In drum-set playing，drummers need to maintain accurate and powerful performance.What kind of postural control makes it possible to achieve this? The present study investigated the differences in postural control between expert (N=3) and novice (N = 4) drum-set players.Participants in this study performed an 8-beat rhythm pattern using an electric drum set consisted of hi-hat cymbals,a snare drum,and a bass drum.Tap-pressure data of each instrument and center-of-pressure (CoP) data of the participant were recorded and analyzed. As indices of performance accuracy and intensity，mean and standard deviation (SD) of inter-tap interval (ITI) and mean and coefficient of variation peak tap force applied to each instrument were calculated from the tap-pressure data.A principal component analysis was performed to compute the area of CoP and the circular SD of the principal component angle.The area of CoP and the circular SD were used to evaluate the magnitude of movement and the variance in movement direction, respectively. We found the followings: As for the experts,the SD of ITI and circular SD were small and consistent across the individuals,while the individual differences was relatively large in the peak tap force and area of CoP.The SD of ITI and circular SD of the novices were comparable to those of the experts.The individual differences in the drum-set playing skills seemed to be dependent on musical background of the individuals.

View full abstract

 This article presents the contrastive analysis between reading time and syntactic/semantic categories in Japanese. We overlaid the reading time annotation BCCWJEyeTrack and a syntactic/semantic category information annotation on the ‘Balanced Corpus of Contemporary Written Japanese’. Statistical analysis based on a mixed linear model showed that verbal phrase tends to be shorter reading time than adjective,adverbial phrases or nominal phrases in the syntactic categories. Relation phrases are also shorter than other phrases in the semantic categories. The results suggest that the number of preceding phrases associated with the input facilitates the reading process,leading to the reduction in the gaze duration.

View full abstract

 Humans and animals prefer immediate reward rather than delayed one. In other words, a future reward is felt discounted. The speed of discounting is expressed with the parameter K, which is called discount rate. Problems related to time discounting often occur in everyday life. For example, if we put up with purchasing a product by impulse, we may succeed in savings as a future reward. On the other hand, if we purchase a product by impulse, we will get a satisfaction and an effect of product as an immediate reward at the expense of a future reward. This study focused on embodied cognition for adjusting discount rate easily and solving problems mentioned above. Our experiment revealed that a high-power posture tended to reduce discount rate, which means that savings will be easier to succeed. This occurred only under condition where the reward is small.

View full abstract

 Many studies have suggested that the knowledge of picture books possessed by caregivers predicts their children’s language abilities, reflecting the richness of linguistic inputs in shared book reading. Previous studies have measured knowledge of picture books by asking caregivers to check the items they know from the lists of titles and authors of popular picture books (Title/Author Recognition Test). However, these studies have been conducted only in English-speaking countries. We developed a Japanese version of the Title/Author Recognition Tests to measure the picture book knowledge of Japanese caregivers. In Study 1, Japanese caregivers completed questionnaires on title/author lists that we developed and some measures related to shared book reading. The results revealed significant correlations between recognition scores and measures related to shared book reading. In addition, the score on the title list correlated with the age of the eldest child, which reflects the length of child-rearing experience. In Study 2, we compared the recognition scores of the caregivers with students of a course on childcare worker training and students with little experience of caring child. The results showed that the recognition scores varied reflecting both child-rearing experience and childcare worker training. These results suggested the validity of the recognition lists we developed. Future research is needed to investigate whether the scores on the recognition lists are related to children’s language abilities.

View full abstract

 In an inefficient visual search, when some distractors (old items) temporally precede some others (new items), the old items are excluded from the search. This search benefit is called as preview benefit and has been explained by top-down, intentional inhibition to old items (visual marking). This article described the properties of visual marking in relation to other mechanisms of visual selection (e.g., attentional capture and inhibition of return) and discussed how visual system optimizes the selection to task-relevant object. First, I discussed the mechanisms of the preview benefit, such as visual marking, onset capture, and temporal grouping. Second, I presented how evidences for the inhibitory aspect have been presented by showing studies using probe-detection technic and negative carryover effect. Lastly, I concluded 1) whether top-down, intentional inhibition occurs in preview search and 2) whether such inhibitory marking is contributed to preview benefit in addition to attentional capture.

View full abstract

 Crowdsourcing is a newer labor portal where anonymous workers earn small amount of money for completing Web-based tasks. Recent research investigating human behavior often recruit workers through these platforms to ask them to participate in online survey and experiment. To make it short, the advantage of crowdsourcing is that it enables researchers to collect empirical data at relatively lower economical, human,and temporal costs. However, it is also known that some professional survey takers who repeatedly participated in academic survey tasks are likely to show satisficing —behavior in which workers do not pay attention adequately to research materials. In addition, internet-based research practice has other concerns specific to ethical consideration in online data collection, including presenting proper post-survey debriefing and maintaining ethical level of compensation. Present article outlined a state of the art of internet-based research in the domain of social sciences, indicated both strong and weak point of the online study, and suggested possible future direction in cognitive studies with crowdsourcing.

View full abstract

[in Japanese]

View full abstract

[in Japanese]

View full abstract