FACULTY

SAKAI Hiromu

SAKAI, Hiromu (酒井 弘), Professor

ResearchMap site : https://researchmap.jp/read0186063

E-mail : [hsakai@waseda.jp]

My current research interest centers around the following question--- how we human being can connect our thoughts to language and language to our thoughts. Though this is one of the classical problems in the fields of philosophy, psychology, and linguistics, I approach using experimental methodology in neuroscience ---measuring neural activities and decoding the activities using computational models.

Education

  • B.A., Kyoto University, 1984
  • Ph.D., University of California - Irvine, 1996 (Dissertation: Derivational Uniformity: A Study on Syntactic Derivation in Parametric Setting)

Current CELESE responsibilities

Administrative roles : Full-time member hiring coordinator

Courses : Academic Lecture Comprehension, Communication Strategies, Academic Reading, Special Topics in Functional English

Research areas and interests

Neuroscience (Nerobiology of language), Neurolinguistics, Psycholinguistics

Representative works

  • Ito, A., Sakai, H.: Everyday language exposure shapes prediction of specific words in listening comprehension: A visual world eye-tracking study, Frontiers in Psychology, 2021. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.607474
  • Hestvik, A., Shinohara, Y., Durvasula, K., Verdonschot, R., Sakai, H.: Abstractness of human speech sound representations. Brain Research, 1732, 146664, 2020. https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.brainres.2020.146664
  • Rodrigo, L., Igoa, J.-M.,, Sakai, H.: The Interplay of Relational and Non-relational Processes in Sentence Production: The Case of Relative Clause Planning in Japanese and Spanish, Frontiers in Psychology, 2019, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.
  • Wang, Y., Luo, Y., Momma, S., Sakai, H.: Unconscious translation from Japanese kanji to Chinese hanzi by Chinese-Japanese Bilinguals: An ERP investigation, IEICE Technical Report 116(159), 71-76, 2016.

Other

  • Councilor, English Linguistics Society of Japan.
  • Counciler, Member of Standing Committee, Chair of Society Award Committee, Linguistics Society of Japan.