This article aimed to investigate whether auditory stimuli disrupt the performance of a text recognition task (Experiment1) and a text recall task (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, Spanish speech sounds that disrupted the serial recall task (Miyahara & Goshiki, 2004) were presented during the learning phase of the task. The Spanish speech had a reduced d', which indicates that the text recognition task was also disrupted. In Experiment 2, Japanese speech sounds or office noise were presented during either the learning only phase, recall only phase, or during both the phases. The results were that both types of auditory stimuli could disrupt the text recall task, and this effect was independent of the meaning of the speech sounds and the presenting phase. Our results could be interpreted by Cowan's model (1995, 1999) with the inclusion of two modifications.

抄録全体を表示

Few studies in literature have explored the relation of altruistic orientation with prosocial and antisocial behavior of primary school and junior high school students in a single design. The present study attempted to fill this research gap. In particular, the present study also investigates the relation of human relationships and altruism with prosocial and delinquent behavior across different situations. The major findings are summarized as follows: (1) Delinquent behavior increased with age but prosocial behavior did not change significantly with age. (2) The tendency of an actor to sacrifice his or her life for a recipient decreased with age, and it associated negatively with delinquent behavior. (3) The tendency of an actor to give up rescuing a stranger and turn to rescue another stranger or an enemy in danger decreased with age, and it associated negatively with delinquent behavior. (4) The tendency of an actor to help a recipient by covering up his or her crime increased with age, and it associated positively with delinquent behavior. (5) The altruistic orientation did not correlate significantly with prosocial behavior.

抄録全体を表示

This paper introduces a new research area in positive psychology - resilience. Two groups of definition of resilience and two generations of resilience research are described. Two critical components of resilience are analyzed and resilience studies in Asian societies are reviewed. Finally, the implications of the application of the concept and direction for future resilience research are proposed.

抄録全体を表示

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between affect and both health and lifestyle factors. Japanese undergraduates (223 men and 302 women) completed the Positive and Negative Affect (PA and NA) Schedule scales, the General Health Questionnaire, and the Health Behavior Questionnaire in order to measure affect, mental and physical health, and lifestyle, respectively. These three measures were administered twice (T1 and T2), five or six weeks apart. Hierarchical regression analyses of the data showed that better T2 health status was significantly associated with lower T1 NA in men and both higher T1 PA and lower T1 NA in women. Meanwhile, lifestyle factors at T2 had few significant associations with PA and NA at T1. A number of significant interactions of PA NA suggested that higher T1 PA was only associated with better health and lifestyle factors at T2 when T1 NA was low. The findings indicate that both PA and NA, including PA NA interactions and gender differences, have important health implications.

抄録全体を表示

This study investigates whether healthy women who experience premenstrual syndrome (PMS) show attenuated physiological responses to acute stress. After the initial screening involving daily records of PMS symptoms was conducted for a group of 39 women, 14 women (7, Normal group; 7, PMS group) gave their informed consent to participate in this experiment, which encompassed both the premenstrual and postmenstrual phases of their menstrual cycles. In the experiment, psychophysiological responses to a stressor (public speaking) were evaluated in terms of psychological states, heart rate, heart rate variability, and salivary cortisol levels. While both the groups showed significant psychological stress responses to the stressor, the low frequency (LF)/high frequency (HF) ratio based on heart rate variability was significantly lower in the PMS group. These results suggest a dysregulation of the stress responses in healthy women with PMS.

抄録全体を表示

Many cognitive studies have examined how to compute, map, or describe the spatial representations of spatial terms. Many of these studies have examined spatial terms that have meanings appropriate for projection onto a two-dimensional upright (2-D) plane. However, the world in which we live and apply spatial terms to is three-dimensional (3-D). This study focused on computing the spatial meanings of projective spatial terms on a level plane in 3-D space from an egocentric viewpoint. Three Japanese spatial terms, ushiro, saki, and mae (similar to behind, ahead and far, and in front of, respectively, in English), were examined in three experiments based on 3-D computer graphics virtual space. This study suggested that prototypical points of certain kinds of projective spatial terms such as mae and ushiro can be computed on a level plane in 3-D space using angles defined by viewpoint and reference object positions under the same spatial condition as used in this study.

抄録全体を表示

This paper aimed at providing a simple and direct method for shortening the lengthy 108-item Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitude Scales (FSMAS). The method proposed uses the trace information (widely used in other popular procedures such as principal component analysis and regression analysis) as the criterion for item selection. Results for half-length FSMAS versions (54 items) constructed using the trace-information criterion compared favourably with Mulhern and Rae's (1998) 51-item FSMAS short form. But unlike the later short form, our method retained as much variance as possible in the original 108-items and maximized the correlations, and hence predictive validity, with the full-length FSMAS version. The appropriateness of selecting items from a larger item pool based on employing a trace-information criterion is discussed within the context of the domain-sampling model.

抄録全体を表示

62 Thai and 56 U.S. college students were examined on altruism and helping behavior. Thai-Buddhist culture has traditionally taught the importance of prosocial behaviors. Participants were administered the Self-Report Altruism (SRA) Scale, a specially developed projective measure (Altruism Apperception Test) and an indepth interview. Thais scored significantly higher than U.S. subjects on the SRA Scale (p < .001), and manifested a greater tendency to both offer altruistic projections on the AAT (p < .001) and report that they would personally help in such situations (p < .001). An exploratory, mediational analysis performed on the interview data of a subset of participants revealed that Thais appealed to religion as a reason for helping significantly more than Americans (p < .001), while Americans specifically mentioned religion was not a reason significantly more than Thais (p = .002). Findings suggest a relationship between socio-cultural-religious values and prosocial behavior in that Thai-Buddhist-affiliative-collectivistic society appears more altruistically-oriented than the American relatively more areligious achievement or individualistic-based society. Recommendations are that further studies be conducted to support the validation of the projective measure and explore the possible influence of the spirituality and individualism-collectivism constructs.

抄録全体を表示