Many psychological researchers have investigated human thinking. For example, the pragmatic reasoning schemas theory of Cheng and Holyoak (1985) has been one of the leading theories on this topic. According to this theory people reason by using abstract knowledge structures as induced from their ordinary life experiences. Nakamichi (2004, 2006) investigated the validity of this theory by using conditional evaluation tasks with kindergarteners. As a result these researches tended not to support Cheng and Holyoak's theory. In Nakamichi's studies, however, children were not provided with a rationale as part of the task presentation. In contrast the scores of adults were higher when they received a rationale as part of the presentation of Cheng and Holyoak's four-card selection task. The purpose of the present study of three age groups (20 4–6 year olds, 27 7–9 year olds and 26 10–12 year olds) was to investigate the validity of pragmatic reasoning schemas theory from developmental point of view, by using two conditional evaluation tasks with a rationale. The results showed significant differences between the two tasks. Children's performance indicated that they were influenced by their knowledge base and prior experiences rather than by their use of pragmatic reasoning schemas and moreover these findings were also consistent with Piaget's theory. In conclusion, it was suggested that Cheng and Holyoak's theory did not hold for children.

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This study identified 7 subordinate concepts of parenting behaviors (involvement, positive responsivity, monitoring, respect for will, overprotection, inconsistency, and harsh discipline) based on factor structures of existing scales and findings from a meta-analysis. It also developed an inclusive scale to evaluate all of these concepts. Confirmatory factor analysis on a large dataset from 7,208 children (grades 1 to 9) supported a 6-factor model where Involvement and Monitoring were integrated, suggesting that the scale can generally be evaluated, assumed subordinate concepts of parenting. A second-order factor model, wherein these 6 factors were assumed to be explained by 2 second-order factors (Positive Parenting and Negative Parenting), was superior to a model based on expert classifications and the first-order factor model which did not assume second-order factors in terms of fit and parsimony. Consistent with previous findings, Positive Parenting and its subscales correlated with children's prosocial behavior and externalizing problems. Negative Parenting and its subscales correlated with children's internalizing and externalizing problems. These results substantiated the construct validity of the scale.

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This research examined the effects of planning and executive functions on young children's performance in executing a script with and without turning back (returning to a previous state). Young children (N＝94) performed a newly developed “doll task,” two executive function tasks (DCCS and red/blue tasks), a planning task, and a receptive vocabulary task. The doll task required participants to enact a script by changing a doll's clothes and then turn back (return the doll to its previous state) by removing obstructive items. The results showed that on the doll task children's answers were divided into three steps. Specifically, shifting (the ability to switch as related to cognitive flexibility), an executive function factor, had a positive influence on whether young children could turn back. Planning was also an important factor that helped enable children to take the shortest route to execute the script. These findings suggest that shifting and planning play different roles in turning back when children execute scripts in different situations.

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This study studied developmental changes in whether preschool children knew that they did not recognize the emotions of others. It also investigated differences between the “don't know” recognition for specific other people vs. other people in general. Participants were 4-year olds (n＝27), 5-year olds (n＝31) and 6-year olds (n＝33). Children were asked to infer the emotions of one's self, a specific friend, and others in general (a fictitious character) based on equivocal situational cues. A Question Card was used on the tasks to indicate the “don't know” state. The results indicated that there were more “don't know” responses in the “other person” than in the “self” condition, and that six-year olds gave more “don't know” responses than did four-year old children. In addition, more six-year old children gave vocal explanations of their “don't know” responses toward “others in general” than did five-year old children. These results suggest that children from about 5 or 6 years of age may understand they do not recognize the emotions of others, and that there is a qualitative difference between children's “don't know” recognition for specific others vs. other people in general.

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The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of recipients' reactions to the narratives of old adults in the situation of passing on knowledge, wisdom and advice. Participants were 34 male adults (ages 60–82; M＝68.38, SD＝3.53) who were assigned to the Younger condition (recipients were younger adults, ages 22–23) or Same Generation condition (recipients were older adults, ages 68–72). In both conditions, participants were asked to talk to the recipients about experiences from their youth, and about the knowledge and wisdom they had gained. Recipients responded to the participants in either a positive or a neutral way. Narratives fit into three general categories (lesson, recollection, expectation) and into seven more specific sub-categories. In the Younger condition, more participants talked about ‘lessons' than in the Same Generation condition. When the younger recipients reacted positively, the greatest number of participants talked about ‘lessons learned from failure.' This analysis identified the reactions that elicited old adults' altruistic narratives toward younger people.

