The present study was designed to investigate the relationship between sentence comprehension and imitation of SOV/OSV (S=Subject; O=Object; V=Verb), in 30 individuals with mental retardation, aged 14-36 years old, including 27 males and 3 females. The present authors hypothesized that the sentence comprehension process has two stages: the first, where subjects store words in memory according to a sentence format, and second, where subjects identify the agent and the patient from information in memory about the word order or the particles. The subjects comprehended a simple sentence using one of the following strategies: probability, word order, or particles. The subjects' sentence format was determined by the results of sentence imitation tasks. The results from this study were as follows: (1) all the subjects using the particle strategy had both SOV and OSV formats: (2) the subjects who had no OSV format did not acquire the particle strategy; and (3) some of the subjects who had both SOV and OSV formats did not acquire the particle strategy. The process of the development of sentence comprehension is discussed in detail.

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Holyroyd developed the QRS (Questionnaire on Resources and Stress), which measured parents' stress from caring for their children with disabilities. In the present article, we present two statistical studies using our version of the short form of the QRS, which consists of 55 items on 11 scales. The scales are Parental Affliction, Pessimism about Child Development, Overprotection/Dependency, Anxiety about the Future of the Child, Social Isolation, Burden for Members of the Family, Financial Problems, Lack of Family Integration, Intellectual Incapacitation, Physical Incapacitation, and Need for the Care of the Child. (1) Cronbach's α reliability coefficients were computed for the 11 scales. The α coefficient ranged from 0.329 (Social Isolation) to 0.817 (Anxiety about the Future of the Child). (2) We compared the stress of 378 parents who had children with disabilities (mean age: 13.50 years old) and 662 parents who had children without disabilities (mean age: 8.20 years old) in Japan. The former showed higher stress than the latter on all 11 scales. (3) We also compared the stress of 137 Scottish parents who had children with disabilities (mean age: 11.45 years old) and the 378 Japanese parents who had children with disabilities (mean age: 13.50 years old). The former showed higher stress than the latter on 5 of the scales. However, the results were reversed on 2 scales, and there was no difference between the two groups of parents on 4 scales.

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Prompt treatment of children with hemophilia can prevent chronic arthropathy and physical dysfunction. It is important to recognize hemophilic bleeding at an early stage, to ensure prompt treatment. The purposes of the present paper are as follows: (1) to investigate the factors that interfere with the recognition of hemophilic bleeding and with effective treatment of it; and (2) to investigate the factors that facilitate recognition and effective treatment of hemophilic bleeding. Six bleeding episodes in four adult patients with hemophilia were analyzed. The results indicate that the following 8 factors interfere with the recognition and effective treatment of hemophilic bleeding: (1)an unusual cause of the bleeding; (2) a failure to maintain the pattern of daily activity; (3) succumbing to social pressure; (4) a delay in investigating and identifying the cause of the bleeding; (5) neglect of early symptoms of bleeding; (6) a delay in confirming that there is bleeding; (7) inappropriate coping behavior; and (8) a delay in coping behavior. Also, the results indicate that the following 6 factors facilitate the recognition and effective treatment of hemophilic bleeding; (1) maintenance and improvement of daily activity patterns; (2) confronting social pressure; (3) attempts to determine the cause of bleeding; (4) investigating the early symptoms of bleeding; (5) coping behavior based on confirmation of the bleeding; and (6) coping behavior based on previous bleeding experiences. These findings are discussed from the perspective of the organization of experience with hemophilic bleeding, psychological defense mechanism, and self-efficacy.

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With the view of establishing proper guidelines for the preparation of clear illustrations for low-vision subjects, a total of 22 subjects with low or normal vision were examined for their brightness discrimination thresholds. The determination was made through two experiments. Experiment 1 used a color discrimination tester for brightness determination (Nippon Shikisai-Sha). First, factors influencing the discrimination were examined in terms of the sum of the deviations. The discrimination threshold for those subjects who were unable to arrange the full set of color pieces correctly in a row was determined roughly by asking them to select and arrange only some of the color pieces, where the pieces given to them were every second or third one in the series. Experiment 2 was performed in order to determine the discrimination threshold, using materials that approx-imated illustrations. The experimental materials were square sheets of standard colored paper (1.5cm×1.5cm) which were processed and attached mosaically, one by one. The results were as follows: In Experiment 1, all subjects were able to discriminate a difference in brightness of N0.64. However, in Experiment 2, using materials approximating illustrations, subjects whose near vision was 0.04〜0.09 discriminated poorly; this was especially noticeable in the range of N1.5-N3.1, in which brightness was low. It was also shown that the preparation of illustrations for low-vision subjects in achromatic colors only required a difference in brightness greater than N0.64.

