Individual differences in the biomechanical effect of loudness and tempo on upper-limb movements during repetitive piano keystrokes

The present study addressed the effect of loudness and tempo on kinematics and muscular activities of the upper extremity during repetitive piano keystrokes. Eighteen pianists with professional music education struck two keys simultaneously and repetitively with a combination of four loudness levels and four tempi. The results demonstrated a significant interaction effect of loudness and tempo on peak angular velocity for the shoulder, elbow, wrist and finger joints, mean muscular activity for the corresponding flexors and extensors, and their co-activation level. The interaction effect indicated greater increases with tempo when eliciting louder tones for all joints and muscles except for the elbow velocity showing a greater decrease with tempo. Multiple-regression analysis and K-means clustering further revealed that 18 pianists were categorized into three clusters with different interaction effects on joint kinematics. These clusters were characterized by either an elbow-velocity decrease and a finger-velocity increase, a finger-velocity decrease with increases in shoulder and wrist velocities, or a large elbow-velocity decrease with a shoulder-velocity increase when increasing both loudness and tempo. Furthermore, the muscular load considerably differed across the clusters. These findings provide information to determine muscles with the greatest potential risk of playing-related disorders based on movement characteristics of individual pianists.     

Priming and implicit recognition depend on similar temporal changes in perceptual representations

Previous studies have reported that longer stimulus presentation decreases the magnitude of priming. In the present study, we used meaningless kaleidoscope images, which were reported to minimize conceptual processing, to investigate the mechanism of the phenomenon. We assessed the impact of stimulus duration on perceptual priming (Experiment 1) and implicit recognition memory (Experiment 2). Both the magnitude of priming and the accuracy of implicit recognition were lower with the longer stimulus presentation (350 ms) compared with the shorter presentation (250 ms). This coincidence of temporal dynamics between priming and implicit recognition suggests similar underlying memory mechanisms. In both cases, the decrease of performance with longer presentation can be explained by either changes in perceptual processes or interference from explicit memory retrieval.     

Texture and grain boundary character distribution (GBCD) in rapidly solidified and annealed Fe–6·5 mass% Si ribbons

Abstract

The type and frequency of grain boundaries, the so-called grain boundary character distribution (GBCD), has been determined in rapidly solidified and subsequently annealed Fe-6·5 mass% Si alloy ribbon by the scanning electron microscopy-electron channelling pattern (SEM-ECP) technique. High frequencies of low-angle boundaries and coincidence boundaries with Σ3, Σ9, Σ11, Σ17 and Σ19 were observed in a fully annealed ribbon with well defined {110} texture. The total frequency of low-angle boundaries and coincidence boundaries is almost one-half of all grain boundaries. The coincidence boundaries which occurred more frequently are exactly those predicted theoretically from the coincidence orientations for 〈110〉 rotation in cubic crystals, similar to those observed previously in {100} textured ribbons of the same alloy produced by the same processing method. The presence of a close relationship between the type of texture and GBCD has been confirmed by experiment on differently textured ribbons of the same material.     

The fractal property of internal structure of facial affect recognition: A complex system approach

Based on a circumplex model of facial affect, four inner affective circumplexes, assumed to have 100%, 75%, 50%, and 25% emotional intensities, were investigated in terms of fractal, which is a concept of complex systems. Results revealed that the perimeters of the circumplex excluding the 25% condition possessed fractal property characterised by features specific to fractals. Results also showed that fractal dimension in the 50% condition (1.58 dimension) was significantly higher than that in the 100% (1.45 dimension) and 75% (1.45 dimension) conditions, indicating that the cognitive structure of facial affect in the 50% condition was more complex than that in the 100% and 75% conditions.     

Faulty Japanese sentences are judged more grammatical when punctuation is used: negative implications for Chomsky's principle of Full Interpretation

88 adult Japanese speakers judged the grammaticality of isolated simple bitransitive sentences involving an uninterpretable extra argument in addition to three legitimate arguments. The sentences thus violated Chomsky's principle of Full Interpretation which prohibits the structure building of a sentence including uninterpretable elements. The primary variable of interest was the presence or absence of punctuation, i.e., commas, which enclosed the extra argument. Findings showed that sentences with punctuation were judged more grammatical than the ones without punctuation, with an average score of judged grammaticality exceeding 3 on a 7-point scale (1 =least grammatical; 7=most grammatical). This score would not be expected if the speakers possess and judge the sentences in conformity with the principle of Full Interpretation.     

