The purpose of this study is to explain the thematic effect in Wason's selection task by a hypothetical situation model theory. Most of the previous theories explain the effect by the application of prestored knowledge, so they may be called solution retrieval model. But they can explain neither the effect, nor the special character of selection task as a solution discovery task. The hypothetical situation model theory emphasizes the role of discovery in solving selection task; it explains thematic effect by the structure of hypothetical situation models, which is constructed by the interaction between the contents of task and background knowledge. The experiment compares university students' reasoning performance in two thematic problems, a stamp problem and a price-card problem, with or without any rationale concerning rules. The results show that the stamp problem is easier, but that no effect of rationales, no difference in q card selection, and different pattern of transfer effect are seen. These results are incompatible with solution retrieval models such as schema theory, but may be predictable from the hypothetical situation model theory.

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There are an indefinite number of logically possible hypotheses about the meaning of a word. Since children broaden their vocabulary so rapidly, they must be constrained to give priority to some hypotheses. ‘Mutual exclusivity’ (children assume that an object has only one label) was proposed as one of such constraints by Markman (1987). If children have such a constraint, a novel label for a familiar obje ct should be rejected, even when the context shows it clear that the label refers to the familiar object. Study 1 and 2 tested this hypothesis with 3-year-olds and confirmed it. Study 3 and 4 showed that children, as they grew up, came to take more of the context where the label was used than mutual exclusivity, and as a result of such change in strategy to interpret novel words, 5-year-olds came to accept the second label for a familiar object when it was presented in an appropriate context.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of learners' existing mis -rules (ru) on area learning. It was inferred that schoolchildren had a ru that if the perimeter of a figure is longer, the area of it is larger (perimeter-ru). The relations between the presence of this ru and the existent education of area were researched. The results were: (i) More than fifty percent of the children in each grade judged areal size in terms of the ru.(ii) The percentage of the ru-response rapidly increased after area learning. These results suggested that (a) the present education of area could not reconstruct the perimeter-ru to the correct rule (ru), and (b) rather, might strengthen misjudgments caused by the perimeter-ru.

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The purpose of this study was to investingate Personal ATI Theory on preschool teachers. Personal ATI Theory is a personal belief system on how to treat children according to their aptitudes. This system is assumed to influence teachers' caring activities. 347 teachers were asked to read three cases of children with minor behavioral problems and to answer the questionnaires on their teaching methods in each case. The item mean scores and the factor analysis revealed that teaching methods varied according to the cases and teachers' caring experiences. The findings were discussed with reference to Personal ATI Theory.

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In the present study, gender body-image was defined as the cognition of masculinity or femininity of one's own body. The purpose of this study was to investigate the structure of gender body-image and its relationship with body-satisfaction and gender role orientation in adolescence, based on the above definition. 101 male and 123 female undergraduates completed the questionnaire. As a result, it was first found that most of the body regions were representable in both male masculinity and female femininity. Secondly, it was shown that gender body-image reflected physical sex differences and stereotypical of gender role. Thirdly, various sex differences obtained suggested that the structure of gender body-image was different between the two sexes. Fourth, it was found that gender body-image had a highly positive relationship with body-satisfaction. Finally, in females, gender body-image had a positive relationship with both masculine and feminine role orientation, but in males, had a positive relationship only with the masculine role orientation.

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The purpose of the present study was to investigate the preschoolers' understanding of an other's cognitive (epistemic) content. In Exp. 1, fifty subjects (3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds) were asked about a story character's false belief and were required to justify such a cognitive state. In Exp. 2, thirty-eight subjects (4-, and 5-year-olds) had their understanding of a sudden change of other's cognitive content tested. Consequently, the following levels of understanding of a false belief were found. In Level 1; Subjects could understand other's false belief but were not able to be aware of the causal relation between other's perception/action and his/her knowledge. In Level 2; Subjects were able to be aware of such a ralation. And the latter could understand the change of other's cognitive content as well.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the career development process. The item categories of the career development and the psycho-social development were administered to 481 junior high school students, 662 senior high school students and 256 university students. A factor analysis of 50 items on the career development indicated 3 factors of career development. Then, the signs of the factor scores were combined to classify the subjects into 8 types of career development: Type A-Work commitment (high intention of self-realization = H), Type B-Role exploration (H), Type C-Evaluation criteria acceptance (H), Type D-Work alienation (H), Type E-Work commitment (low intention of self-realization = L), Type F-Role exploration (L), Type G-Evaluation criteria acceptance (L), Type H-Work alienation (L). The main fiindings were as follows: (1) The career development types could be interpreted by the psycho-social development factors; (2) Changes in career development patterns corresponded to age; (3) Career development proceeded in the order to Type A, B, E, F, C, D, G, and H.

