Necessary condition for forward progression in ballistic walking

Ballistic walking requires an appropriate configuration of posture and velocity at toe-off to avoid backward falling. In this study, we investigated a determinant of the state of the body center of mass (COM) at the toe-off with regard to ballistic walking. We used an inverted pendulum model to represent ballistic trajectories and the necessary condition for forward progression by a simple relationship between the COM states (position and velocity) at toe-off. This condition was validated through a computer simulation of a 7-link musculoskeletal model and measurement experiments of human movements involving stepping and walking. The results of the model simulation were in good agreement with some of the results predicted by the inverted pendulum model. The measurement experiments of walking and stepping movements showed that most COM states at toe-off satisfied the condition for forward progression and the measured trajectories during single support phase were similar to the ballistic trajectories although humans are capable of walking in non-ballistic ways. These results suggested that the necessary condition for forward progression can predict the COM states at toe-off for efficient movement and for avoiding backward falling during single support phase.     

Does culture shape face perception in autism? Cross‐cultural evidence of the own‐race advantage from the UK and Japan

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are associated with face perception atypicalities, and atypical experience with faces has been proposed as an underlying explanation. Studying the own‐race advantage (ORA) for face recognition can reveal the effect of experience on face perception in ASD, although the small number of studies in the area present mixed findings. This study probed the ORA in ASD by comparing two cultural groups simultaneously for the first time. Children with ASD in the UK (N = 16) and Japan (N = 26) were compared with age‐ and ability‐matched typically developing (TD) children in the UK (N = 16) and Japan (N = 26). Participants completed a two‐alternative forced‐choice task, whereby they had to recognize a just seen face from a foil which was manipulated in one of four ways (IC: identity change; EE: easy eyes; HE: hard eyes; HM: hard mouth). Face stimuli were Asian and Caucasian, and thus the same stimuli were own and other race depending on the cultural group. The ASD groups in the UK and Japan did not show impaired face recognition abilities, or impairments with recognizing faces depending on manipulations to the eye region, and importantly they showed an ORA. There was considerable heterogeneity in the presence of the ORA in ASD and TD and also across cultures. Children in Japan had higher accuracy than children in the UK, and TD children in Japan did not show an ORA. This cross‐cultural study challenges the view that atypical experiences with faces lead to a reduced/absent ORA in ASD.     

Disruption of kinematic coordination in throwing under stress

The present study tested the conscious-control theory of the relationship between stress and performance. Performers under stress conditions consciously attempted to control their movements, disrupting the automaticity of control. Twenty-two male subjects (11 in Experiment 1 and 11 in Experiment 2) performed an underhand ball-throwing task using the non-dominant hand. The inter-trial variability of two kinematic measures was analyzed, namely arm-joint coordination during the throw and hand position at release (release point). Experiment 1 confirmed the validity of regarding these variability measures as indices of automaticity, as they did not vary in spite of resource shortage induced by a dual-task paradigm. In Experiment 2, in which stress led to a detriment in performance, the variability of joint coordination increased, whereas the release point became more fixed. These findings imply that throwing performance is impaired when the coordination is disrupted as a result of inflexible movement executed by conscious control.     

How an abrupt onset cue can release motion-induced blindness

In motion-induced blindness (MIB), a target within rotating random dots is occasionally hidden from observers' consciousness during observation. In the present study, a red ring-like cue was centered on a target and presented immediately after observers reported subjective disappearance of the target in MIB (Experiment 1). The radius of the cue was systematically modulated. Observers quickly regained awareness of the disappeared object only after they were provided with a pinpoint cue of its location. We also found that a flickering cue at 1Hz hindered MIB when the radius of the cue was critically small (Experiment 2). Furthermore, abrupt onset of a small square was enough to regain awareness of the target (Experiment 3). Successful revival of the target with a small cue indicates that critical spatial distribution of visual attention determines what in the visual scene is included in visual awareness.     

Dichotomous Thinking and Personality Traits: From the Viewpoints of the Big Five and HEXACO1,2

Dichotomous thinking is a feature of certain personality traits, such as the Dark Triad and Cluster B personality disorders, which commonly reflect a fast life history strategy. The Big Five and HEXACO personality models are useful for understanding the personality structure and individual differences in life history strategy. Our study aimed to shed light on the propensity for dichotomous thinking using the framework of the Big Five and HEXACO personality models. Participants (n = 229) completed the Dichotomous Thinking Inventory, the 60-item HEXACO Personality Inventory – Revised, and the Ten-Item Personality Inventory. We examined correlations between dichotomous thinking and each domain of the Big Five and HEXACO personality models, and then computed multiple correlations predicting total and dimensional scores on the propensity for dichotomous thinking with scores on the Big Five and HEXACO personality traits. Results indicated that dichotomous thinking tendency is characterized by the set of low Agreeableness and Honesty–Humility. This study suggests that dichotomous thinking has antagonistic characteristics and a linkage to the fast life history strategy.     

