The social distancing strategy adopted as a preventive measure during the COVID-19 pandemic has initiated a rapid transition from face-to-face to online communication. It is an established view in cognitive science that embodiment plays an indispensable role in cognitive activities such as communication and it is also a common view that cognitive activities organized through online media are disembodied. If both of these views pertaining to embodiment were true, the transition from face-to-face to online communication would have a negative impact on human relationships. However, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, people seem to be adapting to the switch from offline to online modes of communication and continuing with their social activities. This observation calls for a critical reconsideration of our conception of “embodiment” in communication. In the past discourses on embodied cognition, a certain kind of embodiment may have been privileged whereas the other kinds of it have been ignored. Therefore, in this paper, I offer ideas pertaining to the embodied aspects of online communication from a philosophical perspective as well as with a consideration of other cognitive science domains. Specically, I criticize the view that online cognitive activities are disembodied and propose the following three theses about embodiment: (1) embodiment is negotiable, i. e., it changes in relation to technological conditions; (2) embodiment is pervasive, i. e., it accompanies all types of human cognitive activities; (3) embodiment is diverse, i. e., it depends on the cognitive subject.

This paper examines the characteristics of face-to-face communication and online communication from the viewpoint of group co-creation. First, we review the previous studies of face-to-face communication and that of online communication to discuss the merits and demerits of each communication style. Then we present observational results of our pilot face-to-face co-creation conversation data that shows the collage nature of such interaction: the ideation process often consisted of step-by-step accumulations of fragmentary pieces of information that were incomplete and vague per se, fully utilizing the abundant nonverbal cues and a shared collaboration environment. These findings are expected to contribute to designing matching strategies of communication styles and the characteristics of collaborative tasks.

Past research has demonstrated that common ground is essential for effective verbal and non-verbal communication. In remote communication, establishing incremental common ground—that is, a common ground constructed by the flow of conversation—might be difficult because the speaker cannot sufficiently monitor the listener’s attentional cues. Therefore, in this study, we asked participants to do a route direction task via the remote meeting tool Zoom to investigate the effect of two types of common ground—personal common ground (shared knowledge between speaker and listener) and incremental common ground (shared knowledge through ongoing conversation). We counted the participants’ use of demonstratives (kore, sore, etc.) and gestures (iconic gesture and pointing), as these elements are important for grounding in conversation. Participants produced the greatest number of gestures when both personal and incremental common grounds were firmly established. When a personal common ground was well-established, participants used demonstratives more frequently if the incremental common ground was also firm. The findings suggest that both personal and incremental common grounds influenced participants’ use of gestures and demonstratives, indicating that common ground is essential for online communication.

Mindfulness is a state of recognizing oneself as one is, without value judgments, by deliberately paying attention to one’s own body and mind in the present moment. As the spread of the new coronavirus infection restricts the freedom of daily life and demands a better way to deal with stress, the practice of mindfulness meditation can be one of the ways to lead a healthy life. In this study, we developed a four-week online meditation training course for practicing mindfulness meditation. The training consisted of weekly online meetings and daily meditation practice. The meetings consisted of a review of the previous week and a lecture on the next week’s content. Participants were able to conduct their own daily meditation using the audio instructions of the online application on their smartphones. To test the effectiveness of this training course, 61 participants were divided into two groups: a meditation group and a control group. The meditation group participated in the online meditation training course, while the control group participated in an online training course where they listened to classical music instead of meditating. Participants completed a self-assessment questionnaire throughout the experiment. The results showed that the meditation group had a significant increase in the score of mindfulness skill (FFMQ) and a significant decrease in the score of depressive tendency (BDI-II). Therefore, it was suggested that the online meditation training course developed in this study was effective in increasing the degree of mindfulness and reducing depressive mood.

