[Introduction]Verbs classified into 2 categories: Volitional and Non-volitional verb.  This study examined the relationship between difference of WMC and verbal operation.[Participants and Methods]28 normal adults with right-handedness(22.46±3.26 age) divided into 3 groups by Reading Span Test: High Span, Middle Span and Low Span. They were requested to express within 60 sec. as many verbs as possible related with the target noun and with participants’ inner representation. [Analysis]Tests used: (1)One-way ANOVA with generated words as independent variables and Post Hoc Test. (2)One-way ANOVA examining the generating-word number ratio of Volitional and Non-volitional verbs. [Results](1) Statistically a significant difference (p<.05) was found in the generating word number between HS group and others. (2) Non-volitional verb generating ratio was significantly greater (p<.05) in LS than in HS group.[Discussions]The difference of Non-volitional verb generating ratio indicates that HS group is superior to LS group in inner representation capable of operating from the first-person viewpoint.

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Mental simulation during sentence comprehension activated perceptual information about the content of the sentence even if the object in the sentence has the specific action-related knowledge. This phenomenon, however, showed in study used only the sentences describing an action that use the objects related to the faces. Therefore, this study investigated the perceptual information that is activated by the comprehension of sentences describing an action that use the objects unrelated to the face. On a word-picture verification task, participants read the sentences and then judged whether the objects in the pictures were identical to the objects describing in the sentences. Results showed that the verification times were significantly faster when the actions in the pictures matched the action described in the sentences than when they were mismatched. This result suggests that perceptual information corresponding to the content of the sentence is activated regardless of the action-related property of object.

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Abstract In this research, the experiment about the autobiographic elaboration effect of memory was conducted based on research of Toyota (1989) or Toyota (2007).We decided to apply implicit association test (IAT) and emotional intelligence measure as a variable relevant to the autobiographic elaboration effect of memory. In this experiment, the high word of emotions value and the low word were set up as a memorize word, and it was examined whether the emotions value of a memorize word would affect the autobiographic elaboration effect. Moreover, the influence which an IAT score and an emotional intelligence score have on autobiographic elaboration of memory was also considered. About the emotions value of words, and the relation of the autobiographic elaboration effect, the result which supports precedence research was obtained as a result of this research.

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This experiment used the attraction effect and compromise effect to test the influence of ingestion of sugar on reliance on intuitive, heuristic-based decision making. And also for a search of these occurrence mechanisms, we measured the eye movement and negative emotion of the subjects. In the context-dependent effect, a difficult choice between two options is swayed by the presence of a third (normatively irrelevant) alternative. Previous works showed that the attraction effect increase and the compromise effect decrease when people have depleted their mental resources performing a previous self-control task. Moreover, it is thought that the attraction effect arise for the aversion from the negative emotion which feel when the trade-off has been perceived. We replicated these findings and analyzed the eye movement and the negative emotion to test the difference of two context-dependent effects.

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This study was to examine the relation betweenthe development of drawing and use of chopsticks.  The results showed that the unskillfulness of the first and second fingers had influence on the retardation of human figure drawing.  

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In free association recalled words turn into new stimuli. Therefore order of the association itself do not reveal the relation of new recalled words and their stimuli.In this experiment participants were asked to make introductory concept map with numbers of order recalled. Multiple-choice test was carried out to find some relations between the score of the test and maps’ characteristics.

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We investigated the effects of spatial complexity on the capacity of visual short-term memory (VSTM) in individual differences along the Autism-spectrum Quotient (AQ). Spatial complexity was defined by Garner’s equivalent set size (ESS). We used a change-detection task in which nine line-segments contained several orientations were presented in simple (ESS 4) or complex (ESS 8) configurations with encoding times for 300, 500, or 900ms. From preliminary investigation of AQ (n = 120), the participants were divided into the High AQ (n = 11) and Low AQ (n = 9). We found that the VSTM capacity for ESS 4 was larger than for ESS 8 in the Low AQ with the encoding time of 900ms, whereas, in the High AQ group, there were no significant differences between ESS 4 and 8, suggesting that the effects of spatial complexity on VSTM were observed in the Low AQ but not in the High AQ.

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An experiment was conducted to see if morphological processing of S-K words can be enhanced through training. Thirty-six students were asked to memorize 20 rare words with word-level or morpheme-level definitions. Morpheme-level definitions were expected to make the words  semantically transparent more than word-level definitions. After two sessions of training, the go/no-go lexical decision task was performed for the words studied in the training sessions. The words trained with the morpheme definitions  were responded faster than the ones with the word definitions. The pattern of the mean error rates was parallel to that of mean RTs. In sum, the results suggest that studying words with the focus on morphemes contributes to making them more semantically transparent, and, as a natural consequence, improving their recognition.

