A longitudinal study about the development and developmental disorder of social cognition in the first three years

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 23683015
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (A)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Educational psychology
• Research Institution: Kyushu University (2013-2014); Osaka University (2011-2012)
• Principal Investigator: SANEFUJI Wakako 九州大学, 人間環境学研究院, 准教授 (60551752)
• Project Period (FY): 2011-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 社会的認知 / 乳幼児 / 縦断研究 / 自閉症

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The present study longitudinally investigated the development of social cognition in the first three years. One of the main findings was the developmental linkage between imitation of bodily movements and understanding of other's intention. Concretely, whether children who have understood other's intention earlier shows more amount of imitation of bodily movements has investigated. As results, children who understood other's intention at 15 months of age showed more imitation of bodily movements (but not imitation of object manipulation) at 17 months of age. Imitation of bodily movements, unlike imitation of object manipulation, should be related to understanding of other's intention. This result supported the developmental linkage between imitation of bodily movements and understanding of other's intention, which has theoretically hypothesized. Additionally, this finding would give us meaningful suggestion about the difficulty and developmental support of imitation in autism.

Free Research Field

発達心理学