Previous research has shown that local residents tend to underestimate approaching dangers and ignore emergency evacuation information issued by authorities. In the present study, three experiments were conducted to investigate whether perceived danger can be influenced by how the emergency evacuation information is expressed. Experiments 1a and 1b examined the effects of adding adverbs to emphasize the seriousness and the urgency of the emergency situation. The results showed that less common adverbs were more effective in stressing the need for immediate evacuation. Experiment 2 indicated that people are more likely to be convinced of the need for immediate evacuation if they are explicitly informed that the emergency level has been elevated. These results indicate the importance of carefully preparing emergency evacuation information in order to convey the impression that something unusual is currently developing.

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Previous studies (e.g., Özgen & Davies, 2002) have demonstrated that learning novel categories induces categorical perception (better discrimination for between-category pairs than for within-category pairs). On the other hand, Ashby, Alfonso-Reese, Turken, and Waldron (1998) have argued that the rule-based (RB) category, which is defined in terms of verbalizable rules, and the information-integration (II) category, which is defined in terms of nonverbal rules, are learned by different systems. The present study investigates whether the learning of the RB and the II categories produces categorical perception. Ten participants learned the RB category and another 10 learned the II category. Another 15 participants did not learn any category. After category learning, the participants performed a delayed discrimination task. The results showed that the accuracy for between-category discrimination was higher than that for within-category discrimination in the RB category learners. However, this between-category advantage was not observed in the II category learners. The results suggest that RB category learning, but not II category learning, produces categorical perception. The relation between category learning and categorical perception is discussed.

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This study develops a new computer-based Stroop/reverse-Stroop test and two experiments are conducted to examine the test's validity, its test-retest reliability and its practice/sequence effects. In Experiment 1, computer-based and paper-based tests were compared in terms of Stroop and reverse-Stroop interferences. The results indicated that, similar to the paper-based test, Stroop and reverse-Stroop interference can also be observed with the computer-based test. In Experiment 2, the computer-based test was administered three times with intervals, and the results indicated that the test-retest reliability is high and that although the practice effect was significant, no sequence effect was observed.

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Fujiki & Hishitani (2010) have argued that eye movements are involved in the rehearsal of spatial information that is visually encoded, but limb movements are not. However, previous studies have yet to elucidate whether spatial informations is rehearsed by both limb and eye movements or only by limb movements when such information is kinesthetically encoded. In the present study, we conducted two experiments that used a spatial memory task to memorize the direction of finger movements. The first experiment found that irrelevant limb movements interfered with spatial memory, but irrelevant eye movements did not. The second experiment showed that only relevant limb movements caused a facilitation effect on spatial memory under a 10-second delay condition. The findings from these experiments suggest that limb movements are involved in the rehearsal of spatial information that is kinesthetically encoded, but eye movements are not.

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The purpose of this study is to examine the asymmetric relationship between facial expression and identity within facial recognition (the effects of identity on facial expression recognition) using a selective attention task (Garner paradigm). In Experiment 1, 32 participants judged either the expression or identity of faces, while the irrelevant dimension of identity or expression was either held constant or varied. In this experiment, we presented inverted faces for which it is difficult to process configural information. In Experiment 2, 32 participants took part in an experiment using the same procedure as Experiment 1, except that we presented negative images of the faces for which it is difficult to process surface information. In both experiments, facial identity did not affect facial expression recognition. The results suggest that configural information and surface information for facial identity affect facial expression recognition.

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Two experiments examine whether or not somesthetic images of muscular tension influence direction-judgment times within an imaginary space. In the narratives presented to the participants, each protagonist adopted one of four postures: (a) standing, (b) hanging by hands, (c) upside-down on hands, and (d) hanging upside-down by legs. It is expected that postures (b) and (c) would evoke images of unusual tension in the arms and antigravity muscles. The participants in Experiment 1 were requested to adopt an outside perspective towards the protagonists. In Experiment 2, the participants were requested to adopt an inside perspective by identifying themselves with the protagonists. Reaction times were measured for answering questions about the names of items assumed to exist at designated directions from the protagonists. In Experiment 1, there were significant effects for posture (upright/upside-down) and for the interaction between tension, posture, and direction. However, no significant effects, apart from for direction, were observed in Experiment 2. The functional relations between somesthetic images and perspectives within imaginary space are discussed.

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One can read a spatial text to form spatial mental models. Using them, one can perform various spatial inference tasks, such as directional judgments and wayfinding. In such cases, two kinds of perspective are available: a survey perspective and a route perspective (e.g., “A is north of B” vs. “you can see A when you turn left at B”). In two experiments, forty undergraduates read a spatial text with either a survey or a route perspective, and were asked to infer spatial relations in terms of either the same or the other perspective. Subsequently, they performed some mental rotation tasks and perspective-taking tasks, and rated their own sense of direction. There were significant correlations between spatial inference and mental rotation when the participants had read a spatial text with the survey perspective or inferred spatial relations from the survey perspective. The results suggest that spatial mental models for the survey perspective are supported by spatial visualization.

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The present study examines the influence of nostalgic feelings induced by music on the recall of autobiographical memory. Fifty-seven undergraduates were asked to describe autobiographical memories from their upper-grades at elementary school or junior high-school days and the music they listened to during their upper-grades at elementary school. One month later, they were asked to decide whether episodes presented on a screen were from their elementary school or junior high-school days. In one group, nostalgic music was also presented, while in the other groups, either no music or non-nostalgic music was played. The results indicate that the participants who experienced nostalgic feelings in the music group recalled elementary school episodes at shorter reaction times. Moreover, when nostalgia was experienced for the music that was listened to during the upper-grades of elementary school, error rates for memories for junior high school increased.

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