Summary

先行研究において、歌詞が入った曲を聴きながらタスクをこなすと負の影響がある言うことが知られているが、どのようにして影響しているのかはよく知られていない。本研究ではその理解を少しでも深めるため、計算能力とBGMの関係を調べた。被験者を3グループに分け、それぞれに日本語の歌詞が入ったもの、習ったことのない言語（アラビア語）の歌詞が入ったもの、歌詞が入っていないものを流した状態で積分計算を実施した。曲自体は同一のものを使用した。その結果、未習の言語の歌詞が入ったものを聞きながら計算したグループが最も点数が低い傾向にあった。

Previous research reported that listening to music with lyrics has negative effect on task performance. However, the details of this effect have not been analyzed. In this research, authors examined the relationship between calculation performance and background music. Participants do some integral calculation tasks while listening to certain music with different versions; with native language (Japanese) lyrics, with unfamiliar (Arabian) lyrics, and without lyrics. As a result, the participants who listen to music with unfamiliar lyrics had lowest score in calculation tasks.

Reflection

よく知っている言語、知らない言語、楽器演奏のみのものの3つの対称的な状況について比較しており、それぞれの差が分かりやすい良い実験であると評価できる。また、得られた結果や実験における制限に関してよく考察されており、学ぶことの多い良い論文である。Discussionには今後の展望も書かれており、今回の実験の制限にとどまらず改善点も考察されている点も評価できるだろう。

This research conveys very good experiments in that they compared three different music conditions (lyrics with native language, with unfamiliar language, without lyrics) and there was obvious difference between conditions. Also, they deeply discuss the result or some limitations in their experiments. In future research section in discussion, they argued not only these limitations but also some points to improve, which are very smart and academic writing.

Further ideas

考察にも専攻している科目やIQに関することが書かれているが、計算力という観点から考えるのであれば、あらかじめ無音状態で本試験の計算と類似した予備試験を行ったのちにその点数を考慮して本試験の結果を解析するという方法が挙げられるだろう。

また、対面実験ができるようになり、かつ環境が整えば、計算中の脳波の測定をしてみるとどのようにBGMそのものや歌詞が影響しているのかの理解につながるかもしれない。

Some effects of participants’ major or IQ are argued in discussion. Considering their aim and variables (calculation skills), future studies can analyze the calculation performance using another experiment without music (before the experiments with music). Also, if some conditions can be achieved, EEG measurement while calculation task may reveal the detail of the effect of BGM or lyrics.

Authors: Manami Sato and Daisuke Kondo

Summary 

This paper brings a mathematical approach to explain how different kinds of fabric absorb or repel liquids. More specifically, the author investigates how fabric thread and weaving patterns influence the water-repellency properties of cloth. For this, Kudo (2020) applies water droplets to different kinds of cloth and, by using an original gadget prepared with an LED lamp and a USB portable microscope, investigates the shape and resilience of the water droplets over time. As a result, the investigation brings empirical evidence for a stronger water-repellency property of cotton woven cloth, while satin or mixed fiber provided a more stable structure for droplets shape maintenance. On the other hand, fabrics composed by acetate or polyester hardly repelled water. 

Reflection

What I find more surprising and exciting about this paper is how the students used creativity to design a model capable of translating the phenomenon studied. Students in this group used two of the equipment available at ALESS Lab in an original way. They combined the use of a LED lamp and a USB portable microscope to capture high resolution images of the droplets over the fabric. The statistical analysis is also well-thought.

Further ideas

[Idea 1] Limitations correction: the paper suggests two limitations to the experiment design: the proper desiccation of the fabric prior to the experiment, and the amount of water used for the droplets. Further studies following this idea could try to cover those limitations.

[Idea 2] Different independent variable: this time, students investigated how the fabric material would affect the water repellency. Alternatively, future studies could try and investigate the same phenomenon when different kinds of liquids are applied over the fabric. For instance, viscosity and density could be variables to be taken in consideration.

Summary 

人間は自らの知識や技術を過信してしまうことが知られており(Illusion of Explanatory Depth: IoED)、本研究ではその現象が日本人でも見られるのかどうかを確認した。特に、自転車を駆動させる構造に関する知識の過信を対象に研究を実施した。さらに、上記の過信の度合いを性差や自転車を利用する頻度などの複数の要因で説明できるのではないかと仮説を立てて実験を行った。その結果、日本人でも同様の過信が観測された。一方で、男女差や自転車を利用する頻度などの要因は過信度合いに影響は与えていないことが明らかになった。

Reflection

先行研究の実験方法を踏襲した上で、自らの新しい仮説を検証しようと実験を実施した堅実で参考にしやすい良い論文であると評価できる。また、自らの予想とは異なる結果が得られた場合に、論文としてまとめる方法の参考にもなるだろう。大学生という一般的な知識を有するであろう人間でも、自転車の構造を上手く説明することが案外できないという本研究の知見は専門分野外の人間でも興味を持てる内容となっている。

Further ideas

「1: なぜ日本人に注目したのかの理由に関して」

今回は日本の学生に注目しましたが、先行研究の実験参加者の属性 (Yale University and the University of Liverpool)と日本の学生は何が違うのか、それによりどんな異なる結果が導かれるのかを予想しておくと、より得られた結果への議論が容易になるのではないのでしょうか。

「2: t検定の繰り返しに関して」

3群以上のデータにおいてt検定を繰り返すと差が出る確率が大きくなってしまいます。そのため、3群以上の統計検定を行う場合は多重比較法を用いるといいでしょう (ANOVAの後に)。

