One possible consequence of cognitive aging may be a shift in decision-making style from one where all possible options are carefully examined (maximizing) to one where the first "good enough" option is selected (satisficing). Data from 95 older (63-83 years) adults on the Japanese version of Schwartz's (2002) Maximizer-Satisficer Scale and the AIST cognitive aging test battery were analyzed. A factor analysis of the Maximizer-Satisficer Scale suggested two measures, one of maximizing tendencies in general decision making scenarios and one of maximizing tendencies in consumer situations in particular. The results showed that 1) the consumer-maximizing scores were unrelated with cognitive test scores, but 2) that general-maximizing scores were weakly but significantly correlated with task-switching and behavior listing-up, although there were no relations with visual attention/searching tasks. The results combined with younger-older adults comparison analysis (Harada, et. al., 2008) imply that consumer-maximizing and general-maximizing reflect different constructs.

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The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the influence of aging on a framing effect. Responses to four framing questions were analyzed for the frequency differences on risk aversive choices. The analysis was conducted for comparing two different age groups, younger than 65 (N=661) and over 65 (N=168). Wang's new definition was utilized for identifying the framing effect. A typical framing effect, higher frequencies of risk aversive choices associated with the positively framed items, was observed in the younger age group. However, in the older age group, not only weren't there any signs of framing effects, but also higher frequencies of risk aversive choices were observed in the negatively framed items. Positive associations between the amount at stake and the frequencies of risk aversive choices were observed in both age groups. Two possible underlying mechanisms were hypothesized in relation to these findings, a flexible Bayesian approach and a revised prospect theory.

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In this study, we examined the influence of verbal switching tasks on the successive color-word switching task. The three verbal switching conditions were: 1) to read digits randomly in either English or Japanese, 2) to read digits in English, 3) to do so in Japanese. These verbal switching tasks were followed by the color-word switching task, in which participants were asked to read either Kanji words or to name their colors. These combined task blocks were repeated alternatively. The participants were preselected with a questionnaire on subjective well-being (SWB). There were 26 high SWBs and 25 low SWBs. Verbal switching was found to dump the performance of the color-word switching task relative to English only and Japanese only conditions. This interference was especially marked for the low SWB group.

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Matsuo (2007) examined the delay time and the distance as a variable that influenced feeling the followed object animacy. In Matsuo's experiment, the judgment from the paired comparison was requested for four items ("It has an intention", "The reaction is good", "It was obedient", and "It is living-like"). It was found that shorting the delay time of the object answered them as feeling alive. But interactiveness and autonomy were not clear. In this experiment, the relation to animacy was reexamined. The value of the variable at the delay time was changed and the judgment was requested for two items as interactiveness("It moves voluntarily"and "It has an intention") ,two items as autonomy ("The reaction is good"and "It was obedient") and one item as anmacy("It is living-like"). The judgment of animacy became the result of combining interactiveness factor and autonomy factor.

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Shoda et al. (2007) suggested that 'artistic' performances reveal emotional features of the musical pieces, through an experiment in which participants rated their multi-dimensional impressions about the emotional content of some renditions performed with 'deadpan', 'artistic', and 'exaggerated' intentions. As such impressions may depend on the listeners' musical experience, in the present study we investigated the listeners' perceived musical emotions of two groups: one consisted of participants with long musical training (N=41), and the other consisted of participants with low musical experience (N=42). As a result, the fundamental pattern of impression ratings was similar for both groups. However, the suggestion that 'artistic' performances communicate the emotional features of musical pieces particularly applied to the listeners with higher musical training.

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It is known that people who have strong experiences related to sound are large in number (Oode et. al., 2006), and therefore we assume there are many cases of strong experiences with listening to music. Gabrielsson et al. (2003) showed that strong experiences with music consist of 7 categories: "General characteristics" "Physical reactions and behaviours" "Perception" "Cognition" "Feelings/Emotions" "Existential and transcendental aspects" "Personal and social aspects". However the relationship between these categories is still obscure. In this light, in order to clarify such relationship, we conducted experiments focusing on physical reactions and emotions that were investigated quantitatively. This study provides meaningful information that will contribute to the quantitative clarification of strong experiences with music in the future.