Effects of Lexical Prosody and Word Familiarity on Lexical Access of Spoken Japanese Words

Lexical prosody (e.g., stress and pitch accent) has been shown to constrain lexical activation of spoken words in various languages. In the present study, whether or not the constraint of lexical prosody is affected by word familiarity in lexical access of Japanese words was examined using a cross-modal priming task. The stimuli were pairs of prosodically different homophones (minimal accent pairs). When the targets were more familiar members of minimal accent pairs, the responses were facilitated by prior presentations of primes that were prosodically different homophones of the targets, suggesting that lexical prosody did not constrain lexical activation. In contrast, when less familiar members of minimal accent pairs were used as the targets, the prosodically different homophones did not facilitate the responses to the targets. These results suggest that the constraint of lexical prosody is not so strong but is affected by the factor of word relative familiarity.     

Recovering depth-order from orientation-defined junctions

This study investigated how visual systems recover depth-order from orientation-defined junctions. Stimuli were superimposed stripes defined by Gabor micro-patterns (Gabors). In one stripe (random stripe), Gabor orientation was randomly selected from a given range, while in the other (constant stripe) it was selected so as to be different from the mean orientation of the random stripe by 90 degrees . Observers reported which of the two stripes, the right- or left-tilted one, they perceived as "nearer" than the other. Observers frequently reported that the random stripe was nearer than the constant stripe. The results appeared to stem from detection of discontinuity of texture edges of the constant stripe due to masking by the random stripe at junctions. This idea was confirmed in the following experiments where discontinuity of the texture edges at junctions was introduced by changing the Gabor luminance contrast in one stripe but keeping it intact in the other. The results indicated that processing of texture edges at junctions can contribute to the perception of depth-order.     

Qualitative evaluation of divergent thinking in patients with schizophrenia

Patients with schizophrenia show deficits across a broad spectrum of neurocognitive domains. In particular, deficits in verbal fluency are common. Verbal fluency tests are neuropsychological tests that assess frontal lobe function or executive function but also assess divergent thinking. However, few studies have considered the impairment of verbal fluency from the viewpoint of divergent thinking. To consider the structure of divergent thinking, not only verbal assessments but also non-verbal assessments are indispensable. We administered several fluency tests, the idea fluency test, the design fluency test, and word (letter and category) fluency tests to 26 patients with schizophrenia and 26 healthy control subjects to evaluate divergent thinking in both groups and assessed their responses qualitatively. An acceptable minimal level of intelligence was maintained in the patient group. Although attention and executive functioning were relatively preserved in the subjects with schizophrenia, they demonstrated significant deficits in divergent thinking and had particular difficulty in producing ideas and designs requiring concept flexibility, a conversion of viewpoint, originality, or novelty. Research on deficits in divergent thinking in patients with schizophrenia may contribute to the development of cognitive and behavioral rehabilitation programs.     

Conscientiousness mediates the relation between perceived parental socialisation and self‐rated health

The pathways between parenting behaviours, personality and physical health have all been separately studied. Prior research has paid little attention to the indirect effects of personality in the path between parenting behaviours and better health. The purpose of this study was to explore the mediational effects of conscientiousness on the relationships between parental socialisation of responsibility and self‐rated health, and to examine potential age differences in this mediational pathway. In total, 736 female and 749 male members across Japan participated in this study. They were divided into three groups by age category: younger‐, middle‐aged and older‐aged. Conscientiousness and health were concurrently rated, while parental socialisation of responsibility was retrospectively assessed. Our analyses revealed that parental socialisation of responsibility is positively associated with conscientiousness and self‐rated health, that conscientiousness is positively associated with self‐rated health, and that conscientiousness fully mediated the effect of parental socialisation of responsibility on self‐rated health. The mediational links were consistent across younger, middle‐aged and older‐aged cohorts. Our findings suggest that greater parental socialisation of responsibility relates to higher conscientiousness, and consequently healthier adults. These findings imply that parental behaviours could be a plausible target for intervention to foster the development of conscientiousness and better health.