Issues in Japanese Psycholinguistics from Comparative Perspectives compiles 31 state-of-the-art articles on Japanese psycholinguistics. It emphasizes the importance of using comparative perspectives when conducting psycholinguistic research. Psycholinguistic studies of Japanese have contributed greatly to the field from a cross-linguistic perspective. However, the target languages for comparison have been limited. Most research focuses on English and a few other typologically similar languages. As a result, many current theories of psycholinguistics fail to acknowledge the nature of ergative-absolutive and/or object-before-subject languages. The cross-linguistic approach is not the only method of comparison in psycholinguistics. Other prominent comparative aspects include comprehension vs. production, native speakers vs. second language learners, typical vs. aphasic language development. Many of these approaches are underrepresented in Japanese psycholinguistics. The studies reported in the volumes attempt to bridge these gaps. Using various experimental and/or computational methods, they address issues of the universality/diversity of the human language and the nature of the relationship between human cognitive modules. Volume 2 provides studies on the interaction between linguistic and non-linguistic factors.

Issues in Japanese Psycholinguistics from Comparative Perspectives compiles 31 state-of-the-art articles on Japanese psycholinguistics. It emphasizes the importance of using comparative perspectives when conducting psycholinguistic research. Psycholinguistic studies of Japanese have contributed greatly to the field from a cross-linguistic perspective. However, the target languages for comparison have been limited. Most research focuses on English and a few other typologically similar languages. As a result, many current theories of psycholinguistics fail to acknowledge the nature of ergative-absolutive and/or object-before-subject languages. The cross-linguistic approach is not the only method of comparison in psycholinguistics. Other prominent comparative aspects include comprehension vs. production, native speakers vs. second language learners, typical vs. aphasic language development. Many of these approaches are underrepresented in Japanese psycholinguistics. The studies reported in the volumes attempt to bridge these gaps. Using various experimental and/or computational methods, they address issues of the universality/diversity of the human language and the nature of the relationship between human cognitive modules. Volume 1, Cross-Linguistic Studies, compares Japanese and other languages, including well-studied languages such as English, as well as lesser-studied languages such as Kaqchikel.

Traditionally, due to the availability of technology, psycholinguistic research has focused mainly on Western languages. However, this focus has recently shifted towards a more diverse range of languages, whose structures often throw into question many previous assumptions in syntactic theory and language processing. Based on a case study in field-based comparative psycholinguistics, this pioneering book is the first to explore the neurocognition of endangered 'object-before-subject' languages, such as Kaqchikel and Seediq. It draws on a range of methods - including linguistic fieldwork, theoretical linguistic analysis, corpus research, questionnaire surveys, behavioural experiments, eye tracking, event-related brain potentials, functional magnetic resonance imaging, and near-infrared spectroscopy - to consider preferred constituent orders in both language and thought, examining comprehension as well as production. In doing so, it highlights the importance of field-based cross-linguistic cognitive neuroscientific research in uncovering universal and language-particular aspects of the human language faculty, and the interaction between language and thought.