Gesture, language and thought

^{15 May 2024}

_Speaker

Professor Sotaro Kita, University of Warwick

_Abstract

This presentation concerns a theory on how gestures (accompanying speaking and silent thinking) are generated and how gestures facilitate the gesturer's own cognitive processes. I will present evidence that gestures are generated from a general-purpose Action Generator, which also generates “practical” actions such as grasping a cup to drink, and that the Action Generator generates gestural representation in close coordination with the speech production process (Kita & Ozyurek, 2003, Journal of Memory and Language). I will also present evidence that gestures facilitate thinking and speaking through four functions: gesture activates, manipulates, packages and explores spatio-motoric representations (Kita, Chu, & Alibali, 2017, Psychological Review). Further, I will argue that schematic nature of gestural representation plays a crucial role in these four functions. To summarise, gesture, generated at the interface of action and language, shapes the way we think and we speak.

_{About Sotaro Kita}

After studying engineering in Japan (B.Eng.,  M.Eng. , University of Tokyo),  I received a Ph.D. in psychology and linguistics from the University of Chicago (1993) . In 1993, I joined Cognitive Anthropology Research Group (lead by Stephen Levinson) at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in the Netherlands as a postdoc and then a Senior Researcher  (1994-2003).  At the Max Planck Institute, I was the founding leader of the Gesture Project, one of the research foci of the Institute. I was a Senior Lecturer at the Dept. of Experimental Psychology in the University of Bristol (2003-2006), and a Reader at the School of Psychology in the University of Birmingham (2006-2013). I have been in the current position (Professor of Psychology of Language) at the University of Warwick since 2013.  I have been the President for the International Society for Gesture Studies (2012-2014) and the Editor of the journal, GESTURE (2017-2023).  I am also currently Deputy Pro Vice Chancellor (Research), with research culture as the main remit.