Adaptive automation, trust, and self-confidence in fault management of time-critical tasks

An experiment on adaptive automation is described. Reliability of automated fault diagnosis, mode of fault management (manual vs. automated), and fault dynamics affect variables including root mean square error, avoidance of accidents and false shutdowns, subjective trust in the system, and operator self-confidence. Results are discussed in relation to levels of automation, models of trust and self-confidence, and theories of human-machine function allocation. Trust in automation but not self-confidence was strongly affected by automation reliability. Operators controlled a continuous process with difficulty only while performing fault management but could prevent unnecessary shutdowns. Final authority for decisions and action must be allocated to automation in time-critical situations.     

Self-compassion and responses to negative social feedback: The role of fronto-amygdala circuit connectivity

ABSTRACT

Self-compassion has been shown to have significant relationships with psychological health and well-being. Despite the increasing growth of research on the topic, no studies to date have investigated how self-compassion relates to neural responses to threats to the self. To investigate whether self-compassion relates to threat-regulatory mechanisms at the neural level of analysis, we conducted a functional MRI study in a sample of college-aged students. We hypothesized that self-compassion would relate to greater negative connectivity between the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) and amygdala during a social feedback task. Interestingly, we found a negative correlation between self-compassion and VMPFC-amygdala functional connectivity as predicted; however, this seemed to be due to low levels of self-compassion relating to greater positive connectivity in this circuit (rather than high levels of self-compassion relating to more negative connectivity). We also found significant relationships with multiple subcomponents of self-compassion (Common Humanity, Self-Judgment). These results shed light on how self-compassion might affect neural responses to threat and informs our understanding of the basic psychological regulatory mechanisms linking a lack of self-compassion with poor mental health.     

Mental Health Inventory for Infants: Scale Development and Japanese Infants’ Characteristics

Early detection and treatment promote positive outcomes in mental health problems among infants. This study developed a simple and reliable screening inventory for infants’ mental health. Participants were 579 primary caregivers who had Japanese infants aged 2–6 years. Participants evaluated their children using the Mental Health Inventory for Infants (MHII; developed in this study), which contains 24 items. Exploratory factorial analysis identified the MHII factor structure; confirmatory factorial analysis examined its factorial validity. Internal consistency and criterion-related validity were also examined. Irritability (8 items), somatic symptoms (6 items), and signs of insecurity (4 items) were identified as factors in the MHII; each of these factors measures a critical aspect of infants’ mental health. The MHII’s internal consistency and scale homogeneity were acceptable; its criterion-related validity was supported. In this study, male infants exhibited greater irritability and less insecurity than females. The present results support the MHII’s reliability and validity; additionally, they indicate that caregivers may use the MHII to quickly screen for three critical aspects of infants’ mental health. We expect that the MHII will be used for early detection of mental health difficulties in infants to facilitate treatment.     

The effect of Kana literacy acquisition on the speech segmentation unit used by Japanese young children

Three experiments were undertaken to investigate whether young children's segmentation units would change as they learned to read kana letters, which represent morae (subsyllabic rhythmic units). The first 2 experiments used a vocal-motor segmentation task to examine whether 4- to 6-year-olds preferred to segment spoken words containing the special syllables CVN, CVQ, or CV: into syllables or into morae. The third experiment used a target monitoring task for CVN to examine whether children's detection of the target syllable in a series of words would vary depending on the moraic constitution of the target and the moraic-syllabic status of the word initial in which the target was embedded. Results indicated that the children's conscious segmentation of words, except for those having a geminate stop consonant (CVQ), developed from being a mixture of syllable- and mora-based to being predominantly mora-based as they learned to read kana letters. The tendency toward mora-based segmentation was also found in the target monitoring task, which required segmentation at a less conscious level.     

Squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus) choose smaller food arrays: long-term retention, choice with nonpreferred food, and transposition

Squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus) that had learned to reach toward 1 piece of food instead of 4 in a reverse-reward contingency were tested after an 8-month delay with no intervening relevant experiences. All monkeys except 1 continued to show inhibitory control by reliably reaching toward the smaller quantity, most of them doing so within 2 sessions. Performance was maintained when a low-preference food replaced prized foods as arrays and rewards. When the quantities 1 and 4 were replaced with different ones, there was strong evidence of transposition at group level, although individual differences in bias toward the smaller quantities became apparent. Individual differences in mastering the original task more than 8 months previously were quite stable, suggesting robustness in the operations required for this form of self-control.     

