辻 弘美

This presentation draws on an intervention programme designed to foster creativity in early childhood practitioners, followed by action research centred on scribble drawing (squiggle) activities. It examines how flexible perspectives are cultivated in both children and practitioners through creative pedagogical practice. With a particular focus on the ambiguity, multiplicity of interpretations, and open participatory structures inherent in scribble drawing activities, the presentation argues that creative early childhood education is not a process of seeking correct answers, but rather a co-constructive process in which children and practitioners together remake meaning.

Title: Publishing in APJRECE This workshop is designed to support early childhood education researchers who are non-native users of the English language and are preparing to submit manuscripts to English-medium academic journals, with a particular focus on the Asia Pacific Journal of Research in Early Childhood Education (APJRECE) — PECERA's open-access journal. Participants will be guided through key aspects of the manuscript preparation and submission process, including structuring a research paper in line with journal expectations, writing clearly and effectively in academic English, and responding constructively to reviewer comments. The session will draw on practical examples and allow time for small-group discussion, making it accessible and interactive for participants at varying stages of their publishing journey. This workshop is especially suited to researchers who are new to publishing in international journals and are looking for concrete guidance to help them navigate the submission process with greater confidence.

Humour has been recognised as an important mediator of flexible thinking, social interaction, and psychological well-being (Martin & Ford, 2018; Ruch & McGhee, 2014). In early childhood, humorous interactions frequently emerge in playful contexts and communicative exchanges, supporting children’s exploration of incongruity and multiple perspectives (Hoicka & Akhtar, 2012; Reddy, 2001). Such experiences may provide a foundation for creative thinking by encouraging children to consider alternative interpretations of events and ideas. However, humour has rarely been systematically incorporated into teacher professional development or classroom practice in early childhood education. To explore how humour-based play can be integrated into everyday classroom practice, a facilitation programme focusing on humour and squiggle drawing was introduced for early childhood educators. The programme combined a training workshop with opportunities for teachers to implement humour-based activities in their classrooms and to reflect on their experiences with colleagues. The programme began with a training session in 2023 introducing humour-based play and squiggle activities. After the workshop, teachers implemented these practices in their classrooms. Reflection sessions were subsequently organised to allow teachers to share their experiences and discuss classroom practice. In 2024, teachers participated in a reflection session and provided self-evaluations of their implementation experiences. In 2025, additional reflection sessions were conducted in which teachers again reported their classroom practices and completed reflection questionnaires. Participants were early childhood teachers from two childcare centres. Data were collected after the initial training workshop in 2023 (N = 23), during the reflection session in 2024 (self-evaluation data; N = 18), and after the reflection sessions in 2025 (N = 24). The questionnaires included items evaluating teachers’ experiences with humour-based activities, such as enjoyment of the activity, children’s enjoyment, new perspectives on children, collaboration with colleagues, and willingness to continue the practice. Teachers also provided written reflections, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with several teachers to explore their experiences in greater depth. Descriptive analyses indicated consistently positive evaluations of humour-based practice. Teachers reported high levels of enjoyment when implementing humour-related activities and perceived that children also enjoyed these experiences. Teachers also indicated that the activities enabled them to view children from new perspectives and expressed strong intentions to continue humour-based practices in their classrooms. Self-evaluation scores suggested that teachers’ confidence in implementing humour-based activities increased from 2024 to 2025. Exploratory analyses within the 2025 data suggested possible centre differences in perceived collaboration with colleagues. However, interview data provided a more nuanced picture. Teachers described observing colleagues’ classrooms, sharing interpretations of children’s behaviour, and discussing pedagogical intentions with peers. These accounts suggest emerging forms of professional dialogue around children’s perspectives and classroom practice. The discrepancy between questionnaire responses and interview narratives may indicate that teachers conceptualise collaboration differently from how it is measured in survey items. Overall, the findings suggest that humour-based squiggle play may support teachers’ reflective practice and encourage new perspectives on children’s ideas and expressions. In addition to influencing classroom activities, humour-based practice may also contribute to the emergence of professional dialogue among teachers about children’s thinking and learning.

