The purpose of this study was to examine whether the constructional disorders in spastic children were caused by disorders in their cognitive aspect.
Tasks of visual analysis-synthesis and construction were given to 31 spastic children aged from 7 to 9 years and 31 normal children of the same ages. In the former task, the subjects were asked to choose 2, 3 or 4 components of simple geometrical figures from among 6 pieces. In the latter task, the subjects were asked to reconstruct the same figures divided into 2 or 4 components.
The results obtained were as follows:
1) Performances of spastic children were significantly inferior to those of normal children in the task of visual analysis-synthesis;
2) The significant differences of performances with ages in the task of visual analysis-synthesis were not found on both normal and spastic children;
3) Performances of spastic children were significantly inferior to those of normal children in the task of construction;
4) The significant differences of performances with ages in the task of construction were not found on both normal and spastic children;
5) All subjects were aware of a disparity between model and figure they had reconstructed, when they had failed to reconstruct;
6) Erroneous constructional patterns peculiar to spastic children were “rotation” and “partial construction”;
7) Both normal and spastic children who acquired the higher level of performances in the task of construction showed the higher performances in the task of visual analysis-synthesis.
The results of 1, 3 and 7 show that spastic children are at low functional level in visual analysissynthesis, as well as in construction, and that there is some functional association between visual analysis-synthesis and construction. Therefore, it seems that these results suggest the possibility that low functional levels of spastic children in visual analysis-synthesis participate in their constructional difficulties. This is supported by the fact that partial construction which is an erroneous pattern exists only in spastic children, because it seems that its pattern comes from defects in ability to visually analyze and synthesize.
On the other hand, the result in 5 shows that spastic children have a certain ability to visually discriminate. Thus, it may be suggested that the constructional disorders of spastic children can be caused by their disorders in a higher function of visual perception (that is, function to visually analyze and synthesize), i. e. their disorders in cognitive aspect.
Concerning the results in 2 and 4, a more dereloped study is proved to be necessary.

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Examining when children form logical capacities to infer causal attributions has been neglected despite the fact that elementary school children were used as subjects in quite a number of studies of causal attributions. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to make clear the development of children's perceptions of the causes of academic achievements.
In the first study, age-related change on information processing relevant to inferring causal attributions was examined. To measure the degree of logical capacities of such information processing, a new test designated as ICA, consisting of 10 items describing hypothetical persons to get successful or failing points on a mathematical examination was made. Subjects were provided with information such as whether the person's point would be higher or lower than the average point of other classmates, whether the examined point would be consistent with that of past examinations and whether the teacher conducting the examination would be different from the one conducting past examinations, etc. Subjects were 34 third graders, 82 fourth graders, 116 fifth graders in an elementary school, 173 junior high school students and 69 university students considered as adults. Upon reading each information, subjects were requested to select the most suitable cause among five given choices: ability, effort, difficulty of test questions, teacher's teaching method and luck. The Main results were as follows.
1. Even lower graders could infer effort more easily than other causes.
2. Inferring ability as the most suitable cause, especially from successful information, was found difficult at every age ; particularly, elementary school children frequently selected effort instead of ability, presumably because they had no formed concept of ability.
3. Most of the elementary school children inferred easily teacher's teaching method as a cause of success, but they did not infer it as a cause of failure.
The second study aimed at examinig the development of attribution-affect linkages. In adults, affective reactions were believed to be maximized in the case of internal causal attributions for success and failure, and minimized in the case of external causal attributions. In order to measure the degree of the linkages, we made a pair comparison test of 12 items designated as CAAF. In each item, subjects were assumed to get a successful or failing result of an examination due to both internal and external causes. Then, subjects were asked to choose in which case they would elicit stronger affects. As in the first study, ability and effort were used as internal causes, and teacher's teaching method, difficulty of test questions and luck as external causes. Furthermore, proud, ashamed. sure of and hopeless were used as affects. The Main results were as follows.
1. Proud or ashamed-effort linkages was stronger than sure of or hopeless-ability linkages at every age, and the difference between these two linkages proved outstanding especially in elementary school children.
2. Generally, the degree of the linkages increased with age, and the most remarkable developmental difference was found between fifth graders and junior high school students. However, no significant difference was shown between junior high school students and university students.

