2023 日本応用心理学会（亜大）抄録原稿

Consider The Agentic Self of Japan Youth−International Comparative Approach Based on Dopaminergic activity and Working Memory −Presenter: Mahiro TAKAZAWA (National Hospital Organization Tokyo Medical Center)
Workshop planner : Fumihiko ITAGAKI (Asia University)
Kenji ITOH
(National Hospital Organization Tokyo Medical Center)
Speaker: David TURK
(University of Bristol)Discusser: Koichi TSUNODA (National Hospital Organization Tokyo Medical Center)
Key words: Agentic Self, Working Memory, Ownership, Dopamine, Random Number Generation task.
【Aim】 The White paper on Children and Young people(2019) found that compared with European, NorthAmerican or Korean participants the youth in Japan
reported lower levels of self-satisfaction (45% compared toaround 80%) and experienced lower self-efficacy (40%compared to 80%). Given the detrimental impact from
Covid-19 on self-development following this report, it isimportant that we explore self, agency, and cognition inyoung people today. In this presentation, we will discuss anovel cognitive neuroscience approach to exploring
cross-cultural differences in self between Japan and theUK.
So far, we have developed a unique random number
generation paradigm as a culture-free working memorytask. With this method, it is possible to estimate thecomponents of executive functions which is recentlyregarded as a representation of the “agentic self.”
Dr Turk will present the results of a preliminary
experiment exploring the relationship between dopamine,
agency ownership effects in memory and we will thendiscuss how this methodology can be used to explain
differences in working memory performance.
【 Self, Ownership, Agency & Dopamine 】 Extensive
research over the past 50 years has shown that the self
has a significant impact on cognition, which may haveyielded important benefits in our evolutionary past. A
widely studied phenomenon in this area is the‘self-reference effect’ (SRE) on memory, whereby
information explicitly encoded in relation to self is more
likely to be subsequently remembered than similar
information associated with others. Turk and colleagues
also showed memory biases for information that wasincidentally presented with self-cues (e.g., face), indicating
automatic, unconscious affective and attentional processes
may underpin these memorial advantages. These
memorial advantages have been mostly associated withlong-term memory, but more recently, Ahmed et al. (2021)
showed that self-processing also impacts on children’sworking memory performance.
Recent research has employed more naturalistic forms
of self-association using object ownership (Cunningham etal., 2008). This paradigm has shown reliable ownershipeffects in memory in children, adults, and amnesic
patients. These memorial effects are enhanced whenparticipants have a choice over the items they own(Cunningham et al., 2011). The concept of ownership isfundamental to Western, capitalist societies and instilled

into socio-cultural norms. The importance of material
possessions to the self has been further illustrated by theendowment effect, whereby self-owned items are ascribeda higher monetary value and viewed more positively thansimilar items owned by others, as extensions of the self.
Turk, Itagaki, and colleagues (Collard et al., 2020) utilized
a novel endowment task to show a relationship between
endowment bias and ownership effects in memory in UK,
but not Japanese participants.
Functional imaging studies have identified a networkof cortical midline brain regions, and areas associatedwith hedonic reward via dopaminergic pathways thatappear to differentiate self-owned items from thosepossessed by others (Turk et al., 2011). Dopamine may
therefore hold the key to explaining individual differencesin ownership effects, both within and across cultural
boundaries. Dopamine has been shown to play asignificant role in the sense of personal agency and toexogenous attention towards cues indicating reward orpersonal salience. It is also important in working memoryperformance.
Recent research has shown that it is possible to measure
tonic levels of cortical dopamine from human tear samples(Sharma et al., 2019) employing the Schirmer’s test
protocolanalysedusing
adirect
competitive
chemiluminescent enzyme ‑ linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA). We will present the results of a preliminary
experiment exploring the relationship between dopamine,
agency and ownership and discuss how this may be
applied to studying individual differences in working
memory performance.
(This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant
Number 23K02563)【References】
Ahmed, Z., et al. (2021) Can the ‘self ’ enhance children’sverbal working memory? Poster presented at the Society
for Research in Child Development biennial meeting.
Collard, P., et al. (2020) Conscious Cognition, 78, 102865
Cunningham, S.J., et al. (2008) Consciousness andCognition, 17(1), 312-318
Cunningham, S.J., et al. (2011) Memory, 19(5), 449-61
Sharma, N.S., et al., (2019) Indian Journal ofOphthalmology, 67(1), 38-41.
Turk, D.J., et al., (2011) Mine and Me: Exploring theNeural Basis of Object Ownership. J. of Cognitive
Neuroscience, 23(11), 3657-3668.
(TAKAZAWA M, ITAGAKI F, ITOH K, TURK DJ, TSUNODA K）