We conduct collaborative studies examining the lifelong development of language use, which reflects human mental states and individual differences. These studies include participants ranging from children to older adults with diverse backgrounds and conditions.

We investigate the mechanisms by which the way we use language can bring joy and anger to others, and its developmental change and individual differences. To this end, we examine subjective experiences of language use, actual language behavior, and the underlying brain activity and physiological responses, while also analyzing individual differences through neuropsychological assessments.

Rather than focusing on language abilities such as vocabulary knowledge and grammatical functions, we try to reveal the development and diversity of pragmatic competence, which integrates human emotional, cognitive, and sensorimotor functions. We consider this integrative approach to be a distinctive feature of our lab.

Our potential contribution lies in developing better ways to deliver services or products by evaluating the effects of the language used in messaging.

• pragmatics
• emotion
• individual difference
• development