Executive Function, Theory of Mind, and the Development of Early Scientific Reasoning: Longitudinal Evidence from Preschoolers Hiromi Tsuji, Osaka Shoin Women’s University, Japan Background: Scientific reasoning emerges gradually in early childhood, yet its relationship to domain-general cognitive abilities remains unclear. Executive functions (EF) support the development of theory of mind (ToM), but whether EF and ToM contribute to early scientific reasoning remains underexplored. This longitudinal study examined how EF and ToM relate to preschoolers' experimental reasoning. Methods: A single cohort of children was followed across three waves (T1–T3). EF was assessed through working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility tasks, and ToM was measured using three false-belief tasks. Experimental reasoning (EX) was assessed using the four-item experimental subscale of the Science-K Inventory (Japanese version). EF scores were standardized and combined to create composite indices for each wave; ToM was aggregated into a composite. Path analyses tested whether ToM mediated the association between EF and EX. Results: EF at T2 strongly predicted ToM (β = .52), explaining 27.5% of variance. In contrast, ToM did not predict EX (β = -.02), and neither the direct effect of EF on EX (β = -.19) nor the indirect EF → ToM → EX pathway was significant. The overall model explained only 3% of variance in EX. Conclusion: EF and ToM were already closely linked within this preschool cohort, yet their joint contribution to early scientific reasoning was minimal. These findings suggest that early scientific reasoning remains domain-specific and may not yet depend on domain-general cognitive processes. Further longitudinal follow-up may clarify when EF and ToM begin to more directly support the development of scientific reasoning.

Background Ambiguous figures allow researchers to test how people understand that others may perceive the same stimulus differently. Perceptual reversal—realizing more than one possible interpretation—may support Theory of Mind (ToM) by promoting uncertainty and reducing egocentric projection. Purpose This study investigated whether spontaneous perceptual reversals facilitate ToM judgments about others’ perceptions, and whether these relations vary across cultures or adult age groups. Methods Adults from Japan and Germany (N = 625) viewed three ambiguous figures (Young–Old; Duck–Rabbit; Man–Rat). For each figure, participants (a) freely described what they saw, (b) selected their initial percept, and (c) judged how a third person (aged 3, 20, or 75 years) would interpret the same image. Reversal was coded when both interpretations were mentioned. ToM accuracy was defined as judging that one “cannot determine” the other’s perception, and projection was coded when incorrect ToM judgments matched participants’ own initial percept. Binomial GEE models tested predictors of ToM accuracy and projection. Results Spontaneous reversals were generally infrequent, with a higher rate for the Duck–Rabbit in Germany than in Japan. Across cultures, reversal consistently predicted greater ToM accuracy and lower projection. Older adults were less likely to endorse indeterminacy and more likely to project their own perception onto others. Conclusion Perceptual flexibility supports recognizing perceptual uncertainty in others and reduces self-projection when reasoning about their interpretations. Although cultures differed in reversal propensity, the cognitive benefits of reversal for ToM reasoning were robust across countries.

The present study hypothesized that executive functions during preschool can impact creative thinking, which includes both divergent and convergent thinking. While young children are naturally creative, often taking divergent and unexpected actions without much planning, little is known about early convergent thinking. This study focused on the emergence of convergent thinking during preschool years and how executive functions are associated with this ability. A total of 151 children (73 girls) aged between 3 and 6 years participated in this study. Three executive functions—updating, inhibition, and shifting—were measured as predictor variables. Convergent thinking was assessed using a child version of Danker's candle task, which required children to use a common tool in an unconventional way to achieve a solution. Responses were evaluated based on the completeness of the solution, as well as the uniqueness and relevance of the ideas presented. Responses were coded at four levels, with the highest level for the complete solution and grading for uniqueness and relevance. Task performance was compared across three age groups (mean ages of 4, 5, and 6). The oldest group outperformed the youngest group: Welch’s ANOVA, F(2, 97.8) = 6.51, p = .002, indicating age-related differences in convergent thinking skills during the preschool period. Controlling for age and gender variables, the regression model indicated that the executive function of shifting, measured by DCCS (Zelazo, 2006), is a significant predictor of convergent thinking. These findings suggest that creative thinking already has cognitive associations in preschool years and that flexibility is an important ability for creative problem solving.

