Do Dolls Resemble Their Makers?

Many often say that people resemble their pets or that the faces of manga characters and Buddha statues resemble those of their artists. Previous studies demonstrated that participants could match dogs with their owners, suggesting that pets resemble their owners. Other studies also demonstrated that people can match personal belongings, including inanimate objects, to their owners. However, it is unknown whether people tend to make objects that resemble themselves. In this study, we examined whether people tend to make objects that resemble themselves with dolls made of cloth as stimuli. The results demonstrated that people tend to project themselves into dolls, even in the case of amateur college students. The mere exposure effect or the algorithm "self seeks like" may be at play in not only people's selection of pets but also their making of objects.

Effect of personality traits on matching dolls and their makers.

Studies have shown that possessions such as cars and dogs resemble their owners, and products such as dolls resemble their makers even when students make them. We conducted three experiments to examine which part of the dolls resembled their makers. The results demonstrated that people match dolls to their makers when their eye regions were masked (Experiment 1), and the matching is possible even with the back views of the dolls (Experiment 2). These results may indicate people match dolls to their makers based on resemblances other than faces. Experiment 3 demonstrated that no effect of resemblance in personality traits was observed when dolls' faces were visible. However, the resemblance of personality traits assumed by the dolls and their makers play an important role in the matching judgment when dolls' faces were invisible (because of back views).

"Textual Prosody" Can Change Impressions of Reading in People With Normal Hearing and Hearing Loss.

Recently, dynamic text presentation, such as scrolling text, has been widely used. Texts are often presented at constant timing and speed in conventional dynamic text presentation. However, dynamic text presentation enables visually presented texts to indicate timing information, such as prosody, and the texts might influence the impression of reading. In this paper, we examined this possibility by focusing on the temporal features of digital text in which texts are represented sequentially and with varying speed, duration, and timing. We call this "textual prosody." We used three types of textual prosody: "Recorded," "Shuffled," and "Constant." Recorded prosody is the reproduction of a reader's reading with pauses and varying speed that simulates talking. Shuffled prosody randomly shuffles the time course of speed and pauses in the recorded type. Constant prosody has a constant presentation speed and provides no timing information. Experiment 1 examined the effect of textual prosody on people with normal hearing. Participants read dynamic text with textual prosody silently and rated their impressions of texts. The results showed that readers with normal hearing preferred recorded textual prosody and constant prosody at the optimum speed (6 letters/second). Recorded prosody was also preferred at a low presentation speed. Experiment 2 examined the characteristics of textual prosody using an articulatory suppression paradigm. The results showed that some textual prosody was stored in the articulatory loop despite it being presented visually. In Experiment 3, we examined the effect of textual prosody with readers with hearing loss. The results demonstrated that readers with hearing loss had positive impressions at relatively low presentation speeds when the recorded prosody was presented. The results of this study indicate that the temporal structure is processed regardless of whether the input is visual or auditory. Moreover, these results suggest that textual prosody can enrich reading not only in people with normal hearing but also in those with hearing loss, regardless of acoustic experiences.

Reading Traits for Dynamically Presented Texts: Comparison of the Optimum Reading Rates of Dynamic Text Presentation and the Reading Rates of Static Text Presentation.

With the growth in digital display technologies, dynamic text presentation is used widely in every day life, such as in electric advertisements and tickers on TV programs. Unlike static text reading, little is known about the basic characteristics underlying reading dynamically presented texts. Two experiments were performed to investigate this. Experiment 1 examined the optimum rate of dynamic text presentation in terms of a readability and favorability. This experiment demonstrated that, when the rate of text presentation was changed, there was an optimum presentation rate (around 6 letters/s in our condition) regardless of difficulty level. This indicates that the presentation rate of dynamic texts can affect the impression of reading. In Experiment 2, to elucidate the traits underlying dynamic text reading, we measured the reading speeds of silent and trace reading among the same participants and compared them with the optimum presentation rate obtained in Experiment 1. The results showed that the optimum rate was slower than with silent reading and faster than with trace reading, and, interestingly, the individual optimum rates of dynamic text presentation were correlated with the speeds of both silent and trace reading. In other words, the readers who preferred a fast rate in dynamic text presentation would also have a high reading speed for silent and trace reading.

Development of brief versions of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for schizophrenia: considerations of the structure and predictability of intelligence.

