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Reiko Mazuka, Research Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience

Reiko Mazuka
Contact Info:
Office Location: 
Office Phone:  (919) 660-5702
Email Address:   send me a message
Web Page:   https://psychandneuro.duke.edu/sites/psychandneuro.duke.edu/files/file-attachments/MazukaVita.9.0317.pdf

Education:

Ph.D.Cornell University1990
M.S.University of Edinburgh (United Kingdom)1984
MANagoya University1983
Specialties:

Developmental Psychology
Research Interests: Language Acquisition

Current projects: Characteristics of Japanese infant-directed speech, Acquisition of quantity-based phonemic categories , Role of linguistic markedness and input frequency on infants' acquisition of phonemic categories, Role of prosody on children and adults' sentence comprehension , Executive function and children's sentence processing, Inhibition function and sentence processing

The purpose of our research is to shed light on our understanding of human brain development by investigating the process of acquisition of language skills, specifically in relation to phonological development. Since the sound system of a language is one of the first things infants learn, an examination of the initial stages of phonological acquisition can provide critical insight into how the human brain is structured to learn a language. In particular, as language prosody is an essential (perhaps the critical) key by which children first make sense of the structures of their languages, our program of research is designed to utilize the latest knowledge and technologies (such as Near Infrared Spectroscopy) to ascertain the course of development by which specific prosodic phenomena are naturally acquired.

Areas of Interest:

infant speech perception
phonological development
prosody of Japanese
role of executive function on language acquisition
individual differences in infants' abiliy to learn language

Curriculum Vitae
Current Ph.D. Students   (Former Students)

  • Youngon Choi
Representative Publications   (More Publications)   (search)

  1. Zervakis, J; Mazuka, R (2013). Effect of repeated evaluation and repeated exposure on acceptability ratings of sentences.. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 42(6), 505-525. [23179954], [doi]  [abs]
  2. Bion, RAH; Miyazawa, K; Kikuchi, H; Mazuka, R (2013). Learning phonemic vowel length from naturalistic recordings of Japanese infant-directed speech.. Plos One, 8(2), e51594. [23437036], [doi]  [abs]
  3. Tsuji, S; Gomez, NG; Medina, V; Nazzi, T; Mazuka, R (2012). The labial-coronal effect revisited: Japanese adults say pata, but hear tapa.. Cognition, 125(3), 413-428. [22921188], [doi]  [abs]
  4. Nakamura, C; Arai, M; Mazuka, R (2012). Immediate use of prosody and context in predicting a syntactic structure. Cognition, 125(3), 413-428. [22901508], [doi]  [abs]
  5. Ito, K; Jincho, N; Minai, U; Yamane, N; Mazuka, R (2012). Intonation facilitates contrast resolution: Evidence from Japanese adults and 6-year olds. Journal of Memory and Language, 66(1), 265-284. [doi]  [abs]
  6. Sato, Y; Kato, M; Mazuka, R (2012). Development of single/geminate obstruent discrimination by Japanese infants: early integration of durational and nondurational cues.. Developmental Psychology, 48(1), 18-34. [21967561], [doi]  [abs]
  7. Minai, U; Jincho, N; Yamane, N; Mazuka, R (2012). What hinders child semantic computation: children's universal quantification and the development of cognitive control.. Journal of Child Language, 39(5), 919-956. [22182242], [doi]  [abs]
  8. Mazuka, R; Cao, Y; Dupoux, E; Christophe, A (2011). The development of a phonological illusion: a cross-linguistic study with Japanese and French infants.. Developmental Science, 14(4), 693-699. [21676090], [doi]  [abs]
  9. Minagawa-Kawai, Y; van der Lely, H; Ramus, F; Sato, Y; Mazuka, R; Dupoux, E (2011). Optical brain imaging reveals general auditory and language-specific processing in early infant development.. Cerebral Cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991), 21(2), 254-261. [20497946], [doi]  [abs]
  10. Sato, Y; Mori, K; Koizumi, T; Minagawa-Kawai, Y; Tanaka, A; Ozawa, E; Wakaba, Y; Mazuka, R (2011). Functional lateralization of speech processing in adults and children who stutter.. Frontiers in Psychology, 2, 70. [21687442], [doi]  [abs]
  11. Yoshida, KA; Iversen, JR; Patel, AD; Mazuka, R; Nito, H; Gervain, J; Werker, JF (2010). The development of perceptual grouping biases in infancy: a Japanese-English cross-linguistic study.. Cognition, 115(2), 356-361. [20144456], [doi]  [abs]
  12. Matsuda, Y-T; Ueno, K; Waggoner, RA; Erickson, D; Shimura, Y; Tanaka, K; Cheng, K; Mazuka, R (2011). Processing of infant-directed speech by adults.. Neuroimage, 54(1), 611-621. [20691794], [doi]  [abs]
  13. Sato, Y; Sogabe, Y; Mazuka, R (2010). Development of hemispheric specialization for lexical pitch-accent in Japanese infants.. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 22(11), 2503-2513. [19925204], [doi]  [abs]
  14. Sato, Y; Sogabe, Y; Mazuka, R (2010). Discrimination of phonemic vowel length by Japanese infants.. Developmental Psychology, 46(1), 106-119. [20053010], [doi]  [abs]

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