Coordinated use of non-linguistic information in understanding others' referential intentions

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24530793
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Social psychology
• Research Institution: Tokyo Denki University
• Principal Investigator: KOBAYASHI Harumi 東京電機大学, 理工学部, 教授 (60333530)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): ITO Keiko 十文字学園女子大学, 人間生活学部, 教授 (80326991)
• Research Collaborator: YASUDA Tetsuya
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 指示意図理解 / 非言語情報の理解・利用 / 指さし理解 / 部分名称獲得 / 教示行動 / 養育者への支援 / 発達障害児 / 自閉症児

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We explored the relationship between the ability of understanding others’ referential intentions and non-linguistic information, caregivers’ using non-linguistic information abilities, counseling and support of autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) children. Comparing with typically developing (TD) children, ASD children did not well coordinate pointing and eye gaze direction information in comprehension of others’ referential intentions in face-to-face communication. However, ASD children’s performance was not different from TD children in video-mediated communication. This result suggested the rich and complex nature of information in face-to-face communication. The study also showed that caregivers properly teach part names considering the direction of children’s attention. We also studied the efficacy of the support program of ASD children and counseling of caregivers, and confirmed the difficult nature of understanding others’ intentions by ASD children.

Free Research Field

発達言語心理学