You are invited to this week\u2019s special talk organized by the Department of Psychology.
Everyone is welcome to attend!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Gesture, Language and Thought<\/em>“<\/p>\n\n\n\n Speaker: Sotaro Kita (University of Warwick)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Date: 17.04.2026, Friday Abstract<\/strong>: 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 \u201cpractical\u201d 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bio<\/strong>: After studying engineering in Japan (B.Eng. Mathematical Engineering, M.Eng. Information Engineering, University of Tokyo), I received a Ph.D. in psychology and linguistics from the University of Chicago (1993). After the PhD 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 a former Deputy Pro Vice Chancellor (Research) (2023-2024), with research culture as the main remit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We hope to see you there!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You are invited to this week\u2019s special talk organized by the Department of Psychology.Everyone is welcome to attend! “Gesture, Language and Thought“ Speaker: Sotaro Kita (University of Warwick) Date: 17.04.2026, FridayTime: 12:30 PMRoom: A 130 Abstract: This presentation concerns a theory on how gestures (accompanying speaking and silent thinking) are generated and how gestures facilitate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"post_formats":[],"languages":[18],"post_translationss":[],"class_list":["post-7837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"guten_post_layout_featured_media_urls":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"guten_post_layout_landscape_large":false,"guten_post_layout_portrait_large":false,"guten_post_layout_square_large":false,"guten_post_layout_landscape":false,"guten_post_layout_portrait":false,"guten_post_layout_square":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/psy.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/psy.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/psy.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psy.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psy.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7837"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/psy.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7839,"href":"https:\/\/psy.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7837\/revisions\/7839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/psy.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psy.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psy.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7837"},{"taxonomy":"post_format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psy.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fpost_formats&post=7837"},{"taxonomy":"language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psy.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Flanguages&post=7837"},{"taxonomy":"post_translations","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psy.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fpost_translationss&post=7837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Time: 12:30 PM
Room: A 130<\/p>\n\n\n\n