What is the relationship between explicit synchronised movement and pro-social behaviour in primary school children?

拟议的项目将调查人际同步（即个人之间的动作在时间上匹配，例如在舞蹈或运动环境中）对亲社会行为发展的影响，最终目的是开发一种教育干预措施，以帮助社会融合技能较差的儿童。强有力的研究表明，相关的有节奏的运动增加了幼儿之间的归属感，我最近的硕士研究表明，视觉诱导的同步性不仅可以促进亲社会情感，还可以增强“虚拟”孩子的相似性。这项工作对教育环境有明确的影响，教育环境依赖于学习环境中的小组工作。具体而言，本项目将研究不同的人际同步实验条件（如听觉、视觉、虚拟现实和真人体验）如何诱导和增强儿童在同伴群体中对他人的社会感知。我将重点关注两个年龄段的儿童，跨越典型的社会智力范围：1)3至5岁（正式教育的开始），2)9至11岁（小学毕业，青春期开始）。我将在学校环境中研究孩子们，在同龄人中，在实验室中（在我们自己专门建立的虚拟现实系统中）。结果变量的信任水平，自我报告的相似性和亲社会行为将被测量。该项目将是横断面和纵向工作的结合，在我博士学位的第一年进行了队列测试，并在接下来的2年中进行了跟踪，以评估一致同步工作的有用性。最终的目标是将这项研究转化为可以被教师用来支持跨越一系列社会缺陷的社会理解的东西。该项目与ESRC发展和教育神经科学的职权范围相关，特别是针对教育影响。

The proposed project will investigate the effect of interpersonal synchrony (i.e., movement matched in time between individuals, such in a dance or athletic setting) on the development of prosocial behaviour, with an eventual aim of developing of an educational intervention to help children with poor social integration skills. Robust research has shown that correlated rhythmic movements increase a sense of affiliation between young children, and my recent MSc work shows that visually-induced synchrony can promote not just prosocial feelings but also an enhanced sense of similarity for a 'virtual' child. This work has clear implications for educational settings, which relies on group-work within learning environments. Specifically, this project will study how different interpersonal synchrony experimental conditions (e.g.,auditory, visual, virtual reality and real person experience) can induce and enhance children's social perception of others within a peer group. I will focus on two age groups of children, across the typical spectrum of social intelligence: 1) 3- to 5- years of age (the beginning of formal education), and 2) 9- to11-years of age (the end of primary school, beginning of adolescence). I will study children within a school setting, in peer-dyads, and in the lab (in our own purpose built virtual reality system). Outcome variables of levels of trust, self-reported similarity and pro-social behaviours will be measured. The project will be a combination of cross-sectional and longitudinal work, with a cohort tested in year 1 of my PhD followed up through the next 2 years, in order to assess the usefulness of consistent synchrony work. The eventual aim is to translate this research into something that can be used by teachers to support social understanding across a spectrum of social deficits. This project is relevant to the ESRC remit of developmental and educational neuroscience, specifically is aimed at educational impact.