The purpose of this study was to conduct a meta-analysis of the effects of chewing gum on selective attention. A meta-analysis was conducted for each task (Flanker task, Stroop task, and Simon task) to evaluate selective attention, and the differences in the effects of chewing gum depending on the task format were also examined. The results confirmed a significant weak mean effect size for the fixed effect models in the analysis for the entire paper. However, because of significant heterogeneity across studies, we focused on the differences in task format and conducted a meta-analysis for each task assessing selective attention function. The results showed that there were no significant mean effect sizes in the fixed and random effect models for the Flanker and Stroop tasks. Meanwhile, significant mean effect sizes were found in the Simon task for both of the models. In conclusion, we can say that chewing gum has an effect of reducing the compatibility effect in the late phase of selective attention, especially when involving response selection.

According to the 2021 amendment to the Juvenile Law of Japan, 18- and 19-year-old offenders are categorized as “specified juveniles,” and the disclosure of their real names to the public is legalized. In the light of this amendment, this study aimed to examine the factors that determine support for real name reporting of specified juveniles. We set up a hypothetical model based on the supposition that support for real name reporting is determined by the perceived importance of juvenile responsibility and rehabilitation, and that these perceptions, in turn, are determined by the perceived seriousness of the consequences of crime. Multilevel structural equation modeling that assumed the individual level (N = 2,591) and the crime type level (N = 60) supported the model at the individual level. However, at the offense level, the relationship between support for real name reporting and the perceived importance of juvenile responsibility and rehabilitation was not significant, rendering partial support for the model.

Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human-like mental states to nonhuman entities. The purpose of this study was to develop a Japanese version of the Individual Differences in Anthropomorphism Questionnaire (IDAQ-J) and to examine its factor structure, reliability, and validity through three studies. Factor analysis revealed that the IDAQ-J has three first-order factors (anthropomorphizing natural entities, technological devices, and nonhuman animals) and one second-order factor (general anthropomorphism). The IDAQ-J showed high internal consistency and moderate test-retest reliability. In terms of validity, the IDAQ-J showed moderate positive correlations with anthropomorphism of nature and machines, and predicted low negative emotions about interacting with robots and teleological beliefs. On the other hand, the IDAQ-J showed weak relationships with anthropomorphism of nonhuman animals, attitudes toward nature conservation, and fear of robots. Further research is needed to interpret the validity of the IDAQ-J.

Workers’ productivity is affected not only by their mental and physical health but also by various other factors. However, many existing scales use the point of view of absenteeism. In this article, we developed the Subjective Productivity Scale (SPS), which measures the state of high productivity of workers from various factors. In Study 1, we organized the state of high productivity of workers using a bottom-up method. In Study 2, we developed the SPS. In Study 3, we verified its reliability and validity. Each of the SPS subscales was associated with work performance rather than absenteeism, suggesting that SPS measures a worker’s productivity on the basis of an approach that differs from existing scales. In addition, because individuals with high productivity have been shown to also experience negative states, the state of higher productivity needs to be understood from multiple perspectives.

The significance of measuring children’s well-being has gained prominence in recent years. In Japan, developing self-report scales for children is necessary to address various social problems. This study aimed to develop a scale for measuring children’s well-being and examine its reliability and validity. First, the scale items were created using descriptions provided by fifth- and sixth-grade elementary school students. An exploratory factor analysis subsequently revealed that the well-being scale for children comprised three factors and 12 items. Finally, the results from confirmatory factor analysis and correlation analysis with the related concepts of mental health, self-esteem, and social support indicated the scale’s validity.

This study developed and validated a scale to measure motivation to wear masks as a preventive behavior against COVID-19. An online survey of Japanese adults was conducted in February 2023, with 747 participants in the subsequent data analysis. As evidence of the structural aspect of construct validity, exploratory factor analysis revealed that the Motivation for Mask-wearing Scale consisted of three factors: prosocial motivation, self-interested focus motivation, and wearing a mask out of concern for others’ criticism. Each subscale was highly reliable. As evidence of the external aspect of construct validity, a partial correlation analysis indicated that prosocial motivation to wear a mask was positively associated with trait prosociality and subjective well-being. Results also indicated that wearing a mask out of concern for others’ criticism was positively associated with fear of negative evaluation and positively associated with positive and negative affect. Self-interested focus motivation to wear a mask was positively associated with fear of negative evaluation and negatively associated with positive affect. These results demonstrate the structural and external validity of the Motivation for Mask-wearing Scale.

We developed emotionally positive, neutral, and negative noun phrases by adding different modifiers to identical nouns. First, we explored modifiers to add to nouns to change emotional valences. Second, we assessed the subjective emotional valences and the subjective frequency of contact of the developed noun phrases. Third, we examined the differences between the mental images that formed from the positive, neutral, and negative noun phrases. The contents of the mental images formed from the noun phrases developed in this study did not differ among the positive, neutral, and negative noun phrases compared with those in a previous study. An incidental recall experiment was conducted to assess whether emotions could be evoked by the presentation of the positive and negative noun phrases compared with the neutral phrases. Nouns in the positive and negative noun phrases were recalled more frequently than those in the neutral noun phrases, suggesting that the positive and negative noun phrases evoked emotions that resulted in an increase in recall performance. We propose that these noun phrases could serve as stimuli in studies on emotion, memory, and mental imagery.

