Individual differences in attention in early development: Applying fundamental research to childcare support

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16H03733
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Educational psychology
• Research Institution: Nagoya City University
• Principal Investigator: NAKAGAWA Atsuko 名古屋市立大学, 大学院人間文化研究科, 教授 (90188889)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 鋤柄 増根 名古屋市立大学, 大学院人間文化研究科, 教授 (80148155)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: 注意 / 発達 / 乳幼児 / 気質 / 眼球運動 / 極低出生体重児

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Using eye-tracking, studies have revealed that while corrected one-year-old infants with very low birth weight showed a similar fixation pattern toward social stimuli such as a picture of a human being or pointing compared to typically developing one-year-olds, their fixation rate was lower than that of typically developing infants. In the visual cuing paradigm, an incongruent fearful cue reduces attention shifts to the target on the opposite side of the monitor to a greater extent than an incongruent happy cue in typically developing one-year-old infants, implying that a fearful facial expression prolongs attentional disengagement or is associated with a greater narrowing of attention. In addition, a large-scale longitudinal survey revealed that aspects of psychological development such as temperament may interact with aspects of physical development such as movement coordination. Implications of these findings for childcare are also discussed.

Free Research Field

認知神経心理学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究は、乳幼児の社会性発達と注意機能発達との関連を中心に、気質や運動の発達、親子の関わりなどといった複数の発達要素間の相互関連を検討するという視点を持つ。これまで，気質などの心理的な発達と協調運動などの身体運動の発達は別々に研究が進められる傾向にあったが，今回の結果により，今後は両者の相互作用にも着眼し，子どもの心理や身体運動の発達を有機的なものととらえ理解や研究を進めていく重要性が示唆された。