The reactions of skin temperature and blood flow when various stimuli are applied to the body have been investigated for many years, with numerous studies examining the effects of pressure stimulation and thermal stimulation separately. However, body reactions when different stimuli are applied to the body simultaneously have yet to be studied in detail. Therefore, we investigated changes in both blood flow and skin temperature when massage and hot and cool stimuli were applied to the body at the same time. Both blood flow volume and velocity increased with hot and cool massage stimuli. A rapid change in skin temperature compared to hot and cool stimuli without massage was subsequently observed. In addition, the magnitude of change in skin temperature was small at massage stimulus sites when hot and cool massage stimuli were applied to the body. These results suggest that hot and cool massage stimuli promote changes in skin temperature, while massage stimulus causes diffusion of the hot and cool stimuli.

Aiming at proposing a model which can explain and calculate the variation of intellectual productivity caused by various conditions, the authors have conducted a subject experiment and discussed the details of the proposed model by comparing the results of the computer simulation with the experimental results. The proposed model is a based on a 3-state transition model which consists of a working state, a short-term pause and a long-term pause. The transition between the working state and the shortterm pause is simulated term pause is caused by probabilistic functions calculated from a mental fatigue (MF) as a virtual parameter. A subject experiment was conducted where illuminance on the desk and work motivation were controlled to vary their productivity. the internal parameters of the model to explain the probabilistic functions examined by the experimental results, it was found that the subjects tend to take many short-term pauses but few long-term pauses.

Recent studies have revealed that improvement of office environment may improve the intellectual productivity of office workers. However, the method which evaluates office productivity objectively and quantitatively has not been established yet. Although cognitive task performance is one of the candidate methods, it has a problem that the performance is improved not only by the improvement of office environment by but also learning effect. In this study, the authors have proposed a new productivity evaluation index, "Concentration time Ratio (CTR)" which is based on intellectual productivity model assuming 3-state transition. Aiming to confirm that CTR could cancel the learning effect and be utilized as an index of productivity evaluation, a subjective experiment was conducted where two illumination conditions were compared. In this experiment, cognitive task was given and the performance and CTR was measured for three days. As the result, it was found that CTR was not affected by the learning effect but improved by the concentration instruction to the subjects and the change of illumination condition.

The authors have developed an evaluation tool of intellectual productivity based on a concept of work concentration. The tool consists of a cognitive task which is given to office workers and an analysis subsystem which analyzes the results of task and calculates CTR(Concentration Time Ratio) as an index of intellectual productivity. In addition, a subject experiment was conducted in which the illumination conditions of office room were changed. As the result, it was found that the index was not affected by learning effect and the difference of intellectual productivity by changing the illumination conditions could be evaluated quantitatively with the index.

Several studies aimed at evaluating intellectual productivity and specially designed tasks were given. However, the result may not be reflected the actual intellectual productivity because the designed tasks are different from office works. Meanwhile, there are two mental states (work and temporary rest state) in office workers which are changing alternatively during mental work. If the mental states of the workers can be detected, the productivity can be measured more accurately. In this study, the authors aimed at developing a detection method of temporary rest state while performing mental works by measuring physiological indices such as EEG, ECG, and EMG of extraocular muscles and orbicularis oculi muscle. From these measured indices, the authors extracted 6 features which were alpha and beta brain waves, low and high frequency waves of heart rate, and the intervals of eye blink and saccade eye movement. They were used to detect a temporary rest state by using Mahalanobis Discrimination Analysis. As a result of the subject experiment, it was found that the detection accuracy was 80.2%. This result shows the possibility to use the physiological indices as one of the mental state detection methods.

Interaction analysis is a method in ethnomethodology. We use it to analyze the user-instructor interaction on the system named 'iFace.' Our analysis reveals that the user does not understand the instruction about the system given by the instructor at the beginning, and then, as the instructor helps him understand the system's behavior, he comes to be aware of what he is doing. By going through this process in multiple phases, the user increases focus and attention. We argue on the basis of the analysis that the structures are important for designing systems.

In the fields of global human resources development, there is a greater need for intercultural understanding. This has mainly been proposed and delivered as part of training in foreign languages.However, intercultural issues are very elusive, mysterious and difficult to treat in an easy-to-understand way. We need a structured analytical methodology to analyze these issues by using a method that is independent of participant' s level of language skill. To achieve this goal, we propose a new methodology for intercultural understanding exploring and looking at variations in analytical thought process by using a computer-mediated multilingual communication system, in which a multilingual case tool used in MBA schools is experimentally introduced. The system provides an environment that integrates intercultural knowledge and multicultural conflict-resolution experience to the participants. We conducted experiments to evaluate how effective our proposed methodology was for extracting the variations in analytical thought process from multilingual communication data. By comparing the experimental results from participants with different cultural backgrounds, we found that we could extract both the cultural similarities and difference among three groups of participants, Korean, American, and Japanese.