Rating one’s own personality traits is a common self-referential information processing task. The current paper examined the mechanism underlying this sort of trait-rating task by using a PC cursor tracing technique (Shiina, 2011a, b). The target phenomenon of interest was the inverted-U effect observed in trait ratings. The PC cursor tracing technique analyzed response times, tangential veloci...

Numerous studies agree that income inequality, rather than absolute income, is an important predictor of happiness. However, its specific role has been controversial. We argue that income inequality and happiness should exhibit an inverted U-shaped relationship due to the dynamic competing process between two effects: when income inequality is relatively low, the signal effect will be the domin...

Direction repulsion describes the phenomenon in which observers typically overestimate the direction difference between two superimposed motions moving in different directions (Marshak & Sekuler, Science 205 (1979) 1399). Previous research has found that, when a relatively narrow range of distractor speeds is considered, direction repulsion of a target motion increases monotonically with increa...

Few issues polarize the scientific community within the field of creativity as the purported association between creativity and psychopathology. The idea that the two are intimately linked dates back to Greek antiquity where the mental state of creative individuals during idea generation was noted to be highly aberrant. However, such eccentric states were not held to reflect clinical levels of ...