The articulatory in-out effect refers to the phenomenon where preferences for words vary depending on the direction of the movement in place of articulation. Prior studies have shown that this effect occurs in various linguistic regions particularly within Indo-European languages. However, few studies have addressed the in-out effect in Japanese speakers and issues of stimulus control remain. In this study, we created a pool of nonsense Japanese word stimuli and investigated whether the in-out effect also occurred in adult Japanese speakers, while controlling for the number of word-initial voiced obstruents. The results of two experiments showed that the in-out effect was observed in adult Japanese speakers and that the effect occurred even with controls for word-initial voiced obstruents. These findings confirm the robustness of the in-out effect, which has been mainly investigated with WEIRD samples.

This study investigates whether typeface influences affective judgments of words consisting of two kanji. Japanese words with either positive or negative meanings were presented in either rounded or spiky fonts. Participants （ N=92） were asked to rapidly and accurately judge the valence of the words. Participants also rated their impressions of the fonts with the semantic differential （SD） method. The results indicate participants judged more positive valences for the rounded font than the spiky font and that the median reaction time was shorter when word valence and font valence were congruent than when incongruent. The congruency effect was larger for rounded fonts than for spiky fonts. These findings suggest that typefaces can influence the valence judgments of word meanings, even when typeface is task-irrelevant.

Neuroscience has revealed neural correlates for many psychological phenomena, such as morality and agency. The rise of neuroscience challenges the traditional views of mind-body dualism and the existence of the soul. Preston et al. (2013) show that exposure to the mechanistic explanations of the mind within neuroscience reduces choices to preserve the soul within a dilemma task, whereas highlighting the unexplained aspects of neuroscience increases such choices. The purpose of our study is to examine whether similar patterns can be observed in Japan; a country known for its unique religiosity and beliefs that differ from those of other nations. Our findings indicate that individuals who believe that the brain has a stronger influence on the mind than the soul, when exposed to neuroscientific information, are more likely to choose to preserve the body. Furthermore, although a single-factor structure was hypothesized for the original Dualism Scale, our study yielded a two-factor structure: belief in the soul and perception of the mind as brain functioning. These results suggest that Japanese perceptions of the mind may differ from those in the West.

This study aims to obtain standard scores on CogEvo (Total Brain Care Co. Ltd, Kobe, Japan)—a computer-based assessment tool of cognitive functioning—and to examine its features for healthy middle-aged and elderly individuals. In addition, the study seeks to investigate CogEvo’s potential to detect individuals below the MoCA-J reference point. This cross-sectional study utilized two datasets of secondary data: Dataset 1 consisted of CogEvo scores, together with age and gender data, obtained by Total Brain Care Co. Ltd, with the number of participants varying for each CogEvo task (N=726~1,421). Dataset 2 consisted of CogEvo and MoCA-J scores for 20 middle-aged and elderly adults from the general community. The rates for detecting MoCA-J scores of 25 or less for sensitivity and specificity were not particularly high, at 66.7% and 63.6%, respectively. However, within Dataset 1, the CogEvo scores for flashing lights began to decline in individuals in their 60s, which suggests that CogEvo may be effective in detecting age-related declines in visuomotor cognitive functioning within healthy middle-aged and elderly adults.

This study is a conceptual replication of Sedikides, Wildschut, Routledge, & Arndt (2015) findings that negative self-discontinuity correlates with nostalgia proneness in daily life and elicits more state nostalgia. In Study 1, we modified the original procedure and asked participants to indicate whether the changes in their lives were positive or negative and rate the self-discontinuity that stemmed from those changes. Although no significant correlation was observed between the number of negative changes and nostalgia proneness (.07), a significant correlation was observed between self-discontinuity and nostalgia proneness (.20). However, controlled for age, the correlation reduced slightly (.18) and was not significant. Exploratory analyses revealed that nostalgia proneness was positively correlated only with self-discontinuity due to negative life changes rather than positive ones. In Study 2A, we used the same materials as in the original study to manipulate self-discontinuity, but in Study 2B, we used new materials. The results indicate that self-discontinuity did not influence levels of state nostalgia. Overall, even though negative self-discontinuity is associated with nostalgia proneness, it does not elicit higher levels of state nostalgia.

This study develops a Japanese version of the 4-Component Thinking Styles Questionnaire （4-CTSQ-J） to measure intuitive-analytical thinking styles. Two studies were conducted to investigate the scale’s factor structure, reliability, and validity. The results indicate that 4-CTSQ-J has a factor structure that is similar to the original 4-CTSQ comprising four subscales: Actively Open-Minded Thinking, Close-Minded Thinking, Preference for Effortful Thinking, and Preference for Intuitive Thinking. The 4-CTSQ-J demonstrated good internal consistency. The scale correlates with performance on the Cognitive Reflection Test and is related to epistemically-unwarranted beliefs, reasoning-task performance, subjective well-being, and empathy, although some subscales are more strongly related to specific outcomes than others. These results suggest that individual differences across multiple dimensions of intuitive-analytic thinking styles may influence various beliefs and behaviors. The study discusses cultural differences in thinking styles and the scale’s validity within non-WEIRD contexts.

In this study, we examine the effects of changing the indoor background image during repeated exposure on evaluations of the image individual. More specifically, we examined whether meeting an individual at the same place each time increases familiarity and thus enhances evaluations of the individual or whether meeting in different places each time adds a degree of novelty to the familiarity and, thus, enhances evaluations. In two experiments, combinations of the indoor background and the individual were manipulated, such that either the same or a different background was presented during repeated presentations of the individual. In Experiment 1, we presented a neutral expression either 3, 6, or 9 times and, in Experiment 2, a smiling face either 3, 6, 9, or 12 times. The results indicate that liking ratings for the individual increased more in the 3-changes condition. We assume that this increase in liking reflects an additional degree of novelty to familiarity due to the background changes. In contrast, feelings of security increased with the increased exposures for both conditions, which indicates that background had little effect on feelings of security.