The present study continues the author's previous work (Nada et al., 2012, in Japanese) on third graders' knowledge acquisition process and how that is linked to emotions. In the present study, the experimental conditions were (a) a condition in which the participants' ideas were initially rejected but later positively affirmed (NP condition), (b) a condition in which the participants' ideas were initially positively affirmed but later rejected (PN condition), and (c) a condition in which positive, affirmative responses were given to the participants throughout the experiment (PP condition). The participants, 43 third-grade pupils (25 boys, 18 girls), were assigned in approximately equal numbers to the 3 conditions. The testing procedure was the same as that used in Nada et al. (2012). The results suggested that the children in the PP condition demonstrated the highest level of knowledge acquisition, followed by those in the NP condition and then those in the PN condition. Additionally, an index of proactivity was highest in the participants in the PP condition, suggesting that positive affirmation may play an important role in improving cognitive flexibility in the process of acquiring interactive knowledge. This does not deny the contributions of negative emotions to the learning process. As suggested by the results of the participants in the NP condition, negative emotions may foster self-monitoring, which may promote knowledge acquisition to some extent.

  Compared to typically developing children, children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) face difficulties completing visuospatial working memory tasks that require simultaneous processing and retention of visuospatial information. Higher-order cognitive tasks involving problem-solving and mental creation may require processing perceived information while retaining a different piece of information at the same time. These tasks may also require continuous manipulation of visual images and retention of intermediate results. A search of the published literature suggested that there is little or no research on the ability of children with ADHD to retain manipulated images. The present study investigated whether there are differences in the visuospatial short-term memory of children with ADHD compared to typically developing children, and whether the 2 groups are different in their ability to retain intermediate images that are continuously transformed by mental manipulation. The participants were 20 typically developing children (15 boys, 5 girls; average age 10.31 years) and 20 children with ADHD (13 boys, 7 girls; average age 10.29 years). A significant difference was found between the 2 groups of children in their ability to retain transformed images, but not in their visuospatial short-term memory. This suggests that, for children with ADHD, simply retaining perceived information may not be difficult. However, it appears to be challenging for them to retain visual images transformed by mental manipulation.

  The present study examined coping strategies used in situations that required a person to apologize, focusing on how coping strategies affected apologizing behavior, and how social support and ego-resiliency (ER) affected coping strategies. The participants, 834 people in their 20s who responded to a web-based survey, were randomly assigned to either a socially supported or an unsupported group. They evaluated their ego-resiliency, and then were presented with a scenario in which one person verbally abused another. The participants indicated how they might react in that situation if they were the abuser. The results suggested that the use of different coping strategies and the extent of their apology differed depending on the presence or absence of social support. Moreover, among the coping strategies used, a planning strategy promoted apologizing, whereas an abandonment/giving-up strategy reduced apologizing. Also, the group that was socially supported used fewer abandonment/giving-up strategies and apologized more extensively, whereas the unsupported group used fewer planning strategies and apologized less extensively. Furthermore, ego-resiliency had a positive effect on positive interpretations, and a negative impact on abandonment/giving-up strategies.

  Research has shown that learners willingly apply scientific rules that they have been taught to known cases, but that they are hesitant to use the rules for unknown ones. The primary purpose of the present study was to obtain a clearer confirmation of this generalization, referred to as "the familiarity effect in knowledge application". A secondary objective was to examine why participants generally exclude unknown cases from the scope of application of the rule that they had been taught. The hypothesis was that the familiarity effect occurs because learners do not sufficiently understand the predictive function of the rule that they were taught. In the present study, 253 university students were divided into 2 groups. Both groups were taught a rule for a property of metals. For one group, the summarizing function of the rule was emphasized, whereas for the other, its predictive function was stressed. The results for the group that had been taught the summarizing function of the rule confirmed the familiarity effect. In contrast, the results for the group that had been taught the predictive functions of the rule did not show the familiarity effect. In addition, the predictive function's teaching effect transferred to the application of another rule. However, no difference was found between the 2 groups in their interpretation of the meaning of the rules.

  Acquisition of emotion words plays an important role in children's socialization and in the development of their emotional experience. The present study aimed to develop a short-form emotion vocabulary scale to measure the emotion vocabulary of preschoolers and young elementary school children as reported by their mothers, by applying the model of item response theory (IRT). In Study 1, data were collected from 1,136 mothers of 3- to 9-year-old children. Based on the data from that study, a short form of the Emotion Vocabulary Scale was constructed. In Studies 2 and 3, mothers of preschool and young elementary school children completed the Emotion Vocabulary Scale and other measures. The pattern of correlations between the Emotion Vocabulary Scale and several relevant variables suggests that the Emotion Vocabulary Scale is associated with language ability and social-emotional competence in children, thus confirming the validity of the scale.

  The present study aimed to verify factors related to the onset of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) and trajectories to its onset in adolescents. From a cohort study of 7th- to 9th-grade students and their parents in a cooperative city, data were obtained on 4,050 students (2,051 boys, 1,999 girls) from 5 cohorts who were followed up for 3 years using questionnaires on the frequency of various factors, such as non-suicidal self-injury, mental health, and interpersonal maladjustment. The results of t-tests and the comparison of the 3-year trajectories of each scale's z-score from the data from the 7th graders who were not self-injurious indicated that the 9th graders who were self-injurious had more problems related to mental health and to family and friend relationships than did the students who were not self-injurious. Moreover, depression and other similar indicators were significantly higher in the 7th and 8th graders. These findings clarify the clinical features and 3-year trajectories of 9th-grade students who were non-suicidal self-injurious. From these results, early detection and preventive measures could be developed for identifying and assisting students at high risk of non-suicidal self-injury.

  In order to promote attractive audience-tailored presentations, several mutual feedback methods and their effects on students' presentations were examined. In a preliminary study, factors associated with the evaluation of the attractiveness of presentations were examined. Participants in the preliminary study were 80 seventh graders. The results suggested that the revised presentations that were attractive had been modified based on mutual feedback. The participants in the main study, 104 seventh graders (59 boys, 45 girls), were assigned to one of the following conditions: (a) pair condition (n=34), in which the students gave mutual feedback in pairs; (b) group condition (n=37), in which the students gave mutual feedback in groups of 4, and (c) role group condition (n=33), in which the members of a 4-student group were given roles in evaluation perspectives and also gave mutual feedback. The extent of revision of the presentations after mutual feedback was found to be greater in the role group condition than in the other 2 conditions. The results also affirmed the tendency for revised presentations to be rated as more attractive. These results suggest that assigning evaluation perspectives for mutual feedback may promote more attractive, audience-tailored presentations.