Psychological factors influencing the vividness and affect of visitors’ recall of nostalgic life memories in museums

Current Psychology - This study investigated the effect of nostalgia on museum visitors’ memories of life episodes from the distant past following their encounters with museum objects they...     

Optical Information to Guide the Head and Handle Movements While Playing Kendama

This study focuses on the perceptual skills used when playing kendama, a toy with a ball, string, and handle. It examines the visual information required for guiding the head and handle movements during the “swing-in” catching maneuver and determines whether information-based strategies such as canceling the rate of change of α (the optical depression angle from the horizon) or cot α (optical acceleration), using tau coupling, or a combination thereof, could be applied to this empirical task. The regressions of both α and cot α with time are found to be highly linear and increase when the skill level increases. For expert players, the k values for the tau coupling based on the center of the ball are clearly lower than those for the tau coupling based on the hole in the ball compared with skilled players. These results suggest that, with increasing skill level, kendama players tend to utilize α or cot α for regulating the observation point and use the sight of the hole as the tau coupling information for controlling the handle.     

Turn-taking interaction as a cooperative and co-creative process

In the present article, computer simulation of turn-taking interaction was studied and compared with psychological experiments such as the double TV experiment and synchronous imitation. By introducing the concepts of virtual agents, prediction error and adaptability, the simulation showed that turn-taking dynamics is a cooperative and co-creative process between two agents, which is in accordance with psychological findings. In particular, much attention is paid to styles of motion, as turn-taking with chaotic spatial pattern has developed to be sensitive to it.     

Dynamic grouping and interpolation induced by flickering stimuli

A novel grouping and interpolation effect induced by flickering stimuli is described: a matrix of flickering elements forms stick-like clusters, then the clusters gradually dissociate back into the discrete elements within a few seconds. On continuous viewing, this flicker-induced grouping and interpolation repeatedly disappeared and reappeared. The perceived strength of this phenomenon peaked when the luminance of the flickering elements was alternately darker and lighter than the background; thus, the reversal of the luminance contrast polarity was responsible for flicker-induced grouping. The temporal dynamics of flicker-induced grouping showed the stochastic nature of perceptual alternation, which depended on the global structure of the stimulus. From these results, it is concluded that flicker-induced grouping reflects multiple stages of visual processing.     

Case study of a one‐sided attack by multiple troop members on a nontroop adolescent male and the death of Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata)

An adolescent wild male Japanese macaque (Macaca fuscata), following Kinkazan A troop, was attacked one‐sidedly by multiple members of the troop. The victim was identified as PI, and was estimated to be seven±one year old. The aggressive interaction was recorded by video camera until the end. Although at least 16 troop members approached PI more than once, only three males (one adult, two adolescents) of A troop attacked him. PI kept crouching throughout the attack, then escaped to the shore and dived into the sea. The interaction continued for more than one hour. PI was found dead a few hours after the end of interaction. The damage caused by the assailants was not the direct cause of PI's death; it was due to hypothermia caused by drifting in the sea. PI's life history was reconstructed from past records. PI was a normal adolescent male who migrated from an all‐male group around B₁ troop and started ranging around A troop. The aggressive interaction is believed to be a typical example of conflict between troop males and a nontroop male. The interaction period was very long compared with previous reports on such conflicts among Japanese macaques. PI kept crouching in open areas, exposing himself as a potential competitor for the resources of the troop, and did not show any submissive or reconciliatory behavior toward the troop males. This may be why the troop males did not stop the attack. Aggr. Behav. 35:334–341, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Cross-cultural Protective Effects of Neighborhood Collective Efficacy on Antisocial Behaviors: Mediating Role of Social Information Processing

Studies on the prevention of antisocial behavior in neighborhoods through efficacious social control have focused on collective efficacy as the theoretical mechanism by which children at the community level can be successfully socialized to develop an aversion to antisocial behaviors. We hypothesized that the effect of collective efficacy within communities on antisocial behaviors could be mediated by social-information-processing biases and tested the generality of these mediation effects for undergraduates (N = 929) in Japan, China, South Korea, and the United States, countries with widely varying cultures and political systems. Structural equation modeling revealed that the effects of collective efficacy on antisocial behaviors were perfectly mediated by social-information-processing biases. Findings also confirmed the generality of these mediational effects in all four countries investigated.     

Vection can be induced without global-motion awareness

A new vection illusion is reported. Vection was induced even though there was no consciously perceived global display motion corresponding to the self-motion. The resulting experience can be summarised as: "I feel that I am moving but I do not know why".     

Perceptual simulations can be as expressive as first-order logic

Theories asserting that human reasoning is based on perceptual simulations often suppose these simulations are of concrete individual objects and the specific relations that hold among them. However, much human knowledge involves assertions about which relations do not hold, generalities over large numbers of objects and conditional facts. Can simulation theories explain how the mind represents these forms of knowledge, or are they inferior in their expressive power to knowledge representation schemes based on logical formalisms designed specifically to deal with negative, conditional and quantificational knowledge? In this paper, we show how assertions about mental simulations can in fact straightforwardly express all the concepts that comprise first-order logic, including negation, conditionals and both universal and existential quantification. We also speculate on how to extend this approach to deal with probabilistic and more expressive logics.     

Memory Characteristics in Relation to Age and Community Identity: The Influence of Rehearsal on Visitors’ Recollections of the 2005 Aichi World Exposition,Japan

ABSTRACT

This study investigated autobiographical memory characteristics in relation to age and community identity using Japanese visitors’ recollections of their experiences of the 2005 Aichi World Exposition in Japan, which they had attended 4 years past. A total of 82 visitors completed a 38-item Memory Characteristics Questionnaire (MCQ). Age was grouped in 2 levels—younger adult visitors (ages 18 to 30) and older adult visitors (ages 60 to 82)—and community identity by 2 distinct community groupings—visitors from Kansai area and visitors from Aichi area. Autobiographical memory characteristics, reflected by the factors of the MCQ, were explored through analysis of variance in terms of age and community identity to determine the influence on visitors’ long-term memories of the Aichi Expo. Explanations of the significant effects include sociocultural identities that motivate recollection and rehearsal activity and lead to clear or improvised autobiographical memories of the event.     

What skilled typists don’t know about the QWERTY keyboard

We conducted four experiments to investigate skilled typists’ explicit knowledge of the locations of keys on the QWERTY keyboard, with three procedures: free recall (Exp.?1), cued recall (Exp.?2), and recognition (Exp.?3). We found that skilled typists’ explicit knowledge of key locations is incomplete and inaccurate. The findings are consistent with theories of skilled performance and automaticity that associate implicit knowledge with skilled performance and explicit knowledge with novice performance. In Experiment?4, we investigated whether novice typists acquire more complete explicit knowledge of key locations when learning to touch-type. We had skilled QWERTY typists complete a Dvorak touch-typing tutorial. We then tested their explicit knowledge of the Dvorak and QWERTY key locations with the free recall task. We found no difference in explicit knowledge of the two keyboards, suggesting that typists know little about key locations on the keyboard, whether they are exposed to the keyboard for 2 h or 12 years.