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We examined the effects of interpersonal functions given to and received from another upon satisfaction with the relationships. One hundred and sixty female junior college students rated the amount of instrumental and emotional functions given toand received from their father, their mother, and their best friend. They rated also the satisfaction with the relationships. As results of the analysis, it was indicated that satisfaction with the relationships was positively correlated not only with the interpersonal functions received from the other but also with the interpersonal functions given to the other. However, the patterns of these correlations were varied as the types of the relationships. On the basis of these results, some fundamental problems of the interpersonal relatinships were discussed, and the importance of the functional meaning of the interaction partner was examined.

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In a Japanese agent-patient-action type sentence, an agent is marked by the nominative particle GA and a patient is marked by the accusative particle 0. The aim of the present study was to compare the cue strength of 0 with that of GA in sentence comprehension of agent-patient relations and to find their developmental process. Because 0 is semantically simpler than GA, it was hypothesized that (1) the cue strength of 0 was stronger than that of GA and (2) the acquisition period of the former particle was earlier than that of the latter in Japanese children. Eighty Japanese native speakers of 5, 6, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15 years old and adults were instructed to listen to simple sentences and to judge which noun was the agent in an act out method by using miniature animals and objects. Stimulus sentences consisted of 27 sentence types composed of word order×particle×noun animacy combinations. The results were compared with Ito and Tahara (1986). The hypotheses were both verified.

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When parents scold their children, they give various types of reproaching utterances to them.The purposes of this study were to find out the types of scolding utterances and to see whether same types of information were contained in them. At least1670scolding utterances of parents were collected from306fifth and sixth graders and 302 undergraduates, and were classified into 14 categories. Direct utterances such as ‘do this’ or ‘do not do that’ made about one third of the total data while the others were made of many types of indirect utterances (Study1).The analysis of the verbal reactions of the recipients showed that reactions depended on types of scolding utterances (Study2).It was suggested that vaious types of scolding utterances contained different types of information.

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The purpose of this study was (a) to develop the following three scales, i.e., a selfefficacy scale, an outcome expectancy scale, and an outcome value scale for kyosyu (hand raising in educational setting), and (b) to examine the relationships between the score of each scale and kyosyu behavior measured by peer nomination and teacher's rating. Those scales were administerd to 239 third, 267 fourth, 286 fifth, and 259 sixth graders. Each scale had high reliability, and these scales were highly correlated. The partial correlation coefficients among these scales, peer nomination, and teacher's rating controlling the effects of sex, grade, sociality (popularity), and achievement were all significantly positive. Self-efficacy was found to be a primary predictor of kyosyu by stepwise regression analysis.

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This study was conducted in order to analyze the nature of scribbles done by 1-and 2-year-old children on their picture books and to investigate the drawing activity during the so-called scribbling stage. Scribbles data were analyzed on the position and the mode of scribbles marked in the picture stimuli. The results were as follows.(1) Scribbles were frequently given on the main picture stimuli of the books (person, animal and vehicle).(2) The picture stimuli of person and animal were marked on the faces, especially eyes and mouths by the 2-year-old.(3) The mode of scribbles were divided into 5 types of line drawing (random, concentrating, enclosing, painting and tracing). Many random scribbles were found ; as they were few for the other 4 types, it was suggested that their types had connections with the figurative aspects of picture stimuli.(4) Developmentally, scribbles changed from obscure and rough responses to definite and differentiative ones. These results showed the representative nature of scribbles and the beginning of drawing activity with them.

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Attention of 43 healthy and 4 hyperactive preschool children was studied by electrodermal activity on 10 passive and active tone listening tasks. On the passive task from Trial 1 to Trial 10, habituation of skin conductance response (SCR) amplitude occurred in the healthy and 2 of 4 hyperactive subjects. The healthy younger subjects, however, should have exhibited significantly greater habituation than the healthy older subjects. The younger children were believed to have a lower attention span. In the remaining 2 hyperactive subjects no SCR was observed on Trials 2 to 10. Habituation of SCR amplitude did not occur during the active task in the healthy and 1 of the hyperactive subjects. The healthy children seemed to have paid more attention during the active task than during the passive task. In 1 of the hyperactive subjects no SCR was observed during the 10 Trials. For the remaining 2 hyperactive subjects, during Trials 1 to 10, a decrease was observed, but none for the healthy subjects. Hyperactive children were believed to have shorter attention spans.

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