Spontaneous blinking is one of the most frequent human behaviours. While attentionally guided blinking may benefit human survival, the function of spontaneous frequent blinking in cognitive processes is poorly understood. To model human spontaneous blinking, we proposed a leaky integrate-and-fire model with a variable threshold which is assumed to represent physiological fluctuations during cognitive tasks. The proposed model is capable of reproducing bimodal, normal, and widespread peak-less distributions of inter-blink intervals as well as the more common popular positively skewed distributions. For bimodal distributions, the temporal positions of the two peaks depend on the baseline and the amplitude of the fluctuating threshold function. Parameters that reproduce experimentally derived bimodal distributions suggest that relatively slow oscillations (0.11-0.25 Hz) govern blink elicitations. The results also suggest that changes in blink rates would reflect fluctuations of threshold regulated by human internal states.

In previous studies, theorists proposed that students' beliefs about the nature of formal and working knowledge can be changed in accordance with the view of classes. The newer view emerges through learning activities. The 2 instructions in the present research were designed to use inquiries in order to foster a constructivist's view of classes. In Study 1, the participants were university students (N=70
8 males, 62 females) in an introductory psychology class. The teacher had the students ask their own questions and discuss the lesson contents
the teacher provided feedback in the next lecture. The results indicated that approximately two-thirds of the students came to believe that formal knowledge was more objectively justified or that working knowledge was more contextual and applicable, whereas the remaining students came to believe that the nature of all knowledge was lower. In Study 2, the participants were also university students (N=37
4 males, 33 females) in an introductory psychology class. In addition to the procedures used in Study 1, the teacher instructed the students to focus on the value of questioning as one way to find diversified meanings of knowledge and as an origin of knowing new things. The results suggested that the students came to believe that formal knowledge was more objectively justified or that working knowledge was more applicable. These results imply that the "pleasure" that comes from knowing other points of view is a key for opening the door leading to an amicable settlement of the conflict between the existing and newer views of classes. However, the intervention effect of a single class was limited.

In this chapter, the authors showed that eyeblink synchronization enables researchers to investigate the appeal power of narrative performance empirically. The proposed method relies on the ability of audience members as epistemic agents to recognize and understand the performance. As spontaneous eyeblinks loosely co-vary with individual's allocation and release of attentions, the timings of eyeblinks could be entrained by the details of narrative performances as the common inputs. Thus, the standard basis accumulated by the collective eyeblink responses enables experimenter to judge whether or not a particular performance contains universal appeal to sense-making. Here, the authors introduced that the empirical studies to assess the appeal power of Rakugo (a traditional narrative performance). An expert artist, compared to a novice performer, created implicit breakpoints on participants' attentional process. It were discussed that the applicable scopes of the eyeblink relevant indices, upcoming research on eyeblink synchronization, and new research on human collective behaviors.

Whereas the entrainment of movements and aspirations among audience members has been known as a basis of collective excitement in the theater, the role of the entrainment of cognitive processes among audience members is still unclear. In the current study, temporal patterns of the audience's attention were observed using eyeblink responses. To determine the effect of interactions among audience members on cognitive entrainment, as well as its direction (attractive or repulsive), the eyeblink synchronization of the following two groups were compared: (1) the experimental condition, where the audience members (seven frequent viewers and seven first-time viewers) viewed live performances in situ, and (2) the control condition, where the audience members (15 frequent viewers and 15 first-time viewers) viewed videotaped performances in individual experimental settings (results reported in previous study.) The results of this study demonstrated that the mean values of a measure of asynchrony (i.e., D-interval) were much lower for the experimental condition than for the control condition. Frequent viewers had a moderate attractive effect that increased as the story progressed, while a strong attractive effect was observed throughout the story for first-time viewers. The attractive effect of interactions among a group of spectators was discussed from the viewpoint of cognitive and somatic entrainment in live performances.

