The present study examined effects of written counterarguments and refutations on evaluations of written arguments, focusing on variability across themes and evaluation methods. In Study 1, undergraduate students (N=41) evaluated 3 different written arguments: (a) one-sided arguments without counterarguments or refutations, (b) both-sides arguments without refutations, and (c) both-sides arguments with counterarguments and refutations. The results from mixed-effect models showed that the students evaluated the persuasiveness of both-sides arguments with counterarguments and refutations higher than the other 2 arguments, and the persuasiveness of both-sides arguments without refutations lower than the other 2 arguments. In Study 2, undergraduate students (N=123)evaluated arguments in 3 different conditions: (a') one-sided condition: the students evaluated one-sided arguments, (b') counterarguments condition: the students evaluated both-sides arguments without refutations, and (c') counterarguments and refutations condition: the students evaluated both-sides arguments with counterarguments and refutations. The results from mixed-effect models showed no significant effect of argument structure. However, the effects of argument structure differed across the variety of themes in the arguments. In other words, in some themes, there were no significant effects of argument structure, whereas in others, the effects of argument structure could be either positive or negative. These findings suggest that the effects of counterarguments and refutations may differ, depending on the theme and evaluation method.

  The present study examined effects of class size in elementary and middle school on students' academic achievement and emotional and behavioral problems, while addressing some important methodological issues. Adoption of a natural experimental design in which class size was determined only by enrollment by grade prevented confounding bias and reverse causation due to the schools' discretion. The hierarchical nature of the data was modeled using a cross-classified model, a kind of multilevel model. The elimination of between-school variation by school-mean centering enabled a test of the pure within-school effects of class size, and avoided confounding by school enrollment. Data were collected from 4th-to 9th-graders in a 9-wave longitudinal investigation (N=45,694). Analysis of these data revealed that an increase in class size resulted in (a)a reduction in students' academic achievement, (b)a decrease in support from teachers, (c)a decrease in support from peers and in prosocial behavior, and (d) an elevation in the students' depression. These results suggest that class size may be a critical variable in class management, due to its extensive influence on the functioning and psychosocial adjustment of students.

  In the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., text rev., DSM-IV-TR), "borderline intellectual functioning"is defined as an intelligence quotient (IQ) ranging from 71 to 84. Few studies of individuals with borderline intellectual functioning have been published; the participants in published studies were mainly students who needed some clinical support in a school setting. In the present study, data on students were obtained from child guidance centers. The students were divided into 2groups, based on their scores on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children -Fourth Edition (WISC-IV), in order to examine selection bias. Students in the borderline intellectual functioning group (n=295) were 195 boys and 100 girls, 8 years old or older. Students in the comparison group (n=262) were 154 boys and 108 girls whose IQ ranged from 86 to 99. The 2 groups were compared with simulated data (n=1,285) generated on the basis of the WISC-IV norms. The correlation matrix of the 10 WISC-IV subtests showed a selection bias in the borderline intellectual functioning and comparison groups, due to the restricted range of IQs. Multi-group analyses, however, confirmed the metric invariance among the borderline intellectual functioning, comparison, and simulated groups on the correlated 4-factor model as described in the WISC-IV manual. These findings suggest that the WISC-IV may be useful for measuring the intelligence of students with borderline intellectual functioning equivalent to typical students, although the correlation coefficients of the subtest data of the children with borderline intellectual functioning were lower, due to selection bias, than were the correlation coefficients of the simulated norm group. The discussion concludes that the factorial invariance found in the present study suggested that these findings may be fundamental for intelligence testing, and also may contribute to applied psychometrics.

  According to regulatory fit theory (Higgins, 2000), people engage in goal pursuit in a manner that fits their regulatory orientation. When people experience regulatory fit, they engage more strongly in their goal pursuit, which, in turn, leads to better performance. The purpose of the present study was to investigate influences of regulatory fit on Japanese college students' academic test performance. After university students (N=100) were assessed for individual differences in regulatory orientation and learning strategies, their performance on actual college course tests (a cloze tests and an essay test without comments) was examined. The results indicated that promotion-oriented individuals had high performance on the essay test without comments when they used an eager strategy, whereas prevention-oriented individuals had high performance on the cloze test when they used a vigilance strategy. These findings suggest that effects of regulatory fit on academic test performance are not identical, but rather differ according to the type of regulatory fit and the test format.

