Texture and motion spreading,the aperture problem,and transparency

When a cross of either static or moving texture is inserted in the intersection of an Ehrenstein figure, we find that the texture and its motion appear to spread outside of the cross. We suggest that these phenomena are analogous to neon color spreading, wherein an interpretation of a transparent surface makes the properties of that surface, which are physically visible only inside the cross, appear to spread over its apparent extent. In our experiments, the texture and the motion of the cross are attributed to the transparent surface. In addition, the spreading changes the apparent aperture within which the texture and its motion are seen, leading to a corresponding change in the apparent direction of motion.     

The Mediating Effects of Benefit Finding on the Relationship Between the Identity Centrality of Negative Stressful Events and Identity Achievement

Which types of benefit finding in negative events central to identity lead to higher identity achievement? This study examined the relationships between the identity centrality of negative events, benefit finding, and identity achievement, with consideration of differences between benefit-finding domains. Participants included 245 undergraduates, who recalled a previous negative event and completed the Identity Scale, Centrality of Event Scale, and items regarding benefit finding. Path analysis showed that benefit finding regarding personal growth consistently correlated with identity achievement, while the effects of recognizing warmth in others were unstable depending on event category. The findings demonstrated the role of benefit finding regarding personal growth in promoting identity achievement and buffering the original adverse impact of negative events on identity.     

Planning over the day span: memory for the content of plans

The purpose of this study was to clarify the effect of the time of day on memory for the content of plans, and to examine the influence of knowledge of daily activities on it. Twenty‐four undergraduates participated as subjects in the experiment. Participants were told to memorize 24 plans of one day (e.g. ‘13:00’, ‘making a telephone call’), and were then asked to recall them in the test phase. Furthermore, we tried to explore their knowledge of everyday activities using a questionnaire. The result showed that plans of night, morning, and evening were recalled better than that of afternoon. This result was explained by the notion that knowledge of one's personal daily activities might affect memory of plans. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Discrimination of moving video images of self by pigeons (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Columba livia</Emphasis>)

The ability to recognize self has been known to be limited to some animal species, but previous research has focused almost exclusively on the animal's reaction to a mirror. Recent studies suggest that the temporal contingency between a subject's action and the corresponding visual scene reflected in a mirror plays an important role in self-recognition. To assess the roles of visual-proprioceptive contiguity in self-recognition, we explored whether pigeons are able to discriminate videos of themselves with various temporal properties. We trained five pigeons to respond to live video images of themselves (live self-movies) and not to video filmed during previous training sessions (pre-recorded self-movies). Pigeons learned to peck trial-unique live self-movies more frequently than pre-recorded self-movies. We conducted two generalization tests after pigeons learned to discriminate between the two conditions. First, discrimination acquired during training sessions was transferred to a test session involving live self-movies and new pre-recorded self-movies. Second, the same pigeons were tested in extinction procedure using delayed live self-movies and new pre-recorded self-movies. Although pigeons responded to delayed presentations of live self-movies more frequently than to new pre-recorded self-movies, the relative response rate to delayed presentation of live self-movies gradually decreased as the temporal discrepancy between pigeons' own behavior and the corresponding video increased. These results indicate that pigeons' discrimination of self-movies with various temporal properties was based on the temporal contiguity between their behavior and its visual feedback. The methodology used in the present experiment is an important step toward improving the experimental analysis of self-recognition in non-human animals.     

Historical note on cumulative recorders manufactured in Japan

The history of cumulative recorders manufactured in Japan between the early 1970s and the present is described. The first such instrument was the Tosoku-Kogyo Company's Model T-45A, followed thereafter by its Model T-45B, built on the same chassis as the T-45A, but with different electrical and mechanical components. When Tosoku-Kogyo closed its recorder operations, the recorder continued to be manufactured and sold by Okubo-Sokkouki as its Model OS 180. The appearance of such commercially manufactured cumulative recorders in countries other than the United States further attests to the internationalization of behavior analysis during the mid- to late-20th century.     

Exchanges of group-based favours: Ingroup bias in the prisoner's dilemma game with minimal groups in Japan and New Zealand

Japanese ( N  = 48) and New Zealander ( N  = 55) participants were first assigned to one of two minimal groups, and then played a prisoner's dilemma game twice with an ingroup member and twice with an outgroup member. In one of the two games they played with an ingroup (or outgroup) member, participants and their partner knew one another's group memberships (mutual-knowledge condition). In the unilateral-knowledge condition, only the participants knew the group membership of their partner, but the partner did not know the group membership of the participant. Ingroup bias in cooperation emerged only in the mutual-knowledge condition in both countries; in the unilateral-knowledge condition no ingroup bias emerged. Mediational analyses found that, in accord with predictions, cooperation in the mutual-knowledge condition is mediated by expectation of the partner's cooperation. Ingroup bias in the mutual-knowledge condition emerged only among those who identified with the ingroup. Results provide support for a group heuristics account of ingroup favouritism in the minimal group. According to this account, participants who face minimal groups activate an ecologically adaptive heuristic of unilaterally cooperating with members of the same group, expecting indirect repayment from others in the same group.     

Preferences versus strategies as explanations for culture-specific behavior

In this article, we present a new framework for interpreting cultural differences in behavior -- what we call the institutional approach. In this framework, individuals' behaviors are conceptualized as strategies adapted to various incentive structures. Cultural differences in behavior are thus viewed as differences in the default adaptive strategies that individuals come to rely on in unclear situations. Through two studies, we demonstrate that the East Asian "preference" for conformity is actually a default strategy to avoid accrual of negative reputation. When the possibility for negative evaluations in a given situation was clearly defined, cultural differences in the tendency for uniqueness disappeared. This approach carries important implications to psychologists who interpret cultural differences in behavior in terms of preferences, and can serve as a common framework branching out toward other disciplines in the social sciences.     

Application of the behavioral investigative support system for profiling perpetrators of serial sexual assaults

The authors developed a data-based profiling system in order to support offender profiling. The system stored incident records of prior offenders. Inputting offence details of an unsolved incident, a probability score was assigned to each prior offender in the system; the score represented the behavioral similarity with the unsolved incident. The system then ranked all offenders in the system according to the probability scores, and prioritized the high-ranked offenders as possible suspects. Moreover, the system inferred the characteristics of unknown offenders by accumulating characteristics of the high-ranked offenders. The system achieved promising accuracy, especially for linking crimes to perpetrators. In 45 out of 81 simulation trials, the target offenders were retrieved as a rank score of 1 from among 868 sex offenders.     

Somatic and social: Chinese Americans talk about emotion

Empirical findings suggest that Chinese and Americans differ in the ways that they describe emotional experience, with Chinese using more somatic and social words than Americans. No one, however, has investigated whether this variation is related to differences between Chinese and American conceptions of emotion or to linguistic differences between the English and Chinese languages. Therefore, in two studies, the authors compared the word use of individuals who varied in their orientation to Chinese and American cultures (European Americans [EA], more acculturated Chinese Americans [CA], and less acculturated CA) when they were speaking English during emotional events. Across both studies, less acculturated CA used more somatic (e.g., dizzy) and more social (e.g., friend) words than EA. These findings suggest that even when controlling for language spoken, cultural conceptions of emotion may shape how people talk about emotion.