九州大學実験證實１歳嬰兒都會希望教別人

A few weeks ago the Asahi News on-line reported the following:

１歳児、すでに「教えたがり」　九大実験で判明

東山正宜

2014年9月15日23時35分

　相手が知らない知識を、教えずにはいられない。そんな感覚を、１歳児がすでに持っているとみられることが、九州大の研究でわかった。相手が知っているかどうか推測し、知らないと判断すると、自発的に教えようとするという。

　実験したのは九大修士課程２年の孟憲巍（もうけんい）さん（２６）ら。１歳～１歳半の赤ちゃんと一緒に、まず「黄色のおもちゃ」で遊んだ後で席を外し、今度は孟さんらがいない状態で、「赤色のおもちゃ」で遊ばせた。その後、再び赤ちゃんの所に戻り、孟さんらからは見えない背後に黄と赤のおもちゃを置くと、赤ちゃんがどんな行動をするかをみた。

　おもちゃを変えながら赤ちゃん３２人に計６４回実験したところ、「赤色のおもちゃ」など、相手の知らない方を指した割合は６６％だったという。

　同大の橋弥和秀准教授は「明らかに相手が知っているかどうかを推測して教えている。赤ちゃんは教わるだけでなく、発達の初期段階から教える能力も備えているようだ」と語った。実験結果をまとめた論文は１１日付の米科学誌プロスワンに掲載される。（東山正宜）

(試譯文)

   A person wants to teach his partner the knowledge which the latter did not know. It was turned out by a research of the Kyushu University that a 1 year-old child already had such a feeling. It was said that while guessing whether his partner knew something, the baby would spontaneously teach that knowledge after judging that the partner did not know it.

   Mr. Moukeni (26) and others in the Kyushu University second year master's course were doing the experiment. First, together with a baby aged 1 year to 1½ years old they played with "a yellow toy", then they left the seat. It was in a situation that Mr. Moukeni and others were not present that this time kept the baby played with "a red toy". Then they returned to the baby again when both the yellow and red toys were put at the back which was not visible by Mr. Moukeni and others. They tried to see what kind of action the baby would take.

   Experiments involving toy changing were done on 32 babies in 64 times in total; it was said that 66% percentage had pointed "a red toy" etc. to partners who did not know about it.

   Associate Professor Hashiwataru Kazuhide of the same university said “clearly the baby first guesses whether the partners know something and then teach them. It seems that a baby not only learns, but also has the capability to teach from the early stage of development". The paper that summarized this experimental result was carried by the U.S. science journal “PLOS ONE” published on the 11^th (September).

It is an interesting scientific finding.