  The present study investigated effects of upward comparison and regulatory focus on motivation and performance by focusing on assimilation and contrast, as well as examining the role of participants' emotions following that comparison. The university students (N=85; mean age, 20.26 years) who participated in the study were divided into two groups, an assimilation condition and a contrast condition, through manipulation of the degree of similarity. Next, they completed a task in which they connected numbered dots in sequence. Their performance was compared to a peer whose performance was better than that of the participants. The results indicated the following:In the assimilation condition,the performance and motivation of the promotion-focused individuals were superior to that of the prevention-focused individuals. This may have been because they attempted to succeed by using the peer's performance as a positive role model. Moreover, in the contrast condition, the performance of the prevention-focused participants was better than that of the promotion-focused participants. This may have been because they attempted to avoid failure by overlooking differences between their performance and the performance of the peer, and, instead, focused on the inadequacies of their own performance. In addition, the participants' reported emotions after the comparison were not related to these processes.

  The goal of the present study was to investigate relationships between "school caste" and school adjustment, focusing on social dominance orientation (SDO). "School caste" was defined as "inter-peer group hierarchy". Participants in the study were Japanese junior high school students (N=1,179). Inter-and intra-peer group status was measured from students' subjective answers to questions about inter-and intra-peer group status. Also, social dominance orientation and subjective school adjustment were measured from students' self-reports. Whether social dominance orientation mediated effects of inter-peer group status on school adjustment was examined. Despite controlling for effects of intra-group status, group-based dominance (i.e., social dominance orientation-dominance, or SDO-D, a sub-dimension of social dominance orientation) positively mediated effects of inter-peer group status on subjective school adjustment. In other words, students in the higher status peer groups tended to have higher group-based dominance, and, in turn, higher group-based dominance caused better subjective school adjustment. Thus, the results of the present study revealed that, among junior high school students, the relationship between school caste and school adjustment appears to be mediated by social dominance orientation. The discussion deals with the possibility that those students who were affiliated with higher status peer groups had better school adjustment because of their preference for dominating other groups.

  Recent changes in educational goals have emphasized mastering learning strategies, in addition to knowledge acquisition and utilization. To achieve these goals, an approach called "Thinking After Instruction" was introduced, and the following 4 processes were established: (a) students receive their teachers' direct instruction on basic concepts, (b) students, working in pairs, explain their understanding of what their teachers had instructed them about, (c) students attempt to solve problems that were designed to deepen their comprehension of basic concepts, and (d) students describe what they had understood and what they did not understand. The present study examined effects of interventions centered on the Thinking After Instruction approach. The interventions attempted to improve students' performance in a public elementary school mathematics class. Data from 6th grade students and their teachers were compared in the first and second year of implementation of the new method. The results from a national assessment of academic ability showed that the math scores for both knowledge acquisition (A-test) and knowledge utilization (Btest) were higher, and the variance of the A-test scores was lower in the second year. A learning-strategy test also revealed that the second-year students solved more math problems by drawing diagrams than the first-year students did. The scores of the teachers' lesson-plan task that represented effective teaching tended to be higher in the second year. The discussion deals with possible mechanisms mediating these effects.

  Recently, writing interventions for students with developmental disorders that use a self-regulated strategy development (SRSD)model have attracted attention. The present study examined effects of a group intervention based on a self-regulated strategy development approach with 6 Japanese 3rd-and 4th-grade students with autism spectrum disorder. The intervention effects were investigated using a one-group pretest-posttest design. The writing performances of story elements and the holistic quality of the stories were assessed. After the students had been taught the strategy, analysis of the writings by 5 of the students suggested that the intervention had been very effective with a number of story elements, and those by 4 of the students showed very effective scores on holistic quality. These results suggest that learning planning and self-monitoring strategies for writing, and the students' learning strategy efficacy, had positive effects on their writing performance. Moreover, the results suggest the efficacy of learning conjunctive phrases, using materials based on the students' interests, self-evaluation, video modeling, peer modeling through this group intervention, and modifying lessons according to the individual characteristics of the students. The discussion deals with the development of a self-regulated strategy development approach model in which practitioners consider students' individual characteristics and whether lessons should be modified for each student.