The “Healthy Person”: A Review

Two general approaches in the analysis of a “healthy” person were identified as (1) operational and (2) conceptual. Criterion problems seem crucial in the former, while in the latter, semantic and value problems are to be resolved. Consideration might profitably be given to, first, the concept of dynamic equilibrium or active adaptation (assimilation and accommodation) and, second, to that of developmental mastery of tasks along the “dimension of depth” and toward discovery of the meaning of life and of man's position in the universe. Such a model implies client's exploration of his existence in the world in the perspective of a continuous life process. Both being and becoming can and should be of legitimate concern to mental health workers.     

Erratum: Computer‐based teaching of Kanji construction and writing in a student with developmental disabilities. By Hiroshi Sugasawara and Jun‐ichi Yamamoto

The above article (DOI: 10.1002/bin.271 ) was published online in Early View on 3 December 2008. A printing error was subsequently identified in the article. Page 1: Incorrect author affiliation. ‘Keio Advanced Research Center (KARC)’ should be ‘Department of Psychology’     

Type-based associations in grapheme-color synaesthesia revealed by response time distribution analyses

Determining the nature of binding in grapheme-color synaesthesia has consequences for understanding the neural basis of synaesthesia and visual awareness in general. We evaluated type- and token-based letter-color binding using a synaesthetic version of the object-reviewing paradigm. Although mean response times failed to reveal any significant differences between synaesthetes and control participants, RT analyses with ex-Gaussian distributions revealed that the response facilitation in the synaesthesia group reflected type representations exclusively, while response facilitation in the control group, who learned letter-color associations, was dominated by token representations. Thus, letter-color associations in associator synaesthetes are type-based, and do not involve binding to object tokens, consistent with their subjective reports. Contrary to recent studies that failed to find differences between synaesthetes and non-synaesthetes with behavioral measures, response time distribution analyses indicate that color sensations in synaesthetes are not simply the extreme form of normal letter-color associations, and cannot be attributed to demand characteristics.     

The role of active locomotion in space perception

It has been shown that active control of locomotion increases accuracy and precision of nonvisual space perception, but psychological mechanisms of this enhancement are poorly understood. The present study explored a hypothesis that active control of locomotion enhances space perception by facilitating crossmodal interaction between visual and nonvisual spatial information. In an experiment, blindfolded participants walked along a linear path under one of the following two conditions: (1) They walked by themselves following a guide rope and (2) they were led by an experimenter. Subsequently, they indicated the walked distance by tossing a beanbag to the origin of locomotion. The former condition gave participants greater control of their locomotion and thus represented a more active walking condition. In addition, before each trial, half the participants viewed the room in which they performed the distance perception task. The other half remained blindfolded throughout the experiment. Results showed that although the room was devoid of any particular cues for walked distances, visual knowledge of the surroundings improved the precision of nonvisual distance perception. Importantly, however, the benefit of preview was observed only when participants walked more actively. This indicates that active control of locomotion allowed participants to better utilize their visual memory of the environment for perceiving nonvisually encoded distance, suggesting that active control of locomotion served as a catalyst for integrating visual and nonvisual information to derive spatial representations of higher quality.     

Genesis and Intersubjectivity: Levels of Mediation

I will make a brief comment on the thesis of José C. Loredo-Narciandi and José C. Sánchez-González (2012) “Neither Dichotomies Nor Dualism; Simply Genesis”. Denying any reductionism and reification, they insists the importance of inseparable relation between subject and object, then discuss about genesis. I pointed out that their argument lacks an important element, i.e., mediator that differ from mere physical object. After discussing mediators nature, I discriminate the three level of interaction which mediated by mediator. The first is the pre-interaction level, the second is physical interaction level and the third is sign or language interaction level. The last argument of mine is about how we can solve the problem of reification and reductionism. In the argument it is pointed out that intersubjectivity is key concept for understanding and solving the problem appropriately.     

A cluster‐based factor rotation

A new oblique factor rotation method is proposed, the aim of which is to identify a simple and well‐clustered structure in a factor loading matrix. A criterion consisting of the complexity of a factor loading matrix and a between‐cluster dissimilarity is optimized using the gradient projection algorithm and the k‐means algorithm. It is shown that if there is an oblique rotation of an initial loading matrix that has a perfect simple structure, then the proposed method with Kaiser's normalization will produce the perfect simple structure. Although many rotation methods can also recover a perfect simple structure, they perform poorly when a perfect simple structure is not possible. In this case, the new method tends to perform better because it clusters the loadings without requiring the clusters to be perfect. Artificial and real data analyses demonstrate that the proposed method can give a simple structure, which the other methods cannot produce, and provides a more interpretable result than those of widely known rotation techniques.     

Stress anomaly in Al-rich Ti-Al single crystals deformed by the motion of 1/2«110] ordinary dislocations

The microstructure and plastic deformation behaviour of Al-rich Ti-Al single crystals containing 54.7 and 58.0 at.% Al have been examined, focusing on the effect of chemical ordering of a Al5Ti3 superstructure on anomalous strengthening. Fine precipitates with the Al5Ti3 superstructure were developed in the L10 matrix of the Ti-58.0 at.% Al alloy. The size and volume fraction of the precipitates varied depending on temperature. An anomalous increase in the yield stress of the two alloys appeared at around 800oC. This strengthening mechanism is discussed on the basis of the difference in antiphase-boundary energies on (111), (110) and (001) planes in the Al5Ti3 phase.     

Atomic structure and solute segregation of a Σ = 3, [110]/{111} grain boundary in an yttria-stabilized cubic zirconia bicrystal

The atomic structure and chemical composition of a =3, [110]/{111} symmetric tilt grain boundary in an yttria-stabilized cubic zirconia bicrystal has been investigated by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and nanoprobe energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The experimental HRTEM images are compared with simulated images for a model obtained by lattice statics calculations. It is found that the grain boundary has two individual mirror symmetrical planes in cation and anion sublattices. In this case, the cations are forced to form sevenfold coordination in the vicinity of the boundary owing to the restraint of the boundary structure, while the cations in the cubic fluorite structure have eightfold coordination. The segregation of yttrium ions was experimentally detected at the = 3 boundary, a finding that is considered to be closely related to the change in the local coordination at the boundary.     

Sequential versus simultaneous viewing of an environment: Effects of focal attention to individual object locations on visual spatial learning

We investigated memories of room-sized spatial layouts learned by sequentially or simultaneously viewing objects from a stationary position. In three experiments, sequential viewing (one or two objects at a time) yielded subsequent memory performance that was equivalent or superior to simultaneous viewing of all objects, even though sequential viewing lacked direct access to the entire layout. This finding was replicated by replacing sequential viewing with directed viewing in which all objects were presented simultaneously and participants’ attention was externally focused on each object sequentially, indicating that the advantage of sequential viewing over simultaneous viewing may have originated from focal attention to individual object locations. These results suggest that memory representation of object-to-object relations can be constructed efficiently by encoding each object location separately, when those locations are defined within a single spatial reference system. These findings highlight the importance of considering object presentation procedures when studying spatial learning mechanisms.