Visual search strategies of baseball batters: eye movements during the preparatory phase of batting

The aim of this study was to analyze visual search strategies of baseball batters during the viewing period of the pitcher's motion. The 18 subjects were 9 experts and 9 novices. While subjects viewed a videotape which, from a right-handed batter's perspective, showed a pitcher throwing a series of 10 types of pitches, their eye movements were measured and analyzed. Novices moved their eyes faster than experts, and the distribution area of viewing points was also wider than that of the experts. The viewing duration of experts of the pitching arm was longer than those of novices during the last two pitching phases. These results indicate that experts set their visual pivot on the pitcher's elbow and used peripheral vision properties to evaluate the pitcher's motion and the ball trajectory.     

Sequential priming is not constrained by the shape of long-term learning curves

When multiple stimulus-to-response (S-R) mappings are randomly intermixed and repeated in a block of trials, immediate repetitions of an aspect of a stimulus and/or a response can facilitate stimulus detection, classification, and/or response selection--known as sequential priming. In addition to these short-term effects, response times (RT) for almost any task diminish with extended practice, improvements can occur over many days, and RT learning curves typically assume exponential or power functions. We investigated whether short-term sequential priming and long-term practice modulate RT through a common mechanism, using a variant of the additive factors method. We tracked how various priming effects, presumably affecting different processing stages (e.g, stimulus selection, stimulus identification/classification, and S-R mapping), varied over training sessions as RT diminished. All the priming effects either were not reduced or reduced approximately linearly at rates much slower than those predicted by the shapes of the coresponding RT learning curves. The overall results suggest that short term sequential priming and long-term practice modulate RT through relatively separate mechanisms, even though they appear to affect a common set of behaviorally defined processing stages.     

Leonardo's constraint: two opaque objects cannot be seen in the same direction

Given Leonardo's constraint that 2 opaque objects cannot be seen in the same direction, how are the regions of objects occluded to 1 eye included in perception? To answer this question, the authors presented 3-dimensional stimuli, similar to the ones that concerned Leonardo, and measured the visual directions of their monocular and binocular regions. When the distance between near and far objects was large, the nonfixated object was seen as double and blurry. Leonardo's constraint was met by seeing the near object as double and transparent or the distant object as double and superimposed. When the distance between near and far objects was small, the constraint was met by a perceptual displacement and compression of parts of the nonfixated object.     

Associations of blood glucose control with self-efficacy and rated anxiety/depression in type II diabetes mellitus patients

We investigated the possible relations of hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) level, a parameter of blood glucose control with scores on anxiety, depression, and self-efficacy for 113 outpatients (55 men and 58 women) with type II diabetes mellitus. The relation between the HbA1c level and the self-efficacy scores as well as with the ratings of anxiety and depression was evaluated. A significant relation was found for the HbA1c level with the scores; however, self-efficacy and anxiety and depression showed no association. These results suggest that HbA1c can be maintained at better levels by increasing self-efficacy of diabetic patients.     

An algebraic approach to intuitionistic modal logics in connection with intermediate predicate logics

Modal counterparts of intermediate predicate logics will be studied by means of algebraic devise. Our main tool will be a construction of algebraic semantics for modal logics from algebraic frames for predicate logics. Uncountably many examples of modal counterparts of intermediate predicate logics will be given. Dedicated to Prof. T. Umezawa on his 60th birthday     

Internal representations and the conceptual operation of color in pure alexia with color naming defects

This research examined the structure of internal representation and the conceptual operation of color in two pure alexic cases (Case I and Case II) with color naming defects. Experiment I investigated the structure of the internal representation of different kinds of colors using a similarity judgment task. Experiment II examined categorical judgments of perceived colors using a two-alternative-forced choice task. Experiment III tested the classification of perceived colors using a color sorting task. The performance of Case I essentially fell within the normal range while the results of Case II showed some impairment in the conceptual operation of color. Analysis of the responses obtained from these experiments indicated that the color naming defects in Case I can be explained in terms of visual-verbal disconnection. However, the naming defects in Case II reflect disfunction in some other higher cortical processes coupled with visual-verbal disconnection.     

Geometrical haptic illusions revisited: haptic illusions compared with visual illusions.

Révész (1934) reported that haptic illusions were observed in almost all of the geometrical optical illusion figures. The present study reexamined seven geometrical illusions in both haptic and visual modes. In the Müller-Lyer, Ponzo, and vertical-horizontal figures, haptic illusions equivalent to the visual illusions were observed. In the Oppel-Kundt figure, a haptic illusion similar to the visual one was obtained. In the haptic Delboeuf stimuli, the size illusion of the outer circle occurred, whereas that of the inner circle did not. No haptic illusion was obtained in the Poggendorff figure. In the Z?llner figure, a haptic illusion directionally opposite to the visual one was obtained. These results show that haptic illusions do not occur in all of the geometrical illusion figures. They also suggest that haptic illusions are not necessarily mediated by visualization and that haptic processing of the figures often occurs in a manner different from vision.     

Voice onset time characteristics in apraxia of speech

In order to examine the timing control of laryngeal and supralaryngeal articulatory adjustments in apraxia of speech, voice onset time (VOT) data for stop consonants in monosyllables /de/, /te/, /ge/ and /ke/ were obtained from four apraxic subjects and compared with those of fluent aphasic and normal (both young and aged) speakers (Experiment 1). The results indicated that the VOT distribution patterns of the apraxic patients differed markedly from those of the other speakers. A second experiment was conducted to determine whether the VOT distribution patterns of these four apraxic patients and of two normal controls would change with a lapse of time (Experiment 2). The results of the second experiment demonstrated marked changes in the VOT distribution patterns over time in half of the apraxic patients examined, but essentially no change in the normal controls.