Previous studies have reported that a spatial tapping task impairs the retention of visuo-spatial information in working memory. We investigated the casual factors mediating the interference effects of spatial tapping on the rehearsal of visuo-spatial information within the Corsi block test in order to elucidate the visuo-spatial rehearsal system of working memory. Experiment 1 indicates that shifts in spatial attention within the tapping task performed during the retention interval impair the accuracy of recall for the Corsi block test. Experiment 2 indicates that the plan and the control of physical movements for the spatial tapping task do not affect the retention of visuo-spatial information in working memory. These findings suggest that the shifts in spatial attention within the spatial tapping task performed during the retention interval in the Corsi block test may interfere with visuo-spatial rehearsal in working memory. This implies that visuo-spatial rehearsal depends primarily on an attention control system rather than an executive motor system, suggesting, in turn, that the visuo-spatial sketchpad differs structurally from the phonological loop.

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The semantic representation of a sentence may be regarded as a complex concept formed by the repeated integration of a phrase constituent schema into a head schema. We propose a model of sentence comprehension that checks for the consistency between a constituent schema and the requirement for integration into a slot within the head schema. If this requirement is not satisfied, the selectional restriction on the slot is extended to be coherent with the comprehender's world knowledge, and consistency is then checked again. According to this model, reading times for noun phrases and response times in a sentence acceptability task will reflect the number of consistency checks. We compared reading times (Experiment 1) and response times in the sentence acceptability task (Experiments 1 and 2) across sentences with typical noun phrases and sentences with atypical ones that will require more checks. In the two experiments, reading times and response times increased in proportion to the number of checks. These results are consistent with the prediction from the model.

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This paper discusses the current problems and future tasks for research on dynamic touch within ecological psychology. To this aim, the theoretical framework provided by Gibson is compared with that of traditional perception research. The major findings from studies of dynamic touch and their significance are reviewed. This critique highlights three limitations: (1) The interpretation of the inertia tensor model is insufficient; (2) the exploratory movement and the ontological process to form a perceptual system are rarely analyzed; and (3) the methodology to inclusively analyze diverse human perception is underdeveloped. A reason for these problems is discussed in terms of the methodological constraints on psychophysics, and it is concluded that a holistic approach is needed to unite human perception and experience.

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We conducted two experiments to investigate how test delay influences qualitative and temporal order judgments in source monitoring. In both experiments, participants were either presented with pictures or asked to create mental images on day 1 and day 2. In Experiment 1, stimulus items were presented three times on day 1 and once on day 2, while in Experiment 2, the items were presented only once on both days. Seven days later, there was a bias in the source judgments with the participants being more likely to attribute the source of test items to mental images than to the pictures for qualitative judgments in both experiments. However, in terms of temporal order judgments, the participants only attributed the source of items to day 1, where they were presented three times, in Experiment 1, while the accuracy of temporal order judgments in Experiment 2 dropped to chance levels. These results suggest that for qualitative judgments there is a response bias toward the weaker source, and that temporal order judgments are not possible after seven days, where the contextual information is controlled.

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Human memory is so pragmatic and economical that it is unreasonable to assume that the various cognitive activities that supposedly facilitate memory have discrete and mutually independent causes. Accordingly, this paper first reviews previous studies concerning levels of processing, processing resources, and encoding variability and specificity, and suggests that the mechanisms governing these processes can be uniformly and simply explained by the single notion of activation. Secondly, this study explores the theoretical possibility of accounting for elaboration, the strengthening of retrieval routes, contextual effects, and spacing effects with this notion, and demonstrates that, in all cases, the amount of activation offers a coherent explanation for the degree of memory facilitation. Finally, experimental results are presented that indicate how differences in processing depth can be explained in terms of differences in the amount of activation, with the author describing how a new experiment was conducted to explore the possibility that the difference between maintenance and elaborative rehearsal can also be accounted for by differences in the amount of activation. This hypothesis is supported by obtained results, and, in conclusion, it is suggested that the amount of activation is the universal cause of the various cognitive activities that facilitate memory.

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Since Anderson, Bjork, & Bjork (1994) devised the retrieval-practice paradigm, retrieval-induced forgetting has been examined based on the categorical features of the stimuli, but not in terms of a common episodic context. The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of the study episode on retrieval-induced forgetting. To this aim, the authors designed a modified version of the retrieval-practice paradigm, in which the participants perform episode-cued retrieval practice during the learning phase. Experiments 1 and 2 examined whether retrieval-induced forgetting would occur in the modified procedure using category-exemplar pairs as stimuli. In Experiment 1, the interval between stimuli and episodic cues was set to 1500 ms, and in Experiment 2, it was set to 0 ms. Retrieval-induced forgetting was found only in Experiment 1, indicating that the occurrence of the effect depends on the degree of effort in maintaining a study episode where the stimuli involve categorical information. Experiment 3 examined the possibility that retrieval-induced forgetting occurs after episode-cued retrieval practice with mutually noncategorical words as stimuli. The authors did not find retrieval-induced forgetting, although a positive effect of retrieval practice was observed. These findings suggest that retrieval-induced forgetting can be observed in a condition that involves both category-based and episode-based competition.

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The present study attempts to investigate the effects of levels of processing on false memory. False recall and false recognition were induced by presenting participants with words closely associated with a critical lure, a nonpresented word. In the experiment reported here, participants engaged in either a deep processing task of estimating usage frequency or a shallow processing task of letter counting. The participants were tested in a recall test immediately after the study phase and in recognition tests both immediately and one week later. The results demonstrate that the participants who engaged in the deeper level of processing recalled and recognized significantly more list items, but not critical lures. Moreover, a reliable decrease in old or remember judgments for list items was obtained over the retention interval, but not for critical lures.

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