The aim of this paper was to examine whether the processing of the information about memorizing style enhances distinctiveness on the memory of action event, utilizing the task of source monitoring. Two experiments were executed with comparing among Subject-Performed Tasks (SPTs), Experimenter-Performed Tasks (EPTs), and rehearsal task of sentence. In experiment 1, 18 subjects performed SPTs, EPTs, and rehearsal task of sentence on the incidental learning. In experiment 2, 36 subjects in all were divided into two tasks, namely, verbal recall and action recall. As for the processing of memorizing style, the result was that it was not organized in the free recall, and subjects could achieve source monitoring on the item recalled. And the result in Experiment 2 was that the rate of verbal recall was higher than that of action recall in the processing. It followed from this experiment that motor component was not processed in retrieval.

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This experiment was conducted to investigate the incorporation processes of new words into preexisting knowledge structure. University students studied new but unfamiliar words. Half of them studied the to-be-remembered words accompanied by category names and two attributes, while the remaining half studied those accompanied by three attributes. In the test phase of the experiment, the subjects made a lexical decision to each new word. A semantic priming effect was obtained in the 45s study time condition with the category name provided and an SOA of 1000ms. Providing category names facilitated the learning of the materials further affected by study time. The results were discussed in terms of the spreading activation theory, automatic and conscious processes, indicating that new words were processed consciously in the earlier phases of incorporation.

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The present study investigated the effects of two kinds of arousal on memory search. UWIST Mood Adjective Checklist (UMACL; Matthews, Jones & Chamberlain, 1990) was translated into Japanese and its reliability was tested. A factor analysis confirmed that Japanese version of UMACL (JUMACL) measures dimensions of energetic arousal and tense arousal. A Sternberg's type-memory search experiment was done to assess the effects of individual difference in energetic and tense arousal on slope and intercept of function of set size on reaction time. While high energetic arousal group showed significantly smaller slope of memory set size function than low energetic arousal group, no difference of intercept was between them. Tense arousal had no significant effects on slope or intercept. These findings suggest that the increase of energetic arousal promotes the matching of stimulus representation and memory representation.

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To obtain magnitudes of depth from motion parallax signals, the visual system scales the signals with absolute distance information. The present study investigated whether motion parallax is scaled according to the representation of distance perception, which has been suggested in other reports. In Experiment 1, using a constant motion parallax, perceived depth and perceived distance were measured while distance cues of the stimuli were manipulated. The results showed that the perceived depth covaried with the perceived distance in some cases, but not in others; the perceived depth, but not the perceived distance, decreased when cues for distance perception were reduced even at a constant viewing distance. This suggests that motion parallax is not directly scaled according to the perceived distance. In Experiment 2, we showed that reducing distance cues perse affected the perceived depth. We propose that motion parallax is scaled according to neither physical viewing distance nor the representation of distance perception, but another distance representation.

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This study investigated the effects of consistency of facial expression and person of two successively presented faces on face recognition. Twenty-four healthy adult subjects participated in the experiment. They were required to remember a facial expression (smile/neutral) or a person (10 unfamiliar females) of the first stimulus, and to judge whether expression or person of the second face, presented in the left or right visual field, was same as or different from the first. The results showed that reaction times in the expression judgment were shorter for the same person than for different person, irrespective of her expression. In the person judgment, the consistency of expression affected performance only when the same person was presented repeatedly. Reaction times for the same person were longer when her expression was different from the first, compared to when she reappeared with a same expression. No effect of visual field of the second face was found. These results suggest that there are some interdependencies between an analysis of facial expression and that of person information in face recognition processes.

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Generally, music performances of a piece by different pianists show different expressions. Musical expressions are mainly controlled by varying the IOI (InterOnset Interval) pattern of adjacent notes and the dynamics pattern of notes. First, the IOI pattern and the dynamics pattern of Mozart's piano sonata K. 331 by a professional pianist were shown and the characteristics of the patterns were described. Second, an experimental result by Repp (1997) was introduced. It shows that average music performances were rated higher in aesthetic quality compared to most individual performances. Therefore, an average music performance of Mozart's piano sonata K. 331 by six pianists were physically analyzed. The analysis showed that the IOI increased at the end of a phrase and that the dynamics pattern showed a inverted U form in a phrase. This may be assumed to be a general rule for a music performance. To examine this assumption, artificial performances were produced by manipulating the IOI pattern and the dynamics pattern and the aesthetic quality of those performances were rated. The result suggested that the assumption was right.

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This paper summarized some of my research on time impression and expression in the still pictures. The impressions of various kinds of thirty two modern pictures were examined by the method of selected description. On the basis of the cluster and factor analyses, the pictures were classified into three groups, in which 1) time has stopped, 2) time is passing slowly, and 3) objects are moving or changing fast. Through further analysis with only the words relating to time, the forth group, past-present-future was separated. These results suggested that the pictures were classified depending on time impression. In the next experiment, I investigated the visual characteristics which caused each time impression. Concerning speed impression, it was found that the impression slowed down as high spatial frequency component was removed. Spatial frequency component was also used when the subjects were asked to express the time passing fast or slowly in the form of pictorial works. I also referred to the case in which different visual characteristics were involved in appreciation and in expression of the pictures. These findings were discussed from the point of view of both perceptual and cultural aspects.

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There are various was for studying art works; historical, philosophical, sociological studies and others. Comparing with these studies, psychological study is not so developed yet. I would like to show that, in the psychological study, art works should not be analyzed by the psychological theories already well known. This study provides some heuristic interpretations to find out the psycho-reality contained within the art works.

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