Executive functions are a broad category of cognitive processes that coordinate and control brain functions to achieve a goal. Several psychological symptoms, such as depression and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD), are known to be associated with executive dysfunctions. Thus, evaluating executive functions is becoming a core component of neuropsychological assessment, and rating scales for evaluating such functions in the everyday context are ecologically valid measures. The Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Functioning (BRIEF) is a well-standardized and the most commonly used measure. This study explores the psychometric property of the adult version of the BRIEF (BRIEF-A) for a Japanese population. We conducted a questionnaire survey of 552 community-residing Japanese aged 20–29 years. The results of confirmatory factor analysis suggested a satisfactory fit for the proposed three-factor model, and internal consistency was sufficiently high. To investigate convergent and divergent validity, we examined correlations with two existing questionnaires and compared the scores between groups with more or less AD/HD-related symptoms. The findings indicate that BRIEF-A demonstrates sufficient reliability and validity in the Japanese sample during early adulthood.

This study examined a curvilinear relationship between grit and performance in Japanese university student athletes, in two parts. In Study 1, a cross-sectional survey was administered to 205 university student athletes. Multiple regression analysis was carried out, and the results revealed an inverse U-shaped curvilinear relationship between perseverance of effort and decline in performance. In Study 2, a longitudinal survey was conducted on 99 university student athletes who also participated in Study 1. Multiple regression analysis showed that there was no significant relationship between grit and decline in performance; however, considering the confidence intervals and effect size, there was a U-shaped curvilinear relationship between consistency of interest and decline in performance. These results suggest that there is an inverse, U-shaped curvilinear relationship between perseverance of effort and performance decline cross-sectionally, although further research is needed to clarify the longitudinal relationship between consistency of interest and performance decline.

Enhancing recidivism prevention is hindered by the challenge of mitigating bias against formerly incarcerated individuals in Japan, based on insufficient comprehension. A survey was conducted among residents living near two recently established correctional facilities that prioritize community collaboration (PFI prisons). The study examined the impact of interactions with correctional facilities on residents’ trust in the management system and their receptivity towards formerly incarcerated individuals (analysis participants: N = 1,782). Structural equation modeling showed that contact with prisons increased trust in the correctional system, moderated by residents’ perception and evaluation of community development. The establishment of trust heightened acceptance of formerly incarcerated individuals while reducing prison resistance. The finding suggests that building trust in correctional institutions is essential for improving the public’s understanding and support for the social reintegration of formerly incarcerated individuals. Furthermore, the presence of friends and family members who are privately employed or volunteers at the prison was found to foster residents’ perception of community development and the prison’s contribution to it. A collaborative system between government employees and residents served to create extended contact.

This study aimed to demonstrate the effects of the provided information on the consequences of group decisions in the case of the treatment of decontaminated soil outside Fukushima. Citizens are expected to make decisions in light of the plural common goods in public deliberations, where objective information should be given while the information taking specific people’s sides should not. The criteria of common good are diverse such as utilitarianism, the equality principle, and the maximin principle. However, if the information about the least advantaged people is not presented, it may be difficult to make decisions considering them. We conducted a group discussion experiment manipulating the provided information about Fukushima residents. The results revealed that participants in the informed condition evaluated the consequences considering Fukushima residents more than in the not-informed condition.

Parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience high parenting stress levels. Therefore, these parents need the support of medical institutions and counseling agencies. We examined predictors of increased help-seeking behavior among 212 parents of children with ASD aged 2-18 years using longitudinal data. An online survey assessed help-seeking behaviors, intentions to consult, parenting stressors, and support expectations. The difference in scores between intentions to consult the internet or medical rehabilitation institutions, and help-seeking behavior were significantly higher for mothers than for fathers and the differences in scores for formal support was significantly higher than for informal support for mothers. There were no significant gender differences in help-seeking behavior between fathers and mothers. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that the direct effects of support expectations and parenting stressors on help-seeking behaviors and the moderating effects of parenting stressors and support expectations on intentions to consults and help-seeking behaviors differed by social support resources. We have discussed the implications of these findings.

