When a person is characterized categorically with a noun label (e.g., Linda is a feminist), people tend to think that the attributes associated with that person are central and long-lasting (i.e., labeling effect). This bias, which is related to category-based induction and social misattributions such as stereotyping, has been known to occur because we associate the person with prototypical attributes represented in the category. One experiment described in this article indicates that the labeling effect can occur separately from the attributes represented in the category. The experiment suggests that labeling bolsters not only the perception of prototypical attributes but also the awareness of unrelated or even irrelevant attributes. The results from the experiments suggest that some generic information inherent in noun labels play a crucial role in category-based reasoning.

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Play is a predominant individual and social activity of early childhood and has been related to young children's early cognitive growth, social development, and preparation for formal schooling. We examined individual differences and developmental changes in South Korean child and mother exploratory and symbolic play longitudinally when children were 13 and 20 months of age. Children engaged in less exploratory and more symbolic play when playing collaboratively with their mothers than when playing alone. Children engaged in more symbolic play at 20 months than 13 months. Child solitary and collaborative symbolic play were modestly stable across time, but child exploratory play and maternal play were not. Child solitary and collaborative symbolic play were correlated across the two ages. Child and mother play were regularly associated at the two ages, and 13-month maternal play predicted 20-month child collaborative play. The cross-cultural validity of play is affirmed, and individual differences and age-related changes in child and mother play are partly mediated by matched partner play and partly motivated by processes independent of partner play.

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This study examines the irrelevant speech effect (ISE) and the effects of individual differences (introversion/extroversion and field dependence/independence: FDI) on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and the Stroop Test. In Experiment 1, irrelevant speech and silence groups performed the WCST. Unlike the ISE, FDI affected four WCST indexes (CA, TE, PE [Milner], and PE [Nelson]) but did not affect the WCST DMS index, which shows the difficulty of maintaining concepts. However, the ISE was observed with the DMS. In Experiment 2, WCST data were applied under a noise condition. In Experiment 3, the Stroop Test revealed that individual differences affect the amount of conflict, unlike the ISE. In general, the ISE is understood to relate to the phonological loop of the working memory, with individual differences related to the central executive system. We believe that the WCST involves the central executive system and phonological loop, while the Stroop Test primarily involves the central executive system.

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The first important step toward an understanding of the other’s mental state involves identification of the other person. The ability of infants to detect humans and familiar individuals is present since the time of birth; moreover, infants prefer other infants of the same age in the sense that they are similar to the infants themselves. Recent developmental hypothesis assumes that the correspondence between the self and the other, that is, the recognition of other individuals as “like me (i.e., producing identical expressions and movements)” must play an important role in the development of understanding other’s mental states. The aim of this article is to provide an overview of the previous literature on the social perception during infancy, with particular emphasis on the correspondence between the self and the other. Additionally, this paper discusses the role of such social perception in the subsequent development of understanding other’s mental states.

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To examine the differences in adolescent identity between Japan and the United States, we studied university students in both countries (255 Japanese students and 145 American students). Participants completed a questionnaire about (1) self-concept (four identity domains) both in daily lives and in contexts seen as important by students, (2) commitment and exploration levels both for school education and best friends, and (3) contexts related to identity formation. Our analyses revealed that American students valued school achievement, committed and explored school education more than Japanese counterparts, and showed higher competence and positive feelings. In contrast, Japanese students showed higher inhibition scores, put greater emphasis on interpersonal contexts, and showed more commitment and exploration in these contexts. In addition, the differences in self-concepts were found consistently regardless of the importance of context. Our results suggested that social and cultural differences across countries have a significant effect on identity of university students.

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We used two experiments to investigate factors related to error in output monitoring. In the learning phase, participants were presented with several action phrases from either an internal source (imagine) or an external source (enact). In the recall test phase, participants were asked to recollect as many action phrases as possible. In the output monitoring test phase, participants were asked to judge whether they had recalled each item during the recall test phase. The first and second experiments differed only in the type of recollection participants used (enact vs. imagine). We found that repeated enacting during the learning phase increased output monitoring error under conditions where participants counted numerals as a secondary task during the recall test phase (experiments 1A, 2A) and under conditions where the output monitoring test phase was conducted seven days after the recall test phase (experiments 1B, 2B). These results reveal that when participants were unable to use conscious recollection during the recall test phase, they did not rely on source memory but only relied on the strength of the memory.

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This study analyzes the intention superiority effect (ISE). The ISE (Goschke & Kuhl, 1993) is defined as faster access time to the contents related to information learned as a part of a to-be-executed task (prospective memory) than to information learned not as a part of a to-be executed task (neutral contents). The experiment is a replica of the ISE using the Goschke and Kuhl procedure. The ISE was replicated in the measure prior to the execution of the action. Furthermore, the ISE disappeared after the execution of the intention.

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