2010 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

The use and function of the first-person pronoun and mental terms during interaction: Relation to perspective of others

Research Project

Project/Area Number	21730597
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Experimental psychology
Research Institution	Jumonji University
Principal Investigator	NAGATA Mizue Jumonji University, 人間生活学部, 准教授 (80348325)
Project Period (FY)	2009 – 2010
Keywords	言語 / 心的用語 / 自称詞 / 他者視点
Research Abstract	The following six points were suggested as a result of the examination of the use and function of the first-person pronoun and mental terms by preschoolers during interaction. (1) Preschoolers who used the first-person pronoun also changed the person pronoun terms depending on their partner ; (2) the acquisition of first-person pronoun terms was associated with psychological perspective of others ; (3) the use of first-person pronoun terms was related to the use of mental terms ; (4) the children's use of first-person pronoun terms was related to the ability to describe their own psychological attributes ; (5) children who didn't use mental terms came across as nervous while children who used mental terms came across as being more developed ; (6) when children used mental terms, the stronger the impression of being more developed the children made, the less mental terms was used by adults.