「3: 先行研究と本研究との効果量比較に関して」

先行研究と実験参加者数の違いによる効果の違いを本文で触れていましたが、効果量d (t検定の場合)に注目して効果の大きさを比較すると良いかもしれません。

「4: 実験結果に関して」

大抵の条件で自転車の構造の知識は3点程度 (1: 知識なし-7: 知識あり)が平均スコアでした。そして、正しい知識の授与後は2点程度 (1: 知識なし-7: 知識あり)が平均スコアでした。そのため、元々知識を自分は持っていると考えていない状態とも言えます。そのため、「卵焼きの作り方」や「日本語の文法」など元々知識を自分は持っていると考えやすい対象で実験すると、予想と一致する結果が得られたかもしれません。そして、上記の対象も使用すると男女差で異なった場合の「要因」が見つかりやすくなるかもしれません。

Summary：

サングラスやブルーライトカットフィルムなど光を遮る目的の商品は様々ある．それらの商品自体にも色がついていて，光を遮る効果はその物体が持つ色に依存する．この研究は，布の色によって，透過する光の強さがどの程度変わったかを定量的に示すことを目的とし，光の持つエネルギーを考えると，波長とBlocking effectは負の相関を持つという仮説を立てた．実験の結果，透過する光の照度という具体的数値が，布の色によって異なることが分かったが，波長との相関は弱かった．布という素材そのものによる吸収が考慮できていないことや，染色の違いなどが影響していると考えられる．

Reflection：

日常生活で感じられる疑問から，具体的な実験にうまく変換していると思う．また仮説も単なる「関連がある」だけではなく，光のエネルギーなどを考えて「負の相関」と具体的な結果を予想し，それを支持した結果を得られているのは素晴らしい．一講義という制約の中で工夫して実験しており，Discussionでも具体的に実験の問題点などを提案していて，このあと実際に研究を続けることになっても役立つと思われる．

Further ideas：

イントロに述べているように，その光による何かしらの効果の検証をすること(例：その色の部屋に入ったときの気分，その部屋で計算問題とかをさせたときの成績)．

入力の光の色を変えてみること(どの色の光が，どの色の布によってBlockされるのか)

”透明”という色を含むような素材を使うこと(例：セロファンフィルム)：Controlは，no clothやwhiteよりはtransparentのほうが，素材と色の影響を分離できる．

Summary: 

This paper considers the two ways in which English words are written on Japanese texts and studies the effect of English word alignment (Horizontal, vertical rotated and vertical) in legibility of these texts. Participants were shown words on the screen and asked to write down the words that they have read. Results showed that accuracy was highest for “Horizontal” words followed by “Vertical rotated”. “Vertical” alignment was the style that had the hardest legibility.

Reflection:

The author of this paper not only used a very clear writing style that allows the readers to get the big idea easily but also chose a topic that is very relevant in our everyday lives. Though there have been many research about the legibility of words, including font styles and colors, it is very interesting to see that there are still ways in which we can easily conduct experiments at home, especially in this time of confinement. Moreover, the limitations of this paper is clearly identified so it allows further exploration into the topic. 

Further ideas:

There are many ways in which one can “read words”. When we first start reading, we read phonetically (ex. BAG –> B-a-g), sounding out every letter. However, advanced readers and even kids who don’t know their English alphabets yet are able to quickly detect words since they capture the global picture/outline of the word (ex. Family Mart). This second style of reading allows us to read quickly, without processing every single letter. Therefore, we might be able to get statistically significant results if we were to use small letters (instead of capital letters). Small letters vary in size (short letters (ex. a, c, e), tall letters (ex. b,d,h), and letters that go down (ex. g, j, p) unlike capital letters which are all tall letters. The difficulty of reading capital letters may also explain why people made mistakes when “PRIZE” was misread as “PRIDE”. Hence, “prize” and “pride” would have minimized this mistake since “d” is a tall letter.

It would be interesting to see how small letters and capital letters, may interact in the legibility of the words in vertical and vertical rotated. Vertical rotated may be read more accurately and when written in small letters compared to capital letters. Size of letters can be used to enable readers to read more quickly and accurately, while letter size advantage are eliminated when words are written vertically.

Summary: 

This study explores the best way to present rewards. The reinforcement techniques that were considered were: increasing, decreasing, constant and no reward. They asked participants to count the number of balls falling in a movie while giving rewards using different styles in order to examine how the change of rewards affects performance. Participants watched the movie three times. Their results showed that setting a constant reward throughout the three trials minimized the error rates. 

Reflection:

The idea of this project is very interesting since reinforcement and rewards can be applied to many things in our daily life be it in teaching, at work, while playing games, etc. The author did a nice job in supporting and arguing his hypothesis, explained in the Introduction, making a good use of his citations. Moreover, Figure 3 does a very nice job in summarizing the main results of his paper. However, in a real life psychology experiment, it may be ethically incorrect to say that rewards will be given and then not give it to them. This may have indirectly affected the participant’s performance since friends of friends will find out. Overall, though, the results of this paper is very interesting and applicable in our daily life.  

Further ideas:

While reading this paper, one of my biggest concern was that the “number of balls in the movie was increasing in order to prevent [the participants] from doing well only due to becoming accustomed to the game” (p. 26). It is well argued except for the fact that they forgot to consider: 1) how this may affect the error rate, and 2) fatigue effect. First, the more balls in the trial, the %error will be smaller for one missed ball. Second, while doing such a simple task like this one, a player can get bored and unmotivated, despite the reward. Given that the third trial was the hardest and most cognitively demanding, some participants may doze off while others would try extra hard. This can increase individual differences. Therefore, it might be interesting to try to do this experiment with another type of game, taking into consideration this limitation. Moreover, conclusions would be more convincing if more trials can be added when talking about trend.