We conducted an undergraduate course that incorporates “transaction between questioning by students and answering by teachers (TQA).” The question levels were scored by evaluating whether they were based on the course content and whether the students added their own hypotheses or predictions. Final papers were also scored by considering how the students could formulate a logical, consistent research plan based on the course content. Latent curve analyses revealed that the slope of the cumulative question scores predicted the report scores (B = 1:38 and 1.78, non-standardized solution) in both 2020 (178 students) and 2021 (160 students). By contrast, the ability to think and express high-level questions at the beginning of the course (i.e., intercept) had no predictive power. The results suggest that repeated high-level questioning during class can predict critical thinking at the end of class. Qualitative analyses of students' reflections on the impact of class participation showed that they found questioning effective in that they experienced a more in-depth understanding of the course content. At the same time, asking questions was not always easy for them. Students also recognized that TQA provided exciting opportunities, opening up new ways of thinking about the same content, even when studying independently. The findings of this study are discussed in terms of factors that inhibit questioning during class. Introducing video-streaming lectures would relax time constraints and the psychological burden.

It is crucial to prevent the destruction of value co-creation in school educational services during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Psycho-educational support service, which are a part of educational services, aims to resolve problems as well as promote students' growth through guidance. During the pandemic, an online peer support program was launched in the author's university department. The students of the university took initiative to operate the program. The study investigated the development of students who were service-providers in the peer support service. Data were collected using two methods: reflective essay collection and focus group interviews. In reflective essay collection, the students were asked to reflect on the activity based on two types of value co-creation: between faculty and the students as a part of psycho-educational support service and between those who participated in the activity and the students who provided the peer support service. In the focus group interview, the students were asked to reflect the activity while considering their development and notice. The data were analyzed qualitatively using the Steps for Coding and Theorization (SCAT) method. The results showed that receiving psycho-educational support service and providing peer support service led to a psychological sense of community, as well as of obligation and responsibility, by verbal persuasion about fulfillment of the members' needs. It also led to development and empowerment in terms of identity capital.

This study aimed to clarify the changes in human life brought about by digital transformation (DX) through microscopic analysis. The data for this study were rehearsal data from a corporate training program. This program was originally conducted as a field trip to disaster-affected areas but was re-developed as an online trip due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. We focused on the fact that the program provider repeatedly stated that “we want you to come to the field actually” to the program receivers in the opinion-exchange session. We could see these statements as certain procedures for providing accounts about the “lack of sufficiency” of online activity used by providers. In other words, regarding field as an idealized place, the providers dealt with the lack of sufficiency of online activity that the program receivers might feel. In this study, we call the field conceptualized by participants as “field as the home base”. Therefore, the concept emerges retrospectively against lack of sufficiency through interaction between participants. It is used in order to compensate for the lack of sufficiency of online activities. There are many benefits to the changes that DX has brought about in human life, but there are also negative reactions such as avoidance of DX and psychological barriers to it. The field as the home base can become a source of these negative reactions. If we are to further promote DX, it will be important to pay closer attention to the specifics of changes in human life.

In conventional face-to-face conferences, the three activities, “research presentation,” “discovery and exchange of information,” and “friendship among researchers,” have been regarded as valuable opportunities. In promoting the DX (digital transformation) toward online conferences, while still emphasizing these three activities, it will be necessary to understand the relationship among the “body,” the “usual,” and the “conference venue,” and then design an online environment considering in “body” and “device” constrains imposed on the participants. In this report, we introduce three perspectives on the design of online conferences: “deliberate,” “excitingly,” and “lively,” which have been considered by the Organizing Committee of the 38th Annual meeting of Japanese Cognitive Science Society. We tried to successfully “deliberate” over the procedure used for conference participation, to be “exciting” in meeting the expectations and surprises of the conference, and to support a “lively” venue for communication among participants. We will continue to develop strengths and possibilities of the DX conference until we can say that it has truly become generic.

The author discusses empirical and theoretical issues related to Karwowski and colleagues’ creative behavior as agentic action (CBAA) model. For validating the model, the suitability of scales used as variables needs to be assessed. Additionally, the subjects and types of creativity that the model attempts to explain need to be clarified. Moreover, the paradox of self-efficacy and other motivational factors than creative confidence, such as intrinsic motivation, prosociality, and pursuing one’s meaning, related with purpose and spirituality need to be considered.