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This article was concerned with Bayesian estimation of parameters in three parameter logistic models. Although a considerable number of estimation procedures based on likelihood (e. g. joint maximum likelihood estimation, marginal likelihood estimation, conditional maximum likelihood estimation) have been developed. only one research (Swaminathan and Gifford. 1980) used Bayesian approach for an estimation of parameters. The proposed method in this study differed from Swaminathan et al's method: (1) our methood was a full realization of the general Bayesian hierarchical model (Lindley and Smith, 1972), that is, our method employed exchangeable prior for all parameters; and (2) our method made use of an efficient quasi-Newton method to obtain the mode of the posterior distribution. We used the mode of joint posterior distribution of the parameters as Baysian estimates. Prior distributions employed at the first stage were as follows; 1) standard normal distribution N (O, 1) for ability parametersθ 2) chi distribution or truncated normal distribution N (μ a, σ 2a) for discrimination parameters a, 3) normal distribution N (μ b, σ b2) for difficulty parameters b, 4) truncated normal distribution N (μ c, σ c2) for pseudo chance-level parameters c. At the second stage, aporopriate distribution were assumed for hyper parameters (e. g. inverse chi-square distribution for σ a2, σ b2 or σ c2).
Two programmes by the name of SIMDATA and BAYIRT were made. SIMDATA provided artificial data based on the random numbers generated according to three parameter logistic models. BAYIRT was to obtain modal estimates of parameters by making use of the result that the modal estimate of θ i. e. θ -value of the mode of the joint distribution corresponded to the mode of the conditional distribution of θ evaluated at the modal estimates of a, b and c, and vice versa. BAYIRT also provided MLE's if desired.
We obtained Bayesian estimates and MLE's by applying BAYIRT to two kinds of artificial data, and another set of MLE's by applying a well-reputed LOGIST programme, whose algorithm was somewhat different from ours. In order to evaluate accuracy of the estimates, we calculated mean squared errors (MSE) of the estimates, and correlation coefficients between estimates and true values.
In terms of MSE, Bayesian estimates were superior to MLE's. In terms of correlation coefficients, Bayesian estimates of parameters θ were superior to MLE's again, and Bayesian estimates of parameters a, b and c proved generally superior to MLE's.(An exception was that LOGIST produces slightly better estimates for parameters a and b. But the estimeters of parameters c were very poor and LOGIST failed to produce good estimates of parameters θ Our overall judgment was that Bayesian estimation procedure could yield better estimates.) Among Bayesian procedures, the estimates with normal distribution as prior of parameters a were found to be generally better than those with chi distribution as prior. Added accuracy of the Bayesian estimates seemed to be due to the collateral information gathered through the use of exchangeable priors.

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According to Nakamura & Finck (1980), motivational trait of children could be made of two kinds of orientation, that is, social orientation and taskorientation. The socially oriented children are willing to participate in socially visible work, whereas taskoriented children are interested in mastery process. Nakayama (1983) developed a questionnaire to measure children's relative intensity of these orientations. In this study, behaviors of the socially oriented and task-oriented children were investigated under a cooperative problem-solving situation.
The questionnaire was administered to 84 children (42 boys and 42 girls) in the fourth grade, and these children were classified into four groups according to their relative intensity of the two orientations. These groups were named HH group (both orientations being high), HL group (social orientation being dominant), LH group (task-orientation being dominant), and LL group (both orientations being low), respectively.
Subjects, divided into pairs of the same sex, were told to build a miniature house with a set of blocks (121 pieces). Their behaviors were recorded on videotape, and analyzed later. The indices were (1) frequency of their behavior categorized into fifteen categories,(2) four composite scores using the behavior category,(3) rate of answers given to subject's or co-worker's question, and (4) number of pieces being set.
The result indicated that each group showed their respective characteristic behaviors.
HH group set more piec es of block, and interacted in a leading and assertive manner with their co-worker. They frequently directed their co-worker and even pointed out their mistakes.
In contrast, LH group set most pieces of all, still giving less information and answering less often to their co-worker. They were also found to take up positive attitude toward LL group but not toward HL group.
The result of HL group lacked clarity, but it was suggested that they would approach their co-worker in a friendly wanner. Nevertheless, they suffered cooperation from their co-worker ; for example, explanation responses from the co-worker were less frequent.
Finally, LL group wasn't found to be inferior or take any other characteristic behavior on any indices. It seemed rather modest in the cooperative working.
These results could be explained at least partly by the pattern of a ralative intensity of orientations. This supported the effectiveness of the two orientations and their relative intensity pattern in describing motivational traits of children and predict their behavior.

