Validation of the Japanese version of the NEO Five-Factor Inventory in a large community sample

The NEO Five-Factor Inventory is the shortened version of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory. The aim of this study was to examine the reliability and validity of the Japanese version of the shortened version in the general population of Japan. This version was translated into Japanese and then administered to 2,051 adults in a rural town in Akita Prefecture. A total of 1,664 (81.1%) individuals gave valid answers. Internal reliability, assessed by Cronbach alpha for subscales, ranged from .60 to .77. The scales were only weakly correlated both with each other and with age. In a multiple regression analysis, only the Neuroticism scale score was a significant predictor of scores on the General Health Questionnaire. Factor analysis supported the theoretical structure of personality. Overall, the Japanese version showed good reliability and validity in this sample of the general population of Japan.     

Temporal and spatial characteristics of attention to facilitate manual and eye-movement responses

Previous investigation found that the speed of saccadic eye movements is enhanced when a temporal interval (gap) is introduced between the disappearance of a foveal fixation mark and the appearance of a peripheral target (the gap paradigm). Attention was shown to be involved in the gap paradigm. Here, we investigated relevant temporal and spatial characteristics of attention, manipulating central fixation marks and peripheral targets. Results from three experiments indicate that (i) the speed of manual and eye-movement detection is accelerated when a fixation mark changes abruptly (in less than 100 ms) before its termination in the gap paradigm; (ii) the speed is further accelerated when a peripheral target location is pre-cued; (iii) sufficient time for fixation (1000 ms) is necessary for the facilitation. These results suggest that fast and transient attention at the fixation spot facilitates attentional disengagement process that urges a spatial-orienting mechanism. Sustained attention is required in the engagement process during the fixation.     

Probing memory with conceptual cues at multiple retention intervals: a comparison of forgetting rates on implicit and explicit tests

The time courses for implicit and explicit conceptual tests of memory were compared in two experiments. In Experiment 1, participants encoded target words by judging the apparent pleasantness of their meaning. Immediately thereafter or 48 h later, retrieval cues were presented to different groups of participants for either an implicit or an explicit free-association task. Whereas explicit test performance showed a decline over the 48-h delay, implicit test performance was statistically unaltered. In Experiment 2, memory was tested at five retention intervals, lasting up to 3 weeks. The forgetting functions of both implicit and explicit tests conformed to a logarithmic function. Despite the large conceptual priming effect, which resulted from relational encoding instructions, implicit memory performance still declined at a much slower rate than did performance on the cued-recall test. We argue that because nominal conceptual cues were held constant across the implicit and the explicit conditions, the observed dissociation in performance supports a memory systems approach.     

Retention of relative force in the scaling of a serial force pattern with an attenuated-force tap

The present study was designed to examine the retention of relative force in the scaling of a serial force pattern in a finger-tapping sequence using an attenuated tap. On practice trials, 12 undergraduate students tapped a force plate connected to strain gauges that gave them feedback about the force. On test trials, participants recalled the force pattern (200 gm-200 gm-200 gm-100 gm) and the intertap interval (400 msec.) practiced during the practice period without the feedback (recalled task). Then, they adaptively produced a halved (halved task) or doubled force profile (doubled task) at the fixed intertap interval. Analyses showed that mean peak forces at the first three tap positions of the tapping sequence undershot the expected forces across all tasks. Hence, the ratios of the forces in Serial Positions 1:4, 2:4, and 3:4 were considerably lower than 2.0. This is a contextual effect suggesting that the last attenuated tap affected the first three taps of the tapping sequence. Thus, because the relative force of movements appears to be a weaker invariant feature than sequencing and relative timing for generalized motor program theory of Schmidt and Lee, this finding does not support the relative force for a generalized motor program.     

Disorder in sequential speech perception: a case study on pure word deafness

We described disorders of a patient which were uniquely restricted to speech perception of syllable sequences after brain damage. The results of series of experiments using syllable sequences showed "negative recency effect," in which the subject's repetition performance at the latter syllable position was remarkably poor. Experimental analyses suggested that the "negative recency effect" could be due to dual factors: the lower rate of processing of speech sounds and the memory load of holding processes of preceding syllables imposed on the succeeding phonological processing. The results also suggested that the holding processes which imposed the memory load on the succeeding auditory phonological coding processing were modality nonspecific.     

The psychological sense of economic hardship: measurement models, validity, and cross-ethnic equivalence for urban families

Poverty is a community stressor that disproportionally affects ethnic minority families. One aspect of programmatic research on poverty focuses on the psychological sense of economic hardship. In a study of 319 African American, European American, and Mexican American urban families, parents completed objective measures of economic status and scales of perceived economic hardship that were adapted from previous research. Measurement models identified a coherent construct of psychological sense of economic hardship that was essentially equivalent for mothers and fathers, English- and Spanish-speaking Mexican Americans, and the 3 ethnic groups. In support of the validity of this construct, relations between objective indicators of economic status and perceived economic hardship showed equivalence across these same groups.     

The mind and brain scholar as a hitchhiker in the post-Gutenberg galaxy: publishing at 2000 and beyond

Electronic journal (e-journal) publishing has started to change the ways we think about publishing. However, many scholars and scientists in the mind and brain sciences are still ignorant of the new possibilities and ongoing debates. This paper will provide a summary of the issues involved, give an update of the current discussion, and supply practical information on issues related to e-journal publishing and self-archiving relevant for the mind and brain sciences. Issues such as differences between traditional and e-journal publishing, open archive initiatives, worldwide conventions, quality control, costs involved in e-journal publishing, and copyright questions will be addressed. Practical hints on how to self-archive, how to submit to the e-journal Psycoloquy, how to create an open research archive, and where to find information relevant to e-publishing will be supplied.     

Exploring the structure of strength-related attitude features: the relation between attitude importance and attitude accessibility

One of the most significant current controversies in the attitude literature involves the latent structure of attitude attributes related to their strength. Four studies were conducted to explore whether 2 strength-related attributes (importance and accessibility) are affected identically by various manipulations (which would suggest that they reflect a single latent construct) and whether the attributes cause one another (which would suggest they are distinct constructs). Three laboratory experiments and I survey study show that (a) repeated expression and personal relevance manipulations have different effects on importance and accessibility and (b) increased importance can cause heightened accessibility. Thus, these 2 attitude attributes appear to constitute related but independent constructs. These studies therefore help to illuminate the nature of attitude strength and the interplay of its sources.