Short report: the effect of expertise in hiking on recognition memory for mountain scenes

The nature of an expert memory advantage that does not depend on stimulus structure or chunking was examined, using more ecologically valid stimuli in the context of a more natural activity than previously studied domains. Do expert hikers and novice hikers see and remember mountain scenes differently? In the present experiment, 18 novice hikers and 17 expert hikers were presented with 60 photographs of scenes from hiking trails. These scenes differed in the degree of functional aspects that implied some action possibilities or dangers. The recognition test revealed that the memory performance of experts was significantly superior to that of novices for scenes with highly functional aspects. The memory performance for the scenes with few functional aspects did not differ between novices and experts. These results suggest that experts pay more attention to, and thus remember better, scenes with functional meanings than do novices.     

Japanese death rituals in transit: From household ancestors to beloved antecedents

The recent trend in contemporary Japanese funerals reflects changing family relationships, religious affiliation and individual values. Increasingly, Japanese people are conducting a living‐funeral or a non‐religious funeral (as opposed to a common Buddhist funeral), and dispersing ashes after cremation. Such funeral ceremonies and mortuary rites demonstrate the isolation of the elderly during the process of dying, the asymmetrical relationship between the deceased and the bereaved, and the attenuating ties between people and Buddhist temples. The fundamental change that underlies these transformation of funerary practices, I argue, is the shift from the ancestor worship that values the deceased for the purpose of household perpetuation, to the memorialism of individuals that celebrates the deceased's personal life based on the bereaved's love toward the deceased.     

Parenting Self-Efficacy and Parental Involvement: Mediators or Moderators Between Socioeconomic Status and Children’s Academic Competence in Japan and Korea?

We examined the causes of a growing achievement gap associated with socioeconomic status (SES) in Korea and Japan, testing whether parenting self-efficacy (PSE) and parental involvement (PI) mediated or moderated the association of SES to children’s school-related competence (SRC). Three hundred and seventy-two Korean and 309 Japanese mothers of first- and second-grade children completed a parenting survey. Japanese mothers’ education and PSE were directly associated with SRC. PSE moderated the association of education to SRC, with higher PSE of college-educated mothers positively associated with SRC. In the Korean sample, household income was associated with SRC directly as well as indirectly through PSE.     

Asymmetrical neural adaptation in lower leg muscles as a consequence of stereotypical motor training

Despite well-authorized facts regarding asymmetrical architectural changes between different limbs after persistent participation in particular motor training, no studies have addressed the neural aspects to the present. The authors undertook the study to elucidate the possibility of neural adaptation on a limb-by-limb basis after repetitive engagement in a particular motor training routine. We investigated lower leg muscles in endurance-trained track runners who have been trained by routinely running on a track in counterclockwise direction on curved paths. Stretch reflex responses in the plantarflexor muscles (soleus [SOL], medial [MG], and lateral head of the gastrocnemius muscle) were evaluated bilaterally with participants sitting at rest. Comparisons were made between homonymous muscles of the right (corresponding to outside leg for track running) and left leg (inside leg, likewise) and with a group of nontrained controls. The result clearly demonstrated that the responses were prominently different between the legs (thus, asymmetrical) in the MG muscles and partially in the SOL muscles in the trained group. In contrast, no such differences were obtained in the nontrained control group. The result demonstrated that neural adaptation took place asymmetrically and that could be attributable to their repetitive engagement in the stereotypical motor task.     

Ab initio pseudopotential studies on an Al Σ = 9 grain boundary: Effects of Na and Ca impurities

The electronic properties of an Al = 9 tilt grain boundary with segregated Na and Ca impurity atoms have been calculated by a first-principles pseudopotential method. The results show that the boundary expands and the charge density decreases significantly over the whole boundary by the segregation of Na and Ca, and there are no stronger bonds than those associated with metallic bonding in the boundary even with the impurities. It is concluded that the embrittlement promotion mechanism by Na or Ca segregation in the Al boundaries is one kind of 'decohesion model'.     

Shuffle-set dislocation nucleation in semiconductor silicon device

We have found that a shuffle-set dislocation is nucleated in a semiconductor silicon device subjected to severe thermal processing. The dislocation transforms into a dissociated glide-set dislocation after annealing at 500°C. A possible mechanism for the nucleation of a perfect shuffle-set dislocation during thermal processing is that the dislocation nucleus was nucleated at a low temperature during prior ion-implantation processing.     

Cross-slip in GaAs and InP at elevated temperatures

Slip lines on GaAs and InP crystals plastically deformed up to the lower yield point at temperatures around 700 K are compared with similar observations on Si. The slip lines in GaAs and InP differ from those in Si in two aspects, namely the primary slip lines are wavy and the non-primary slip lines are long and straight. The former are similar to those found in crystals deformed at low temperatures (below 400 K), being common among III-V compounds, and suggests a glide motion of undissociated screw dislocations. The operation processes of the non-primary slips are discussed with an X-ray topographic analysis of GaAs.     

Suppressed semantic information accelerates analytic problem solving

The present study investigated the limits of semantic processing without awareness, during continuous flash suppression (CFS). We used compound remote associate word problems, in which three seemingly unrelated words (e.g., pine, crab, sauce) form a common compound with a single solution word (e.g., apple). During the first 3 s of each trial, the three problem words or three irrelevant words (control condition) were suppressed from awareness, using CFS. The words then became visible, and participants attempted to solve the word problem. Once the participants solved the problem, they indicated whether they had solved it by insight or analytically. Overall, the compound remote associate word problems were solved significantly faster after the problem words, as compared with irrelevant words, were presented during the suppression period. However this facilitation occurred only when people solved with analysis, not with insight. These results demonstrate that semantic processing, but not necessarily semantic integration, may occur without awareness.