Lost in Translation? Comparing British, Japanese, and Italian Children’s Theory-of-Mind Performance

Findings from cross-cultural theory-of-mind studies highlight potential measurement effects and both general (e.g., East-West) and specific (e.g., pedagogical experiences) cultural contrasts. We compared theory-of-mind scores for children from UK and Italy (two Western countries that differ in age of school entry) and Japan (a Far-Eastern country in which children, like their Italian counterparts, start school later than British children). Confirmatory factor analysis was applied to data from 268 age-gender- and verbal ability-matched 5- to 6-year olds. Key findings were that (i) all 8 indicators loaded onto a single latent factor; and (ii) this latent factor explained significant variance in each group, with just one indicator showing differential item functioning. Supporting the importance of pedagogical experiences, British children outperformed both their Italian and Japanese counterparts

甲南大学子安先生特別講演会「人口心理学から見た子育てと子育ち」令和三年九月一一日

甲南大学ZOOMを用いたオンライン開

Lost in Translation? Comparing British, Japanese, and Italian Children’s Theory-of-Mind Performance

Findings from cross-cultural theory-of-mind studies highlight potential measurement effects and both general (e.g., East-West) and specific (e.g., pedagogical experiences) cultural contrasts. We compared theory-of-mind scores for children from UK and Italy (two Western countries that differ in age of school entry) and Japan (a Far-Eastern country in which children, like their Italian counterparts, start school later than British children). Confirmatory factor analysis was applied to data from 268 age-gender- and verbal ability-matched 5- to 6-year olds. Key findings were that (i) all 8 indicators loaded onto a single latent factor; and (ii) this latent factor explained significant variance in each group, with just one indicator showing differential item functioning. Supporting the importance of pedagogical experiences, British children outperformed both their Italian and Japanese counterparts.Peer Reviewe

臨床の「知」・統計の「知」・教育の「知」

シンポジウム　企画者：田中俊也・下山晴彦　司会者：田中俊也　話題提供者：田畑治・南風原朝和・子安増生　指定討論者：下山晴彦・戸田山和

Economics, psychology, and happiness

This paper aims to discuss the relationships between economics, psychology, and happiness. Economics was originally a moral philosophy which focused on some psychological processes of economic events. However, nineteenth century economists tried to change the nature of economics from that of being a moral philosophy to that of a more specialized scientific area. Some of the twentieth century psychologists have tried to reinstate economics as a moral science with the help of psychological considerations. One of the important results is the HDI (Human Development Index). Though Japanese people's HDI is relatively high, they do not always feel happy. The 2010 HDI includes a decent standard of living (GNI per capita), long life expectancy, and relatively high mean years of schooling. However, long life expectancy causes the longevity risk. The seniority rule in the workplace changes the meaning of high GNP per capita. Young people find it difficult to get permanent jobs. Years of schooling depends on considerable amounts of tuition and college fees. The key to opening this deadlock is therefore to raise the quality of education which in turn will increase a person's possibility of getting a permanent job, raise the GNI per capita of Japan, and make Japanese people happier

Young Children's Developnlent of Understanding Self, Other, and Language

The aim of this paper is to propose that we should integrate three types of research in　perspective-taking abilities of young children into a unified theory of their understanding another's mind. At least three types of these abilities have been pointed out: to infer what other people see (perceptual), what they think (cognitive), and what they feel (affective). Although these three topics all relate to young children's concepts of self and others, they have been studied independently. having nothing to do with one another. For example, they consisted of Piaget's three mountains task in visual perspective-taking research, the false-belief task in theory of mind research, and the disappointing gift paradigm in display rule research. Another important thing is the role of language or verbal communication to conceptualise the self and others. Language is important for children to understand self and other relationships in many ways. Executive function and narrative comprehension play important roles in the development of this understanding. Caregivers' participation in conversations with children and interactions between peers contribute significantly to the nature of the concepts of self and others

Young Children's Development of Understanding Self, Other, and Language

Proceedings of the International Colloquium between the Graduate School of Education, Kyoto University (Japan) and the Institute of Education, University of London (UK): 25 March-26 March 2008 Clark Hall Institute of Education, University of Londo

Three Components of Happiness: Synthesising a Sense of Competence, a Vital Sense of Life, and a Sense of Accomplishment

Proceedings of the 3rd International Symposium between the Institute of Education, University of London (UK), and the Graduate School of Education, Kyoto University (Japan) : 21-22 September 2009 Institute of Education, University of Londo

Role-play experience facilitates reading the mind of individuals with different perception.

The present study examined effects of role-play experience on reading the mind of people with different perception. It is normally difficult but very important in daily life to understand people with different characteristics, including those with restricted color vision. We explored the mechanisms of reading the mind of people with different perception. Forty university students were introduced to a communication task in which the use of mindreading was essential. During each trial, participants viewed a shelf, presented on a laptop computer, which contained several familiar objects, and they were instructed to touch an object on the shelf following an instruction issued by a partner who stood at the opposite side of the shelf. There were two partners: one was a monkey with normal color vision and the other was a dog with restricted color vision. The monkey could see all the objects in the same colors as the participants, whereas the dog saw some objects in different colors (e.g., he saw as yellow objects that the participants saw as red). Participants were required to respond according to the partner's instruction. In the restricted color vision condition, the dog saw the colors of objects differently; thus, participants had to work out his intentions (i.e., mind read), according to his different perspective. In the normal color vision condition, all objects were in the same colors as those seen by the monkey. Before the test phase, the role-play group had a role-play experience in which participants assumed the role of people with restricted color vision. No-role-play participants made significantly more errors in the restricted color vision condition than in the normal color vision condition, whereas among role-play participants, there was no difference between conditions. These results suggest that role-play experience facilitates reading the mind of people with perceptual experiences different from our own