The Early Childhood Education Quality (ECEQ) initiative is a pioneering approach toward supporting ongoing, self-organized professional development in the private kindergarten sector in Japan. The purpose of this study is to examine how kindergarten teachers and ECEQ coordinators experience this approach and view the ECEQ process. Online…

The fostering of learner autonomy has become an essential element of modern pedagogy and an established object of research. There are many difficulties in providing evidence of learners' development towards autonomy, however, since it is not measurable in a traditional sense. As a learning advisor (LA) at a private language university in Japan, I…

We examined the effects of presentation rate on speech perception in noise and its relation to reading in 117 typically developing (TD) children and 10 children with reading difficulties (RD) in Japan. Responses in a speech perception task were measured for speed, accuracy, and stability in two conditions that varied stimulus presentation rate:…

We conducted 3 studies to explore cultural differences in global versus local processing and their developmental trajectories. In Study 1 ("N" = 363), we found that Japanese college students were less globally oriented in their processing than American or Argentine participants. We replicated this effect in Study 2 ("N" =…

Investigates the relationship between the infant's attachment to the mother and the mother's perception of support from the father. Mothers who receive positive support from fathers tend to have infants with secure attachment. (AS)

This article presents a case study of a Japanese adolescent with autism who strongly perceived inanimate things (Kanji characters) as real persons. Physiognomic perception is investigated as a characteristic mode of autism, and its effects are discussed. It is concluded that the poor cognitive-language ability of some autistic people may shape…

Dimensions of Japanese person perception are assessed through an instrument standardized to tap basic dimensions of person perception and whose scales are defined behaviorally. Dimensions are then compared statistically with results from similar cross-cultural studies. (AM)

Provided in this annual report, the 10th of a series, are the texts of four papers presented at a preconference workshop on new directions for infancy research. The papers focus on the middle European contribution to infancy research, main themes in European research on infant perception and cognition, an innovative therapeutic approach to…

The research report describes a study measuring the effects of two teaching approaches on 7th and 8th grade students' perception and achievement during a twelve day social studies unit on modern Japan. Two approaches were studied: Method A, which strives to bring about personal identification of students with American culture; and Method B, which…