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Performance on the Bender-Gestalt Test reflects both the recognition process and the reconstruction process. In the present study, two experiments were carried out. The purpose of Experiment 1 was to clarify the extent to which the recognition process and the reconstruction process contribute to Bender-Gestalt Test performance, using a recognition test and a reconstruction test. Subjects were ten normal children with a mean age of 6 years 7 months, and the same number of children with mental retardation, matched for mental age. First, the Bender-Gestalt Test (pretest) was administered according to the manual by Koppitz; then a recognition test was given. In this test, subjects were required to select a correct figure to match a standard figure. Finally, a reconstruction test was administered, in which subjects were requested to construct the same pattern as a standard figure by assembling elements. As a result of multiple regression analysis, it was found that the reconstruction process made a greater contribution to the total score on the Bender-Gestalt Test than the recognition process did. The purpose of Experiment 2 was to examine the efficacy of reconstruction training for improving Bender-Gestalt Test performance. Of the 10 children with mental retardation who participated in Experiment 1, 8 served as subjects. They received construction training with modeling and guidance, using the same materials as in the reconstruction test. After finishing the training, they were administered the Bender-Gestalt Test (posttest) again. Comparisons of the scores between the pretest and the posttest revealed a significant improvement in the total scores on the posttest. This improvement was mainly due to an improvement on "failure of integration" (failures to connect components of the design).

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Developmentally, the "Standing-up motion" is the process of arriving at an upright standing posture, and it refers to two processes: standing up while taking hold of something, and standing up from a crouching posture. Children with cerebral palsy have problems with the process of such positioning in a vertical direction that requires them to cope with gravity. The standing-up motion involves a shift from an unstable posture to a stable one. Studying this shift will shed light on the process of acquisition of body-movement control, in which balance adjustment among various body parts plays a vital role. This study applies the "Dousa method" to two children with cerebral palsy who were not able to stand up, with the goal of total control of their body parts. The Dousa method sees body movements as "Dousa", that is, as a psychological process in the subject. In other words, it emphasizes the contribution of psychological processes to human body movements. It sees the difficulties of children with cerebral palsy as coming from their inability to move their body, and it tries to improve their ability have conscious control of their body movements. In this study, the motion of standing up from a crouching posture is analyzed, and the process of acquisition of the balance between tension and relaxation among various body parts is examined. The results are as follows: first, when the Dousa method was applied, the children became able to relax unfavorable tension in various body parts, and the crouching and standing postures became stabilized. Second, along with the stabilization of these postures, tentative active movements in various directions appeared in many body parts. They appeared not only in the sitting and standing postures, but also in the motion of standing up. Finally, after these movements started to be controlled with appropriate tension and relaxation, the movements of various body parts involved in the standing-up motion became controlled in both spatial and temporal dimensions, and the shift (motion) to an upright standing posture became smooth.

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The present review of problem-solving behavior in children with mental retardation has two goals. The primary purpose of the review is to clarify how cognitive and motivational factors function respectively or reciprocally as determinants of performance on probability learning tasks. The second purpose is to attempt a methodological reexamination of probability learning, in order to resolve the developmental-difference controversy. Weir (1964) proposed a developmental hypothesis based on behaviorism, in which problem-solving processes changed from single units to mediational responses with increasing age. From another viewpoint, Tanaka (1979) analyzed and described the logical structure of this task as characterized by two continued levels of learning. The first level of learning is hypothesis testing; this aims to discover a rule by which problems are solved at 100% success. The second level grasps at maximization as the most effective strategy. Tanaka (1980) also examined problem-solving processes in children with mental retardation from the viewpoint of a cognitive framework. From this analysis, he found that the higher the CA (MA) was in children without mental retardation, the more they attended to the cue sets and logically operated on these cue sets. Such a developmental tendency was not, however, found in children with mental retardation. In the time since Tanaka's analysis was published, although children with mental retardation were not used as subjects in many studies, it was shown that cognitive functioning (e.g., serial memory, abstract integration) was related to systematic alternation, maximization, or perseveration in probability learning (Kreitler et al., 1983), and also that with increasing age (i.e., from 5 to 12 years old), children developed conceptions of probability and consequently used more maximization and hypothesis testing (Kreitler et al., 1989). On the other hand, it has been reported that children with mental retardation showed maximization on a probability learning task because they were willing to settle for a relatively low amount of reinforcement. This was shown through experimental manipulations in which success and failure experiences were the experimental conditions; this also proved Zigler's model of the expectancy-success hypothesis. In addition to such analyses of motivational factors, Kreitler et al. (1984) have confirmed that level of curiosity affects children's probability learning. However, there is no research on how motivational variables affect any cognitive processes at the first level of learning on probability learning. In order to resolve the developmental-difference controversy, reciprocity should be investigated by using the method of formative expreriments in which some cognitive processes are extacted as experimental conditions.

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Recently, neuropsychological studies have had an increasing tendency to consider autism to be a frontal system dysfunction. Several studies have been based on Luria's brain functional model. In the present paper, we discuss the significance of this hypothesis, and some problems with it. Finally, we describe the need to develop a comprehensive neuropsychological model of autism that involves the Block I system in Luria's brain functional model.

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