Changes across age groups in self-choice elaboration effects on incidental memory

The present study investigated age differences in the effects of a self-choice elaboration and an experimenter-provided elaboration on incidental memory. Adults, sixth grade, and second grade subjects chose which of two sentence frames the target fit better in a self-choice elaboration condition. They then judged whether each target made sense in its sentence frame in the experimenter-provided elaboration, then did free recall tests. Only adults recalled better the targets with an image sentence with self-choice elaboration, rather than experimenter-provided elaboration. However, self-choice elaboration was far superior for the recall of targets with nonimage sentences only for second graders. Thus, the effects of self-choice elaboration were determined both by age and by type of sentence frame.     

Judgments of grammaticality of Japanese simple sentences involving two arguments in a whole-part relation: a further examination of Chomsky's principle of Full Interpretation

Adult Japanese speakers judged the grammaticality of simple ungramatical sentences involving two arguments, each related with a single verb. The arguments were attached to the same case marker playing the same thematic role in the sentences. Thus the sentences violated Chomsky's principle of Full Interpretation. The two arguments were manipulated such that, on the one hand, one argument (the part-argument) constituted a part of the other argument (the whole-argument) and that, on the other, a part-argument either preceded or followed a whole-argument. Participants rated the sentences using either a conventional 7-point rating scale or magnitude estimation. Findings showed that irrespective of rating method sentences in which the whole-argument preceded the part-argument were judged more grammatical than sentences in which the part-argument preceded the whole-argument. Such an empirical phenomenon is inconsistent with the prediction derived from Chomsky's principle of Full Interpretation, while interestingly it is consistent with the grammar of classical Japanese used about 900 years ago.     

Association of maternal smoking during pregnancy and infant neurobehavioral status

The association of maternal smoking during pregnancy with neurobehavioral status was examined in 344 Japanese infants. Based on a questionnaire, their mothers were classified into three groups, Nonsmokers, Exsmokers, and Smokers. The Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale was administered three days after birth. Among the three groups, on the seven clusters and their 28 behavioral subscales there were no significant differences. The infants of Smokers had lower scores than those of Exsmokers and Nonsmokers on two behavioral items, general tone and peak of excitement. General tone remained significant after adjustment for covariates.     

Volitional lifestyle in healthy elderly: its relevance to rest-activity cycle,nocturnal sleep,and daytime napping

Sleep-related problems are prevalent among the aged. The present study examined the influence of a mentally active or "volitional" lifestyle on the rest-activity cycle, nocturnal sleep, and daytime napping in the healthy elderly. 14 aged individuals with a high Volitional lifestyle (M = 74.1 yr. old) and 14 with a Low Volitional lifestyle (M = 73.0 yr. old) were screened by questionnaires including the Philadelphia Geriatric Center Morale scale and the Self-confidence scale. Their activity levels were monitored by a wrist actigraph system for 14 consecutive days. They were also asked to record daily sleep logs. The total times of nocturnal sleep and daytime napping did not differ between the groups. However, the acrophases of circadian (tau = 24 hr.) and circasemidian (tau = 12 hr.) activity cycles were more advanced in the Low Volitional group. In addition, the High Volitional group took a daytime nap with a better timing than did the Low Volitional group: the former started a nap during the phase in which their activity level was going down, whereas the latter when their activity level was going up. These results suggest that high volitional lifestyle may be related to better rest-activity cycle in the healthy elderly.     

From dichoptic to dichotic: historical contrasts between binocular vision and binaural hearing

Phenomena involving vision with two eyes have been commented upon for several thousand years whereas those concerned with hearing with two ears have a much more recent history. Studies of binocular vision and binaural hearing are contrasted with respect to the singleness of the percept, experimental manipulations of dichoptic and dichotic stimuli, eye and ear dominance, spatial localisation, and the instruments used to stimulate the paired organs. One of the principal phenomena that led to studies of dichotic hearing was dichoptic colour mixing. There was similar disagreement regarding whether colours or sounds could be combined when presented to different paired organs. Direction and distance in visual localisation were analysed before those for auditory localisation, partly due to difficulties in controlling the stimuli. Instruments for investigating binocular vision, like the stereoscope and pseudoscope, were invented before those for binaural hearing, like the stethophone and pseudophone.