Visual attention refers to cognitive functions for selecting task-relevant information and filtering out task-irrelevant information. Psychological research on visual attention has utilized congruency effects observed in Stimulus-Response compatibility paradigms, such as the Stroop task, the Flanker task, and the Simon task as the benchmark for investigating cognitive control. A number of studies (e.g., Egner, 2007) have demonstrated that the congruency effect is larger when congruent trials appear frequently within a given block than when they appear infrequently. This phenomenon is termed the proportion congruency (PC) effect, which is considered to reflect fluctuations in visual selectivity. Recently, however, a number of researchers have challenged the view that the PC effect reflects the modulation of visual selectivity. Schmidt (2013) for example argued that the PC effect is driven by performance improvements based on learning predictive relationships between stimuli and responses, rather than by the modulation of visual selectivity. It is notably unclear whether performance improvements are caused by increased contingency of a specific stimulus-response, or high response frequency resulting from the increased contingency in a block. This study was designed to examine the effect of response frequency on Simon task performance by manipulating the number of responses (pushing response buttons) to a target in the Simon task. More specifically, right-handed undergraduate and graduate students (N = 16) were requested to press a key once for a specific target (e.g., red circle) and press the key twice for the other target (e.g., green circle). Our results demonstrated that reaction times and error rates were not dependent on the number of reactions. This finding suggests that performance improvement is caused by contingency learning of stimulus-response pairs and not by the high response frequency.

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Not only prosocial behavior as well as the circumstances when people feel distressed are diverse, but also the action that people chose is different even in the same situation. The idea of "helping strategy" explains how people decide what actions to take when you help others. The main purpose of this study is to clarify that there are differences in helping strategies between students in elementary school and university. Additionally, the correlation between helping strategies and personal characteristics (help-seeking performance and self-esteem) was investigated. The questionnaire survey was conducted in 262 participants (89 elementary school 4th grade, 83 elementary school 6th grade and 90 university students). They were asked to read three stories and then to answer the questions on each story. The result showed that the ideal behavior in the same situation were significantly different between elementary school students and university students. In addition, there were correlation between help strategies and help-seeking performances. It indicates how people have helping strategies may change during developmental process, and also suggests that judgement for helping strategies are affected by cognitive development and environmental change. Moreover, the results from investigation of relationship between helping strategies and help-seeking performance explained that people who are interpersonal dependency tended to help others directly. On the other hand, people who are independent were more able to choose whether to help or not depending on occasions. In previous studies, it has been only argued the relationship between the prosocial behavior and each circumstance. However, our result indicates that it is important to consider helping strategies based on developmental status and personal characteristics. This finding may be potential cornerstone for future moral education and communication training.

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[in Japanese]

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Lay person (Juror and citizen judge) have been assumed to decide emotionally rather than rationally, especially in the face of the victim's statements. The previous study, though, does not have support fort this assumption: juror decision making is not always influenced by victim's statements. This study examined the individual sentencing process in a mock trial situation that both Japanese citizen judge system and victim participation system were applied. In particular, the sentencing decision process was examined in terms of vision of the judiciary with a high regard for rational nature. Study1 that 95 undergraduate students participated in revealed that the view of criminal trial which lay weight on rational nature led to lenient sentencing to the defendant. Study 2 (N = 390) shows that the sentencing process noted above result from the motivation to be a "rational judge". Namely, so-called "emotional non-professional" lay person have values of rational nature-oriented to the criminal trial, and they are motivated to decide rationally not emotionally as they confront victim's statements, resulting make the lenient sentencing contrary to the victim's plea. Suggestions for unconformity of previous research and social implications were discussed.

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[in Japanese]

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Previous studies have noted the in emotion regulation difficulties of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The present review aimed to explore trends in the process of emotion regulation among individuals with ASD. According to previous studies, emotion regulation involves strategies of reappraisal and suppression. The findings were that (a) individuals with ASD experience difficulty in using reappraisal strategies, (b) individuals with ASD exhibit the maladaptive behaviors, so they experience difficulty in using the emotion regulation strategies, (c) individuals with ASD exhibit psychiatric symptoms, so that they experience difficulty in using reappraisal strategies, and (d) emotion regulation intervention for in individuals with ASD involves cognitive behavioral therapy. These findings suggested that further studies are needed to investigate the effectiveness of the psychodramatic method in using reappraisal strategies for individuals with ASD.

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The aim of the present study was to clarify the factorial structure influencing risk awareness by focusing on how fall risk awareness affects activities and behavior in the daily lives of middle-aged and elderly women who often experience falls both indoors and outdoors. A 'fall risk awareness' checklist created by the authors in 2013 was used to assess risk awareness. The subject sample comprised 120 women (mean age 61.19 years) who underwent a regional health check in Y Hokkaido. The subject were divided into two groups according to the degree of risk awareness (a high risk awareness group and low risk awareness group) and examined using t-test to assess cognitive function, mobility, physical condition and degree of fall risk awareness. The relationship between fall risk awareness and each measurement item was analysed using Pearson's correlation coefficient. Furthermore, the interrelationship between fall risk awareness and physical condition, cognitive function, mobility and falls was found by covariance structure analysis. Pain associated with motor function affected reduced cognitive function and mobility. The results showed that reduced cognitive function affected by pain led to heightened awareness of risks. Higher risk awareness influenced by these factors increased the number of falls and decreased the frequency of outings. Even if subject had no problems with activities of daily living, encouraging the prevention of reduced cognitive function in the high risk awareness, while managing pain and preventing reduced mobility in the event of locomotor apparatus pain, can prevent falls and enable the maintenance of social activities such as outings.