Short forms (SF) of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale have been developed to enhance its practicality. However, only a few studies have addressed the Wechsler Intelligence Scale Revised (WAIS-R) SFs based on data from patients with schizophrenia. The current study was conducted to develop the WAIS-R SFs for these patients based on the intelligence structure and predictability of the Full IQ (FIQ). Relations to demographic and clinical variables were also examined on selecting plausible subtests. The WAIS-R was administered to 90 Japanese patients with schizophrenia. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and multiple regression analysis were conducted to find potential subtests. EFA extracted two dominant factors corresponding to Verbal IQ and Performance IQ measures. Subtests with higher factor loadings on those factors were initially nominated. Regression analysis was carried out to reach the model containing all the nominated subtests. The optimality of the potential subtests included in that model was evaluated from the perspectives of the representativeness of intelligence structure, FIQ predictability, and the relation with demographic and clinical variables. Taken together, the dyad of Vocabulary and Block Design was considered to be the most optimal WAIS-R SF for patients with schizophrenia, reflecting both intelligence structure and FIQ predictability.

Phonological fluency is uniquely impaired in Japanese-speaking schizophrenia patients: confirmation study.

In alphabet-based language-speaking patients with schizophrenia, category fluency is disproportionately disturbed as compared with phonological fluency. Deficits in category and phonological fluency observed in Japanese patients, however, were similar. The aim of the present study was to replicate these findings by modifying the task to minimize the influence of lack of motivation and concentration in the patients. Similar deficits were found in both types of fluency in Japanese patients. Patients who speak Japanese have deficits in phonological fluency, compared with patients who speak alphabet-based languages, suggesting that the pattern of impairment in verbal fluency in schizophrenia is dependent on the specific language system.

Association Study between Auditory P3a/P3b Event-Related Potentials and Thought Disorder in Schizophrenia.

Thought disorder is considered as one of the core features of schizophrenia and several research groups previously reported an association between P300 (P3b) amplitude and thought disorder in schizophrenia. However, previous studies have not evaluated two P300 subcomponents (P3a and P3b) to investigate whether the relationship with thought disorder was specific to P3b. In this study, we measured P3b and thought disorder of 60 patients with schizophrenia. We also measured P3a of 36 patients out of this sample. We replicated correlation between P3b amplitude and thought disorder and extended this finding by observing that this correlation was not present for the P3a subcomponent. These results suggest that specific electrophysiological abnormalities associated with context updating may underlie thought disorder in schizophrenia.

Increased positive thought disorder with illness duration in patients with schizophrenia.

It is unclear whether the severity of positive formal thought disorder, a core clinical feature of schizophrenia, is stable or worsening through the chronic course of the illness. The neurocognitive basis for positive thought disorder also remains unclear. The aim of the present paper was to examine the relationship between thought disorder as measured by the Thought Disorder Index (TDI) and duration of illness and neuropsychological indices in 79 patients with schizophrenia. TDI scores increased in proportion to illness duration. TDI scores were not associated with verbal memory or executive functioning. These results indicate an ongoing worsening of positive thought disorder through the course of illness in schizophrenia.

Confirmation of a relationship between reduced auditory P300 amplitude and thought disorder in schizophrenia.

We have previously reported an association between reduced amplitude of auditory P300 event-related potential and severity of positive thought disorder as assessed by the Comprehensive Index of Positive Thought Disorder in a sample of patients with chronic schizophrenia. Here we replicate those findings using a different measure, Thought Disorder Index (TDI), in a new larger sample of 55 patients. The auditory P300 amplitude showed a significant negative correlation with scores on TDI. This correlation was relatively more pronounced in the left temporal region than in the right temporal region. These results further suggest that electrophysiological abnormalities of information processing may underlie positive thought disorder in schizophrenia.

Abnormal association between reduced magnetic mismatch field to speech sounds and smaller left planum temporale volume in schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is associated with language-related dysfunction. A previous study [Schizophr. Res. 59 (2003c) 159] has shown that this abnormality is present at the level of automatic discrimination of change in speech sounds, as revealed by magnetoencephalographic recording of auditory mismatch field in response to across-category change in vowels. Here, we investigated the neuroanatomical substrate for this physiological abnormality. Thirteen patients with schizophrenia and 19 matched control subjects were examined using magnetoencephalography (MEG) and high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to evaluate both mismatch field strengths in response to change between vowel /a/ and /o/, and gray matter volumes of Heschl's gyrus (HG) and planum temporale (PT). The magnetic global field power of mismatch response to change in phonemes showed a bilateral reduction in patients with schizophrenia. The gray matter volume of left planum temporale, but not right planum temporale or bilateral Heschl's gyrus, was significantly smaller in patients with schizophrenia compared with that in control subjects. Furthermore, the phonetic mismatch strength in the left hemisphere was significantly correlated with left planum temporale gray matter volume in patients with schizophrenia only. These results suggest that structural abnormalities of the planum temporale may underlie the functional abnormalities of fundamental language-related processing in schizophrenia.