This Web-based survey examined whether aggression, empathy, background of abuse, and animal breeding experiences affected animal abuse proclivity (AAP). Participants (N = 354, 198 men and 156 women, mean age = 49.1 years, SD = 12.5) responded to the Animal Abuse Proclivity Scale (AAPS), the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (BAQ), the Multidimensional Empathy Scale (MES), and two questionnaires assessing past abuse and animal breeding experiences. Their responses were analyzed by Bayesian Networks (BN) because the hypothetical model assumed direct and indirect dependencies in AAP, and relationships chained variables. BNs can automatically develop a model based on a dataset and conduct “sensitivity analysis” through the simulation of probabilistic reasoning. The model showed that (a) “anger” in aggression was directly related to the “thrill” in AAP, (b) “physical aggression” was directly related to “behavioral propensity”, and (c) gender could not act as a confounding factor between aggression and AAP. Moreover, sensitivity analysis indicated that anger among aggression enhanced thrill of AAP most strongly.

The present study investigated the progression from social skills knowledge and performance to becoming a high school dropout among first-year high school students. We also examine the mediating role of school satisfaction in the process regarding dropping out of high school. A total of 332 first-year high school students participated in a questionnaire survey in September, assessing school satisfaction, which consisted of a sense of approval and victimization in the class and social skills; 49 of the participants dropped out of high school at the end of the first school year. The results of categorical path analysis showed that social skills knowledge was positively correlated with social skills performance. Additionally, social skills performance was negatively correlated with dropping out of school. Moreover, the relationship between social skills performance and being a high school dropout was mediated by a sense of approval in the class. Finally, the discussion describes the need for support of social skills education to prevent first-year high school students from dropping out.

This study aimed to assess the reliability and validity of the Coping Behavior with Parental Conflict scale for Adolescents (CBPC-A), as well as to explore the influence of coping mechanisms on interparental conflict, emotional insecurity in the interparental relationship, and adolescents’ adjustment. A questionnaire survey was administered to 132 high school students in Japan. The CBPC-A was found to comprise five higher-order factors: “involvement,” “avoidance,” “distraction,” “support seeking,” and “cognitive construction,” which were deemed to have adequate construct validity. The results of the adjusted mediation analysis suggested that “support seeking” and “distraction” served as protective factors against emotional instability, mitigating the impact of emotional instability on adolescent depression and self-esteem, while “involvement” was identified as a risk factor for the effects of emotional instability on adolescent aggression.

Our sensory functions decline with age. Older people have been reported to compensate for sensory deficits by using auxiliary equipment, medical treatments, and sensory mechanisms such as multimodal integrations. To the best of our knowledge, there has been no systematic surveys research for sensory problems of older people in daily life. Through an online survey, we investigated what kind of sensory problems exist and how these problems were coped with by older people (60─70 years old), with middle-aged people (40─50 years old) data. Frequency and text-mining analyses found that problems of hearing and body movements were reported more frequently for older people due to aging. Visual problems were reported by all age groups and were attributed to aging, but coped with by using auxiliary equipment and medical surgeries in older people. The 50’s age group reported visual problems most frequently. Our findings suggest that sensory problems subjectively felt in daily life are attributed to aging but are not necessarily remarkable in older people.

This study conducted a three-wave panel survey concerning subjective rewards as a factor that inhibits caregiver turnover (T1 [N = 1,087]), T2 [N = 690], and T3 [N = 546]). A longitudinal logistic regression analysis was conducted using the Subjective Rewards Scale for Human Service Professionals (SRS-HS), which uses the five factors of financial, growth, social, interpersonal, and stability as independent variables and the presence or absence of job turnover in the subsequent year as the dependent variable. In addition, we conducted a cross-sectional analysis that categorized turnovers into workplace or occupational turnovers. The regression analysis revealed that turnover among caregivers was prevented by hygiene factors such as financial and stability rewards. Furthermore, stability, interpersonal, and growth rewards, which showed relatively high levels, indicate the positive aspects of caregiver work and should be actively publicized to increase human resources.

Visual perception is not uniform across the visual field, and performance exhibits heterogeneity with spatial location. Such asymmetry has been observed in several tasks, including those mediated by contrast sensitivity, but it has been reported that vertical lines can be detected with constant performance regardless of spatial location. In this study, we investigated the asymmetry of vertical and horizontal lines in space using a temporal segregation task. As a result, horizontal lines showed asymmetry in space, but vertical lines showed no asymmetry. This suggests that exogenous or endogenous attention cannot attenuate asymmetry, but that asymmetry may not occur when information extraction is completed quickly.

This longitudinal study examined developmental changes in perceived apathy states in academics based on the student life cycle theory for university students. The study conducted one survey per year across four years (2019-2022) and analyzed the responses of 545 participants. Using latent curve models, the initial values of perceived apathy and its changes over the years and the variables that determine individual differences were examined. The results suggest that Avoidance and Non-emphasis increase over the years but not Conflict. Males exhibited higher initial values of Avoidance and Non-emphasis than those of females, and females displayed higher initial values of Conflict than those of males. Students at higher years in Time 1 had higher initial values for each of the subscales than those in lower years. Furthermore, the rates of change in Avoidance and Non-emphasis decreased with higher years in Time 1. It is important to have developmental perspectives on at which stage of the student life cycle perceived apathy arises.