Budget Amount *help |
¥2,800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,800,000)
Fiscal Year 2001: ¥1,200,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,200,000)
Fiscal Year 2000: ¥1,600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,600,000)
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Research Abstract |
1. The authors longitudinally observed human and captive chimpanzees children to investigate developmental relationships between object manipulation and cognitive-verbal functions. Three Chimpanzees brought up by their mother didn't piling up blocks even at 4 years of age. But the other Chimpanzees brought up by human keeper tended to play actively with many toys and to build blocks at about 2-3 years comparable with human development. Tool use behavior may develop in the social interaction with the others. It is cognitive and practical ability of relating two different subjects or discovering relationships between the subject like toys, the other humans or environmental world and the object like self. Consequently, Building blocks may be not only manipulative task but also cognitive and social one, in which we have to operate relationships between self and the other individuals. 2. We carried out some drawing test of self-portrait to investigate development of self-recognition in young childhood. Self-portrait shows the level and structure of their spatial self, and self-image picture in younger time, present, and future shows their autobiographical self. Forty-three young 4-, 5-, 6-year-olds draw their portraits and were examined their cognitive development by Kyoto Scale of Psychological Development. The latter half of 6-year-olds were able to draw their profiles precisely, and began to recognize their qualitative changes on chronological development. The image of the past changes along with their development, so that the past itself changes for them. Five 6-year-old children didn't draw their profile and didn't distinguish their right-left hands. These results indicate that recognizing self and human image is important even for cognitive-verbal development.
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