People

Zofia Wodniecka, PhD – Principal Investigator

I am an associate professor at the Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University. My research interests include bilingualism, bilingual language processing, and cognitive functions underlying a second language use. I received my Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from Jagiellonian University and completed a postdoctoral training at York University and the Rotman Research Institute in Toronto, Canada (2005-2007) as well as at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia (Group of Eight European Fellowship 2009). Prior to my Ph.D., I was a pre-doc at Penn State University, USA (Fulbright Junior Fellowship). In 2010, I received the Focus subsidy from the Foundation for Polish Science, which gave the wonderful opportunity to establish a new research team focused on bilingualism research. (Photo by Agnieszka Fiejka)

Jakub Szewczyk, PhD – Co-investigator

My research is focused on cognitive processes that take place in the brain during language perception. In particular, I am interested in what processes take place during first few hundreds of milliseconds after we read or hear a word embedded in a semantic context. I’m interested in what way perception of these words is aided by the prior context. Besides, I am developing a nonword repetition test for Polish and English, and test what subject- and item- related factors contribute to nonword repetition performance.

Marta Marecka, PhD

I do research at the intersection of linguistics and psychology. I currently investigate the interactions between phonological processing, in particular phonological sensitivity, and foreign word learning. I am also interested in the mechanisms behind phonological processing. (Photo by Agnieszka Fiejka)

Alba Casado, PhD

My research interests include the study of language perception and production. In particular, how monolingual and bilingual speakers set up and activate their mental lexicon, and the factors biasing the access to different semantic features. I pay special attention to the grammatical gender processing, and to the biological gender of the addressees. Furthermore, I approach the study of language processing and production by combining behavioral measures and brain activity recording techniques, such as event-related potentials, and also eye-tracker. (Photo by Agnieszka Fiejka)

Joanna Durlik, MA

I am a PhD student at the Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University. I am interested in cognitive control mechanisms, which help bilinguals to separate languages from each other and the influence of language contexts on bilingualism (e.g. immersion in the 2nd language, living abroad). I investigate these problems in my research project (Preludium), supported by National Science Centre. I am also interested in investigating practical problems related to bilingualism, e.g. bilingual education, cultural aspects of bilingualism, language development of children who learn more than one language. (Photo by Agnieszka Fiejka)

Patrycja Kałamała, MA

I am a PhD student at the Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University (Cognitive Science Department). My master thesis concerned the investigation of ERP components in the Eriksen Flanker Task. I am a member of LangUsta and Neurocognitive Processing Laboratory at Jagiellonian University. My research interests include cognitive/executive control mechanisms, relations between cognitive control and bilingualism, as well as neural correlates of these phenomena. In 2014, I received the Diamond Grant from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. During my PhD studies, I want to explore the relations between bilingualism and cognitive/executive control mechanisms on the behavioral and neural levels. (Photo by Agnieszka Fiejka)

Jonas Walther, MSc

I am a PhD student at the Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University. Coming from a neurobiology background originally I am interested in the impact of bilingualism on cognitive control abilities the details of the underlying mechanisms. In my PhD thesis, I am going to examine the different factors influencing language exposure and competition. (Photo by Agnieszka Fiejka)

Agata Wolna, MA

I am a fifth year Psychology student at the Jagiellonian University. My main research interests are focused on neural correlates of language processing. In cooperation with the LagUsta team I prepare my Master thesis, which forms part of a research project investigating the influence of short and long term exposure to the second language on the first language processing. In my thesis I will investigate the language after effects  for the first laguage related to the switch from the second language. (Photo by Agnieszka Fiejka)

Sofía Castro, MA

I am a Ph.D. student inside the Multimind network. My research interests are related mainly to language and its connexion to other cognitive domains and processes. Specifically, what are the cognitive processes shared between language and arithmetic, and also how bilingualism is connected with the maintenance and modification of stereotypes. (Photo by Agnieszka Fiejka)

Dorota Peszkowska, MA

Graduate of Applied Linguistics Institute at the University of Warsaw. As a research assistant, she conducts testing sessions for our “Polish on emigration” project – if you sign up to take part in the research, the chances of meeting her are high! Dorota will explain all the procedures to you and will make sure you feel at ease in the lab. Her interests include the perception of multilingualism in migrant communities and the influence of attitudes towards a minority group on learning a heritage language. Apart from testing, Dorota works on social inclusion and cultural projects, including the EU Citizens Rights Project – Scotland and the literary club Word Polishers. You can find her on Twitter @peszko01.

Weronika Browarczyk

I am a student of cognitive science (first year of Master’s degree) at Jagiellonian University. My main scientific interests focus on cognitive functioning in patients with disorders and its neurobiological basis. In Langusta Lab I am working as a research assistant.

