All issues
Volume 56 (2008)
- Issue 4 Pages 463-
- Issue 3 Pages 303-
- Issue 2 Pages 149-
- Issue 1 Pages 1-
Volume 56, Issue 4
Displaying 1-10 of 10 articles from this issue
- |<
- <
- 1
- >
- >|
-
SHINICHIRO KAKIHANA2008 Volume 56 Issue 4 Pages 463-473
Published: December 30, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: February 19, 2013
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSThe Japanese language uses a syllabary, rather than an alphabet. However, 21 of the /CjV/s are not represented by a single syllable, but rather by combinations called yo-on combinations, in which /Ci/ is subscripted by /ja/, /ju/, or /jo/ (e. g., =/kja/). The present study aimed to examine whether young Japanese children utilize the blending rule (i. e., /Ci/+/jV/→/CjV/) when learn to read the combinations or learn them by rote. In Study 1, 5- to 6-year-old children took a reading test. The results indicated that most of the children were divided between those who could not read the combinations at all and those who could read more than 14 combinations. This suggests that combinations are mastered in a small amount of time. In Study 2, 5- to 6-year-old children who could read between 11 and 20 combinations were asked to read a pseudo yo-on combination X+(/dju/). The results indicated that 80% of them could read it. In Study 3, 5- to 6-year-old children who could read no yo-on combinations were instructed in the blending rule by showing them some examples. It was found that 60% of them could apply to rule to other items. The present studies suggest that the use of the blending rule plays a central role in learning to read yo-on combinations.View full abstractDownload PDF (1983K) -
Effects of Motivation and ElaborationHIDEAKI SHIMADA, MUNEO KITAJIMA2008 Volume 56 Issue 4 Pages 474-486
Published: December 30, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: February 19, 2013
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSThe present article proposes a cognitive model, called the “two-level model,” which uses 2 variables (increasing motivation and deepening elaboration) to explain the utility of illustrations for promoting the comprehension of text. An existing evacuation manual was used in 2 experiments to test the variables posited by the model. In Experiment 1, participants (adults 18 to 24 years old; 28 men, 6 women) were asked to answer 2 questions relating to their motivation immediately after they glanced for 2s at a page in the manual. The results revealed that the illustrations significantly increased the participants' motivation to comprehend the manual. In Experiment 2, participants (adults 18 to 26 years old; 12 men, 11 women) were asked to take 10 minutes to comprehend the manual. This experiment confirmed that participants gazed at the illustrations and recognized them, and showed that the better that the participants recognized the illustrations, the more of the text associated with the illustrations they recalled, possibly due to deeper elaboration with the illustrations.View full abstractDownload PDF (4017K) -
Focusing on the Distinction Between Self-and Other-OrientationYUMI SUZUKI, KAZUYO KINO2008 Volume 56 Issue 4 Pages 487-497
Published: December 30, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: February 19, 2013
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSIn the context of recent developments in the measurement of individual differences in empathy, the present study proposes an integrated conceptual framework for assessing empathy as multidimensional personality dispositions. Preliminary examination resulted in the development of the Multidimensional Empathy Scale (MES), a 24-item self-report measure of 5 dimensions of empathy, for distinctively assessing self/other-orientation of either cognitive or emotional components. As hypothesized, factor analysis revealed 5 distinct factors:(a) Other-Oriented Emotional Reactivity,(b) Self-Oriented Emotional Reactivity,(c) Emotional Susceptibility,(d) Perspective Taking, and (e) Fantasy. In a series of validation studies in which undergraduate students participated, each of the 5 subscales was shown to display a predictable pattern of relationships with existing scales and other hypothetically related indices. These findings, coupled with the theoretically important relationships existing among the 5 subscales themselves, suggest that the Multidimensional Empathy Scale could prove to be a valuable tool for research in personality and social psychology, and for work in applied settings.View full abstractDownload PDF (1932K) -
YOH FUMINO2008 Volume 56 Issue 4 Pages 498-509
Published: December 30, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: February 19, 2013
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSThe process of environmental learning for sustainability during an ecotour of Chichijima Island in the Ogasawara (Bonin) Islands was investigated through a sociocultural approach that included participant observation and interviews with the 10 participants. Four aspects of environmental learning for sustainability that were identified from the narratives of the participants about their tour experiences were analyzed in relation to the tour activities and to the people met during the ecotour. The results indicated that the 4 aspects were evoked by different tour activities. Moreover, participants' narratives about the sustainability of the local environment were mediated by the “voices” of people engaged in the ecotour that reflected their commitment to the local environment. Their commitment could be perceived through interacting with them. The discussion included the following points:(a) environmental learning for sustainability in the ecotour should not be taken as a unilinear model,(b) the sociocultural approach was useful for understanding the process by which each participant learned about the sustainability of the local environment, and (c) the significance of these findings for the ecotour program.View full abstractDownload PDF (2171K) -
Experimental Designs in Long-Term Everyday Learning SituationsTAKAFUMI TERASAWA, TETSUYA YOSHIDA, NOBUO OHTA2008 Volume 56 Issue 4 Pages 510-522
Published: December 30, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: February 19, 2013
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSThe present research was conducted in the context of the view that implicit memory may be involved in the process of learning general vocabulary. The present authors' research on implicit memory has showed that effects of repeated minimal studying are maintained for extended periods (e. g., Ueda & Terasawa, 2008). The prediction made in the present study was that effects of general learning would continue to accumulate over time. The participants in the learning experiment were 15 high school students. The stimulus materials were over 1, 000 English words. In the experiment, which continued for 8 months, the students studied English vocabulary words that usually take a long time to acquire. A new methodology was used that controlled the learning and test schedule in detail for each word. The students continued to study at home using a computerized program that resembled vocabulary cards. Analysis of the very large amount of reaction data obtained illustrated how the effects of learning were accumulating at unconscious levels. This confirmed the effectiveness of the scheduling method used. The discussion deals with the possibility that vocabulary skills might not increase monotonically.View full abstractDownload PDF (5820K) -
