Sotaro Kita

Sotaro Kita
Sotaro Kita
Occupation	Psychologist
Language	English, Japanese
Education	B.Eng., Mathematical engineering and M.Eng. Information engineering, University of Tokyo; Ph.D in psychology and linguistics, University of Chicago, United States
Alma mater	University of Chicago, USA
Period	1993
Genre	Psychology
Subject	Scientific research into psycholinguistics; language, thought and gesture

Sotaro Kita (喜多壮太郎, Kita Sōtarō, born 1963) is a professor in the Department of Psychology at The University of Warwick.^[1] Kita's work focuses on the psycholinguistic properties of gestures accompanying speech, relations between spatial language and cognition, language development, and sound symbolism.

Biography[edit]

Kita received his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1993, working in the lab of David McNeill.^[2] His dissertation focused on spontaneous gestures and Japanese mimetics.^[3] From 1993-2003 Kita led the Gesture Project at Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, one of the research foci of the MPI.^[4]

From 2017-2023, Kita has served as the editor of GESTURE (published by John Benjamins).^[5] Kita was president of the International Society for Gesture Studies from 2012–2014, and vice-president from 2010-2012.^[6]

Kita's research has been funded by the National Science Foundation,^[7] the Leverhulme Trust,^[8] and other agencies.

1993-2003 Led the Gesture Project at Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics
1993-1994 Postdoctoral Researcher at Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics
1994-2003 Senior Researcher at Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics
2003-2006 Senior Lecturer at the Dept. of Experimental Psychology in the University of Bristol
2006-2013 Reader at the School of Psychology in the University of Birmingham
2013–present Professor of Psychology of Language at University of Warwick

Kita, S. (2002). Jesuchaa: kangaeru karada [Gesture: the body that thinks]. Kaneko Shobo.
Kita, S. (Ed.) (2003). Pointing: Where language, culture, and cognition meet. Psychology Press

Chu, Mingyuan; Kita, Sotaro (2011). "The nature of gestures' beneficial role in spatial problem solving". Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. 140 (1): 102–116. doi:10.1037/a0021790. hdl:11858/00-001M-0000-000F-83DC-4. PMID 21299319.
Imai, Mutsumi; Kita, Sotaro; Nagumo, Miho; Okada, Hiroyuki (October 2008). "Sound symbolism facilitates early verb learning". Cognition. 109 (1): 54–65. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2008.07.015. PMID 18835600. S2CID 12490557.
Kita, Sotaro (1997). "Two-dimensional semantic analysis of Japanese mimetics" (PDF). Ling. 35 (2): 379–416. doi:10.1515/ling.1997.35.2.379. S2CID 144380452.
Kita, Sotaro; Özyürek, Asli (January 2003). "What does cross-linguistic variation in semantic coordination of speech and gesture reveal?: Evidence for an interface representation of spatial thinking and speaking". Journal of Memory and Language. 48 (1): 16–32. doi:10.1016/S0749-596X(02)00505-3. hdl:11858/00-001M-0000-0013-1ED2-4.
Mumford, Katherine H.; Kita, Sotaro (May 2014). "Children Use Gesture to Interpret Novel Verb Meanings" (PDF). Child Development. 85 (3): 1181–1189. doi:10.1111/cdev.12188. PMID 24266553.
Senghas, Ann; Kita, Sotaro; Özyürek, Asli (17 September 2004). "Children Creating Core Properties of Language: Evidence from an Emerging Sign Language in Nicaragua". Science. 305 (5691): 1779–1782. Bibcode:2004Sci...305.1779S. doi:10.1126/science.1100199. hdl:11858/00-001M-0000-0013-1AEF-8. PMID 15375269. S2CID 145088158.

^ "Sotaro Kita". warwick.ac.uk. Retrieved 2021-07-21.
^ "McNeill Lab Friends".
^ Kita, Sotaro (1993). Language and thought interface: A study of spontaneous gestures and Japanese mimetics (Thesis). ProQuest 304068716.^{[non-primary source needed]}
^ "Nijmegen Gesture Centre (NGC) - Home".
^ Kita, Sotaro (ed.). "Gesture". GEST. Retrieved 2021-07-21.
^ "ISGS Executive Board".
^ "NSF Award Search: Award # 0002117 - A Crosslinguistic Developmental Study of Spatial Thinking and Speaking". www.nsf.gov. Retrieved 2021-07-21.
^ "BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants Awards 2020-21". The British Academy. Retrieved 2021-07-21.