The nature that critical thinking (must) have depends on the individual's epistemological stance. That is, the focal point to be critical is epistmic judgment about origin of knowing, limiting the scope of critical thinking by itself in concordance with their own epistemological stance. This paper provides a framework to capture critical thinking adequately in accordance with personal epistemology (i.e., individuals' beliefs about the nature of knowledge and knowing). From the viewpoint of rewarding life, the current paper points out neglected 3 aspects of existing critical thinking conceptions which usually based on absolutism: (1) interrelationships between objection and subjection, or theory and self, (2) emergent critical thinking through interactions with others or circumstance, and (3) possibility of instrumental use of critical thinking along with the situational demands. This is the critical thinking as cognitive tools used for different purposes; absolutist's choice which fact is correct or incorrect in their representation of reality as well as evaluativist's responsible judgment and decision according to criteria of argument and evidence.

The present article purposes a multiple time scale model that integrates existing models of personal epistemology. The model's assumptions are as follows. (a) in one's mind, knowledge and knowing are not represented as systems of decontextualized conceptions, but rather as resources embedded in particular situations of cognitive activity, (b) there are 2 distinct hut interrelated domains of personal epistemology : general knowledge and knowledge for use (c) a tentative view of the world as a situated typical mental model in which framework knowledge is controlled is constructed through the interaction between an individuals personal epistemology and actual tasks that the person faces in cognitive activity : (d) in cases in which problems cannot be resolved within that framework. the incongruity motivates the individual to reconstruct alternative tentative views of the world; and (e) if the new tentative view which conflicts with the individual's existing view of the world is built through repeated cognitive activity, and the person's epistemic beliefs are highlights by the perspectives of other people or by educational intervention, the individuals beliefs are forced to change in accordance with the demand of the new tentative view of the world.

本研究の目的は、小学生の"笑われることに対する怖れ"の程度を測定する小学生版J-GELOPH〈6〉を作成し、尺度の信頼性・妥当性を検討することである。小学4年生から6年生までの710名を対象に、GELOPH〈15〉ならびにJ-GELOPH〈15〉に共通して含まれており、かつ、社会的恐怖の診断基準にしたがって選んだ6項目に回答を求めた。その結果、尺度は十分な信頼性を備えていることが示された。また、本邦では他諸国に比べ"笑われることに対する怖れ"の平均値が高いことが示された。これは、成人を対象にした調査とも一致するものであり、文化的な差を示しているものと考えられる。また、小学生版J-GELOPH〈6〉と共感性尺度、向社会的行動尺度との相関係数は、本邦の"察する"文化を前提にすれば理論的に整合するものであり、尺度に妥当性があることが示唆された。今後の研究では、小学生版J-GELOPH〈6〉を用いて、個人特性や環境要因に潜む「笑われ恐怖症」に至るリスクを検討していく必要がある。

本研究の目的は、自然言語処理技術を援用して、熟達した噺家の語りに<核>として現れる中心的な概念を明らかにすることである。インタビューの逐語記録(芸談)をデータとし、複数の語が同一の文に同時に含まれるという共起情報を利用して、語によって表現される信念どうしの相互関係を推定し、信念地図を作成した。この手法は、先入観によるバイアスや見落としの危険性を低減させ、噺家の信念地図の時系列的な変化や師匠と弟子とのあいだの信念地図の類似性を客観的・定量的に検討することを可能にするものである。

According to qualitative research, a coordinated motion between a performer and audiences in vaudeville is considered a possible indicator to examine resonance that reflects thought stream of each audience. To quantitatively identify the coordinated motion, this study explored two methods of analyzing cross spectrum data; 1) Wavelet Transform (WT) and 2) Fourier Transform (FT). The sensitivity of both WT and FT was examined using Janken tasks (Japanese version of paper-scissors-stone) with three different conditions; 1) win by original rules, 2) win by delayed showing, and 3) lose by delayed showing. Sixteen graduate students (11 males and 5 females) were asked to play Janken with an experimenter 10 times in each task. The cross spectra were calculated with angular velocity of wrist motion. Results showed that compared with FT, WT was able to identify more differences between tasks in terms of degrees and aspects of the coordinated motion, reflecting its wide-area resolution. Thus, WT would be an advantageous tool for analyzing the coordinated motion in vaudeville settings.