Rorschach Comprehensive System data for a sample of 190 Japanese nonpatient children at five ages

This study is a part of our series of studies of nonpatient, Japanese children. In total, 346 children were administered the Rorschach. Thirty-two children had fewer than 10 responses, 112 children had more than 10 but fewer than 14 responses, and 12 children were maladjusted or mentally retarded, for a total of 156. In this study, we analyzed the remaining 190 children not excluded by the above criteria in the following age groups: 5 years (n = 24), 8 years (n = 43), 9 years (n = 42), 12 years (n = 42), and 14 years (n = 39). Japanese children showed few responses generally, with an average of 18 ~ 20 responses. In addition to having fewer responses, other features of Japanese children are high Lambda, low EA, very high X-%, and low X+%. The fact that the Rorschach test depends on verbal expression may be one factor in all these features, and we should consider this study in view of these Japanese cultural factors. Interrater reliability findings and Rorschach Comprehensive System (CS; Exner, 1995; Matsumoto, 2003; Matsumoto et al., 2002) data are presented.     

Dopamine D1 receptors regulate protein synthesis-dependent long-term recognition memory via extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 in the prefrontal cortex

Several lines of evidence suggest that extracellular signal-regulated kinase1/2 (ERK1/2) and dopaminergic system is involved in learning and memory. However, it remains to be determined if the dopaminergic system and ERK1/2 pathway contribute to cognitive function in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). The amount of phosphorylated ERK1/2 was increased in the PFC immediately after exposure to novel objects in the training session of the novel object recognition test. An inhibitor of ERK kinase impaired long-term recognition memory 24 h after the training although short-term memory tested 1 h after the training was not affected by the treatment. The dopamine D1 receptor agonist increased ERK1/2 phosphorylation in the PFC in vivo as well as in cortical neurons in vitro. Microinjection of the dopamine D1 receptor antagonist into the PFC impaired long-term recognition memory whereas the D2 receptor antagonist had no effect. Immunohistochemistry revealed that exposure to novel objects resulted in an increase in c-Fos expression in the PFC. Microinjection of the protein synthesis inhibitor anisomycin into the PFC impaired the long-term recognition memory. These results suggest that the activation of ERK1/2 following the stimulation of dopamine D1 receptors is necessary for the protein synthesis-dependent long-term retention of recognition memory in the PFC.     

Heuristics in learning classifiers: The acquisition of the classifier system and its implications for the nature of lexical acquisition

Classifiers are like nouns in that they classify entities in the world into lexical categories. However, the lexical nature of the classifier system is very different from that of nouns. We discuss how Japanese and Chinese children learn the meanings of classifiers. We focus on two specific questions: How classifier acquisition is different from noun acquisition; and what the prerequisites are for spontaneously extracting the meanings of classifiers. It is shown that children are very conservative in assigning meaning to classifiers. The pace of learning largely depends on semantic complexity, across languages and within each language. Furthermore, we suspect that learning the meanings of classifiers requires a certain cognitive ability – an ability to synthesize pieces of partial knowledge and form them into a cohesive whole. It may be only when children have developed such an ability that they are able to extract the complex semantic rules of classifiers on their own. We conclude that children take very different routes in learning nouns and classifiers: Unlike noun acquisition, classifier acquisition is guided by a slow, bottom-up process.     

Infant and adult perceptions of possible and impossible body movements: An eye-tracking study

This study investigated how infants perceive and interpret human body movement. We recorded the eye movements and pupil sizes of 9- and 12-month-old infants and of adults (N=14 per group) as they observed animation clips of biomechanically possible and impossible arm movements performed by a human and by a humanoid robot. Both 12-month-old infants and adults spent more time looking at the elbows during impossible compared with possible arm movements, irrespective of the appearance of the actor. These results suggest that by 12months of age, infants recognize biomechanical constraints on how arms move, and they extend this knowledge to humanoid robots. Adults exhibited more pupil dilation in response to the human's impossible arm movements compared with the possible ones, but 9- and 12-month-old infants showed no differential pupil dilation to the same actions. This finding suggests that the processing of human body movements might still be immature in 12-month-olds, as they did not show an emotional response to biomechanically impossible body movements. We discuss these findings in relation to the hypothesis that perception of others' body movements relies upon the infant's own sensorimotor experience.     

“It would have been worse under Saddam:” Implications of counterfactual thinking for beliefs regarding the ethical treatment of prisoners of war

In response to criticism following news of the mistreatment of Iraqis at the US prison in Abu Ghraib, some media personalities and politicians suggested that the treatment of these prisoners “would have been even worse” had former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein still been in power. It was hypothesized that the contemplation of this argument has undesirable consequences because counterfactual thinking can elicit both contrastive and assimilative effects. In the reported study, participants considered how the prisoners at Abu Ghraib would have been worse off under Saddam. The results revealed that generating downward counterfactuals made participants feel better about Abu Ghraib (thereby evidencing contrast), and also lowered ethical standards regarding how the US should treat prisoners of war in the future (thereby evidencing assimilation).     

A Japanese logographic character frequency list for cognitive science research

This paper describes a Japanese logographic character (kanji) frequency list, which is based on an analysis of the largest recently available corpus of Japanese words and characters. This corpus comprised a full year of morning and evening editions of a major newspaper, containing more than 23 million kanji characters and more than 4,000 different kanji characters. This paper lists the 3,000 most frequent kanji characters, as well as an analysis of kanji usage and correlations between the present list and previous Japanese frequency lists. The authors believe that the present list will help researchers more accurately and efficiently control the selection of kanji characters in cognitive science research and interpret related psycholinguistic data.     

Psychological Essentialism at the Explicit and Implicit Levels: The Unique Status of Social Categories

Psychological essentialism refers to a naive theory concerning fundamental elements that bring a category into its existence. The present study examined the structure of this lay theory as well as its implicitness, with a special focus on social categories. In Study 1, Japanese college students rated a number of categories that were natural‐kind, social, or human artifacts, in terms of different elements of essentialist beliefs. A factor analysis revealed that entitativity and naturalness are the common underlying dimensions across these category domains. We also identified some natural‐kind and human artifact categories that can be used as two extreme referent points for the examination of naturalness perceived in a whole array of social categories. Study 2 assessed implicit and automatic judgments on naturalness using a go/no‐go task, and compared them to explicit judgments. Unlike natural kinds and artifacts, social categories were essentialized to a greater extent at the implicit level. These results suggest a dual process of intuitive and deliberate cognition, particularly involving social categories, with implications concerning the bases of stereotypes and prejudices.