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Choice between known goods and unknown goods is repeated in everyday life as new products go on the market one after another.  Although such choice is one of the key factors of consumer behavior, very few experimental studies have been done thereon.  In the present study, repetitive choices among known goods and unknown goods are performed by utilizing mineral water as stimuli and characteristics related to the choice are examined.  Further, brain activity during product choice was measured with fMRI.  As a result, subjects who had a tendency to seek for information tend to choose unknown goods more and activity in the right frontal pole was observed when unknown goods were chosen.  These results indicate that choosing unknown goods is a behavior for the purpose of gaining information but not a consequence of balancing the profits and losses.

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For working memory (WM), the fontal region is mainly related to executive functions, which is reported to be communicated with task-relevant sensory posterior regions. However it is not clear about an information flow within the networks. Here we conducted simultaneous electroencephalograph (EEG) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) experiments during auditory WM tasks which required mental calculation of auditory presented numbers and visual WM tasks which required mental spatial manipulation of visual stimulus. These tasks were conducted under single-pulse TMS over frontal, temporal and parietal regions, and sham/no TMS. Performance showed no differences among conditions. EEG time-frequency analyses revealed the frontal theta (6Hz) and temporal and parietal alpha (10Hz) activities during the auditory and visual WM, respectively. These regions revealed modulation of phase synchronization and propagation of TMS-induced phase resetting in a task-relevant way. These results suggested the neural oscillatory dynamics of the frontal and posterior regions for WM manipulation.

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This study examined the role of MEG (magnetoencephalography) components, M100 (component at around 100ms after stimulus onset) and M170 (component at around 170ms after stimulus onset)in kanji recognition. It is said that M100 reflects preliminary character analysis and M170 reflects complex character analysis. We scanned MEG signals while participants see Kanji, simplified Chinese characters, Traditional Chinese characters, and Korean characters passively.  The participants consist of Japanese, Chinese, Taiwanese, and Korean. M100 was observed in 49 out of 112 participants. In all participants the changes between M100 and M170 in the five stimuli were not parallel. The changing patterns varied greatly from individual to individual. There was no relation between changing patterns and mother languages. It appears that some kind of judgment on a character occurs in a very early, namely perceptual, stage of character recognition and there are grate individual difference in judging characters.

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The purpose of this study is to clarify multi-modal brain processing in human emotions. This study aimed to induce complicated emotional system of the brain by multi-modal stimuli, and to examine whether such emotional stimuli could induce consistent changes in EEG signals. We examined by auditory, visual, or combined audio-visual stimuli. Emotion of voice’s stimuli consisted of three different intonations (Angry - A, Happy - H or Neutral - N). Visual stimuli were used some photograph in faces of women expressing the same emotional valences (A, H or N). Audio-visual stimuli were composed using either congruent combinations of faces and voices (e.g. H x H) or non-congruent (e.g. A x H). The data was collected with EEG system. We compared the conditions stimuli (A or H) vs. control (N), and congruent vs. non-congruent. Topographic maps of EEG power differed between each combination stimuli.

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Human errors tend to occur during emergencies in which the arousal level is extremely high. Although research on human behaviors in emergencies with regard to mass panic and case studies exist, few studies employing experimental techniques focus on individual behavior in emergencies. In this study, participants played the water-pipe game under conditions with “time pressure” and “severity” (high arousal condition). (“Emergency” consists of these two factors.) They were asked to push the button as early and as precisely as possible when a target appeared at the center of the monitor.In comparison with the control condition, participants’ click frequency increased and their thinking time reduced under the high arousal condition. Furthermore, the miss and false alarm rate was higher in the control condition. In conclusion, humans tend act promptly without thinking actively and tend to overlook events that are not related to their operations in an emergency.

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In this study, using Implicit Association Test (Greenwald et al., 1998; IAT) and questionnaire, author measured participants' implicit and explicit anxiety. Author conducted ANOVAs with two types of anxiety (split at median) as independent variables and several personalities (self-esteem, depression) as a dependent variable. As a result, no significant interactions were detected. However, the main effect of implicit anxiety was obtained in self-esteem. Because of fewer participants and dependent variables, further research was required.

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Seventy-five undergraduates were randomly assigned to one of 3 (SS, DS, DD) conditions. The construction of musical selections presented at encoding and testing were: same music with same tempo (SS), different music with same tempo (DS), and different music with different tempo (DD). The undergraduates individually received 24 words on a computer screen one-by-one at a rate of 5 s per item. They were required orally to report free associates from currently presented word, and were not informed any test. Ten s before presentation of words, assigned musical selection was presented until the end of the presentation. After the list presentation, the undergraduates received instructions for an oral free-recall test. SS condition showed significantly better recall than both DS and DD conditions. There was no difference in recall between DS and DD conditions. These results conflict with the notion that musical tempo determines mood, and that mood determines recall.

