Developmental investigation of emotional inference from ambiguous emotional expressions in early childhood

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K22295
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: 0110:Psychology and related fields
• Research Institution: Kyoto University of Advanced Science
• Principal Investigator: Ikeda Shinnosuke 京都先端科学大学, 人文学部, 講師 (60877067)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-09-11 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: 幼児期 / 感情判断 / 表情 / 発話音声 / 発達

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this study, I investigated how young children read the emotions of others from the speech sounds and facial expressions. In doing so, the study focused on ambiguous expressions of emotion, such as discrepancies between what is said and how it is said, and discrepancies between the eyes and mouth. The results revealed that children tend to pay attention to different cues than adults and to read the feelings of others according to different rules than adults.

Free Research Field

発達心理学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究は，曖昧な感情表出から子どもがどのように相手の気持ちを読み取るかを明らかにした。これまで，喜びや怒りなど一意に感情が同定できる表出が用いられることが多かったが，本研究は曖昧ない表出について検討し，子どもが大人とは異なる判断基準を持っていることを明らかにした。これは，子どものコミュニケーションを支援する際に重要な手がかりとなる。