The purpose of this study was to examine the understanding of contamination, which consists of cognition, emotion, and behavior, and the relationship of the understanding of contamination and the behavioral immune system from the perspective of developmental psychology. The participants in this study were boys and girls aged 11 and 12 (N = 125), and female university students (N = 121). The results indicated the following conclusions. (a) The behavioral immune system of adults is activated only in situations where safety is ambiguous, and their behavioral choices are made. (b) Although the behavioral immune system of 11- and 12-year-old children is not as flexible as that of adults, they make cautious decisions by estimating safety as low as possible and generating a strong sense of disgust, suggesting that their avoidance behavior is comparable to that of adults. Thus, it was suggested that adults and 11- and 12-year-old children, while taking different forms, may make behavioral decisions according to their developmental stage and show adaptive responses from the perspective of survival.

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Loyalty is one of six criteria for moral judgment advocated by moral foundations theory. Previous research has demonstrated that those who rely more on loyalty have a conservative orientation and a tendency toward nationalism. This study examined the relationship between orientations toward the two concepts of patriotism and nationalism, which can be seen as partial components of national identity, and the moral foundation of loyalty, which can be seen as innate to human beings. The study surveyed a sample of Japanese people with the aim of examining the topic from various angles to gain an understanding of how these concepts are linked. The study’s results corroborate those of previous research and also confirmed the applicability to the Japanese population. Furthermore, these concepts were found to have the highest correlation with concepts that were related to history from among the six sub-concepts of loyalty. This suggests that in their orientation toward the nation, individuals place particular emphasis on the moral values shared among the people who make up a society, especially the value of history as a factual basis for sustaining that society, and further that these values can be subject to change through individual experience. The present study shows that perceptions toward one’s own nation, history, and politics exist in an integrated manner in the identity of individuals and explains individual ideological orientations partly. Additionally, it reveals that Japanese people also regard patriotism and nationalism as different concepts—albeit only slightly different.

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In reading, both perceptual processing and sentential processing are activated. Previous studies suggested that perceptual representations in reading were generated as if a reader was seeing the scene from a protagonist’s perspective. However, while most studies have examined the use of English as experimental stimuli, few studies have used the Japanese language. Therefore, the present study varied the position of the protagonist’s perspective in Japanese sentence stimuli (e.g., “You are sitting in an airplane.” or “You are looking at an airplane.”) and tested the response time and error rate of the relate of a part (e.g., “seat belt” or “wing”). The results show that when perspective and part location matched there were faster responses with lower false response rates than when they did not match. Thus, these results suggest that perceptual processing is activated by linguistic cues about perspective and that the perceptual representations generated tend to be similar regardless of language, based on consistency with previous studies using English.

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本研究の目的は、健康な中高年の住民を対象に、実行系機能とバランス機能にきき足による違いがあるかどうかを検討することであった。実行機能テストとしてTimed-Up-And-Go（TGUG）テストが採用され、バランス機能テストとして重心動揺計の指標（Romberg 比）が用いられた。調査対象群は、左足きき32人と右足きき200人であった。結果は、重心動揺計でのRomberg比の成績には左きき足群と右きき足群の間に違いが認められなかった。 しかし、TGUGテストでは、左きき足群の方が右きき足群よりも成績が有意に劣ることが明らかとなった。これらの結果は、前頭前野が実行機能を制御していることから、左きき足の中高齢者は右足ききの高齢者よりも実行機能が脆弱であるという仮説を支持している。

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In general, we use expressions of other sensory modalities when expressing scents (e.g., sweet smell, sharp smell). Hence, it is possible that information processing in olfaction involves information processing in other sensory modalities. Particularly, many studies have been conducted on vision and olfaction, revealing that visual stimuli such as colors and pictures affect olfaction, and that shape characteristics affect scent intensity (e.g., Sakai et al., 2006; Ayabe, 2011). These findings can be applied to the package design of fragrance products such as fabric softeners and perfumes. Childers & Jass (2002) found that many elements constituting package design, font design, in particular, influence consumers’ evaluation and impression of a product. Therefore, in this study, we examined how the visual characteristics of font type (round font, square font) affect scent impression (likeability, intensity, softness, gender associated with the scent). The results indicated that the visual characteristics of the font, presented simultaneously as the scent, influence scent likeability, intensity, and associated gender. The likeability ratings were a significant main effect of font type, and were significantly higher for the round font than for the no letter condition. Thus suggesting that round font enhanced scent likeability. The intensity ratings and associated gender significantly interacted in the scent and font conditions. The match (or mismatch) between scent image and visual characteristics influenced scent impression. However, not all font types were found to be effective for all scents in this study. These results suggest that the effect of vision on scent impression may be influenced not simply by whether the image of the scent matches the visual characteristics, but by the degree of harmony between the scent and font impression (the degree to which the impression matches).

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We examined the stereotypical images of those who do not have a romantic partner with considering their desire for a romantic relationship. We revealed that those who had neither a romantic partner nor a desire for a romantic relationship were evaluated the most negatively in the sociality dimension. We also revealed that they were evaluated negatively in the positive trait dimension, while those who do not have a romantic partner but have a desire for were not. Furthermore, we showed that they were evaluated negatively in the negative trait dimension by those who had less egalitarian sex role attitudes. We discussed the possibility that stereotypes about those who do not have a romantic partner were involved with the internalization of a “normative” life course.

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Arguably born from the Sustainable Development (SD) paradigm, Circular Economy (CE) presently stands out amongst its sister concepts. The relationship between CE and the principle of SD remains unclear, although the two are connected. Despite excelling in environmental and economic aspects, CE literature is for the most part silent regarding the third aspect of SD: social equity. This study analyzes the relationship between the two concepts and how CE litarature has attempted to fill in the gap thus far. The literature seems unanimous in acknowledging the gap, yet the body of work that attempts to fill it is minuscule. This article emphasizes the importance of integrating social consideration to CE in developing countries, taking waste pickers (WPs) as an example. Environmental Justice concept can be a key tool for such integration. The study also points out that Japan, one of the developed countries, cannot be indifferent to social consideration for its CE policies. We conclude that more research is needed concerning how social aspects could be integrated into and strengthened in CE.

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Few studies have explored the relationship between orthostatic hypotension (OH) and cognition. The aim of this study was to examine the association of OH with cognitive functions and its modification effect by blood pressure status in the middle aged and the older. Participants were 819 community-dwelling middle aged and older persons without dementia. The cognitive functions were measured by means of logical memory test, D-CAT (digit cancellation test), verbal fluency test and MMSE. The OH was defined as a drop of 20 mmHg or more in systolic blood pressure or of 10 mmHg or more in diastolic blood pressure on standing from a seated position. Blood pressure (BP) was used to categorize participants as hypertensives or normotensives. Participants were divided into two OH groups (OH+ and OH–) and two BP groups (hypertensives or normotensives). ANCOVA, using age, sex, education, and usage of antihypertensive drugs as covariate, OH group and BP group as independent variables, and scores on the cognitive tasks as dependent variables, was conducted to investigate the effect of an interaction between OH and BP status. A significant interaction was shown for the score on logical memory test. The score of logical memory test in OH+ group was higher than that in OH– groups in the hypertensives condition. On the contrary, the score of logical memory test in OH+ group was lower than that in OH– groups in the normotensives condition. The conditions under which orthostatic hypotension decreased cognitive functions were discussed.

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