The intelligibility of Japanese vowel was investigated in normal-hearing listeners using stimuli whose spectra were intended to mimic the effects of reduced frequency selectivity. The vowel stimuli used in the experiment were constructed with systematically flattened spectra in the region of the first-third formants. Vowel identification tests were conducted in both noise-free and noise-added conditions. The difference between these two conditions was examined as a function of the formant bandwidths. Noise condition caused statistically significant reductions of mean percent correct identification as compared to quiet condition with broadening formant bandwidths. In quiet condition, the vowels /a/ and /o/ evidenced the poorer discrimination, compared to the vowels /i/, /e/, and /u/. Less frequency separation of the first and second formants seemed largely responsible for the reduced identification in these vowels. In noise condition, vowels were primarily confused where the proximity of first formant is concerned. Vowel errors were similar to those of the listeners demonstrating high-frequency hearing loss. These results suggested that the ear's abnormal selectivity in frequency may be of major influence on the vowel identification in the presence of interfering sounds.

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In the present study, with the view of measuring the handworking ability of schizophrenes, handwork tests using “Origami” were devised and carried out. Physical symptoms such as slow motion of patients can be noted for this disease. Then, in the present study, diversified studies were made on their physical strength, psychological properties, psychic symptoms and handworking ability test. The test subjects proved to be very inferior in muscle power, quickness and handworking ability. Some correlation was suggested between the quality of their performances and the degree of their psychic symptoms. This suggests the responsibility of the restraint of their active and spontaneous actions concomitant with this disease as well as strong regulation of their working ability. The handwork test devised in the present study, which is simple to carry out and judge and yet economical, was suggested to be an excellent approach to the judgment of their handworking ability.

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Kodama reported on the effects of meaningfulness of a command name on the learning command language and its performance. This paper discusses the importance of the position of the verb in a command string, and the advantages of the mother language over an English-like command language.
A personal computer game was created in which a command language controls a robot. Two command sets were prepared for the experiment; prefix notation command set E is in Japanese and has verbs on top of each command string, and command set F in English version of E. Ten Japanese novices played the game repeatedly, and the game program recorded their typing data throughout the game.
As for the results, the mean leading time needed to start inputting a command string (latency) was significantly shorter for prefix notation command set E and command set F than for postfix notation command set A, which was discussed in Kodama. The processing time for E and F was also much shorter than for A, and there was not a significant difference between sets E and F. Although in terms of typing rate set F (alphabet) was significantly faster than set E (hiragana-characters), in terms of the mean time needed to input a command string (duration) there was also not a significant difference between sets E and F.

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Terminated stay resident program of a personal computer (NEC PC 9801) has been developed as a software tool designed to help or emulate keyboard input for persons with handicaps. The program has been evaluated by 14 persons with severe physical disabilities. The users, who are incapable of directly accessing a standard keyboard, can operate the personal computer through available simple switch and can use regular commercial software without any software modifications. This paper provides initial information about the organization and capability of the program.

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