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We investigated whether generation effects occur for output recognition. In the self-generated condition, we asked participants to generate a word from an anagram; in the other-offered condition, the experimenter presented words to participants who then read aloud, lip-synched, or imagined reading them. We asked participants whether each word had been read aloud or not. It was revealed that the integration of the information of a word and the act of the participant generating that word caused the participant to regard the word as having been read aloud.

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A method for separating the automatic and controlled components in the affect misattribution procedure (AMP) was proposed. This method assumes that the automatic component follows a signal detection model whereas the controlled component can be described as a high-threshold model, and each parameter is estimated by fitting the model to the ROC curve obtained from the data. A series of experiments showed that the model fits the data well and the estimates obtained under experimental manipulations changed in a theoretically predictable way, suggesting the validity of the proposed estimation method.

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The present study investigated whether the effect of dynamic information in recognizing emotional facial expressions would change across the visual field (i.e., central or peripheral vision). Facial stimuli were three positive expressions (lively, happy and relaxed faces) and three negative expressions (fearful, angry and sad faces) selected according to a dimensional perspective. Participants evaluated emotional states of target facial expression presented as dynamic or static and in central or peripheral vision. A task was the forced choice task in Experiment 1 and Affect Grid (Russell, Weiss, & Mendelsohn, 1989) in Experiment 2. The results in the forced choice task showed that only dynamic angry faces in peripheral vision had better recognition than those in the static condition. The results in Affect Grid indicated that only positive expressions in peripheral vision were significantly rated as more strongly positive.

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High-order human cognition involves processing of abstract and categorically represented knowledge. Although it has been conventionally assumed that there is a single innate representation system in our mind, we view, on the basis of recent empirical and simulation studies, the representational system as a dynamic mechanism, capable of selecting a representation scheme that meets situational characteristics. The present paper introduces a framework for a cognitive model that integrates robust and flexible internal representation machinery. Our modeling framework flexibly learns to adjust its internal knowledge representation scheme using a meta-heuristic optimization method. Three simulation studies were conducted. The results showed that SUPERSET, our new model, successfully exhibited cognitive behaviors that are consistent with three main theories of the human internal representation system. Furthermore, a simulation study on social cognitive behaviors showed that the model was capable acquiring knowledge with high commonality, even for a category structure with numerous valid conceptualizations.

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This study investigates how stimulus complexity influences human learning of a Sequence Learning (SL). A usual approach to analysis of learning data is based on a learning curve (LC), which shows how a probability of correct response on each step changes across an SL. Usually, a single logistic curve (LgC) provides a good approximation of LCs under various conditions. However, our results show that increase in complexity of a stimulus causes usage of more than one LgC for approximation. In the case of high complexity, LgC curve no longer describes a learning dynamics, but only its general trend. We also extracted other functions needed to approximate a learning dynamics under high complexity. Furthermore, to approximate learning dynamics under higher complexity, we have to use the functions employed under the lower complexity conditions and some additional functions. Therefore we hypothesize a hierarchical structure of the learning process related with stimulus complexity.

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What makes the difference between persons with good or poor skill at parking a car? This study developed tasks to measure the cognitive function that could be potential bases of driving, and tried to relate a person's driving with the performances of those tasks. In this presentation we focused on the mirrored trail-making (MTM) task to measure the skill in re-mapping the intrinsic - extrinsic coordinate. In car driving test participants were groped based on the performance of cognitive task and the frequency of driving, and their driving behaviors were examined. Even if the driving frequency was not different, persons with high cognitive performance in the MTM task showed better driving performances in moving backward in S-shape path, backward parking etc than persons with poor performance. Therefore, the skill in re-mapping the intrinsic - extrinsic coordinate was closely related with the driving behavior, and this skill could make persons' driving behavior different.