Scientific reasoning skills for school children have received significant attention as part of the core skills for 21st century outcomes set by the OECD. However, the emergence of such skills in relation to executive functions, which lay the foundation for general competency, is not well understood. This study focuses on three components of executive functions: updating information (measured by working memory), inhibitory control (measured by the Stroop task), and attention shifting (measured by the DCCS). It examines the longitudinal relationships between these components and scientific reasoning, measured by the 10-item version of the Science-K Inventory:SK-I (Osterhaus, Lin, & Koerber, 2021). The SK-I comprises three subsets: experimentation, data interpretation, and understanding the nature of science. The research questions are: 1) How do 6-year-old Japanese children perform on the SK-I? and 2) Do scientific reasoning skills have a predictive relationship with early executive functions? Fifty-five Japanese children (25 girls) participated in the study. Executive functions were measured three times: at entry to preschool (Time1), and 6 months (Time2) and 18 months (Time3) later. Scientific reasoning skills were measured at the end of preschool (age 6) using the SK-I. Of the 10 items on the SK-I, children performed better than chance level on 2 items of the experimentation subset, but not on the data interpretation or understanding the nature of science subsets. Separate logistic regressions were performed for these 2 items as outcome variables to test if earlier executive functions predict scientific reasoning skills. One regression model reached significance, with working memory at Time2 and Time3 as significant predictors. The other outcome variable was predicted by Time1 working memory and DCCS. Children’s inconsistent performance on the SK-I suggests that early scientific reasoning skills may be more dependent on the content of scientific inquiry, particularly in Japanese children. Osterhaus, C., Lin, X., & Koerber, S. (2023). Measuring scientific reasoning in kindergarten and elementary school: validating the Chinese version of the Science-K Inventory. Educational Research for Policy and Practice.

Humour plays a crucial role in human life, aiding the establishment of social relationships (Caird & Martin, 2014), promoting emotional and psychological health (Ruch & McGhee, 2014), and enhancing problem-solving abilities (Zhou et al., 2021). These outcomes are vital for overall well-being. Since humour development begins during early play and communication (Hoicka & Akhtar, 2012; Hoicka & Gattis, 2008; Reddy, 2001), we hypothesized that humour-focused play activities would significantly benefit children's development and well-being. To test this hypothesis, we designed structured humour play activities and initiation programmes for Early Childhood Education (ECE) teachers to create humour-infused sessions. Preliminary evidence suggests these programmes motivated ECE teachers to explore humour-infused activities in their classrooms (Tsuji, 2025). Aims of the Study Building on these findings, this study conducted a qualitative examination of classroom teachers' evolving attitudes and awareness of children's humour development over one academic year. We aimed to identify shifts in pedagogical approach, changes in teacher-student interactions, and emerging patterns of humour integration. Method of the Study Participant teachers attended an induction session, including a lecture on humour in education and brainstorming on incorporating humour using "Squiggle" drawing play. Squiggle involves: 1. An adult drawing a random squiggle. 2. The child transforming it into a meaningful picture. 3. The child telling a story about their creation. Teachers implemented their plans and documented their first humour-based Squiggle activity. These records were shared during team meetings, facilitated by the researcher. Collaborative teacher teams met at least once per term, resulting in three sessions throughout the year. Results and Discussion Data collection included discussion summaries, reflection papers, and analyses of children's work. Two main findings emerged: 1. Initial Individual Sessions: Children showed variability in their approaches. 2. Teachers reported higher engagement and enjoyment from children who typically struggled in general activities. Developmental Progression: Teachers noted developmental differences: Three-year-olds initially imitated the teacher but gradually expressed their own ideas. Five-year-olds were initially eager to play with realistic representations but became more creative with dynamic spaces and diverse materials. While lacking a comparison group, these observations highlight the importance of reflective practice in early childhood education. Structured reflective sessions and a supportive framework may enhance teachers' ability to nurture children's creative and humorous expression through activities like Squiggle drawing. Reference Tsuji, H. (2025). Humour and Play: Facilitation Programmes for Creative Thinking. Research Bulletin of Osaka Shoin Women's University, Vol.15, p. 166-172