Monika Pilarska

I am a fourth year Psychology student and a member of LangUsta at the Jagiellonian University. My master’s thesis is about the impact of shorm-term and long term language experience on language regulation in bilinguals which is a part of SonataBis research project. I am interested in cognitive functioning of bilinguals but also my interest is focused on cross cultural psychology- how cultural factors influence human behaviour, thoughts and languages.

Mateusz Wojnarowicz

I am a fourth year student in psychology at Jagiellonian University in Cracow. Currently I am doing research on activation of semantic network and I`m also participating in Junior Research Project organised by European Federation of Psychology Students’ Associations (EFPSA). My research interests revolve around the cognitive linguistics, semantics, prediction and embodiment of language especially from the viewpoint of the cognitive psychology and neuropsychology. In LangUsta I`ll carry out my master`s thesis study and I am a research assistant.

Michał Remiszewski, MA

I was studying philosophy and cognitive science at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. My interests focus on language and intelligence evolution, self-consciousness and its relation to language, foundations of consciousness and evolutionary psychology. In the LangUsta Lab I am a lab manager and a research assistant. (Photo by Agnieszka Fiejka)

Justyna Kotowicz, PhD

I’m a PhD student in the Department of Education, Jagiellonian University. I graduated special education studies at Pedagogic University in Cracow and French Philology at Jagiellonian University. My research interests include bimodal bilingualism (spoken and sign languages), communication of Deaf and sign language.

Marcin Bukowski, PhD 

I’m a researcher and lecturer in the Institute of Psychology at the Jagiellonian University. My main research interests are focused on social cognition, especially motivational and emotional factors that guide cognition in the social context. I’m also interested in studying what individual and situational variables enhance the flexibility of social categorization and reasoning.

Anna Drożdżowicz, PhD

I graduated in psychology from Jagiellonian University. My master thesis concerned the neural correlates of attentional functioning in bilinguals and was part of the research conducted within the LangUsta project. In the LangUsta Lab I continue the research on this topic. I am particularly interested in the components related to commiting errors and cognitive control, such as ERN and N2. I graduated also in philosophy. Currently I am working on my phd thesis on philosophy of lanaguage and pragamatics, at the University of Oslo. I am also a phd student at The Faculty of Philosophy, Jagiellonian University.

Paweł Mandera, PhD

I am a PhD student in the Dapartment of Experimental Psychology at Ghent University. My work involves applying methods from computational linguistics to psycholinguistic research. I am also working on preparation of resources necessary for conducting psycholinguistic research in various languages. I hope that in collaboration with LangUsta we will be able to improve the quality of existing resources for Polish.

Joanna Kołak, MA

I am a PhD student at Faculty of Psychology at Warsaw University and Portuguese Philology graduate at Jagiellonian University. My master thesis focused on the consequences of child bilingualism on attention functioning. In 2012 – 2015, within the Bi-SLI PL project, I was coordinating a research on Polish-English bilingual children living in the UK. During my PhD studies I want to find out what is the role of internal and external factors in developing a balanced bilingualism in Polish bilingual children.

Magdalena Senderecka, PhD 

I am an assistant professor at the Cognitive Science Department, Jagiellonian University. My research interests include developmental neuropsychology and psychophysiology, especially functionning of ADHD chidren’s brains and, as a consequence, what is the base for impulsive behavior, attentional disorders and problems with reaction suppression. Moreover, I am also interested in the functional asymmetry of the brain hemispheres and neural bases for cognitive processes, e.g. in bilinguals.

Andrzej Tarłowski, PhD

I am an assistant professor in the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Finance and Management in Warsaw. I specialize in cognitive development with a particular focus on the influence of early experiences with nature on the development of biological knowledge as well as the role of essentialism in reasoning about living kinds. In 2005 I completed my PhD thesis at the Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw under the supervision of Maciej Haman. My thesis compared various aspects of reasoning about living kinds in urban and rural children. Between 2005 and 2007 I did postdoctoral training at Northwestern University in Doug Medin and Sandy Waxman’s lab. I studied the role of culture and experience in the development of biological knowledge as well as morally motivated decision making. Between 2007 and 2010 as part of postdoctoral training at the University of the Basque Country I studied bilingualism in Itziar Laka’s research group.

Klaudia Tondos

I’m a fifth year student of cognitive science at Jagiellonian University. My main interest lay in understanding how bilingualism shapes the way ours cognitive processes works and what kind of impact the language have on the construction of our mental representation of reality. In LangUsta I gather valuable experience in conducting behavioral studies. Currently, I participate in a research of sign/spoken bilingualism.