In this study, development of young children's understandings of masked facial expression was examined from the perspective of the development of “theory of mind”. In Experiment 1, short stories in which one character masks facial expressions to make another character have false beliefs were presented to 3-, 4-, and 6-year-old. They were asked questions to assess their judgements on various mental states (desire, belief, and intention) of story characters. And, to assess children's “representational theory of mind”, they performed a “Smaties Task”. The results showed that recognition of masked facial expression was developed from 3 to 4 years. Scores on “Smaties Task” was also improved duing the same period. An additional analysis showed that the major determinant of to determine the understanding of masked facial expression was not the age but the possession of “representational theory of mind”. In Experiment 2 more sophisticated but similar type of procedures were presented to 3- and 4-year-old children. Results replicated the results in Experiment 1 and the understanding of the intention of characters was also found to develop from 3 to 4 years.

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This study examined the hypothesis (Eriksen & Schultz, 1979) that a subject checks whether a prepared response is correct or not in the Eriksen and Eriksen (1974) cognitive conflict task, using event-related potentials (ERPs). Fourteen right-handed subjects were required to respond selectively to a central target letter flanked with compatible (e.g., HHHHHHH) or incompatible (e.g., SSSHSSS) noise letters, or not to respond to asterisks (*******). The results showed that the lateralized readiness potential indicating an incorrect preparation and the NO-GO potential reflecting a response inhibition emerged for incompatible stimuli. These findings indicate that a prepared response was recognized as erroneous, and was inhibited. Therefore, it is suggested that the check operation functioned in the cognitive conflict task. Furthermore, the result that the NO-GO potential latency for incompatible stimuli was longer than that for NO-GO stimuli suggests that the timing of NO-GO decision and response inhibition by the check operation influenced the NO-GO potential latency.

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An application of collage as an art form has been made in clinical psychology, and has been established as collage therapy. This paper attempted to answer the following questions: What kind of behavior people show during production of collage work; how the production behavior differs from person to person; what causes the behavior differences. The framework of creative problem solving and behavior analysis technique with VTR were used, and behavior characteristics of mentally retarded subjects (N=20) were compared with non-retarded adults (N=20). Results revealed three behavior patterns: Whole linear type ( [SERF]ⁿ), partially repeated linear type ( [SE]ⁿ and [AF]^m), and circuit type ([SEA]ⁿ and [AF]^m) from the analysis of transition probability of four fundamental action elements (search [S], extraction [E], arrangement [A] and fixation [F]) of collage work production. The difference in the production process of each subject may be attributed to the difference in proportions of the three behavior patterns. The proportion difference in turn appeared to reflect that on the global-local dimension in the work production plan.

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The aim of the present study is to prove that the use of PAC Analysis will enhance and facilitate counseling effects. Eleven functions were hypothetically presented: (la) Intake Facilitation Function, (lb) Self-Disclosure Facilitation Function, (lc) Trust Formation Function, (id) Dialogue Development Function, (2a) Mutual Understanding Function, (2b) Clarification Function, (2c) Self-Understanding Facilitation Function, (2d) Counselor's Awareness Function, (3a) Descriptive Documentation Function, (3b) Practical Explanation Function, and (3c) Evaluation-Assessment Function. By examining two case studies of international students' counseling process, these functions were analyzed. Results showed that all the functions were confirmed. Introducing PAC Analysis into counseling is proved to be effective in the direct intermental function field in counseling process (la to ld), the inteamental function field between a client and a counselor (2a to 2d), and the indirect intermental function field including description, explanation, and assessment (3a to 3c). It is discussed that PAC Analysis is expected to take an important role in counseling in general.

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When temporal discrimination is examined by a peak interval (PI) procedure in rats, a shortening of peak time is induced by the fimbria-fornix (FF) lesion. The aim of this research is to investigate the extent of peak time shortening induced by FF lesion and the acquisition process of temporal discrimination. In FF lesioned rats, the peak time was very short (about 13 sec) in earlier phase, then became longer as the training progressed and reached a steady level, which was approximately 20% shorter than control rats. These results suggest that the “non-timing process” is involved in addition to the “timing process” in FF lesioned rats.

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The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of body control and attention on body sway that was induced by a “tilting room”. With an initial instruction, 18 subjects were divided into two groups: target and body attention groups, and then stood on a stabilometer in a room that tilted forwardly. Body sway that was induced by the tilting room was measured with the stabilometer. During the training session, subjects received Dohsa training (Naruse, 1973) in order to control their body movement. Analyses indicated the following: (1) Subjects swayed in the same direction as tilting of the room; (2) No difference in the body sway was found for the two groups before training; and (3) After training, subjects increased the controllable area on the stabilometer and learned to use their bodily sensation better. Subjects in the target attention group had a greater increase in body sway than the other group. These results suggest that adult flexibility appeared in an ecological situation where conflicting information was received through visual and bodily sensation.

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Prospective memory involves memory for future intentions in our everyday lives and it is one of the hot topics in current memory research. We reexamined what is prospective memory and discussed how intentions had been conceived of in the history of psychology. We emphasize the necessity of classifying a form of remembering intentions into the self initiated existence-remembrance and its content-remembrance. Man studies on prospective memory in recent decades were reviewed with respect to the following perspectives: (1) how intentions are recollected, (2) what is remembering intentions based on, (3) how we attempt to avoid forgetting to do things, and (4) what is neuropsychological mechanism of remembering intentions. Requirements for experimental research on prospective memory are summarized and future directions are discussed.

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