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Many studies have reported a relationship between recognition of parental child-rearing attitudes and children's attachment, and between attachment and children's social adjustment. This study tested the model that internal working models of attachment mediate the relationship between recognition of parental child-rearing attitudes and social adjustment. A questionnaire research was conducted on 191 undergraduate students. The results revealed that participants who felt their maternal care had been deficient showed highly avoidant attachment, while those who felt overprotected by their mother showed highly anxious attachment. In addition, higher “anxiety” resulted in lower self-esteem (an index of intrapersonal adjustment) and higher “avoidance of being injured” (an index of interpersonal adjustment), while higher “avoidance” resulted in lower self-esteem and higher “surficial relationship” and “avoidance of being injured” (indices of interpersonal adjustment). In sum, these data indicate that negative recognition of parental child-rearing attitudes led to insecure attachment, and that insecure attachment led to social adjustment difficulties.

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The present study compared the use of two methods to compare multiple ideas, in children's mathematical problem solving. Fifth grade children (N＝46) were assigned to one of two method conditions and shown four ideas based on the mean, mode, maximum, and minimum in an intervention problem. Children assigned to Condition 1 found similarities and differences between the four ideas, and children assigned Condition 2 selected the best idea from the four ideas. After the intervention, all the children solved two problems: (A) examining whether they could estimate a number in ways other than the mean when the data contained an outlier, and (B) examining whether they could refer to a multiple representing value without a prompt. Only among children who gave a correct answer to problem A did more children assigned to condition 1 refer to multiple representing values. The analysis of answers when children referred to multiple representative values in problem B showed that there was a marginally significant tendency for children assigned to Condition 1 to respond that the mean is not always the appropriate value, or that the mean is affected by the maximum/minimum.

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This study examined the influence of a close friend's consolation on adolescents and college students. Junior high school students, high school students, and university students read a story in which a person was consoled by a close friend, and they evaluated their affect (in terms of gratitude and repulsion) when being consoled. Three kind of consolation were examined: (1) a close friend encouraged me (encouragement), (2) a close friend showed empathy for me (empathy), and (3) a close friend left from where we were (leaving). The gratitude score for “encouragement” and “empathy” were higher than for “leaving.” In addition, for each kind of consolation there were age-related differences in affect. In the case of “encouragement” and “empathy,” gratitude scores for junior high school and high school students were higher than among university students. However, in the case of “leaving,” the repulsion scores of high school students were higher than for junior high school and university students. These findings suggest that differences in affect are related to developmental changes in expectations for close friends.

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People sometimes know that something is frightening but still try to see it. This study investigated how the psychological wish to see frightening things develops in childhood. We presented 92 children (ages 4, 5, and 6) with a frightening card and a non-frightening card (depicting either an animal or a ghost), and asked them which card they would want to see if they could only see one (a “frightening card selection task”). An appearance/reality distinction task and a mental/real distinction task were also conducted and examined for correlations. The results demonstrated that the behavior of preferring to see the frightening card rather than the non-frightening card increased with age, and such behavior was correlated with recognition of the mental/real distinction. In addition, boys tended to prefer the frightening card more than did the girls.

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This research investigated the developmental relationship between young children's performance on a mark test and on an object-reaching test using video images. Forty-three young children (ages 30–43 months) participated in the experiment. After performing the mark test, children experienced three main conditions of the object-reaching test on which they were asked to find the real target doll only by looking at its televised image. The results showed that a video-elicited correct search for a target which appeared behind the children's back was far more difficult than a search for a mark on their heads. This was especially true of the results obtained for one of the front/back conditions, whereby two stands were presented in front and at the back of the child at the same time and that the target was put only on the front or back. In this condition, many of chilren who passed the mark test made an incorrect search toward the front stand.

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Thirty-nine preschoolers (21 girls and 18 boys, mean age＝5;4) performed a story telling task which was devised for this study, in addition to a false belief task and Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised (PVT-R). Participants were introduced to the story telling task and assigned to either of two groups, a role-play group and a control group. Children in the role-play group were required to act in the role of a teacher, whereas children in the control group were not required to enact any role. In the story telling task, children watched movies with their partners. After watching the movies, one child explained the movie they had watched together to the other child. In the next session, children changed partners to a partner who had not watched the same movie in the preceding session, and were again asked to explain the movie. According to the results, when children explained the movie to a partner who had not watched the same movie, they were more likely to include the particular names that appeared in the story than when they explained it to a partner who had watched the same movie. In addition, children in the role-play group included the particular names from the movie more often than did control group children. These results suggest that preschoolers have the ability to change their behavior according to others' knowledge and according to their own roles.

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This study investigated elementary school students' personal stories which were written as a homework assignment, with a specific focus on children's selves. We considered the child's self not as internal entity but as what emerges from meaning construction by children. The discussion was based on Komatsu's (2010, 2012) theoretical framework of the presentational self, as derived from the theory of semiotic mediation (Valsiner, 2007). Third graders (N＝26) wrote 632 stories over a ten month period, and mainly described their experiences at home and in their neighborhoods, or their trips to various destinations. Twelve stories by four children were selected for a discussion of the emergence of children's selves. The analysis showed that several types of meaning construction which develop from the description of events in sequential order (which is common in children's writings) bring about the reader's awareness of the writer's self as observable in writing. In addition, children's descriptions of others in their stories appear to be important for the clarification of their selves.

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