Graduate School of Intercultural Studies, Kobe University

Last Updated: 2025年08月05日

Human Communication Program presents a wide range of opportunities for research about communication based on human sciences and cognitive sciences. Students can learn advanced knowledge of communication by studying phonetics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, psychology, neurology, and performance science.

A PhD candidate must learn basic skills of statistics and will be advised to master an advanced level of statistics. Research should be performed through evidence-based studies. You have to gather enough data in both quality and quantity before you come to a conclusion.

Our M.A. program is divided into two tracks; the career enhancement track and the researcher track.

Career enhancement track is aimed at students who want to develop skills for a career outside of academic societies. Students will acquire up-to-date knowledge and research skills. Students, with guidance from professors and senior students, will submit an MA report.

The researcher track is more aimed at students who want to go on to do a Ph.D. with more focus on research skills than the Career enhancement track. The other main difference is that students submit an M.A. thesis to complete the course.

Students’ research themes	The influence of working memory contents on visual search. Cueing effects of target location probability and repetition. A Japanese-Chinese comparison on syntax and sentence delivery The traits of tandem learning, seen from scenes of language output difficulties Changes in prosody caused by shadowing training of Japanese Recognition and acoustic features of attitudes realized in Chinese Performer-and-audience dynamics in music communication
Teaching staff	Ryo KITADA, Professor Subjects: Nonverbal Communication Focuses of my research are (1) to understand the mechanisms underlying multisensory perception and social cognition and (2) how innate and postnatal experience are interacted with each other to develop them. I use multiple methods (e.g., psychophysics and neuroimaging techniques) to address these questions. Ryoko HAYASHI, Professor Subjects: Neurolinguistics Research fields: Speech science, psycholinguistics. I am researching phonetics in Japanese and other languages as well as experimental solutions to the difficulties in pronunciation for foreign languages. Also, I am interested in speech disabilities, linguistic development and the difference in teaching speech communication between countries. Kai MAKITA, Lecturer Subjects: Interactional Grammar My research interests include cognitive psychology, neuroscience, development, developmental disorders, and linguistics. In my research, I mainly use structural and functional brain imaging to study cognitive functions and behaviors, such as human development, perception, and learning. In carrying out my research, I would like to deepen my research from a cross-disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspective. Eriko MATSUMOTO, Professor Subjects: Neuropsychology and Communication Research fields: Cognitive psychology, neuropsychology, and cognitive neuroscience. I am interested in how human brain represents the higher-cognitive functions such as the visual perception, attention, and social interactions. I would like to make it clearer through brain imaging techniques and experimental psychological methods. I am also interested in the effects of emotional stimuli on cognitive process. Tomoko TATSUMI, Associate Professor Research fields: Child language acquisition, psycholinguistics. I am studying young children’s language learning by using experimental and corpus-analysis methods. I am especially interested in how our linguistic experience is processed and organized into a grammatical knowledge. Toru MINAMIMOTO, Lecturer Subject: Structure of Communication Research fields: Linguistics, historical linguistics, Indo-European studies, studies of Ancient Greek. I mainly work on the dialects of Ancient Greek. The Ancient Greek people wrote their decrees and contracts in their local dialects and inscribed them in stones. By comparing inscriptions from different parts of Greece, we can find out the characteristics of each dialect, and can study the historical background of the dialects. I am also interested in how diverse human languages could be, and learning the Japanese Sign Language little by little.

Students’ research themes

The influence of working memory contents on visual search.
Cueing effects of target location probability and repetition.
A Japanese-Chinese comparison on syntax and sentence delivery
The traits of tandem learning, seen from scenes of language output difficulties
Changes in prosody caused by shadowing training of Japanese
Recognition and acoustic features of attitudes realized in Chinese
Performer-and-audience dynamics in music communication

Teaching staff

Ryo KITADA, Professor
Subjects: Nonverbal Communication
Focuses of my research are (1) to understand the mechanisms underlying multisensory perception and social cognition and (2) how innate and postnatal experience are interacted with each other to develop them. I use multiple methods (e.g., psychophysics and neuroimaging techniques) to address these questions.

Ryoko HAYASHI, Professor
Subjects: Neurolinguistics
Research fields: Speech science, psycholinguistics. I am researching phonetics in Japanese and other languages as well as experimental solutions to the difficulties in pronunciation for foreign languages. Also, I am interested in speech disabilities, linguistic development and the difference in teaching speech communication between countries.

Kai MAKITA, Lecturer
Subjects: Interactional Grammar
My research interests include cognitive psychology, neuroscience, development, developmental disorders, and linguistics. In my research, I mainly use structural and functional brain imaging to study cognitive functions and behaviors, such as human development, perception, and learning. In carrying out my research, I would like to deepen my research from a cross-disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspective.

Eriko MATSUMOTO, Professor
Subjects: Neuropsychology and Communication
Research fields: Cognitive psychology, neuropsychology, and cognitive neuroscience. I am interested in how human brain represents the higher-cognitive functions such as the visual perception, attention, and social interactions. I would like to make it clearer through brain imaging techniques and experimental psychological methods. I am also interested in the effects of emotional stimuli on cognitive process.

Tomoko TATSUMI, Associate Professor
Research fields: Child language acquisition, psycholinguistics. I am studying young children’s language learning by using experimental and corpus-analysis methods. I am especially interested in how our linguistic experience is processed and organized into a grammatical knowledge.

Toru MINAMIMOTO, Lecturer
Subject: Structure of Communication
Research fields: Linguistics, historical linguistics, Indo-European studies, studies of Ancient Greek. I mainly work on the dialects of Ancient Greek. The Ancient Greek people wrote their decrees and contracts in their local dialects and inscribed them in stones. By comparing inscriptions from different parts of Greece, we can find out the characteristics of each dialect, and can study the historical background of the dialects. I am also interested in how diverse human languages could be, and learning the Japanese Sign Language little by little.