ユーモアと性格特性の関連を検証した研究は成人を対象としたもの（e.g. Vernon et al., 2008）が中心で，就学前児を対象とした報告は稀である。ユーモアは，精神的健康や社会的関係性の構築に重要であることを鑑みると，その発達をとらえる尺度の開発（Hoika, et al. 2021）に加え，ユーモアを発達諸相との関係からとらえる研究が期待される。本研究では，幼児の性格特性とユーモア鑑賞（「おもしろさ」評価）との関連性を検証するにあたり，情報を処理する基盤的な能力として実行機能の役割に注目した。実行機能の中でも，認知的柔軟性がユーモア鑑賞と開放性を媒介すると仮定し，幼児の開放性はユーモア鑑賞と関連する（仮説1），開放性とユーモア鑑賞には実行機能の中でも注意切替を媒介した関係性が成立する（仮説2）について検証した。

Flexible thinking is a part of creativity where convergent/divergent thinking tasks have been used to measure creative tendencies. We hypothesised that the emergence of flexible thinking may develop in line with the maturation of executive functions, where multiple pieces of information are manipulated while being mentally represented simultaneously. Previous research suggests that children's experiences, such as having multiple identities, promote flexible thinking, and that personality traits, a tendency to be open to experience, are helpful for creative behaviours (Gaither, Fan, & Kinzler, 2019; Rawlings, Flynn, & Kendal, 2022). We examined the relationship between EFs and flexible thinking, and further explored the moderating effect of personality on this relationship in preschool children. The study involved 140 three- to six-year-old children. The children's EFs: updating, inhibition and shifting were measured using the Digit Span, Stroop and Dimensional Change Category Sort tasks. Flexible thinking was measured using the Ambiguous Figure Task. Parental reports were used to obtain Big Five personality trait scores. Three moderation analyses revealed that Shifting: b=.17, p=.003 and Openness: b=.044, p=.034, were each associated with the Ambiguous Figure Task, and the significant interaction: b=.062, p=.049 revealed that children with higher, b=.29, p=.002, but not lower Openness: b=.051, p=.50, showed a significant positive effect on the Ambiguous Figure Task. A similar trend was found for Updating (b=.054, p<.001), except that Openness did not reach a significant level: b=.035, p=.085. Inhibition was associated with the Ambiguous Figure task, but there was no significant interaction with Openness. None of the other personality traits were found to influence the relationship between EFs and the Ambiguous Figure task. The results suggest that EFs provide a foundation for the development of flexible thinking and that higher levels of openness play a supporting role for flexible thinking.

Humour is known to play an important role in our daily lives, from problem solving to mental health (Martin, 2018). Encouraging the use of humour can contribute to a better life. Humour styles have been linked to personality traits (Dhensa-Kahlon & Woods, 2022) that are relatively stable across time and situations. To promote the use of humour for a better quality of life, it is crucial to understand how the different aspects of humour relate not only to personality, but also to foundational skills that can be modified and trained. We identified cognitive flexibility as one of the foundational skills and examined how it relates to the multiple aspects of humour. The online questionnaire included the Ten-Item Personality Inventory (Oshio, et al., 2012), three subscales (humour sense, humour production, humour awareness) of the Sens of Humour Scale (Ue, 2007), and the Cognitive Flexibility Scale (Martin &Rubin, 1995). Responses from 1330 people living in Japan were analysed. A structural equation model was fitted with the personality traits openness and extroversion as exogenous variables predicting both cognitive flexibility and three subscales of humour to test the hypothesis that, cognitive flexibility, in addition to these personality traits, would play a fundamental role in predicting humour. Model fit indices indicated that the model was adequate: RMSEA=.058, CFI =.92, TLI =.91. Humour sense was predicted (ps <.001) by cognitive flexibility (b=.13) and the personality traits extroversion (b=.39) and openness (b=.21). Humour production was predicted by both personality traits (b= 31, b=.17) but not by cognitive flexibility. Humour awareness was predicted by extroversion (b=.17) and cognitive flexibility (b= .49), but not by openness. The results suggest that enhancing cognitive flexibility may help facilitate humour awareness, but not humour production. Implications for humour enhancement training are discussed in relation to enhancing cognitive flexibility.

本研究では、2～5歳の日本人幼児を対象に、ユーモアの発達を調査した。幼児に視線固定時間とユーモア判断の尺度を用いて、絵のユーモア鑑賞能力を測定した。幼児には一致する刺激とユーモラスな刺激の絵を見せ、アイトラッカーで固視時間を測定した。その後、画像の面白さを判断させた。結果として、幼児は不一致の絵の方を長く見ており、ユーモラスな画像を選ぶ能力が年齢とともに増加していることが分かった。特に4歳と5歳のグループは、標準画像より面白い画像を有意に面白いと判断した。この研究は、2歳児でも絵の違いを認識し、ユーモアを理解する能力があることを示唆している。

Attentional control has been an important aspect of behaviours in studying non-verbal infants' understanding of physical and social worlds. However, less is known about how attentional control contributes to children's behaviors in organizing and responding appropriately to the given information to achieve a goal. The present study, using an eye-tracking technique to measure attentional control directly, examined if early executive attention predicts the performance of executive function tasks.

Social interactions in early years education are pivotal for children to develop social understanding such as taking the perspectives of others. Despite numerous literature on theory-of-mind development in family contexts (Devine & Hughes, 2018), how social understanding may be facilitated through early years education has not yet been addressed. The current study takes a more comprehensive view of children's social development using two methodological treatments. One investigates data that extends to wider social contexts beyond the family. The other measures real-life conversational skills as an outcome variable to address how early foundations, such as executive functions and mental state language, contribute to the development of social interactions outside family contexts. To address which foundational capacities as evaluated by teachers and parents predict children's conversational skills, the following questions were examined: 1) do the evaluations of foundational capacities by teachers and parents differ? 2) which of the foundational capacities predicts children’s conversational skills in early years classroom contexts?

他者への配慮をすることは、対人関係を構築する上で重要な行為の一つであり、ソーシャルスキルとも捉えることができる。このような社会性の発達は、他者の内面を推測したり理解したりする能力の獲得にとどまらず、この能力を踏まえて、どのように実践場面で他者への配慮を表現できるかも注目するべき発達課題である。近年、資源の分配課題を用いて、他者との関係からどのように他者に配慮した分配を行うかについて、幼少期にその発達ルーツがあることが報告されている(Fehr, Bernhard, & Rockenbach, 2008)。これらと、社会認知能力の発達として注目されてきた他者理解や関連する実行機能の発達との関係については、検討の余地がある。本研究は、幼児（3-6歳）を対象に他者への配慮を資源分配の視点から測定し、これらの発達が、他者理解や実行機能の発達と直接的に関連するかを検討した。

This study examined the Japanese adaptation of Theory of mind inventory 2(TOMI2-J). Although the development of children’s theory of mind has been studied using false-belief tasks, parental reports provide an additional tool to assess the theory of mind development from wider perspectives. To test the validity of TOMI2-J, its results are compared with parental reports on the Strength and Difficulty Questionnaires: SDQ, and the test scores from the false-belief (FB) and executive function (EF) tasks.

Theory of Mind Inventry-2（ToMI-2）が開発され、現在20以上の言語に翻訳され臨床や研究において活用されている。ToMI-2は、2から13歳までの子どもの心の理論の発達をとらえるために養育者が評定を行う指標である。ToMI-2は、直接子どもの心の理論を課題遂行によって評価することが難しい状況下や、課題を超えた包括的な心の理論の発達をとらえようとする際に有効である。これらの指標をオンライン上で活用することで、これまで以上に簡便に文化間比較の研究などの可能性が広がるといえる。本研究は、ToMI-2日本語版を作成し、幼児の心の理論の発達をどの程度安定的に捉えているかについて検討した。指標の妥当性・内的整合性を検討するとともに、項目反応理論を用いて指標の難易度や識別力について検討した。原著者の承諾を得、国際テスト委員会のガイドラインに則り日本語翻訳後、紙媒体でデータを収集した。妥当性検討のため、養育者による主観的評定SDQに回答を求めた。項目反応理論の視点から、指標の達成基準に照らし合わせた２項データを用いて分析を行った。分析結果から見えた指標の性質について報告を行った。

Recent research investigating the development of prosocial behaviours (a form of cultural learning) suggests diversity across societies. This diversity originates from a psychology through which children learn to respond to normative information shaped by their society. However, the exact processes of such cultural learning remain unclear. To understand such processes, preschool children’s egalitarian responses to the dictator game were examined in relation to cognitive processing ability and to parental and teacher responses to social and cognitive questionnaires.

実行機能の中でも注意制御は、目的行動を遂行する過程において、外界から無差別に入ってくる情報を適切に処理する役割をもつ．すなわち注意制御には、関連する情報に優先的に注意を向け、不要な情報をフィルタリングする能力が求められる．Flanker課題を用いた研究では、競合情報によって生じる葛藤の解消処理にかかる時間が、4歳から7歳にかけて大きく減少し、この注意制御は発達することが報告されている(Rueda et al., 2004). しかしながら反応潜時を測定する課題は、幼児を対象とする場合は、長時間にわたる課題遂行中の集中が難しい点などの問題がある．また短い正反応時間は、効率良い注意制御の結果であると仮定しているが、実験参加者の注意がFlanker刺激のどこに向けられているかの検討はない．本研究は、Flanker刺激を呈示された際におこる視線の動きから、Flanker課題の反応測定を試みる．

Inferring others’ inner states is an important ability in guiding our behaviours during social interactions. There are intercultural differences in the perception of emotional expressions. We investigated the judgment of inner states’ of Japanese and British subjects by Japanese perceivers. 95 Japanese perceivers from three age groups (6-, 9-years, and university students) viewed videos of 8 British and 8 Japanese people’s facial expressions as they reflected on different emotional experiences (happy, grateful, sad and angry). To create the target stimuli, we captured the natural expressions of the subjects while they were reminiscing about relevant past events. These stimuli include more subtle signals than ‘acted’ facial expressions and require a more sensitive inference from the perceivers. The perceivers viewed a 15-second video of each of the subjects’ facial expressions and made a judgement using a four-alternative forced choice method. The experiment lasted less than 30 minutes for each perceiver. The procedures were approved by the university’s ethics committee together with written consent from the participants or participants’ guardians. These results were coded to produce d-prime values. To address whether the Japanese perceivers’ judgements of their ethnic in-group was more accurate, a three-way ANOVA (3 age x 4 emotion x 2 target ethnicity) for d-prime was conducted. For the angry emotion, the 9- years and students judged Japanese subjects more accurately. For the happy emotion, all three age groups judged British targets more accurately. The implications of using natural stimuli for intercultural investigations are discussed.

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心の理論には２つのシステムが働いていることという主張がある(Apperly & Butterfill, 2009)．この議論の背景には，言語を用いない潜在的レベルの反応をもとめる誤信念課題では，乳児期から正しい理解が可能であるが(Onishi & Baillargeon, 2005; Southgate, Senju, & Csibra, 2007)，従来の物語呈示による誤信念課題では，４〜５歳，文化によってはさらに年長の幼児でないと正しく遂行できないという知見がある．これらの課題は，誤信念課題の呈示様式と求める反応指標の両方が異なる．そこで本研究では，潜在的誤信念課題に，言語処理の有無条件を加え，同一の反応指標である注視データを比較分析することにより，言語処理のみの有無によって誤信念課題の処理が異なるか否かを検討した。