[in Japanese]

View full abstract

[in Japanese]

View full abstract

[in Japanese]

View full abstract

[in Japanese]

View full abstract

To test the "visual metaphor", we studied how impressions are changed when two pictures(one is as a tenor, the other as a vehicle)were combined together. As tenors, we used three different kinds of electric appliances(TV, mobile phone, and video camera). Each of those had three different models(so we used nine tenor pictures). As vehicles, we used four pictures(ladybug, ruin, Colosseum, and cat). All of combinations of tenor and vehicle pictures, as well as nine tenor pictures, were assessed by using SD method and factor analysis, and resulted in the extracting three factors (mood, popularity, and comprehension). Base on factor scores, we calculated Euclidean distance between pictures, and observed the configuration of those pictures by MDS method. The findings suggested that a combined pictures was apt to lay between a tenor and a vehicle picture. This means that the impression of a tenor picture is affected by a vehicle picture combined into it.

View full abstract

We examined the time course of impression formation in paintings by the method of correlation analysis, and considered about the visual factors related to the impressions. The results showed that there were three kinds of time course of impression formation: The impression formed quickly and not changed by time passage (pleasant, simple and quiet), the impression formed slowly (favorite and beautiful), and the impression changed by time passage (incongruous and mysterious). The impression formed quickly was affected by a visual factor such as low spatial frequency components, and the impression formed slowly required the understanding of contents. These results showed that various impressions of paintings are not always formed simultaneously, and that the different levels of factors affected the impression formation.

View full abstract

[in Japanese]

View full abstract

There has been well-known phenomenon that repeating presentation of stimuli enhances cognitive/affective evaluation, especially preference, of the stimuli (mere exposure effect). However, it has not been discussed enough whether such change occurs only on the viewer' s attitude or also on memory representation. If the representation is changed by the repetition, images which have better impressions would be confused with original images. In contrast, if the representation is not changed, such confusion wouldn' t be occurred and it can be said that only the viewer' s attitude is changed by the repetition. In our research, we used face images with manipulating facial impressions quantitatively on various dimensions (e.g., elegant, strong, etc). We compared the impressions and recognition memory between the repeated and novel stimuli. As the result, it was suggested that the pattern of the exposure effect would be different among the impression dimensions.

View full abstract

[in Japanese]

View full abstract

[in Japanese]

View full abstract

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of setting the purpose for reading, and performing written operations while reading, on comprehension of procedural text. Participants were given one of two purposes for reading: (a) to recall the text (Read-to-Recall), or (b to perform the operation task (Read-to-perform) later in the experiment. Then, participants read two procedural texts under two different reading conditions: (c) read the text and perform written operations (Read and Perform), or (d) only read the text (Read Only). Results showed that Read-to-Recall participants recalled the text better and Read-to-Perform participants performed operation task better. Performing while reading, on the other hand, improved operation performance only for Read-to-Recall participants. These findings suggest that purpose for reading induces to construct representations suited to the purpose, and performing while reading influences representation which Read-to-Recall participant constructs.

View full abstract

This study investigates the effect of situation model formation efficiency, textbase formation efficiency and storage capacity on expository text comprehension, and whether this influence changes by imposing cognitive loads. The results showed that firstly situation model formation efficiency in low group impaired reading test score when cognitive loads were imposed on participants, secondly textbase formation efficiency in low group impaired reading test score than in high group, and finally, as for storage capacity, participants impaired reading test score by imposing cognitive loads. These results suggest that representation formation efficiency is more important for expository text comprehension than storage capacity. Furthermore, it is likely that it is important for expository text comprehension to form textbase efficiently. However, when cognitive loads are imposed, it is thought that the approach from situation model side is needed.

View full abstract

[in Japanese]

View full abstract

[in Japanese]

View full abstract

[in Japanese]

View full abstract

[in Japanese]

View full abstract

[in Japanese]

View full abstract

We longitudinally investigated the effects of development and activities in non-native language (English) on the ERPs in the first- and second- year preschool native speakers of Japanese children during listening to semantically congruent and incongruent Japanese sentences. The N400s were observed in both age groups. The latency of N400 was significantly longer in the younger than in the older children. The N400 was distributed relatively over the left hemisphere in the younger children, while it distributed relatively over the right hemisphere in the older children. The meaning-related late positive component (LPC) was observed only in the older children. For the group with intensive English activities, the N400 distributed over the scalp more broadly in the younger children but it had shorter latency in the older children in comparison with the children of the non-intensive group. These results suggest that the time course and the scalp distribution for the semantic processing of sentences in native language in preschoolers alter depending on the development and activities in non-native language.

View full abstract

[in Japanese]

View full abstract

[in Japanese]

View full abstract

[in Japanese]

View full abstract

Previous research shows that social desirability for fictive character is judged higher when negative traits are mentioned in clause with adversative conjunction (e.g., "Although Kazuya pretends to know, he is less greed") than when with co-conjunction. The different evaluation was considered to stem from some differences of discourse focus because the critical traits were identical among sentences with the different conjunctions. The present research investigates the evaluation of the traits which are mentioned in adversative clause in order to clarify the characteristics of the effect of discourse focus. Participants were required to rate the desirability of specific traits of fictive character, rather than the whole person. The experimental results showed that neither negative nor positive traits were judged higher when using adversative expression. On the other hand, there were an effect of order of mention for the traits, the latter traits being more biased toward their valence.

View full abstract

[in Japanese]

View full abstract

We considered the language ability and processing of bilinguals by experimentally comparing them with native speakers and L2 learners. The bilingual participants were Japanese who speak both English and Japanese fluently. The native speakers and the learners were native Japanese speakers who learn English and native English speakers who learn Japanese. The stimuli were short sentences in Japanese or English that contain either a grammatical error or a lexical error. Sentences without errors were also used for distracters. Each stimulus was presented for 2 seconds in a random order. The participants were requested to answer whether the presented sentence was correct or wrong. We predicted that learners paid more attention to lexical errors and native speakers to grammatical errors, while the bilingual participants showed a similar tendency to native speakers in both languages. We discuss the language ability and processing of bilinguals based on the results.

View full abstract

In the present study, the effects of auditory direct priming on perception of spectrally degraded familiar and unfamiliar words were examined by two experiments. In the first experiment, participants listened to clear spoken words over a headphone in the study phase. Then, a week after the study, they were given degraded words for testing auditory identification. This test was performed one by one. In the second experiment, the same experiment was performed but the following three conditions were different; participants were tested all together, the words were presented from a loudspeaker, and the implicit identification test was given 10 minutes after the study phase. Through the experiments, the performances of studied words were significantly high in both familiar and unfamiliar words. The results indicate that the auditory priming effect was based primarily on the perceptual information such as acoustical properties or sound patterns of the words rather than the semantic information. The findings suggest that auditory implicit memory would contribute to speech perception in our communication in daily life.

View full abstract

[in Japanese]

View full abstract

[in Japanese]

View full abstract

[in Japanese]

View full abstract

[in Japanese]

View full abstract

[in Japanese]

View full abstract

[in Japanese]

View full abstract

[in Japanese]

View full abstract