連続打叩反応における動作調整の発達過程

抄録

The purpose of this study was to investigate the development of motor control on the aspect of information processing, using a serial stimulus (S)-response (R) system. In this study, major focuses were not only on physical but also cognitive development in children aged 3 to 11.
Subjects executed a task to respond to a set of indicated auditory stimuli as quickly as possible by tapping the board. Each time lag in S-R was recorded.
From the results, developmental characteristics were summarized as follows. 1) In the youngest children group (3-4 yrs), S seemed to promote children's response motion while it also accelerated the motion itself as the stimuli continued. 2) Although younger children (4-5 yrs) could perceive the time lag, they couldn't adjust it to the stimuli while tapping. In the early stage of elementary school children (7-8 yrs) on the other hand, the cognition of time lag in their responses seemed to make them inhibit to go on the tapping. 3) Children (5-6 yrs) became to perceive a set of stimuli as a pattern, furthermore their response motions in themselves were patterned and rarely changed during a sequence. 4) Older children (9-11 yrs) were able to control their motion according to their definite cognitive set almost as well as adults were.