Development of carefulness and quickness observed for a tray-carrying task

The purpose of this study was to investigate the developmental change in performance of groups of children instructed to behave carefully and quickly in a tray-carrying task. The subjects were 69 nonhandicapped children from a kindergarten, ages 3-4 to 6 years, and 20 adult students who volunteered. Subjects were instructed to carry as fast as they could a tray with a glass of water for 3 m without a spill. The amounts of water spilled and the times taken were measured. The amounts of water spilled were hardly different within groups of children of the same ages or between age groups. But the times were different among groups: the younger ones took longer, and the difference in time between tray-carrying and normal walking was greatest for the youngest group. Children could carry the tray as carefully as adults but could not do so quickly. The nature of the representation of the instruction in relation to the behavior of children and the difference in strategy to guarantee carefulness between children and the adults are discussed.     

Judgments of Processing Load in Japanese: The Effect of NP-ga Sequences

This study reports an effect of more than two consecutive noun phrases (NPs) with the same nominative case marker, -ga, on ratings of processability for Japanese multiply center-embedded sentences. The findings imply that the processing overload theory of Babyonyshev and Gibson (1995) requires modification. Although that theory sets the critical limit (beyond which parser breakdown occurs) at four processing load units (PLUs), it appears that the parser is overloaded by anything over five PLUs. where a three NP-ga sequence contributes roughly an additional PLU to processing cost. The evidence also suggests that inherently cased NPs are not cost free.     

What Is Line Bisection in Unilateral Spatial Neglect?: Analysis of Perceptual and Motor Aspects in Line Bisection Tasks

Three patients with unilateral spatial neglect could detect the difference of length between the right and left segments when a line had a transection mark. To examine the effect of response mode, the manual line bisection task and a new “line bisection task by fixation” were given to the patients. In tasks that used lines with no landmark, they showed apparent rightward errors. The results suggest that line bisection is not a task that examines the ability of patients with neglect to compare the right and left extents of a line. Where to fixate as the subjective midpoint may determine the rightward errors of bisection, whether manual response is used or not.     

The meaningful life in Japan and the United States: Levels and correlates of meaning in life

Culture supplies people with the provisions to derive meaning from life. However, no research has examined cultural variation in the two principal dimensions of meaning in life, presence of meaning and search for meaning. The present investigation adapted theories of self-concept and cognitive styles to develop a dialectical model of meaning in life, which predicted cultural differences in the tendency to experience search for meaning as opposed to, or harmonious with, presence of meaning. Using data from American (N = 1183) and Japanese (N = 982) young adults, mean levels and correlates of presence of meaning and search for meaning were examined. As predicted, Americans reported greater presence of meaning; Japanese reported greater search for meaning. In accordance with the model, search for meaning was negatively related to presence of meaning and well-being in the United States (opposed) and positively related to these variables in Japan (harmonious). Thus, the search for meaning appears to be influenced by culture, and search for meaning appears to moderate cultural influences on presence of meaning.     

Early Personality Traits as Predictors of Mortality Risk Following Conjugal Bereavement

ABSTRACT This study explored pre-bereavement personality traits and gender as predictors of post-widowhood mortality risk, using newly derived life span data for participants originally recruited for Lewis Terman's classic study of the gifted. Personality traits measured in 1940 were used to predict mortality risk from 1940 through 2004 for married participants who were either widowed between 1940 and 1986 or who remained married. Results indicated that widowhood predicted a decrease in mortality risk for these (intelligent) individuals (relative hazard [ rh ]=0.68, N =843, p <.001) and neuroticism significantly moderated this effect. Specifically, neuroticism in young adulthood was significantly associated with decreased mortality risk among men who were later widowed ( rh =0.50, N =66, p <.02) but not among women or consistently married men. Conclusions reveal the importance of personality–situation interactions and the adoption of a long-term perspective.     

Female Video Game Players and the Protective Effect of Feminist Identity Against Internalized Misogyny

Sex Roles - Video games often contain sexist content that may be connected to negative consequences for female video game players, such as internalizing negative attitudes and beliefs about women....     

Residential Mobility Fosters Sensitivity to the Disappearance of Happiness

We conducted two studies to examine the hypothesis that residential mobility would evoke anxiety and foster sensitivity to signs of disapproval, such as the disappearance of happiness. American and Japanese participants were asked to watch happy-to-neutral movies and sad-to-neutral movies and judge the point at which they thought that their initial expressions had disappeared. We found that, regardless of cultures, participants who had experienced frequent moving (Study 1) and those asked to imagine and describe a mobile lifestyle of frequent moving (Study 2) judged the disappearance of happy faces faster than those who did not experience or imagine frequent moving. Our results were also in line with the previous finding in which Japanese were more vigilant than Americans in regards to the disappearance of happy faces. Moreover, we found that imagining a mobile lifestyle made participants feel more concerned than when imagining a stable lifestyle. The implications for the social skills needed for people in the globalising world are discussed.     

Distress of Japanese parents of children with intellectual disabilities: Correlations with age of parent and negative mood regulation expectancies

Parents caring for a child with an intellectual disability (ID) face many challenges. Few studies in Japan have focused on parents of children with an ID. We investigated the psychological factors that might help these parents maintain well‐being, in particular negative mood regulation expectancies (NMRE). NMRE are beliefs about one's ability to diminish one's negative moods. Research has shown NMRE to buffer the effects of stress: stronger NMRE are associated with less symptoms of distress, including depression and anxiety. We examined the associations of NMRE, coping, and severity of the child's ID with parental distress (somatization, depression, and anxiety) among 106 Japanese parents (mean age = 56.7 years) caring for at least one child with an ID. The age of the parent was negatively associated with parental distress, particularly anxiety. NMRE were also negatively related to distress, independent of the age of the parent and coping. The severity of the child's ID was not related to coping or parental distress. Stronger beliefs that they could control their negative moods and being older seemed to protect parents of an ID child from symptoms of distress.     

Outgroup homogeneity effect in perception: An exploration with Ebbinghaus illusion

An outgroup homogeneity (OH) effect implies that outgroup members are perceived to be more similar than ingroup members. At present, however, it is not clear whether the OH effect is truly perceptual. Here, we used an Ebbinghaus illusion to demonstrate the OH effect in perception. Participants were presented with one central face that was surrounded by four surrounding faces. The central face was judged to be smaller as the size of the surrounding faces increased, thereby demonstrating an Ebbinghaus illusion. As predicted, however, this illusion was significantly greater when the faces allegedly belonged to an outgroup than when they allegedly belonged to an ingroup. This perceptual OH effect bore no significant relationship with cognitive OH measures. The perceptual versus cognitive OH effects might therefore be mediated by separate mechanisms.