Experimental study on developmental integration of visual and olfactory imformation in infants.

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24653216
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Experimental psychology
• Research Institution: Japan Women's University
• Principal Investigator: KANAZAWA So 日本女子大学, 人間社会学部, 教授 (80337691)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): YAMAGUCHI Masami 中央大学, 文学部, 教授 (50282257) ; WADA Yuji 独立行政法人農業, 食品産業技術総合研究機構, 主任研究員 (30366546)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 嗅覚 / 乳児 / 感覚間統合 / 食物

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this research, we investigated an associative learning between visual and olfactory information in infants. We used an anise as an olfactory stimuli afforded by Takasago Co. and National Food Research Institute and a toy as a visual stimulus. Results obtained by the experiments on 5- to 8-month-old infants showed that only female infants learned the relationship between visual and olfactory stimuli. Similar experiments were conducted on infants at around 1 year old using reaching behavior as a measurement. We also studied a role of visual information to determine the preference for food in developmental processes. Now we are preparing to submit the paper about these topics.

Free Research Field

心理学