In this article, we discuss Karwowski's concept of creative personal identity and provide research recommendations from the viewpoint of Erikson's identity theory. The most attractive element of the creative personal identity concept is that it plays an important role in translating one's potential creativity into creative behaviors. That is, like Erikson's identity, it acts as a compass guiding a person's daily activities and life toward a better direction. Although this concept embraces appealing elements, it also has issues to be further investigated. The greatest is how one develops a creative personal identity. In the development of Erikson's identity, it is not only self-effort, but also a collaboration with others, mutual coordination, and mutual recognition that are indispensable. Given this, is it possible to collaborate with others while developing a creative personal identity, and if so, might collaboration be necessary? It is hoped that future research will clarify the process of collaborating with others in the development of a creative personal identity.

A critical self-examination of the author's comments delivered at JCSS 2021 OS9 on the creative self. The central message of the comment is that researchers need to be aware of the fact that creativity is not unconditionally desirable, and that the concept of creativeness is applied to various entities such as products, individuals, work processes, etc., bridging the conceptual worlds of experts and non-experts, respectively.

This commentary examines some studies of creative behavior by Karwowski (Karwowski, 2021) based on the creative behavior as agentic action (CBAA) model. We discuss how creativity can be meaningful to a society based on some considerations of the significance of small creativity in everyday lives (little-c) and the importance of the scope of a creative behavior, defined as the extent to which the person recognizes its consequences. We propose a simple extension of CBAA model incorporating the scope of a creative behavior and its values in broader social contexts.

This article is a commentary on the creative self-beliefs, which Maciej Karwowski and his colleagues have researched. I discuss the creative self-beliefs of an artist and the connection between an artist's creative self-beliefs and ours.

In this article, we discuss three issues highlighted by the five commentaries. These are: why creative self-beliefs is essential in encouraging creativity, how we should define and measure creativity, and the effects social context has on creativity. Based on the discussion, we also suggest future directions in creativity research.

The diversity of human bodies is often omitted by academic research as well as by the social system because it is more likely to focus on deducing general theories. This paper takes the visually impaired for instance to spell out the points that must be paid attention to cover the diversity of their (in)visuality. We tend to think that the body of someone without impairment is a complete whole and that the body with impairment is an uncomplete one from which some kind of function is somehow missing. However, one's own body is something that generates a unique meaning, in terms of its relationship to the surrounding environment. The uniqueness of each body cannot be expressed by any numerical indicator. The person-centered approach that does not separate the impairment from the living body is necessary.

Phantom-limb pain (PLP) is commonly classified as neuropathic pain following amputation, brachial plexus avulsion injury or spinal cord injury, and is often resistant to pharmacotherapy and traditional rehabilitation techniques. In the present review, we explained not only the mechanism of phantom limb pain and rehabilitation techniques but also the subjective experience of tojisha with phantom limb pain. We believe that tojisha’s experiences lead to future studies of phantom limb pain.

Since childhood, I have been unable to share my experiences with those around me and lived in chaos. With a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, I recognized myself as a member of a minority group and gained connections to minority communities. On the other hand, I also experienced the unfairness of being overly blamed for miscommunication. Therefore, based on the social model of disability, I conducted tojisha-kenkyu in order to explore my characteristics and the conditions of the environment that suited those characteristics. As a result, I was able to gain knowledge about my characteristics behind communication difficulties and how to guarantee informational accommodation appropriate for these characteristics. Although this knowledge improved my current wellbeing, the traumatic memory of the past remained afterwards, and I was unable to integrate my present and past selves. However, the knowledge from others who knew the past gave meaning to such memories and enabled me to construct an integrated self-narrative. The above process of tojisha-kenkyu brought about knowledge that made it possible to connect with the body, the world, and the past, but this knowledge was at the individual level. It was only by acquiring historical knowledge that enabled me to situate my own tojisha-kenkyu in the genealogy of the knowledge of tojishas, which I received from my past peers, updated and transferred to my subsequent peers, that I was able to challenge the exclusive society.