2022 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Toward an Evolutionary Thanatology
| Project/Area Number |
18K18693
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| Research Institution | Kyoto University |
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Principal Investigator |
ANDERSON James 京都大学, 文学研究科, 名誉教授 (80737453)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2018-06-29 – 2024-03-31
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| Keywords | animals / children / death / dying / awareness / cognition / thanatology / understanding |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
The project has so far resulted in academic publications (journals, book chapters, conference presentations, and continues to accumulate new data that will result in further publications.
Analyses of data concerning Japanese children's understanding of death and their parents' beliefs about their children's understanding are ongoing, and the first of two or three manuscripts using this data base (data were collected from an online survey during the Covid pandemic) will be submitted this summer. The initial finding show that, as predicted, Japanese children show later development of the causality component of the mature death component compared to other components (irreversibility, non-functionality, universality).
Coding and analysis of the first experiment on capuchin monkeys' visual attention to pictures of live versus dead animals are now complete, and have revealed no distinctive response to either category. The next step (experiment planned for later this year), is to test the monkeys' ability to categorize photographs through training and then general to new exemplars.
After several covid-related delays, testing is finally underway on children's behavioral and physiological reactions to animated movies of an apparently fatal accident to a chimpanzee character and a robot character. Data collection should be completed later in the summer, for analysis to begin in autumn.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
The pandemic continued to hamper progress in data collection during much of 2022, although we completed the online study of children's understanding of death and their parents' beliefs, a study of chimpanzees' responses to a chemical cue of death, and the first planned study of capuchin monkeys' reactions to photographs depicting death. After a slow start, the "chimpanzee vs. robot) study of children's reactions to movies is now running smoothly, and preparations are underway for the follow-up experiment in capuchin monkeys.
In parallel with further data collection, data analysis and manuscript preparations are ongoing.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
All planned experiments should be finished during the second half of 2023. At least two new papers are planned to be finalized and submitted for publication within the same period, with at least two further papers written up and submitted in the first three months of 2024.
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| Causes of Carryover |
Funding will be used primarily for follow-up animal experiments, office assistance, rewards for parent and child participation, and publication fees.
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