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Procrastination is the action of putting off doing something that must be done, and if one tends to postpone or delay doing something, the person is said to have Procrastination Tendency. Researchers have long regarded procrastination as a maladaptive behavior. On the other hand, investigators have proposed that not all procrastination behaviors are harmful or lead to negative consequences. Two types of procrastination behaviors should be differentiated: passive procrastination and active procrastination. The purpose of this study was to develop a scale to measure active procrastination and to examine its reliability and validity. In Study 1, data obtained from 314 undergraduates were analyzed. Explorative factor analysis revealed 6 factors. Confirmative factor analysis supported the 6-factor structure. These data were analyzed to examine concurrent validity in terms of clinical scales. Results indicated that the active procrastination scale had a positive correlation with optimism, resilience, self-esteem, and time perspective. Moreover, it had a negative correlation with another procrastination scale, with cognitive reflection, and depression/anxiety. These findings provided sufficient support for reliability and validity of the active procrastination scale. In Study 2, further data were obtained from 95 undergraduates. The scale's test-retest reliability was confirmed. Results showed the scale was developed, its validity confirmed, and its internal consistency checked. In addition, active and passive procrastination were regarded as the same action of putting off doing something, however, differences in their backgrounds are plausible.

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Previous research has shown that people hold a higher value for objects that they own, a phenomenon commonly known as the endowment effect. Studies suggest that even without actual ownership, merely touching an object can increase its psychological ownership, which produces the endowment effect. However, touchable commodities are not always available prior to purchase (e.g., during online shopping). When an individual is unable to touch an object, its psychological ownership can be increased with mental imagery of touching it. Imagining touching an object, also known as haptic imagery, has a similar effect on psychological ownership as physical touch, due to a difference in the perception of control. Imagining touching an object results in greater feelings of physical control compared to not imagining touching it. Factors that contribute to the effect of haptic imagery on psychological ownership remain unexplored. In this study, we examined whether haptic importance of objects could impact the effect of haptic imagery on psychological ownership when touch was unavailable. Participants were assigned to the haptic imagery condition or the no-imagery condition. They were asked to look at a piece of paper that introduced an object as if they were considering buying it. Participants in the haptic imagery condition were instructed to imagine holding the object in their hands and to think about how it would feel, keeping their eyes closed throughout the process. Subsequently, all participants were asked to fill out the questionnaire about psychological ownership, perceived control, and familiarity. Results showed a significant effect of haptic imagery on psychological ownership and perceived control, regardless of haptic importance of objects. In addition, when touch is unavailable, an individual痴 psychological ownership of objects with low haptic importance can be more than those with high haptic importance. These findings are applicable to product marketing, specifically for online e-commerce stores.

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This study focused on the factors affecting the external information-seeking behavior related to public projects. We hypothesized that when people had the cognition that the result of an opinion expression could affect the acceptance decision on a public project, and when people appraised that the project was important to them, the frequency of the behavior was higher. However, the effect would be moderated if people felt that the time to seek information was limited or if they felt that they already had enough information to judge the acceptance. The prediction of the effect-cognition towards decision and the time pressure were examined in the first experiment and the prediction of the project importance and having enough information to judge acceptance were examined in the second experiment using a questionnaire. The results of this experiment supported our expectation except for having enough information to judge acceptance. It was shown that the effect-cognition towards decision affected the behavior directly, but the effect was moderated by time pressure in the first experiment. That is, participants in the high effect-cognition group answered that they sought external information than those in the low effect-cognition group. However, the tendency disappeared with high time pressure. Further, the project importance affected the behavior directly. However, having enough information did not moderate its effect in the second experiment. That is, participants in the high importance group answered that they sought external information more than those in the low importance group. We discuss how behavior in the future can be studied based on the experiment results.

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Existing research have investigated the effects of free will belief on aggressive behaviours. So far, studies have shown that when people's free will belief is denied, their motivation of self-control decreases, thereby increasing aggressive behaviours. An alternative and inconsistent account is that people who have strong belief in free will attributes the other party's attack to the actor's intention, which lead them to take revenge. Given that aggressions practically occur within a social interaction, the present study examined the relationship between free will belief and aggression in a social interactive situation. We hypothesized that people who have high free will belief will behave more aggressively when they are attacked by another individual. Based on a sample of 45 undergraduates, we measured free will beliefs and trait aggression as an individual-difference variable. We employed a modification of the Point Subtraction Aggression Paradigm in order to measure participants' aggressive behaviours. As a result, the effects of fatal determinism - a subscale of free will - were found significant. Specifically, when participants were unattacked by their interactive partner, those with low fatal determinism belief behaved less aggressively. Incurring no attack from the partner, participants may have experienced higher responsibility for taking aggressive actions themselves. Under such circumstance, having a low fatal determinism belief, and thus regarding their behaviour as undetermined by nature, may have further increased their sense of responsibility, consequently decreasing aggression. In contrast, when participants were attacked by their partner, aggressive behaviours increased on the whole relative to the non-attacked condition; receiving an attack may have simply provoked participants' motivation to revenge. This study highly suggests the relationship between fatal determinism belief and aggression in social interaction situations, offering a ground for future investigations including parameters to further explain the relationship.

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