

Self-report data were compared with actual recorded data on height, weight, and blood pressure during health examinations to check for validity. The subjects were 1,823 persons, ages 40-68 years. Pearson correlations for systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, height, weight, and Body Mass Index between data reported in 1993 and measurements made in 1991 were .63, .60, .96, .96, and .92, respectively. Pearson correlations for the same variables between the data reported in 1993 and the measurements made in 1992 were .73, .67, .97, .97, and .94, respectively. Self-reported values for height, weight, and Body Mass Index appear to be valid over years or so.     

Attention during adaptation weakens negative afterimages

The effect of attention during adaptation on subsequent negative afterimages was examined. One of 2 overlapped outline figures was attended during a 7-10-s adaptation period. When the figures were readily perceptually segregated (on the basis of color or motion), the subsequent afterimages were initially weaker for the previously attended figure. This effect was confirmed by demonstrations that the onset of a single afterimage was delayed when an afterimage inducer was attended during adaptation compared with when a central digit stream or an overlapped (brightness-balanced) figure that did not generate an afterimage was attended. The attention effect was further confirmed using a criterion-independent (dot-integration) paradigm. The fact that selective attention during adaptation weakened or delayed afterimages suggests that attention primarily facilitates the adaptation of polarity-independent processes that modulate the visibility of afterimages rather than facilitating the adaptation of polarity-selective processes that mediate the formation of afterimages.