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Recent research indicates that intentionally suppressing retrieval of an unwanted memory impairs its later recall. In the current study, we examined whether a similar type of memory impairment can be observed when people simply divert attention away from an unwanted memory with a distracting activity instead of intentionally suppressing its retrieval. This issue was investigated by using a modified Think/No-Think task (Anderson & Green, 2001), designed to prevent remembering the unwanted memories, instead of intentionally suppressing themselves. Although both intentional suppression and distraction impaired memory for to-be-avoided traces on an immediate test, only distraction caused the deficits in later recall after a delay of 20 minutes. These findings suggest that at least intentionally suppressing retrieval, rather than distracting attention is crucial for the long-term forgetting regulation of unwanted memories.

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Remembering some information in memory impairs subsequent remembrance of relevant information. This phenomenon is called retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF: Anderson, 2003). We examined whether the prior recognition test causes people to subsequently forget as well as the cued recall test used ordinarily in the paradigm. Yamada, Tsukimoto, & Kawaguchi (2007) indicated that RIF occurred by using a forced-choice recognition test and suggested that RIF resulted from interference of distractor. However, their results might be mediated by selection processes in a pair of presentation. Then, we examined whether RIF occurred by using yes-no recognition test or not. The result indicated that RIF occurred. From this result, there is no reason to think that RIF using the recognition test was caused by selection processes. Rather, we suggest that RIF resulted from interference of distractor.

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Previous studies have suggested that the left and right hands have different internal models for motor control. Thus, rather than one hand being superior to the other, each might have different specialties. If so, bimanual movements might be more accurately controlled because of the coordination of the two internal models. To investigate this possibility, we examined motor movement accuracy, reaction time, and movement time in pure right-handed subjects during a three-dimensional motor control task (visually guided reaching) under conditions of visual feedback and no visual feedback. In the no-visual-feedback condition, right-hand movement had lower accuracy and shorter reaction time than did left-hand movement, whereas bimanual movement had the longest reaction time, but the best accuracy. This suggests that the two hands have different internal models and specialties: closed-loop control for the right hand and open-loop control for the left hand. Thus, during bimanual movements, both models might be used, creating better control and planning (or prediction), but requiring more computation time compared to the use of only one hand.

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A 2(type of changes in BGC: random vs. alternation) x 2(context: same vs. different) mixed factorial design was used. Forty-six undergraduates individually learned 30 words simultaneously presented triads of words against a BGC and oral free recall was tested after a 30-sec filled retention interval. A signal for recall was presented against a BGC throughout the test. Recalled items were classified as same- and different-context items according to whether the BGCs at study and test were the same or different. BGCs were presented as A-BAABABBA-B in random condition and as A-BABABABA-B in alternation condition. Significant context effects were found regardless of the type of changes. Clustering by screens was significant, but not for clustering by colors. These results imply that the changes in BGCs can produce context effects. The items were associated with the currently-presented BGC but not with the same BGC before and after the currently-presented BGC.

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Nineteen undergraduates individually learned a list containing 30 words subdivided in two distinct categories (birds and cities). Triads of respective 15 words within the categories were visually presented against the one of two background colors (BGCs), which were presented in a random order. After 30-sec filled retention interval, the participants were presented one of the BGCs shown at encoding, and then orally free recalled the words. There was no significant difference in recall between the condition in which the color presented at study and test was the same and that in which the colors at study and test were different. The ARC score was calculated to analyze the clustering by screens and BGCs. The clustering by colors was significant but not for the clustering by screens. The present results suggest that semantic relationship among words suppressed BGC context-dependent recall and enhanced clustering by colors but not that by screens.

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This study examined the influence of interpolated test on source monitoring by using post-event information effect paradigm. In this study, post-event information effect paradigm was used. This paradigm is composed of three stages (event, post-event information, memory test). Except for control condition, this study added interpolated recognition test stage between post-event information and memory test. This test forced participants to select event items or misinformation items. As a result, participants who selected event item tended to decrease correct source attribution. But source misattribution error, that is "saw" response to misinformation items which participants never see in the event, did not increase. On the other hand, participants who selected misinformation item did not decrease correct source attribution. But source misattribution error increased. These results suggested that source monitoring is influenced by the items that are presented after post-event information and by the response to those items.

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