About CCI

Cultural Formation of Responsibility in Caregiver-child Interactions (CCI)

This study clarifies the system by which responsibility is formed culturally, based on our concept that both child and caretaker develop responsibility gradually, according to their ability to respond during interactions. Specifically, we collect data from various cultural groups, including those in Japan, Asia, Africa, and the United States, and analyze the data from the following four perspectives.

• 1. Reciprocal accommodation of contingent behaviors capitalizing on infant regularities : The clarification of cultural variety with respect to the processes by which the caretaker coordinates his/her behavior according to infant regularities.
• 2. Musicality in early vocal communication : To discuss the relationship between early vocal communication and the social system it mediates by regarding the child-caretaker interaction as musical dialogue.
• 3. Displaying and reading agency by young children : To identify cultural specificity and commonality in the processes by which a young child becomes competent at recognizing another’s agency while displaying his/her own agency through exchanging an object with the other.
• 4. Sequential organization of imitation activity : To study cultural differences in social activity using a young child’s imitation activity and the processes by which a young child becomes able to behave appropriately, in the context of imitation activity, by looking at imitation activity as a sequential organization.

Primary Investigator
Akira Takada
(Associate Professor / Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, Kyoto Univ.)
Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (S)
“Cultural formation of responsibility in caregiver-child interactions (No.19672002)”
funded by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology