Cognitively active externalization for situated reflection

This paper offers an explanation of how collaboration leads to abstract and flexible problem solving. We asked the individual and paired subjects to indicate 3/4 of 2/3 of the area of a square sheet of paper and found that (1) they primarily folded or partitioned the paper rather than algorithmically calculating the answer, (2) they strongly tendened to backtrack and confirm their proto‐plans on externalized traces such as creases on the paper, and (3) only the paired subjects shifted to the mathematical strategy in their second trials. Based on these results, we propose that two factors, individuals' activeness in choosing and confirming the initial strategies and the frequent role exchange between task‐doing and monitoring in collaborative situations, interact in collaboration to generate various solutions differing in the degree of abstraction, which are then reflected upon by the participants to lead them to abstraction.     

Hypermnesia: The role of multiple retrieval cues

We demonstrate that encoding multiple cues enhances hypermnesia. College students were presented with 36 (Experiment 1) or 60 (Experiments 2 and 3) sets of words and were asked to encode the sets under single- or multiple-cue conditions. In the single-cue conditions, each set consisted of a cue and a target. In the multiple-cue conditions, each set consisted of three cues and a target. Following the presentation of the word sets, the participants received either three cued recall tests (Experiments 1 and 2) or three free recall tests (Experiment 3). With this manipulation, we observed greater hypermnesia in the multiple-cue conditions than in the single-cue conditions. Furthermore, the greater hypermnesic recall resulted from increased reminiscence rather than reduced intertest forgetting. The present findings support the hypothesis that the availability of multiple retrieval cues plays an important role in hypermnesia.     

The influence of instructional intervention on children's understanding of fractions

An experimental instructional program based mainly on an equal-whole schema in fractions was given to two fourth-grade classes of a Japanese elementary school. As a control, conventional teaching based on a traditional Japanese textbook was given to another fourth-grade class. The study tested the hypothesis that students given the experimental program would understand order and magnitude as central characteristics of fractions better than those who were instructed using the traditional textbook. Students in the experimental group showed better understanding of both the order of fractions and the representation of the sizes of fractions than did the textbook group. However, there were no differences between the experimental and textbook groups in the performance of assessment tasks which were less related to the equal-whole schema. These results are discussed in view of the important instructional aim of having students understand fractions.     

Abnormal articulatory dynamics in a patient with apraxia of speech: X-ray microbeam observation

The temporal organization of articulatory movements in a patient diagnosed as having apraxia of speech was explored by means of pellet tracking techniques using an X-ray microbeam system. The results indicated that the temporal organization among different articulators of the patient was sometimes disturbed in his production of a meaningful Japanese word /deenee/. It was also observed that the pattern and velocity of the articulatory movements of the patient in repetitions of monosyllables were different from those of typical dysarthric patients.     

Prevalence of suicidal ideation in patients with atopic dermatitis

The prevalence of suicidal ideation in patients with mild, moderate, and severe atopic dermatitis between the age of 15 to 49 years were 0.21%, 6%, and 19.6%, respectively. In addition, the prevalence of homicide-suicidal ideation in mothers or fathers of patients (aged 0-14 years) with mild, moderate, and severe atopic dermatitis were 0.11%, 0.35%, and 3.28%, respectively. These results indicate that patients with atopic dermatitis or even parents of patients with atopic dermatitis have high prevalence of suicidal ideation.     

Remembering a nuclear accident in Japan: did it trigger flashbulb memories?

Flashbulb memories are vivid memories of the details surrounding the discovery of an emotional event. We investigated whether the nuclear accident that occurred in Japan in 1999 produced flashbulb memories among people who lived near the accident site. A questionnaire was distributed twice (approximately 3 weeks after the accident and 1 year later) to (1) the residents of the communities surrounding the accident site, (2) the students at a university near the accident site, and (3) the students at two universities far away from the accident site. Flashbulb memory holders were defined as those individuals who showed consistent memories between test and retest. The results indicated that only a small percentage of participants formed flashbulb memories. Further, no age-related decline was found. Flashbulb memories were distinguished by perfect or near perfect scores on four attributes: source, place, activity, and people. The results also indicated that the ratings on emotional reactions, personal consequentiality, and surprise did not differentiate between the flashbulb and non-flashbulb memory holders. In contrast, the flashbulb memory holders reported rehearsing more than the non-flashbulb memory holders. These results supported the notion that flashbulb memories are formed through rehearsal rather than at encoding. However, it is also possible that rehearsal was a result of the flashbulb memory.     

An SPSS program to compute subjective organization

This paper describes an SPSS program that computes four common subjective organization measures: Pellegrino’s (1971) ARC′ for bidirectional pairs and unordered triplets, Tulving’s (1962) measure for bidirectional pairs, and Bousfield and Bousfield’s (1966) deviation measure. This program can compute these measures between any two tests for an unlimited number of to-be-remembered items.     

Locus of Control and Implicit Memory

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the influence of locus of control on implicit and explicit memory. We hypothesized that internals would rely on semantic processing, externals on perceptual processing. In Experiment 1, 80 college students studied 36 words and completed an implicit memory test in either a consistent or cross-modality condition. The results revealed that externals had higher priming scores than did internals, regardless of modality. In Experiment 2, 80 college students took either an implicit or explicit test. The results again revealed that externals showed higher priming scores than internals. The higher priming scores exhibited by the externals do not necessarily mean that they are more perceptually oriented than the internals are.     

Hypermnesia: A further examination of age differences between young and older adults

Previous studies that examined age differences in hypermnesia reported inconsistent results. The present experiment investigated whether the different study materials in these studies were responsible for the inconsistency. In particular, the present experiment examined whether the use of a video, as opposed to words and pictures, would eliminate previously reported age differences in hypermnesia. Fifteen college students and 15 older adults viewed a 3‐minute video clip followed by two free‐recall tests. The results indicated that older adults, as a whole, did not show hypermnesia. However, when older adults were divided into low and high memory groups based on test 1 performance, the high memory group showed hypermnesia whereas the low memory group did not show hypermnesia. The older adults in the low memory group were significantly older than the older adults in the high memory group – indicating that hypermnesia is inversely related to age in older adults. Reminiscence did not show an age‐related difference in either the low or high memory group whereas inter‐test forgetting did show an age difference in the low memory group. As expected, older adults showed greater inter‐test forgetting than young adults in the low memory group. Findings from the present experiment suggest that video produces a pattern of results that is similar to the patterns obtained when words and pictures are used as study material. Thus, it appears that the nature of study material is not the source of inconsistency across the previous studies.     

Overcoming cognitive obstacles in learning fractions: Equal‐partitioning and equal‐whole1

Abstract: The present study was designed to test the hypothesis that acquisition of the concepts of equal‐partitioning and equal‐whole, which constitute implicit knowledge in fractions, promotes understanding of fractions. To test the hypothesis an experimental program based on both the equal‐partitioning and equal‐whole was developed for three third‐grade classrooms in a Japanese elementary school. As a control, conventional teaching based on a Japanese textbook was provided in two third‐grade classrooms. The present study tested the hypothesis that students given such an intervention program would understand order and magnitude as central characteristics of fractions better than those who had been instructed using a traditional textbook. Students in the experimental group showed significantly better understanding of the equal‐partitioning of fractions and the representation of the sizes of fractions than did those in the textbook group. There were, moreover, no differences between the experimental and textbook groups in the performance of routine tasks frequently found in the textbook. These results are discussed in view of the important instructional aims of having students understand fractions.