DAICHI HAYAMA, SHIGEO SAKURAI2008 Volume 56 Issue 4 Pages 523-533
Published: December 30, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: February 19, 2013
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSThe purpose of the present study was to examine the process that speakers follow when forming expectations of communicating to listeners that an extreme joke has benign intentions.“Extreme jokes” are defined as jokes that make a listener angry. A pilot study with university students (87 men, 72 women) indicated that extreme jokes could be classified into 4 categories: jokes about ethical or sexual taboos, jokes about the listener's distress, jokes about the listener's appearance or behavior, and jokes about people or objects that the listener likes. University students (106 men, 145 women) were asked to imagine an actual friend when completing a questionnaire about that friend. In relation to the formation process of the speaker's expectations, structural equation modeling (SEM) revealed that the “sense of being accepted by one's friend about the joke” positively influenced the speaker's expectations of communicating the benign intentions of all extreme jokes. The “sense of understanding one's friend's preference for jokes based on positive reactions” only influenced “jokes about sexual taboos” and “jokes about one's friend's friends or lover.” Structural equation modeling also indicated that the cognitions of joking relationships were formed through experience with the listener's laughter following joking behavior.View full abstractDownload PDF (1833K) -
Reading and Writing Instruction on Special MoraeAKIKO KAIZU, MIHO TANUMA, KOYUMI HIRAKI, YUMI ITO, SHARON VAUGHN2008 Volume 56 Issue 4 Pages 534-547
Published: December 30, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: February 19, 2013
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSThe Multilayer Instruction Model (MIM) for general education classes was developed within the framework of a Response-to-Intervention/Instruction (RTI) model. To evaluate the effect of reading and writing instruction on special morae based on the Multilayer Instruction Model, first-grade students (n=208) from 7 general education classes (both successful readers and struggling readers) were given the Multilayer Instruction Model package involving special morae. The control group (790 first-grade students from 31 general education classes) received no specific instruction. Both groups of students were divided into 4 groups according to the percentile rank of their scores on the Criterion Referenced Test-II Mathematics. The Multilayer Instruction Model-Progress Monitoring (MIM-PM), a reading test, and dictation of special morae were conducted. Scores of the students in the 2 groups were compared within their own percentile group. The results indicated that all the percentile groups receiving Multilayer Instruction Model-based instruction performed significantly higher on all the tests concerned with reading and writing skills. The core instruction by those teachers who adopted the Multilayer Instruction Model also improved.View full abstractDownload PDF (2348K) -
MITSUYASU MATSUNUMA2008 Volume 56 Issue 4 Pages 548-559
Published: December 30, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: February 19, 2013
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSThe first purpose of the present study was to investigate whether Japanese learners of English understood the usage of the coordinate conjunction “and” Participants were 78 male tenth-grade students. The results showed that they did not understand it sufficiently. Based on those results, instruction utilizing the theory of educational psychology was proposed to rectify this situation. The proposed instruction was different from that generally given in English classes in Japan in the following ways: (a) The students were presented with English sentences that they could not translate into Japanese correctly unless they understood the usage of coordinate conjunctions,(b) the student received instruction utilizing an organization strategy, and (c) the students were taught how to use underlining for solving problems about the coordinate conjunction. After this intervention, the students came to understand the usage of the coordinate conjunction.View full abstractDownload PDF (2217K) -
Big-Fish-Little-Pond EffectMIKI TOYAMA2008 Volume 56 Issue 4 Pages 560-574
Published: December 30, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: February 19, 2013
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSRecently, researchers studying self-concepts have emphasized the significance of frames of reference. The same academic achievement can lead to disparate academic self-concepts, depending on the frame of reference or standard of comparison that the individuals involved use to evaluate themselves. The present article reviews research done in classroom settings on self-concepts about academics, specifically the “big-fish-little-pond” effect. Marsh (1987) proposed the big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE) in an educational context, in an attempt to encapsulate frame-of-reference effects posited in social comparison theory. Marsh (1987) reported that when the effect of individual achievement was controlled for, the direct effect of school-average ability on academic self-concept was negative. The big-fish-little-pond effect posits that students in academically selective schools or classrooms experience lower academic self-concepts than equally able students in less academically selective schools or classrooms. Based on the present integrative literature review, implications for research on the big-fish-little-pond effect were discussed.View full abstractDownload PDF (2654K) -
Development of a Motivational ModelRYO OKADA2008 Volume 56 Issue 4 Pages 575-588
Published: December 30, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: February 19, 2013
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSThe purposes of the present article were to synthesize findings about friendship and friendship motivation, and to develop a motivational model of the process by which individuals form and maintain close friendships. A review of research on the relations between friendship and adjustment suggested that individual differences in whether or not people form and maintain close friendships have not yet been analyzed. Next, constructs of friendship motivation were examined based on several theoretical viewpoints, including achievement goal theory, social goal research, social cognitive theory, and self-determination theory. Finally, a model was proposed according to which friendship motivation influences the formation and maintenance of close friendships, which, in tern, support adjustment. This model suggests that research about friendship motivation should focus on individual differences in the formation and maintenance of close friendships.View full abstractDownload PDF (4308K)
- |<
- <
- 1
- >
- >|