Self-awakening, sleep inertia, and P3 amplitude in elderly people

It is well known that sleepiness is sometimes experienced in the afternoon. A short afternoon nap is thought to be effective in reducing sleepiness. However, sleep inertia occurs even after a short nap, and this could be a major risk factor for injuries from falling by the elderly. In the present study, the effect of self-awakening on sleep inertia after a 20-min. nap was examined. Nine participants (M=74.1 yr., SD=5.0 yr.) took part in the three experimental conditions: the self-awakened nap, the forced-awakened nap, and the control (no-nap) conditon. Analysis showed sleepiness and performance after the nap significantly improved compared with the control condition. P3 amplitude tended to be larger after self-awakening than after forced-awakening. The present study indicates a 20-min. nap reduces afternoon sleepiness, and the application of self-awakening may contribute to higher arousal after a nap taken by this elderly group.     

The haptic Müller-Lyer illusion in sighted and blind people

We examined the effect of visual experience on the haptic Müller-Lyer illusion. Subjects made size estimates of raised lines by using a sliding haptic ruler. Independent groups of blind-folded-sighted, late-blind, congenitally blind, and low-vision subjects judged the sizes of wings-in and wings-out stimuli, plain lines, and lines with short vertical ends. An illusion was found, since the wings-in stimuli were judged as shorter than the wings-out patterns and all of the other stimuli. Subjects generally underestimated the lengths of lines. In a second experiment we found a nonsignificant difference between length judgments of raised lines as opposed to smooth wooden dowels. The strength of the haptic illusion depends upon the angles of the wings, with a much stronger illusion for more acute angles. The effect of visual status was nonsignificant, suggesting that spatial distortion in the haptic Müller-Lyer illusion does not depend upon visual imagery or visual experience.     

The relation of the anger subcomponent of Type A behavior to psychological symptoms in Japanese and foreign students

The relations of the Type A behavior subcomponents to psychological symptoms were examined. Participants were 429 Japanese college students and 307 foreign students. Type A behavior was measured by the Everyday Behavior Questionnaire, developed in part from several rating scales and composed of four subcomponents: anger/impatience, speed, competitiveness/hard-driving, and eagerness/interest. The Hopkins Symptom Checklist was used to measure psychological symptoms. The results of multiple regression analyses on the Type A behavior subcomponents and psychological symptoms indicated strong positive relations between anger/impatience and psychological symptoms, in both Japanese and foreign students. It was concluded that the Type A subcomponents anger and impatience seemed to worsen the psychological health of individuals of various cultural backgrounds.     

Psychometric properties of the Multidimensional Aversion to Women Who Work Scale in Japanese undergraduate women

The Multidimensional Aversion to Women Who Work Scale is a self-report measure of gender attitudes. The present study examined the psychometric properties of the scale with 213 Japanese university female students who completed the Japanese version. Exploratory factor analyses yielded the same two factors, Employment Skepticism and Traditional Roles Preference, as previously identified. A relivery ability estimate of internal consistency of Employment Skepticism and Traditional Roles Preference was acceptable. Confirmatory factor analysis of the Japanese version in another group of 245 university female students showed the construct validity of the 2-factor model of the 7-item scale. This study supported the generalization of the previous findings in American samples and the multicultural utility of the scale. The Japanese version of the Multidimensional Aversion to Women Who Work Scale seems a useful measure of employment-related gender attitudes.     

Hyperactivity/inattention problems moderate environmental but not genetic mediation between negative parenting and conduct problems

This study investigated the association between negative parenting (NP) and conduct problems (CP) in 6-year-old twins, taking into account the severity of hyperactivity/inattention problems (HIAP). Analyses of the data from 1,677 pairs of twins and their parents revealed that the shared environmental covariance between NP and CP was moderated by the level of HIAP but not by CP or NP, where the shared environmental covariance was larger in children with higher levels of HIAP than in children with lower levels of HIAP. The genetic covariance between NP and CP was not moderated by the level of HIAP, whereas it was larger in the group with lower levels of CP and NP than in the group with higher levels. These results suggest that severe HIAP strengthens shared environmental associations between NP and CP and that interventions focusing on the shared environmental component of NP would be effective for parents and children with severe HIAP.     

The Role of the Phonological Loop in English Word Learning: A Comparison of Chinese ESL Learners and Native Speakers

Although the role of the phonological loop in word-retention is well documented, research in Chinese character retention suggests the involvement of non-phonological encoding. This study investigated whether the extent to which the phonological loop contributes to learning and remembering visually introduced words varies between college-level Chinese ESL learners (N = 20) and native speakers of English (N = 20). The groups performed a paired associative learning task under two conditions (control versus articulatory suppression) with two word types (regularly spelled versus irregularly spelled words) differing in degree of phonological accessibility. The results demonstrated that both groups’ recall declined when the phonological loop was made less available (with irregularly spelled words and in the articulatory suppression condition), but the decline was greater for the native group. These results suggest that word learning entails phonological encoding uniformly across learners, but the contribution of phonology varies among learners with diverse linguistic backgrounds.     

Found in translation: cross-cultural consensus in the accurate categorization of male sexual orientation

Across cultures, people converge in some behaviors and diverge in others. As little is known about the accuracy of judgments across cultures outside of the domain of emotion recognition, the present study investigated the influence of culture in another area: the social categorization of men's sexual orientations. Participants from nations varying in their acceptance of homosexuality (United States, Japan, and Spain) categorized the faces of men from all three cultures significantly better than chance guessing. Moreover, categorizations of individual faces were significantly correlated among the three groups of perceivers. Americans were significantly faster and more accurate than the Japanese and Spanish perceivers. Categorization strategies (i.e., response bias) also varied such that perceivers from cultures less accepting of homosexuality were more likely to categorize targets as straight. Male sexual orientation therefore appears to be legible across cultures.     

Narcissistic people cannot be moved easily by visual stimulation

We examined the relationship between personality and visually induced self-motion perception (latency, duration, and magnitude). A psychological experiment with radially expanding patterns that induced self-motion perception along the fore and aft axis was conducted, followed by personality assessments. We found that all the measures of self-motion perception we examined correlated negatively with the degree of narcissistic traits.     

Attention and its coupling to action

We discuss two commentaries that we have received on our target article (Humphreys et al., 2010). We elaborate on the evidence for action effects on extinction and discuss whether these effects occur pre or post the selection of a response. In addition, we discuss the neural basis of the effects of action relations on extinction and on the generalization of results on action relations to real‐world examples.     

Reconciliation pattern after aggression among Japanese preschool children

Using an ethological observation method (the PC‐MC comparison method), this study investigated patterns of reconciliation after aggression among Japanese preschool children, focusing on factors that influenced its occurrence or acceptance, as well as on strategies and function. There were several factors among four‐year‐olds that facilitated reconciliatory attempts and acceptance, such as proximity after the aggression; among three‐year‐olds there were no such factors. Depending on the situation during and after aggression, children used ‘explicit’ (e.g., apologizing, compromising, and offering objects) and ‘implicit’ (e.g., being friendly, talking without apologizing, and touching the opponent gently) reconciliatory strategies. Reconciliation occurred more often among friends than among non‐friends, particularly among four‐year‐olds. However, after considering the baseline affiliation level, the conciliatory tendency among non‐friends was higher than that among friends in four‐year‐olds. Victims' self‐directed behavior (SDB) ‐ a behavioral index of stress ‐ was elevated following aggression, but decreased following reconciliation. This suggests that reconciliation functions to reduce the post‐conflict stress suffered by the targets of aggression. Aggress. Behav. 31:000–000, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.