Development of Self and Other Body Cognition in Late Infancy and Childhood

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K03415
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 10030:Clinical psychology-related
• Research Institution: Nara Women's University
• Principal Investigator: Naruse Kumi 奈良女子大学, 生活環境科学系, 教授 (90193581)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 自己身体認知 / 身体表象 / 児童期 / メンタルローテーション課題 / 棒回転課題

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We recognize the connection between our own bodies and the outside world through motility and form physical representations. In recent years, virtual technology has flowed into our daily lives. In this remarkable change in the social environment, there is concern that the physical ego-boundary may become blurred. In this study, we used a mental rotation task of limb parts and a stick rotation task to capture the development of childhood self-body cognition. The influence of the dominant hand of 5-year-olds (bar rotation task) was obtained as a difference in execution strategies, and 4th graders (MR task) performed different strategies than other grades for angles that were visually and kinesthetically unfamiliar to them. These results suggest that action-oriented body representations are formed from 5-year-old children to 3rd and 4th graders.

Free Research Field

身体表現学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

コロナ禍以降，バーチャルテクノロジーは飛躍的に進歩した．この著しい社会環境の変化のなかで，身体的自我境界が曖昧になることが懸念される．本研究の測定に用いた手首や前腕の回内/回外を伴う運動課題は，身体構造の生体力学的制限の影響を感受し遂行する必要がある．年齢ごとの遂行方略の特徴が得られ，自己身体認知の発達に関わる運動課題としての有用性が示された．特に，視覚情報（棒の傾き）と身体感覚（前腕の捻じれ）の統合を必要とする棒回転課題は，身体的/認知的要素の両面から自己調整のありようを把握できるため，遂行状況を追跡し，その変容過程を支援に活かすことができる．