Laboratory for Language Development
Laboratory Head
Reiko MAZUKA (Ph.D.)
We investigate how young infants become interested in speech that surround them, and learn to be the speaker of that language. In particular, we focus on the role of 'prosody' (i.e., intonation, rhythm and other suprasegmental characteristics of the speech) in language acquisition. We study how infants become attuned to the prosodic characteristics of their ambient language, and how acquiring it would affect other domains of language development.
- Acquisition of language specific phonology and prosody by Japanese infants.
- Phonetic and prosodic characteristics of Japanese infant directed speech
- Contribution of linguistic information and cognitive development in children's language comprehension
- Role of sound-character relationship in learning how to read in Japanese
- Computational modeling of phonological acquisition
- October 10, 2010
- Study shows Japanese infants hear foreign words according to Japanese language rules by 14 months
- August 10, 2010
- Imaging study sheds light on neural origins of baby talk
- Minai, U., Jincho, N., Yamane, N., & Mazuka, R.:
"What hinders child semantic computation: Children's universal quantification and the development of cognitive control."
Journal of Child Language (in press) - Sato, Y., Kato, M., & Mazuka, R.:
"Development of single/geminate obstruent discrimination by Japanese infants: Early integration of durational and non-durational cues."
Developmental Psychology (in press) - Ito, K., Jincho, N., Minai, U., Yamane, N., & Mazuka, R.:
"Intonation facilitates contrast resolution: Evidence from Japanese adults and 6-year olds,"
Journal of Memory and Language 66 (1), 265-284 (2012) - Mazuka, R., Cao, Y., Dupoux, E., and Christophe, A.:
"The development of phonological illusion: A cross-linguistic study with Japanese and French infants."
Developmental Science, 14 (4), 693-699 (2011) - Minagawa-Kawai, Y., van der Lely, H., Ramus, F., Sato, Y., Mazuka, R., & Dupoux, E.:
"Optical brain imaging reveals general auditory and language-specific processing in early infant development."
Cerebral Cortex 21 (2), 254-261 (2011) - Sato, Y., Mori, K., Koizumi, T., Minagawa-Kawai, Y., Tanaka, A., Ozawa, E., Wakaba, Y. & Mazuka, R.:
"Functional lateralization of speech processing in adults and children who stutter."
Frontiers in Psychology: Language Sciences, 2, 1-10 (2011) - Matsuda, Y-T., Ueno, K-I., Waggoner, A.,R., Erickson, D., Shimura, Y., Tanaka, K., Cheng, K., & Mazuka, R.:
"Processing of infant-directed speech by adults."
NeuroImage, 54 (1), 611-621 (2010) - Sato, Y., Sogabe, Y., and Mazuka, R.:
"Development of hemispheric specialization for lexical pitch-accent in Japanese infants."
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 22 (11), 2503-2513 (2010) - Sato, Y., Sogabe, Y., and Mazuka, R.:
"Discrimination of phonemic vowel length by Japanese infants."
Developmental Psychology, 46 (1), 106-119 (2010) - Yoshida, K.A., Iversen, J.R., Patel, A.D., Mazuka, R., Nito, H., Gervain, J., & Werker, J.F.:
"The development of perceptual grouping biases in infancy: A Japanese-English cross-linguistic study."
Cognition, 115 (2), 356-61 (2010)
Principal Investigator
- Reiko MAZUKA
- Laboratory Head
Members
- Nobuyuki JINCHO
- Research Scientist
- Yutaka SATO
- Research Scientist
- Naoto YAMANE
- Research Scientist
- Yoko SAIKACHI
- Research Scientist
- Andrew Thomas MARTIN
- Research Scientist
- Hiroaki OISHI
- Research Scientist
- Kouki MIYAZAWA
- Research Scientist
- Tomomi MIZUOCHI
- Visiting Researcher
- Yuka MIYAKE
- Student Trainee
- Chie NAKAMURA
- Student Trainee
- Ai KANATO
- Student Trainee
- Yuri HATANO
- Technical Staff I
- Naoko KODAMA
- Technical Staff I
- Kenya NISHIKAWA
- Technical Staff II
- Risako OMORI
- Technical Staff II
- Mari KANAMURA
- Technical Staff II
- Naoko KIJIMA
- Technical Staff II
- Ryota HORIE
- Visiting Scientist
- Yuki HIROSE
- Visiting Scientist
- Haruo KUBOZONO
- Visiting Scientist
- Akiko HAYASHI
- Visiting Scientist
- Mafuyu KITAHARA
- Visiting Scientist
- Keiichi TAJIMA
- Visiting Scientist
- Yosuke IGARASHI
- Visiting Scientist
- Akira UTSUGI
- Visiting Scientist
- Mitsuhiko OTA
- Visiting Scientist
- Kiwako ITO
- Visiting Scientist
- Utako MINAI
- Visiting Scientist
- Kiyoko YONEYAMA
- Visiting Scientist
- Takahito SHINYA
- Visiting Scientist
- Yasuyo KAWAI
- Visiting Scientist
- Tadahisa KONDO
- Visiting Scientist
- Satoshi IMAIZUMI
- Visiting Scientist
- Hideaki KIKUCHI
- Visiting Scientist
- Manabu ARAI
- Visiting Scientist
- Edson Tadashi MIYAMOTO
- Visiting Scientist
- Hiroko MATSUBA
- Visiting Technician
- Kuniyoshi TANAKA
- Part-time Staff
- Naoko ITO
- Part-time Staff
- Yumiko SEMA
- Part-time Staff
- Kazuki WATANABE
- Part-time Staff
- Takayuki KONISHI
- Part-time Staff
- Naoya AOKI
- Part-time Staff
- Jun WAKAYOSHI
- Jinzai
- Takuya ASAI
- Part-time Staff