A survey study was conducted to examine the effect of the information processing styles (rational processing vs. intuitive processing; Epstein, 1994) on the beliefs toward paranormal phenomena. Five-hundred and fifty Japanese citizens who reside in the metropolitan area in Japan were randomly selected and received the questionnaire, and 116 citizens responded. The information processing style was measured with the short version of Rational and Intuitive Information-Processing Style Inventory developed by Naito et al (2004). We also asked the participants to indicate the degree to believe the three kinds of paranormal phenomena; fortune telling ("a horoscope" and "blood type fortune-telling", para-science ("UFO" and "supernatural power", and conventional religion ("gods or Buddha" and "a curse". To examine the effect of the information processing style, we first divided the participants into 4 groups (high-rational and high-intuitive, high-rational and low-intuitive, low-rational and high-intuitive, and low-rational and low-intuitive), and submitted the ratings for the degree to believe the three kind of paranormal phenomena for 2 (high-rational vs. low-rational) x 2 (high-intuitive vs. low-intuitive) ANOVAs. The analyses revealed the significant interaction of rational processing and intuitive processing for fortune telling; the participants who were high-rational and low-intuitive believed the fortune telling less than other. Furthermore, a tendency for the main effect for para-science indicated that those who were high-rational believed para-science more than those who were low-rational. For conventional religion, no effect of information processing style was revealed. The discussion argued that these results were to some extent due to the social functions of three kinds of paranormal phenomena.

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[in Japanese]

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This study examined the effectiveness of the responsive environment for social interaction in 6 high functioning children (10 to 12 years old) with pervasive developmental disorder. These children have impairment in the development of reciprocal social interaction. Using the 'Jenga' game to construct the environment - a tower-creation game using 54 wooden blocks - two players take turns to remove a wooden block from the wooden tower and place it on top of the tower. Five experiments were executed during a period of 7 months. Opponents play for 15 minutes per experiment. High functioning children with pervasive developmental disorder competed with the researcher as the opponent. The child receives the opponent's behavior and, in return, the opponent's reaction. The responsive environment was measured by the reaction that a researcher received from a child. This environment has reciprocity, changeableness and dynamic properties. One reactive time at after a single play of both a child and researcher was adopted as the control- measure to quantify social interaction. The results indicated that interaction with children's environments changed on the whole, and suggested that the setting of responsive environment enabled children to experience social interaction continuously and improve their perspectives.

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[in Japanese]

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This study examined effects of physical and mental countermeasures on the P300-based guilty knowledge test (GKT). Twenty participants were required to choose on out of five cards, to record it number, and put the card in an envelope to be handed to an experimenter. The number on the all cards was 6 for the all participant. In the GKT, participants were presented one target, one probe, and four irrelevant stimuli in the random order. A probe stimulus is the chosen card that only the participants would know, while irrelevant and target stimuli are not the chosen cards. Participants were required to push a right button as quickly and accuracy as possible when the target stimulus was presented on the computer display, and to push a left button as quickly and accuracy as possible when probe and irrelevant stimulus were presented on the computer display. In addition, all participants were instructed to conduct one of 2 types of countermeasures. In a physical countermeasure condition, participants were instructed to up the ankle when stimuli are presented. In a mental countermeasure, participants were instructed to count backward in silent by sevens from 200 during the experiment. The order of the two types of countermeasures was counterbalanced for each participant. In both the conditions, amplitudes of P300 were larger for the target stimuli than the probe and irrelevant stimuli but were not different between the probe and irrelevant stimuli. Peak amplitudes of P300 for the target stimuli did not differ between in the physical countermeasure condition and in the mental countermeasure condition. The physical and the mental countermeasures reduced the accuracy of the P300-based GKT. Thus both the countermeasures were equally effective. These results clearly demonstrated that the P300-based GKT has no special immunity to the countermeasures.

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Although growing number of companies have been working hard on environment management such as ISO 14001, it is only recently that they have started to willingly disclose their measures associated with the biodiversity. And for many companies, "ecological services" and "ecosystem preservation" are the key issues within the context of "biodiversity." "Ecological services" include business activities within the value chain such as procurement, development, manufacturing and sales involving the biological resources. "Ecosystem preservation" mainly consists of activities such as regional development and forest preservation. We have established here the "Guideline for Corporate Biodiversity Activities" (herein after referred to as the Guideline) based on the Guideline for Private Sector Participation in Biodiversity published by the Ministry of Environment. The Guideline is consistent with the environmental management framework of ISO 14001. Our team has evaluated the existing corporate measures and initiatives involved with the biodiversity by studying into the corporate environmental/CSR reports on the basis of the Guideline. As a result, we've come across quite a number of specific activities relevant to biodiversity disclosed by companies but failed to confirm their concrete measures and systematic approach for the biodiversity management in line with the PDCA cycle (i.e. impact evaluation, policy making, setting target and action plan, education and making improvements). For further development and quality enhancement of the corporate biodiversity management, stronger measures against the biodiversity risks and its systematic approach shall be seriously considered.

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An electric wheelchair is classified into the joystick type or scooter type in Japan. Especially, an electric wheelchair of the joystick type is one of the indispensable one for the movement of the person with severely physically disabilities. In this paper, the current state in Japan is described about the kind of a law, a standard, and a supply system and an electric wheelchair that is related to an electric wheelchair and markets. In this paper, the current status of the related law, supplier systems, the achievements of technical functions are described.