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Present experiment investigated context-dependent effects of background video-clip on study-time effects in free recall. A presentation rate (4 s or 8 s per word; between) x Context (same or different context; within) mixed factorial design was used. Forty-two undergraduate participants individually participated in a 20-min experiment. The participants intentionally learned 28 words against 28 video clips and oral free recall was tested after a 30-sec filled retention interval. A signal for recall was presented against video clips which were half of clips presented at study session. Recalled items were classified as same- different-context items according to whether the video clips at study and test were the same or different. Significant context effects and study-time effects were found but the interaction was not. These results imply that the strength of the background video context effects may not increase as a function of study-time.

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 It is known that self-referential information is easier than non-self-referential information to be encoded and retrieved. This may imply that self-referential information may be difficult to be forgotten. However, memory inhibition research has revealed that one can forget the particular memory by intentional inhibitory control. Thus, we examined whether people were able to intentionally inhibit self-referential information, using the Think/No-Think paradigm (Anderson & Green, 2001). First, participants were assigned either to the self-referential condition or the other-referential condition and were asked to learn cue-target (i.e., word-picture) pairs. After the Think/No-Think phase, participants were tested their final memory performance. Results demonstrated that recall of No-Think items were lower than baseline among participants both in the self-referential and the other-referential conditions. This suggested that intentional inhibitory control processes could also work for self-referential information.

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Baddeley, Thomson, & Buchanan (1975) found that phonological length of words determines memory span, i.e., the word-length effect. However, the longer words used in Baddeley et al. (1975) had more letters, and it was undeniable that number of letters also influenced  memory span. Especially, native Japanese readers are found to rely more heavily on visual codes and less on phonological codes in letter processing than native English readers (Mizuno, Matsui, & Bellezza, 2007). We, therefore, hypothesized that memory span of native Japanese readers is rather influenced by number of letters than phonological length of stimulus words. An experiment was conducted to measure memory span and reading speed of native Japanese readers using three-mora words composed of one, two, and three Kanji characters. The results showed that the recall rate and reading speed of three-character words was less than those of two-character and one-character words, indicating the validity of our hypothesis.

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The aim of this study is to investigate the factors which make it easier to recall a teacher’s name encountered in the past. Eighty undergraduates were asked to recall five teachers’ names from their elementary, junior-high or high school. These teachers and their names were rated for various characteristics. The results showed that the ease of recall of the names were positively correlated with the indices concerning with teacher themselves, such as familiarity, emotional arousal, impressiveness, associativeness, recent frequency of recollecting them, and recent frequency of hearing their names, but not with the indices concerning with teachers’ surnames. The differences and similarities between the findings from this study and previous studies were discussed.

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This study examined the influence on recognition of specific source item by using deformed post-event information effect paradigm. This paradigm is composed of three stages (event stage, post-event information stage, memory test stage). Usually, event is presented by slide of video and post-event information is presented by text. In this paradigm, the form of source is different and quantity of information is often different. This study was controlled these differences. The event was presented by text and quantity was controlled. As a result, source monitoring was difficult for the participants who recognized first source items. On the other hand, it was easy for the participants who recognized second source items. These results suggest that retrieving preceding information makes the following source monitoring difficult.

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The revelation effect occurs when recognition test probes are more likely to be judged “old” if they are preceded by a cognitive task. Our previous studies suggested the relation between the revelation effect and meta-cognition, but in these studies meta-cognition was not experimentally manipulated. Then, this study investigated whether a meta-cognition — after conducting a cognitive task, people felt their recognition performance worse — made the criterion of the recognition judgment conservative, and caused the anti-revelation effect. As a result, the anti-revelation effect occurred in the experimental group who was engaged in easier recognition judgments immediately after solving a cognitive task than not solving the task. Meanwhile, in the control group, the anti-revelation effect did not occur. The result suggests that the meta-cognition about an effect of a cognitive task on the recognition performance shifts the criterion, and caused the revelation or anti-revelation effect.

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The present study examined the relationship between individual differences in emotional intelligence(EI) and autobiographical remembering. Participants were required to complete the Japanese version of the Emotional Skills and Competence Questionnaire to assess their level of EI. Then they were asked to remember autobiographical memories, followed by the memory characteristics questionnaire. Participants with low EI rated a positive episode as more vivid or more accurate than a neutral episode. But those with high EI the difference of rating between the two episodes was not observed.

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