The University of Tokyo · Psychology
Professor Kaichi Yanaoka's research lab focuses on the development of executive functions and cognitive control in early childhood, with a particular emphasis on how children manage delays in gratification, represent task contexts flexibly, and learn sequential actions. The lab investigates the interplay between cognitive mechanisms—such as working memory, planning, and proactive control—and real-world behaviors like academic success, emotional regulation, and vocabulary acquisition. Using behavioral, pupillometric, and computational modeling approaches, the lab explores how children learn and adapt routines, especially in culturally diverse contexts.
Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.
Resisting immediate temptations in favor of larger later rewards predicts academic success, socioemotional competence, and health. These links with delaying gratification appear from early childhood and have been explained by cognitive and social factors that help override tendencies toward immediate gratification. However, some tendencies may actually promote delaying gratification. We assessed children's delaying gratification for different rewards across two cultures that differ in customs ar
Children engage cognitive control reactively when they encounter conflicts; however, they can also resolve conflicts proactively. Recent studies have begun to clarify the mechanisms that support the use of proactive control in children; nonetheless, sufficient knowledge has not been accumulated regarding these mechanisms. Using behavioral and pupillometric measures, we tested the novel possibility that 5-year-old children (N = 58) learn to use proactive control via the acquisition of abstract ta
A wealth of developmental research suggests that preschoolers are capable of reporting, imitating, and performing sequential actions they engage in routinely. However, few studies have explored the developmental and cognitive mechanisms required for learning how to perform such routines. A previous computational model of routines argued that a representation of task contexts underlying routines could change flexibly. This position was supported by the empirical evidence that if adults are interr
This study examined whether executive functions impact how flexibly children represent task context in performing repeated sequential actions. Japanese children in Experiments 1 (N = 52; 3-6 years) and 2 (N = 50, 4-6 years) performed sequential actions repeatedly; one group received reminders. Experiment 1 indicated that reminders promote flexible changes in contextual representations. Experiment 2 observed such effects in younger children and showed executive functions were associated with the
The Hebb repetition paradigm has recently attracted attention as a measure of serial order learning, which underlies word-form learning abilities. Although children are good vocabulary learners, it is surprising that previous Hebb learning studies with young children show rather weak Hebb effects. In this study, we conducted two experiments to identify developmental factors that drive an increase of the size of the Hebb effect in young children. Motivated by evidence from adult work, we focused
This research examined the effects of planning and executive functions on young children's (ages 3-to 5-years) strategies in changing scripts. Young children (N = 77) performed a script task (doll task), three executive function tasks (DCCS, red/blue task, and nine box task), a planning task, and a receptive vocabulary task. In the doll task, young children first enacted a "changing clothes" script, and then faced a situation in which some elements of the script were inappropriate. They needed t
私たちは日常様々な場面でスクリプト（Schank & Abelson, 1977）を利用している。スクリプトは, 様々な場面に共通する要素と場面特異的な要素から構成される。本研究ではこうした要素間の区別を, 場面変更時に柔軟に利用できるようになる発達過程とその認知的基盤に関する検討を行った。実験1では, 幼児67名を対象に柳岡（2014）の人形課題を改良した課題を実施した。実験2では, 幼児66名を対象として2つの時期に分けて, 実験1と同様の人形課題, 実行機能を測定する赤/青課題, DCCS, 9ボックス課題の3課題, 語彙能力を測定する絵画語い発達検査を実施した。本研究の人形課題では, ある行き先にむけて人形に服を着せる途中に, 他者が別の行き先への変更を指示する課題であった。この課題では, “着替えスクリプト”の共通要素と固有な要素を区別して変更できるかどうかを測定した。結果, 幼児期後期になると, 2つの行き先間で変更する際に共通の要素を脱がさず固有の要素のみ変更していたことから, スクリプトを柔軟に利用できることが明らかとなった。さらに, その認知的基盤として実行機能の発達
Our daily lives are composed of several sequential actions that we perform routinely, such as making breakfast, taking a train, and changing clothes. Previous research has demonstrated that a routine system plays a role in performing and controlling repeated sequential actions in familiar situations, and a top-down control system involves the control of the routine system in novel situations. Specifically, most developmental studies have focused on the top-down control system (e.g., executive fu
This study investigated the effects of age and cognitive ability on preschoolers’ understanding of the generality of their kindergarten script. Four- and 5-year-old kindergarteners (N = 106) were asked to produce their own kindergarten script and a fictional person’s kindergarten script at regular intervals. In Experiment 1, it was found that only the 5-year-olds reported fewer acts in the fictional person’s script condition than in their own script condition, and a measure of theory of mind (To
Open papers in the app to read, cite, and organize with AI.
