Infants and their mothers (16 pairs) were videotaped monthly between 1 and 7 months of age. To identify the most effective control parameter in transition from horizontal to vertical holding, each baby was examined in terms of physical, postural and other behavioral development from a dynamic systems approach. Infants' ability to keep their heads upright was related to the transition from horizontal to vertical holding, but the infants' resistance to horizontal holding was the most effective control parameter. To futher examine the transitional process between horizontal to vertical holding, a qualitative analysis was conducted on interviews with mothers. The results showed that horizontal holding shifted to vertical holding through 2 processes. First, as the infant's condition changed, the mothers changed their ways of holding through mother-infant intersubjectivity, so that the holding style converged on vertical holding, which the infants did not resist. Second, infants' ability to keep their heads upright afforded vertical holding of the mother. The findings indicate that holding results from a self-organized process of mother-infant interaction.

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This study analyzed owner pet interactions and examined how owners think about their pets' internal states. Dog owners (N=22) and cat owners (N=19) videotaped their pets in daily life and answered questions about pets' "mind." The videos showed that owners' utterances were most frequently intended to attract the pets' attention, and in many cases they asked pets about their internal states or situations. When they talked about internal states, owners of both dogs and cats most frequently mentioned their pets' emotions. There were also some differences in interactions with pets, comparing owners of dogs and cats. For example, cat owners were more likely to notice expressions on pets' faces. There were no differences between dog and cat owners in response to questions about their understanding of internal states. Finally, the characteristics of owner pet interactions suggested that there may also be some similarities between adults' nurturance toward pets and pre-verbal human infants.

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In Study 1, 4-, 6-, and 8-year olds answered questions about 2 event-related fantasy characters (Santa Claus and a monster) and two popular television characters (Oh-Ranger and Sailor Moon). Children responded to questions by relating their experiences with fantasy characters and judging whether the characters were real or not. These questions examined children's reasoning about reality status. In Study 2, parents of the children answered questions about their knowledge of children's experiences and beliefs concerning fantasy characters. The main findings were as follows. Judgment of "real" or "not real" changed from non-differentiated to differentiated between 4 and 6 years of age. In addition, children's beliefs about the reality status of fantasy characters shifted from belief to disbelief between ages 6 and 8.

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The focus of this study was on how preschool children understand representation of thought bubbles, such as those often appearing in comic strips. Children aged 3, 4, 5, and 6 (N 96) participated in three experimental tasks. On the knowledge task, it appeared that children's awareness of thought and thought bubbles began during the preschool years. On the comprehension task, children between the ages of 3 and 5 explained characters' thinking more easily with increasing age. Three- and 4-year-olds had greater ease explaining the actions than the thoughts of characters. Children's ability to explain thoughts reached the same level as their ability to explain actions by the age of 5, and instruction on mental descriptions was effective for 3- and 4-year-olds in inducing their ability to explain thoughts. On the production task, the effect of instruction was not found when children were asked using a thought bubble about a character's thinking and then about their own mental states. On the production task, expressing one's own desires or preferences was easier for children than inferring the character's thinking. Finally, the fact that a substantial number of 5- and 6-year-olds answered "thinking nothing" in the interpretation of blank bubbles seems to indicate that the framework for understanding the human mind changes qualitatively between the ages of 4 and 5.

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The present research examined ego development among Japanese adolescents, in relation to Loevinger's theory. A 36-item Japanese version of the Washington University Sentence Completion Test ("WUSCT"), constructed based on the English language version, was administered to 5th through 12th graders (N=799). Each participant's Total Protocol Rating ("TPR") was calculated by ogive rules to characterize individuals as either Impulsive (E2 ; I-2), Self-Protective (E3 ; Delta), Self-Protective/Conformist (Delta/E3), Conformist (E4 ; I-3), Self-Aware (E5 ; I-3/4). Higher grade level in school was associated with a higher level of ego development. There were Self-Aware girls from 8th grade and older, whereas Self-Aware boys appeared from the 10th grade and up. Each participant's TPR was also calculated as an Item Sum Score (ISS) for the 36 items, and this TPR increased in the higher grade levels. Lastly, girls' ISS score were higher than boys' scores, across all grade levels. The results suggest that there is an increase in ego development level with higher grade level, and also a gender difference in ego development among Japanese adolescents.

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This study examined the process of collaborative decision-making among young children. Twenty-four 5 year-olds and 58 6 year-olds took part in an experiment. They entered a model rocket in pairs and exited the model when they chose to leave or when an experimenter came for them after 15 minutes. Analyses concerned discourse and behavior which displayed the intent to exit the rocket or remain in it. About 60 percent of the children changed their intentions at least once. Changing opinions immediately, or changing one's mind in agreement with a peer, accounted for 24% of all changes in opinion. The results revealed that children change their minds easily and that children's collaborative decisions were made tentatively during interactions. A fluctuation of intentions appeared in children's transition from inter-mental functioning to intra-mental functioning. Finally, the tentative appearance of double-voice discourse indicates the possibility of inner dialogue and the beginning of intra-mental functioning.

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The present study addressed the following three questions : (1) Do young children spontaneously predict the future behavior of others people and infer personality traits based on their behavior? (2) How do young children infer personality traits? and (3) How do young children judge personality traits when a person's behavior is inconsistent? Participants (3- to 6-year olds) watched a series of animated TV cartoons in pairs. Their conversations while watching TV were analyzed, and they answered questions about the cartoon characters. There were three main findings : (1) Children spontaneously predicted the future behavior of characters and inferred their personality traits ; (2) Children generalized about personality traits based on specific observed behavior ; and (3) Children used several rules to judge the personality traits for a character whose behavior was inconsistent, and the rule they employed depended on the situation.

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