General domain of perceotual narrowing

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K13471
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Educational psychology
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: Itakura Shoji 京都大学, 文学研究科, 教授 (50211735)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 知覚狭小化 / 発達 / 乳児 / 領域固有

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Prior research has revealed that perceptual narrowing reflects the influence of experience on the development of face and speech processing. However, it is unclear whether narrowing in the two domains is related or not. A within-participant design was used to investigate discrimination of own-race and other-race faces and native speech (Japanese) and non-native speech (English) sounds in 3-, 6-, 9-, and 12-month old infants. For face and speech discrimination, whereas 3-month old discriminated own-race faces and native speech sounds as well as other-race faces and non-native speech sounds, 6-, 9, and 12-month old infants discriminated only own-race faces and native speech sounds. Perceptual narrowing in face and perceptual narrowing in speech were not correlated at 6 months, negatively correlated at 9 months, and positively correlated at 12 months. These findings suggested that dynamic developmental changes in the relation between modalities during the first year of life.

Free Research Field

発達心理学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究では、顔の知覚や言語の知覚といった、これまで単独で扱われてきたものを同時にテストし、出現時期を特定・確認しようとする試みであり新しいアイディアであった。先行研究では、行動的なレベルでは弁別を示さないが、神経レベルでは弁別を示すことを報告も見られる。これは、脳のレベルでは、知覚的に弁別する能力が残っていても、行動のレベルでは、経験により入力を補うことがないと現れないのかもしれないことを示唆するものである。いずれにしても、知覚的狭小化の領域一般説、領域固有説に関わる研究は極めて新しいもので、乳児の知覚システム発達をより深く理解するうえで、理論的な側面の解明を進めるものとして意義がある。