Outline of “Learning Science” is briefly overviewed.

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The gaze direction perception is an important component of human social cognition, but the ontogenesis of this perceptual ability is not well known. The present study attempted to investigate the ontogenesis of the well-documented characteristics of the human gaze direction perception that the head orientation information influences the perceived gaze direction. The results showed that a simple connectionist model of the human visual system could simulate several important aspects of human performance after trained by the supervised-learning, indicating that the postnatal perceptual-learning plays some roles in the development of the gaze direction perception.

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Children with developmental disorders are assumed to have a delay in reaching an age at which they can succeed in Theory of Mind tasks compared with their verbal mental age. However, the methods of the Theory of Mind tasks, picture story books or demonstrations for example, are not well suited to those who have difficulties in concentration, selective attention, reading, hearing correctly and understanding. This research used the picture story show as the method for three Theory of Mind tasks and showed that children who were thought to be unable to pass the tasks based on preceding studies could pass the tasks. The form “picture-story show” might be a better way for children with developmental disorders to understand the meaning of tasks. In addition, not the verbal mental age but the ability to understand task contents might be most important for children with developmental disorders to succeed with Theory of Mind tasks.

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This research investigated the developmental changes in strategies for regulating emotional expression in childhood, using hypothetical stories. Participants were first, third and fifth grade children (N = 646). Four hypothetical stories were presented and children were asked what they would feel (internal emotion) and which face they would display (facial expression) for each story. They could select from one of four facial pictures (happiness, anger, sadness, and neutral) for each question. Their answers regarding internal emotion in each story and the facial expressions in each internal emotion were analyzed. The strategies that children used were different among the different grade levels, with substitution strategy increasingly more frequent at higher grade levels. The strategies for regulating emotional expression increased in facility during childhood.

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The present study investigated implicit and explicit attitudes toward people with disabilities and examined the effects of internal versus external source of motivation to respond without prejudice. The implicit and explicit attitudes of undergraduate students (N = 109) toward people with disabilities were measured, and the effects of both kinds of motivation in regulating prejudice were investigated. The results were as follows: undergraduate students had positive explicit attitudes toward people with disabilities; however, they were also found to have negative implicit attitudes toward people with disabilities; and high internal motivation to regulate prejudice effectively moderated implicit attitudes toward people with disabilities. We discuss possible ways to effectively moderate prejudice in education.

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The present article presents experimental evidence for the possibility of improving matching-to-sample skills involving visual stimuli by providing short-term intensive sign language training to hearing children. We conclude that this effect is related to the generation of mental images of sign language signs rather than the memorization of individual signs.

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As the number of non-native Japanese students continues to increase in Japan, we must develop better techniques to assist foreign-born students to learn Japanese. In the present study, a special morae listening test was administered to non-native Japanese students and native Japanese students in order to compare their perception characteristics. The results demonstrated that compared to Japanese students, it was more difficult for non-native Japanese students to perceive all special morae. Training for special morae perception was administered to non-native Japanese students, and changes to correct response rates before and after the training were ascertained. The results confirmed an increase of correct response rate for many special morae. It was clarified that visual presentation helps non-native Japanese students to understand special morae and form the concept of special morae perception. The results also suggest that there is a necessary process that non-native Japanese students must undertake before setting perceptual decision regions.

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