The purpose of the present study was to investigate the understanding of non-verbal communication by adults with mental retardation, and to examine the relation between their visual perception skills and the accuracy with which they identify others' expressions of emotions. Participants in the study, 124 adults with mild and moderate mental retardation (90 men, 34 women; average age, 20.6 years) and 128 college students without mental retardation (58 men, 70 women; aged 18-20 years), were asked to rate stimuli in which feelings of happiness, sadness, anger, or dislike were expressed. In all 3 experimental conditions, "voice only", "face only" (moving pictures on videotape), and "voice plus face" (moving pictures accompanied by sound), the adults with mental retardation identified the feelings less accurately than the college students did. In the "face only" and "voice plus face" conditions, happiness was identified more accurately than the other feelings. The adults with mental retardation identified the emotions in the "voice only" condition better than in the "face only" condition. The adults with mental retardation were more likely than the college students to confuse the expression of happiness with the expressions of anger and dislike. A positive relation was found in the participants with mental retardation between their visual perception skills, as measured on the Frostig Developmental Test of Visual Perception, and their identification of emotions in 2 of the 3 test conditions: "face" and "voice plus face".

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The present article describes the development and psychometric evaluation of the General-Purpose Scale of Self-Efficacy Beliefs in Interactions with Students with Disabilities (GSSEBISD). This new scale was devised to measure self-efficacy beliefs in the context of interactions among students with and without disabilities. A sample of 435 college students took 3 parallel versions of the scale. In the introduction to the scale, 2 versions specified either hearing impairments or visual impairments, whereas the third version was based on a non-disabling condition. Factor analyses of the scale yielded 2 factors, "Friendship" and "Self-Assertion," common to the 3 versions. The 2 factors obtained from the 3 versions were very similar to each other. Based on these factors, 2 subscales, each consisting of 9 items, were established in 3 versions. Analyses of the subscales indicated that all of them had satisfactory item characteristics, test-retest reliability (γ from 0.656 to 0.736), and internal consistency (α from 0.820 to 0.888). Data from multiple regression analyses and analyses of variance supported the convergent, construct, and criterion-related validity of the 3 versions. The subscales should be useful for the investigation of questions concerning the role of self-efficacy beliefs in educational settings.

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The purpose of the present study was to examine barrier-free measures for people with disabilities, in order to specify conditions essential for those with disabilities who study at institutions of higher education. The present author has cerebral palsy, and the study took his experiences into account. The facilities for users of wheelchairs at the Faculty of Education of "E" University were investigated, in order to examine their convenience for users. The conclusions are as follows: (1) At universities, accessible entrances, doorways, ramps, passages and corridors, lavatories, and elevators should be marked with the international access symbol. (2) Having such information available will enable persons with disabilities to be integrated in higher education with university students and staff who do not have disabilities.

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The aim of the present study was to clarify auditory detection and auditory comprehension with amplification (use of a hearing aid) in children with hearing impairments. A 14-item questionnaire was developed, quantifying performance with a hearing aid in everyday life. The resulting profiles assess auditory detection and auditory comprehension with amplification in different listening situations. Primary and junior high school children (4th to 9th graders, N=44) with hearing impairments who were enrolled in regular classes and went to resource rooms completed the questionnaire. In order for their hearing aids to be assessed properly, the children had to be able to detect and understand various sounds when they were using their hearing aids. The focus of the test was on the difference between what the children could hear and what they could understand. The distributions of responses to the auditory detection and auditory comprehension items were analyzed. The results provide a means for assessing the relative effectiveness of a hearing aid.

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Recently, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been conceptualized from the viewpoint of a lack of behavioral inhibition, and elucidation of that process will be expected. The present article asserts that behavioral inhibition involves 2 processes, one of which is caused by inattention itself, or by impairment in cognitive processing as a result of inattention, and the other, by a failure of emotional control. The mechanisms for coping with these 2 processes are located in the prefrontal cortex; the processes are integrated in the center for executive attention. On the basis of the present analysis, I propose a hierarchically organized cognitive, neuropsychological model for the behavioral inhibition deficit in ADHD.

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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