KAGAWA'S COSMIC PURPOSE AND MODERNIZATION IN JAPAN

Kagawa Tyohiko (1888–1960), who was a well known Christian leader and social reformer, is re‐evaluated from the perspective of a public philosophy, and as an example of the possibilities for collaboration and conflict between science and the religious humanities in East Asia. His last book, Cosmic Purpose, which appears to be a kind of natural theology, is analyzed from the perspective of the hidden topic of human evil. By considering Kagawa's deep religious sensibility and conscience, the book can be interpreted to reflect on the wrong directionality selected by modern Japan's leaders that resulted in the tragic war.     

Language, thought, and real nouns

We test the claim that acquiring a mass-count language, like English, causes speakers to think differently about entities in the world, relative to speakers of classifier languages like Japanese. We use three tasks to assess this claim: object-substance rating, quantity judgment, and word extension. Using the first two tasks, we present evidence that learning mass-count syntax has little effect on the interpretation of familiar nouns between Japanese and English, and that speakers of these languages do not divide up referents differently along an individuation continuum, as claimed in some previous reports [Gentner, D., & Boroditsky, L. (2001). Individuation, relativity, and early word learning. In M. Bowerman, & S. Levinson (Eds.), Language acquisition and conceptual development (pp. 215-256). Cambridge University Press]. Instead, we argue that previous cross-linguistic differences [Imai, M., & Gentner, D. (1997). A cross-linguistic study of early word meaning: Universal ontology and linguistic influence. Cognition, 62, 169-200] are attributable to “lexical statistics” [Gleitman, L., & Papafragou, A. (2005). Language and thought. In K. Holyoak, & R. Morrison (Eds.), Cambridge handbook of thinking and reasoning (pp. 633-661). Cambridge University Press]. Speakers of English are more likely to think that a novel ambiguous expression like “the blicket” refers to a kind of object (relative to speakers of Japanese) because speakers of English are likely to assume that “blicket” is a count noun rather than a mass noun, based on the relative frequency of each kind of word in English. This is confirmed by testing Mandarin-English bilinguals with a word extension task. We find that bilinguals tested in English with mass-count ambiguous syntax extend novel words like English monolinguals (and assume that a word like “blicket” refers to a kind of object). In contrast, bilinguals tested in Mandarin are significantly more likely to extend novel words by material. Thus, online lexical statistics, rather than non-linguistic thought, mediate cross-linguistic differences in word extension. We suggest that speakers of Mandarin, English, and Japanese draw on a universal set of lexical meanings, and that mass-count syntax allows speakers of English to select among these meanings.     

Does Conventional Implicit Association Test of Shyness Measure “Self‐Shyness” or “Others‐Shyness”?

The Implicit Association Test (IAT) measures implicit associations between attitude targets and attributes. Its structure and procedure facilitate investigation of the strength of associations between one target and attributes relative to that between the other target and the same attributes when two targets are contradictory (e.g., black/white and comfortable/uncomfortable). This structure can cause conceptual complexity about what the IAT measures, particularly when a counter category is not needed. Thus, using the Single‐Target Implicit Association Test (ST‐IAT), which allowed only one target category for pairing with attributes, this paper delineated the association measured in the conventional IAT for shyness: “self‐shy” or “others‐shy.” Seventy‐seven Japanese university students completed the self‐report shyness scale, the conventional IAT, and two ST‐IATs (i.e., self/others as target). Results showed that implicit shyness produced in the conventional IAT significantly and positively correlated with that in the self‐targeted ST‐IAT. Moreover, implicit shyness in the conventional IAT was significantly accounted for by those produced by the ST‐IAT with self as target and those calculated in the ST‐IAT with others as target in opposite directions.     

Vitalistic causality in young children's naive biology

One of the key issues in conceptual development research concerns what kinds of causal devices young children use to understand the biological world. We review evidence that children predict and interpret biological phenomena, especially human bodily processes, on the basis of 'vitalistic causality'. That is, they assume that vital power or life force taken from food and water makes humans active, prevents them from being taken ill, and enables them to grow. These relationships are also extended readily to other animals and even to plants. Recent experimental results show that a majority of preschoolers tend to choose vitalistic explanations as most plausible. Vitalism, together with other forms of intermediate causality, constitute unique causal devices for naive biology as a core domain of thought.     

The action-sentence compatibility effect in Japanese sentences

The action-sentence compatibility effect (ACE) is a phenomenon in which a reader's response to a sentence is made faster when there is congruity between the action described in the sentence and the action that makes up the response. Previous studies showed the ACE occurs in action-related sentences in several languages. However, all these were SVO (verb-object) languages, in which verbs are placed before object nouns; this order is reversed in SOV languages. Moreover, those studies investigated hand responses. This study assessed the existence of the ACE in Japanese, an SOV language, and in foot responses. 24 female participants judged the sensibility of Japanese sentences that described actions and responded with either their foot or hand as an effector. Reaction times were significantly faster when there was congruity between the effector described in the sentences and the effector actually used for the response. However, sentence dependency was also found in the foot responses.