Contribution: A remote laboratory system for induction motors was developed in this study. By creating an original simulated induction motor, the structure of the motor can be observed, and the current and magnetic flux can be measured safely. Background: Electrical machinery has little appeal to young engineers. Such machinery deals with…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the psychophysical boundary used for categorization of voiced-voiceless stop consonants in native Japanese speakers. Method: Twelve native Japanese speakers participated in the experiment. The stimuli were synthetic stop consonant-vowel stimuli varying in voice onset time (VOT) with…

This article develops an emergentist theory of children's agency. To make this claim, it first identifies the following two predicaments that scholars have faced in children's agency research: (1) social ambiguity in distinguishing children's learning from adults' guidance; and (2) causal uncertainty between children's cognitive development and…

This study examined young children's deception in a conflict situation. A puppet show was prepared involving a protagonist who went into hiding, an enemy who wanted to catch the protagonist, and a friend who was looking for the protagonist. In the no-conflict condition, the enemy asked the children about the location of the protagonist. In the…

This study examined age-group differences in eye movements among third-grade, fifth-grade, and adult Japanese readers. In Experiment 1, Japanese children, but not adults, showed a longer fixation time on logographic kanji words than on phonologically transparent hiragana words. Further, an age-group difference was found in the first fixation…

Serial ordering mechanisms have been investigated extensively in psychology and psycholinguistics. It has also been demonstrated repeatedly that long-term phonological knowledge contributes to serial ordering. However, the mechanisms that contribute to serial ordering have yet to be fully understood. To understand these mechanisms, we demonstrate…

This study proposes a method to detect problematic speech segments automatically for second language (L2) listeners, considering both lexical and acoustic aspects. It introduces a tool, Partial and Synchronized Caption (PSC), which provides assistance for language learners and fosters L2 listening skills. PSC presents purposively selected words…

We investigated the effects of two types of nonweight-bearing exercise on changes in bone-specific alkaline phosphatase (BAP) and pro-collagen type 1 C-peptide (P1P). BAP is a specific marker of bone synthesis, whereas P1P reflects synthesis of type 1 collagen in other organs as well as bone. Eight participants performed static and dynamic…

Five-month-old infants' vocalization when alone was investigated. Several researchers have reported observing that young infants vocalize in comfortable states without any response from others. As is implied by episodic reports in previous studies, it is possible that infants vocalize to play with their own vocal sound. Producing and listening to…

Growing evidence indicates a suite of generalized differences in the attentional and cognitive processing of adults from Eastern and Western cultures. Cognition in Eastern adults is often more relational and in Western adults is more object focused. Three experiments examined whether these differences characterize the cognition of preschool…

Vocabulary plays an important part in second language learning and there are many existing techniques to facilitate word acquisition. One of these methods is code-switching, or mixing the vocabulary of two languages in one sentence. In this paper the authors propose an experimental system for computer-assisted English vocabulary learning in…

This study investigates the properties of particles in Japanese from a pragmatic viewpoint. The main target of analysis is "wa" and "ga", which are regarded as a topic and nominative marker respectively. The research is based on the pragmatic theory proposed by Levinson (2000). This dissertation consists of three parts as…

In a previous study, Adachi, Kuwahata, Fujita, Tomonaga & Matsuzawa demonstrated that infant Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) form cross-modal representations of conspecifics but not of humans. However, because the subjects in the experiment were raised in a large social group and had considerably less exposure to humans than to…

To learn relational terms such as verbs and prepositions, children must first dissect and process dynamic event components. This paper investigates the way in which 8- to 14-month-old English-reared infants notice the event components, "figure" (i.e., the moving entity) and "ground" (i.e., stationary setting), in both dynamic…

Two experiments were conducted to examine whether students use arguments with refutation in one text for evaluating the opposite arguments without refutation in another text. Undergraduate students read two conflicting texts in either of the two orders: pro arguments text first and con arguments text first. After reading each text, they evaluated…