Many studies suggest 3D objects are represented by sets of 2D views in recent years. However, it is not clear what features the views have. In this study, we show that 3D objects are represented in brain by a few canonical views spontaneously selected. It is also shown that canonical views correspond to ‘generic view’ which is robust against transformation by rotation in depth, by analyzing similarities in each view of objects with multi-dimensional scaling. Furthermore, comparing configuration of views in principal component space with the one in similarity space, we propose that it is imperfect to explain human recognition space with only principal component space because symmetry of shape is greatly related to object recognition.

View full abstract

Singing is a common form of vocal communication between caregivers and infants throughout the world. How listening to songs relates to language development has however not yet been studied. The present study investigated the ability of 8-month-old infants to segment and memorize words in songs using Head-turn preference procedure. The 24 Japanese infants were separated into two groups, one of which was familiarized with “ahiru (duck)” and “ichigo (strawberry)”, and the other with “koyagi (kid)” and “banana (banana)”. Infants listened to two songs containing familiar words for more than 50sec and were tested with four spoken independent words: two familiar and two unfamiliar words. Each infant underwent 12 trials. The infants listened to familiar words significantly longer than to unfamiliar words. 18 of the 24 infants showed a distinct preference for familiar words. These results suggest that 8-month-old infants are able to process and store sound pattern of words in songs for a short period.

View full abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of the regret factor on risk-taking behavior and to show the relationship between affective factors, cognitive factors, personality factors, and risk-taking behavior. In the experiment, undergraduates (N = 60) completed a questionnaire on affective factors (regret and anxiety), cognitive factors (own perceived competence, risk perception, risk controllability, and perceived cost), personality factors (Five Factor Model: neuroticism, openness, extroversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness), and risk-taking behavior in personal gain-loss situations (skiing, gambling, and an entrance examination), personal loss situations (jaywalking, prevention against theft, and credential acquisition for protection against unemployment), and social situations (approval of the construction of a nuclear power station and disaster plans for earthquakes). Results of covariance structure analysis showed that personality factors influenced risk-taking behavior by the path of affective factors and the path of cognitive factors: (a) neuroticism affects risk-taking behavior mediated by anxiety and regret, (b) openness affects risk-taking behavior mediated by own perceived competence and risk perception. In all situations, the regret factor influenced directly risk-taking behavior and the anxiety factor influenced risk-taking behavior mediated by the regret factor. These facts indicate that the affective factors affect decision making in all risk-taking situations.

View full abstract

We investigated the processes of mental constraints relaxation as a key factor for gaining insight, using a discovery task. In our experiments, we set up four kinds of experimental conditions. First, we introduced three conditions while controlling mental bloking factors: (1) a condition in which subjects searched an incorrect hypothesis space, (2) subjects clung a blocking hypothesis in an incorrect hypothesis space, and (3) subjects gained no constraints as above. Second, based on feedback factors, the condition (2) was subdivided into the following two cases: (2a) a case in which a prediction from a subject's hypothesis missed largely from an experimental result, and (2b) a case in which a prediction and an experimental result were separating gradually. The experimental results showed that finding the target was disturbed more remarkably as stronger blocking factors were given. Especially, when subjects who formed an invalid blocking hypothesis were given only gradual feedback, the subjects' performance of finding the target extremely declined.

View full abstract

We presented two cases of acalculia with cerebral infarction. They showed specific impairment in Arabic system of notation. Writing and reading of each digit was intact. One of them complained feeling of alienation from number. We tried the representation form of natural numbers in human brain based on the topology and investigated the conception of numbers. The former is one of mathematical approach to the human brain function.
From the topological point of view, an arbitrary natural number could be considered as a Cartesian product composed by two kinds of sets. The one corresponds to the digits and the other to the locations (place value). Both sets are supposed to be totally ordered sets. Two kinds of projections could also be supposed. The one projects to the digits and the other to the locations. Thus an arbitrary natural number could be represented as a graph on a plane. The symptoms of our presented two cases suggest that the representation form of natural numbers as Cartesian product is realized in human brain, although precise neuronal network remains unknown.
From the symptoms of our presented two cases, conception of natural numbers and their representation form in human brain considered to be not equal. In fact, both cases partially preserved the conception of numbers. Although number is very abstract object in mathematics, it is always together with some unit in everyday life. Natural number could be one of the attributions of each concrete object. Many previous reports of acalculia suggest that the conception of natural number is supported by diffusely distributed neural network in human brain.
We hope that the mathematical approach and formulation to the symptoms of brain damaged patients would contribute to development of neuropsychology and cognitive science.

View full abstract

We pay attention to the film structure itself especially from the perspective of “the rhetoric of the film.” Rhetoric of a film is generally intended to tell a story. However, films are not always made to tell stories, but to create an audiovisual situation. Previous studies on the cognition of film showed that a viewer tends to relate to a film in terms of its story. A requirement to understand a story may be a constraint on the cognition of film. How then does a viewer appropriately interact with a film when its rhetoric is not intended to tell a story? Experimental results show that to relate to rhetoric of a film whose purpose is to create an audiovisual situation, a viewer should intentionally takes a viewpoint other than trying to understand a story. If a viewer takes only a viewpoint to understand a story, he/she cannot detach each shot from the connection of the story.

View full abstract