astronomy

Sotaro Kita

Sotaro Kita is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Sotaro Kita rather than just read about it. In short: Sotaro Kita (喜多壮太郎, Kita Sōtarō; born 1963) is a Japanese psycholinguist. He is a professor in the Department of Psychology at The University of Warwick.

Key takeaways

Sotaro Kita belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Sotaro Kita to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Sotaro Kita from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Sotaro Kita (喜多壮太郎, Kita Sōtarō; born 1963) is a Japanese psycholinguist. He is a professor in the Department of Psychology at The University of Warwick. His work focuses on the psycholinguistic properties of gestures accompanying speech, relations between spatial language and cognition, language development, and sound symbolism.

Education and career Kita received his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1993, working in the lab of David McNeill. His dissertation focused on spontaneous gestures and Japanese mimetics. From 1993 to 2003, Kita led the Gesture Project at Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, one of the research foci of the MPI. From 2017 to 2023, Kita has served as the editor of GESTURE (published by John Benjamins). Kita was president of the International Society for Gesture Studies from 2012 to 2014, and vice-president from 2010 to 2012. Kita's research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Leverhulme Trust, and other agencies.

Appointments 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

Books 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

Selected publications 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.

External links Sotaro Kita's Warwick University homepage Sotaro Kita publications indexed by Google Scholar

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Sotaro Kita

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Sotaro Kita claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Sotaro Kita before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Sotaro Kita ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Sotaro Kita

In research: Sotaro Kita appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Sotaro Kita in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Sotaro Kita is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1963 births, Linguists from Japan, Living people, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Sotaro Kita outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Sotaro Kita in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Sotaro Kita means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Sotaro Kita out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Sotaro Kita in simple terms?

Sotaro Kita (喜多壮太郎, Kita Sōtarō; born 1963) is a Japanese psycholinguist. He is a professor in the Department of Psychology at The University of Warwick.

Why does Sotaro Kita matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Sotaro Kita?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Sotaro Kita.