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Deci (1975) proposed a “Cognitive Evaluation Theory” after examining the effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic task motivation. The author is inclined to criticize two main points in such theory i. e. the causal relationship between factors and the feeling of competence; while discussing other things, the author at last proposed a “Self Evaluative Motivation (SEM) Model” as a new human motivation theory. The framework of this model was presented in TABLE 1. The features: (1) the factors of cognitive, feeling, motivation, and behavior levels were hypothesized and (2) they were found to have the causal relationship. The purpose of this study was to examine the SEM model using the method of self-report (Experiment 1) and behavior in a free task choice (Experiment 2).
In the first experiment, the self-reports of language reward group and the token reward group were compared. The results indicated that the hypotheses of the SEM model were supported except the factor of a need for self-determination on the motivation level. In the second experiment, the factors of behavior level on the SEM model by the method of free task choice supported the hypotheses of the factors on behavior level. Therefore, the two experiments supported the SEM model. Finally, some problems of the SEM model were discussed.

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Understanding empathetically how another person feels is defined here as the making of his/her “psychological world” being i nfluenced by his/her affect. It is also assuming an inclusion predicting his/her behavior, sympathizing with him/her, and imaging an effective way of interaction with him/ her.
The purposes of this study are (1) to test the hypothesis that recalling one's own experience as similar to another person's in terms of its events and internal responses facilitating an empathic understanding of how he/she feels, and (2) if recalling similar experiences facilitate in fact the empathic understanding, to examine what kind of components are cansing such an effect; one component may be arousing the same valent (positive or negative) emotion, while another retrieving similar concrete individual episodes.
To accomplish these purposes, we set up three conditions: first, Gr. S, subjects were asked to remember their own experiences similar to another person's emotional experience in terms of its and internal responses; second, Gr. E, subjects were asked to remember their own experiences that were not similar to another person's in its events and internal responses, but that aroused the same valent emotion. In the third condition, Gr. G, subjects were not instructed to remember any experiences, but they were taught how to grasp gists of a story. After receiving manipulations, subjects had to Iisten to the story of a child having lost his/her littlebird1; then, subjects had to answer a questionnalre.
In the first experiment, 74 third graders (40 boys and 34 girls) were divided into three groups homogeneous by made according to their intellectual ability by their teachers. Each group received manipulations collectively. The empathic understanding score of Gr. S was significantly higher than that of Gr. E and Gr. G. This result confirmed the hypothesis; still, which component caused the effect conld not be examined, because a considerable number of subjects in Gr. E and Gr. G spontaneously remembered similar experiences.
In the second experiment, 77 third graders (38 boys and 39 girls) were divided into three homogeneous groups on the basis of vocabulary test scores and reading ability scores rated by teachers. They received more stringent manipulations in small groups consisting of five to seven subjects. As a result, the rates of subjects in Gr. E and Gr. G who spontaneously remembered similar experiences showed a decrease of about 30 per cent. The empathic understanding score of Gr. S was significantly higher than that of Gr. E and Gr. G. The result of the first experiment was confirmed. When Gr. S were compared with modified Gr. E and Gr. G where subjects who spontaneously remembered similar experiences were excluded, the empathic understanding of Gr. S scored the highest of all three groups while that of modified Gr. E proved significantly higher than that of Gr. G.
Overall results confirmed the hypothesis that recalling experiences similar to another person's facilitates the empathic understanding of how he/ she feels. Moreover such results suggest that the effect of recalling similar experiences is caused not only by an arousing of the same valent emotion but also by retrieving similar concrete and individual episodes.

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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