[Conscious and automatic processes in autobiographical memory retrieval investigated by using a cognitive load task].

A cognitive load task was used to experimentally clarify differences in conscious and automatic processes during autobiographical memory retrieval. Conscious and automatic processes were estimated based on the IRK procedure (Jacoby, 1998; Jacoby & Hay, 1998). The results indicated that the value of conscious processes in the cognitive load condition was significantly higher than in the no load condition, whereas there was no significant difference between these two conditions for automatic processes.

[Does the unintended evaluation for the ambiguous stimulus vary according to the context?].

Research on affective priming effect has studied the process for which the positive or negative stimulus is evaluated unintentionally as such, despite the fact that many objects in our environment have ambiguous valences. This study investigated whether the ambiguous stimulus can be evaluated as positive or as negative unintentionally in accordance with the positive or negative consequences of the context in which the ambiguous stimulus is presented. One experiment (N=30) was conducted to examine whether the positive or negative target word was evaluated faster when the consequence of the context in which the preceding ambiguous stimulus was presented was consistent with the valence of the target word.

[Ideal and feared selves in the selective self-reference task].

It is argued that high mnemonic performance demonstrated in the ideal-self reference task did not unequivocally show that richness and organization of knowledge in the ideal self were responsible for performance. Accordingly, this study used goal-evaluation task, in which the participants classified each trait into either "want to be" or "not want to be" category. In this way, richness and organization of knowledge in the ideal and "feared selves" were compared.

Rectal malignant melanoma diagnosed by N-isopropyl- p-123I-iodoamphetamine single photon emission computed tomography and 5-S-cysteinyl dopa: report of a case.

Malignant melanoma in the anorectal region is a rare disease associated with a very poor prognosis. Taking a biopsy of malignant melanoma is generally contraindicated because of the high risk of inducing metastasis. Although clinical examination and imaging findings are important for the preoperative diagnosis, conventional imaging techniques sometimes fail to provide information from which an accurate diagnosis can be made.