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Metamemory refers to knowledge and monitoring of our own memory. This evaluation can be measured by a judgment of learning (JOL), which is a subjective judgment regarding our confidence in whether a learned item will be remembered in the future. We examined the effects on people's judgments of learning of a different kind of relatedness, which occurs in a list organized into sets of categorically related words and unrelated words. Then, we investigated how metamemory is involved in memory strategy. Furthermore, we examined the hypothesis of neural mechanism that the frontal cortex is critically involved in monitoring and control processes, which are central components of metamemory. Participants were thirteen healthy Japanese adults, and were instructed to memorize a list of words consisted of four exemplars from each of four categories (categorical list condition) or a list of unrelated words (unrelated list condition). The JOLs were made immediately after each learning. During the words learning and JOLs, we also measured oxygenated hemoglobin changes [oxyHb] using the near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). The results showed that JOL would be more accurate in the categorical list condition compared with the unrelated list condition, and categorization in memory strategy would be more used in the categorical list condition rather than the unrelated list condition. The results of NIRS showed that [oxyHb] changes in dorsolatere prefrontal area were more increased in the categorical list condition rather than the unrelated list condition, while [oxyHb] changes in medial prefrontal area were more increased in the unrelated list condition rather than the categorical list condition. These findings demonstralte metamemory is involved in an efficient memory strategy and distinct neural mechanisms supporting metamemory processes. It suggests that dorsolateral prefrontal area plays an important role in cognitive control, while medial prefrontal area does it in cognitive monitoring.

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"Gratton effect (conflict adaptation effect)" refers to the increase of compatibility effects observed in stimulus-response paradigm when the congruent trials appear more frequently, compared to less frequently. We aimed to examine the effects of visual hemifield where task-relevant letter strings are presented on Gratton effect. In Experiment 1, we manipulated the appearance probability for the congruent / incongruent trials (75 % / 25 %) in the left and right visual field. The results showed that the compatibility effect was greater in the hemifield where the congruent trials appear more frequently (75 %), than the hemifield where those appear less frequently (25 %). That is, we found "Gratton effect across hemifields" (left and right). In Experiment 2, we manipulated the appearance probability for congruent / incongruent trials in the upper and lower visual fields, instead of the left and right visual fields. The results obtained in Experiment 2 were different from those in Experiment1. The compatibility effects were not modulated by the appearance probability for the congruent / incongruent trials in the upper-lower visual field. These results obtained in the two experiments suggested that cognitive control in visual processing works independently in the left and right visual hemifield, not in the upper and lower visual hemifield. This finding provides the possibility, that the independent control of visual processing in the left and right visual field may due to that each cerebral hemisphere controls visual attention independently.

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When wheelchair users drive a vehicle, they have to use driving support equipment to compensate for their disability. Also, the drivers are forced to match themselves to the vehicle. For safety improvement, it is important that the driving environment is streamlined in regard to physical function. The purpose of this research is to understand the operational characteristics and physical conditions of wheelchair users when driving, and to study the driving environment in order to reduce driving load. In this research, movements of the head and muscle load of the shoulders and lower arms were analyzed while driving on curves, and the compatibility for wheelchair users on a driving environment, which was basically designed for physically unimpaired people, was studied. As a result, it was found that around the end of the curve, the balance between centrifugal force and maintaining body posture collapsed and, therefore, the body balance became unstable. In this situation, the steering operation is affected and, consequently, there is a risk of the vehicle swerving. Also, the acceleration-break lever or steering wheel was used to maintain body balance, so it became difficult to adjust operation of the vehicle, and it also became difficult to drive along the correct course of the road.

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Alajouanine (1956) defined three types of jargon aphasia - undifferentiated, asemantic and paraphasic jargon - and postulated the so-called "three-step recovery hypothesis of jargon", that is, these jargon types evolute in this order in a recovery course of a jargon aphasic. However, very few observations supporting the hypothesis were actually reported. This paper is concerned with the experience of treating a jargon patient whose disorganization of speech varied in this order during seven months since the onset of cerebral infarction. The recovery course of her jargon aphasia was divided into four stages. After the first acute stage of an untranscribable jargon, a neologistic jargon was observed in the second stage. She presented an undifferentiated jargon only in reading tasks. In the third stage, neologisms were decreased, and one misused word or semantic paraphasia, "Jii-chan" ("grandpa"), was produced stereotypically. In the last fourth stage, a large amount of misused words, including "Jii-chan", with few neologisms was found. It can be considered that speech output of the final stage corresponded to semantic jargon. The observation of the recovery course of this patient may support the three-step recovery hypothesis of jargon aphasia as postulated by Alajouanine.

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The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of the intervention by college students on QOL, especially the morale, for the older old living in solitude. Twenty-one community dwellers in rural town (their age ranged from 75 to 92 years old) participated in Study 1. In Study 1, college students helped the participants do farming and keeping their house, had a chat with them and did recreation activities for them as the intervention for improving their QOL. The results showed that the score on PGC morale scale in the post-intervention session was higher than in the pre- intervention session. On the other hand, the intervention did not change the score of IADL. Sixty community dwellers in rural town (their age ranged from 75 to 92 years old) participated in Study 2. To examine a regional difference, IADL and PGC morale scale scores of the participants in Study 1 were compared to those of the older old living in another rural town. The results showed that there was no regional difference on scores of IADL and PGC morale scale, and that the results in Study 1 were not dependent on the peculiarity of participants. From these findings, it is clear that the intervention by college students improves QOL of the older old living in solitude.

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