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Professor Sotaro Kita's team consists of a mix of people from many different backgrounds and stages in their academic careers.
Current Lab Members
Lab Director and Professor of Psychology of Language
Professor Sotaro Kita
Job title: Professor of Psychology of Language, Director of the Communication Development Lab.
Quote: "I am interested in how children learn words and how adults and children communicate, using language and gesture."
Background: After a bachelor's and master's degree in engineering from the University of Tokyo (Japan), he completed a PhD degree in Psychology and Linguistics at the University of Chicago (USA). He worked as a post-doctoral researcher and as a senior scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics (Nijmegen, The Netherlands), and has been lecturing in the UK since 2003 at the Universtiry of Bristol, University of Birmingham, and University of Warwick.
Click here for Kita's personal page
Researcher and Assistant Professor of Psychology
Suzanne Aussems
Job title: Assistant Professor of Psychology
Quote: "I am interested in the gestures that parents and children produce that can tell us something about how children learn language".
Background: Suzanne is interested the strategies that children use to develop their vocabulary, memory, and language skills. She holds a BA and MA Degree in Culture Studies and an MPhil in Language and Communication from Tilburg University (The Netherlands). Her PhD research at the University of Warwick investigated how seeing iconic gestures produced by adults facilitates event memory and word learning in preschool-aged children. She is currently working on two projects in which she studies the spontaneous (nonverbal) communicative behaviors that 10-15-month-old babies produce. Suzanne hopes that her research will eventually assist with the construction of educational materials for parents and young children.
Click here for Suzanne's personal page
Previous Lab members
Post-doctoral Researcher
Dr Stephanie L. Archer
Job title: Post-doctoral Researcher
Quote: "I am interested in how young infants track different patterns in speech and use this information to identify and learn words."
Background: After my bachelor's degree in Linguistics and working in an unrelated field, I returned to Linguistics at the University of Calgary (Canada) for my master's (2008) and Ph.D. (2012) degrees, working primarily in Psycholinguistics and First Language Acquisition. I then held a Postdoctoral Research Fellow position at McGill University (Canada) in the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders (2013) and am currently at the University of Warwick (UK) in the Department of Psychology.
Click here for Stephanie's personal page
Research Assistant
Disha Depala
Job title: Aston placement student / Research assistant
Background: Disha worked as a research assistant at University of Warwick with the Psychology Department as part of her placement year at Aston University. She is very much interested in working with children in the future and wants to gain some first-hand experiences working with children in a research based environment.
Research Assistant
Anitha Mohanan
Job title: Aston placement student / Research assistant
Background: Anitha joined our lab to work as a research assistant whilst on her placement year with Aston University, where she is studying for a BSc in Psychology. She hopes to gain more of an insight into what it takes to conduct research and aspires to further challenge her academic capabilities in the future by studying for a Master’s in a specialised field.
Research Assistant
Priya Silverstein
Job title: Research assistant
Background: Priya worked as a research assistant in the CD Lab at the University of Warwick. During that time, she was also a Master’s student at Aston University studying Cognitive Neuroscience. She is currently working towards a PhD degree in Psychology at the University of Lancaster, studying 9-month-old infants. We wish her the best of luck in her future research!
Research Assistant
Olivia Andrade
Job title: Aston placement student / Research assistant
Background: Olivia worked as a research assistant in the CD Lab as part of her placement year with Aston University where she is studying towards a BSc in Psychology. She is interested in gaining experience in psychology research and in the future hopes to continue studying a Master’s in Speech and Langauge Therapy.
Research Assistant
Amy Watts
Job title: Research Assistant
Background: Amy was studying towards a BSc in Psychology at Aston University and worked as a research assistant in the CD Lab. She is interested in developmental psychology, in particular how children acquire and produce language. In the future, Amy hopes to complete a Master's degree in this area.
Post-doctoral Researcher
Dr Kazuki Sekine
Job title: Research fellow
Quote: "I am interested in the development of and the roles of gestures in communication, and cultural influence on developmental of gesture and language".
Background: After completing both a master's and a PhD degree in Psychology from the Shirayuri College (Japan), he worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the National Institute of Informatics (Japan), University of Birmingham (UK) and University of Warwick (UK).
Research Assistant
Samarita Blaggan
Job title: Research assistant
Quote: "My primary interests lie in children's cognitive and language development".
Background: After a bachelor's degree in social psychology from the Loughborough University, she completed a master's degree in Applied Child Psychology from Kingston University. She has worked on research projects for Nottingham Trent University and the University of Leicester, examining various aspects of children's cognitive and language development.
Volunteer
Karolina Rokita
Job title: Volunteer
Background: Karolina graduated with a Master's in Cognitive Neuroscience from Aston University in 2014 and is also currently working as a Research Assistant at the Centre for Research in Psychology, Behaviour and Achievement at Coventry University. Her main areas of interest include bilingualism and cognitive ageing. In particular, she is interested in how bilingualism affects executive functioning across the life span. In the future, Karolina would like to undertake a PhD project related to this area.
Volunteer
Jemma Davoudian
Job title: Volunteer
Background: Jemma is currently studying for a BSc in Psychology at University College London (UCL). Spending the Summer of her first year with the CD Lab at the University of Warwick, she gained more experience in a research setting.
Volunteer
Natasha Kwok
Job title: Volunteer
Background: Natasha has recently graduated from her BsC in Psychology at the University of Warwick. Throughout her degree she developed an interest in language development in children. In the future she hopes to pursue a Master’s degree in this area.