The research group of the Laboratory of Language Psychology and Bilingualism is composed mainly of members of the Jagiellonian University Institute of Psychology. However, the group also includes people interested in or working in different academic fields, namely philologists, linguists, an education theorist, a philosopher and a cognitivist.
Below are the current members of our group:
Zofia Wodniecka, PhD
Principal Investigator
Jakub Szewczyk, PhD
Co-investigator
Marta Marecka, PhD
Postdoctoral researcher
Alba Casado, PhD
Postdoctoral researcher
Kalinka Timmer, PhD
Postdoctoral researcher
Keng-Yu Lin, PhD
Postdoctoral researcher
Joanna Durlik, PhD
Cooperator
Patrycja Kałamała, PhD
Cooperator
Jonas Walther, PhD
Cooperator
Agata Wolna, PhD
Cooperator
Sofía Castro, PhD
Cooperator
Sadiye Cankurtaran, MSc
PhD student
Anna Meliksetian, MSc
PhD student
Piotr Górniak, MA
Lab manager
Kinga Masłowska, BSc
Research assistant
Teresa Kulej
Master's student
Anna Osińska, BSc
Master's student
Principal Investigator
Zofia Wodniecka, PhD
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)
ResearchGate profile
- zofia.wodniecka@uj.edu.pl
Co-investigator
Jakub Szewczyk, PhD
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.
ResearchGate profile
Google Scholar
Postdoctoral researcher
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)
ResearchGate profile
- marta.marecka@uj.edu.pl
Postdoctoral researcher
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)
ResearchGate profile
Google Scholar
ORCID
CV
- alba.casado@uj.edu.pl
Postdoctoral researcher
Kalinka Timmer, PhD
I am a postdoctoral fellow in the LangUsta group on the Ulam grant I received from NAWA. In this grant we focus on understanding how different language environments (e.g., monolingual/bilinguals) adaptively affect cognitive performance with behavioral and electrophysiological measures. Before joining the group, I obtained my PhD from Leiden University (The Netherlands) in 2013 and worked in leading labs on bilingualism around the world, like the Cognitive Development lab of Prof. Dr. Ellen Bialystok in Toronto (Canada) and the Speech Production and Bilingualism group of Dr. Albert Costa in Barcelona (Spain).
ResearchGate profile
Google Scholar
CV
- kalinka.timmer@uj.edu.pl
Postdoctoral researcher
Keng-Yu Lin, PhD
My general research interest is psycho-/neuro-linguistics at the sentence level. I'm specifically interested in the processing of English wh-dependencies as well as the interaction between domain-general cognitive control and the processing of English wh-dependencies. I'm also starting to explore and gain more interests in issues of bilingualism.
- linkengyulky@gmail.com
Cooperator
Joanna Durlik, PhD
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)
Google Scholar
CV
- joanna.durlik@doctoral.uj.edu.pl
Cooperator
Patrycja Kałamała, PhD
My research interests concern exploring neural traces of executive functions. In my PhD project, I am focusing on the interaction between language and executive control using both behavioural (e.g. SEM) and EEG techniques. In my side project, I am investigating neural underpinnings (mostly ERPs) of inhibition and conflict resolution in classic experimental paradigms, such as flanker, stop-signal or go/no-go task. (Photo by Agnieszka Fiejka)
ResearchGate profile
ORCID
- patrycja.kalamala@gmail.com
Cooperator
Jonas Walther, PhD
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)
ResearchGate profile
CV
Cooperator
Agata Wolna, PhD
I am a PhD 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)
ResearchGate profile
- agata.wolna@doctoral.uj.edu.pl
Cooperator
Sofía Castro, PhD
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)
CV
- sofia.gonzalez.castro@uj.edu.pl
PhD student
Sadiye Cankurtaran, MSc
I am a PhD student at the Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University. My main line of research centers on the role of bilingualism in cognitive control mechanisms. I have a special interest in overlapped words in different languages. I completed my master education in Neuroscience and Neuropsychology at University of Warsaw, Poland. Before joining the LangUsta team, I completed short term research visit under the supervision of Friedemann Pulvermuller, Prof. at Brain Language Laboratory, Free University, Berlin. Apart from scientific interests, I enjoy graphical designs, water-coloring and other forms of artistic expression.
- sadiye.cankurtaran@doctoral.uj.edu.pl
PhD student
Anna Meliksetian, MSc
I am a PhD student of the CogNeS program at the Jagiellonian University. My main research interests are focused on cross-language similarity, language control, and their interplay. I completed my master’s in Theoretical and Experimental Psychology at Lomonosov Moscow State University. Before joining LangUsta as a doctoral student, I cooperated with the team as a scholar of the Lane Kirkland Scholarship program supported by the Polish-American Freedom Foundation (PAFF).
- anna.meliksetian@doctoral.uj.edu.pl
Lab manager
Piotr Górniak, MA
I am a master's student in linguistics and cognitive science at Jagiellonian University. My interests focus mainly on the neural correlates of language processing and role of writting in the language system. In LangUsta I am working on my master's thesis in which I study the neural correlates of verbal fluency task.
- piotr.gorniak@student.uj.edu.pl
Research assistant
Kinga Masłowska, BSc
I am a master's Cognitive Science student at Jagiellonian University. Finishing my bachelor's in Physics made me interested in the foundation of the perception of time and space, multisensory integration and how these processes are encoded in language. In my free time I dance bachata and craft handmade candles.
Master's student
Teresa Kulej
I am a psychology and journalism student at Jagiellonian University. My research interest is the intersection between bilingualism and decision-making. In LangUsta I am working on my Master's thesis on whether selective access to both languages depends on typological similarity between pairs of languages
Master's student
Anna Osińska, BSc
I am a master's Neurobiology student at Jagiellonian University. I wrote my bachelor's thesis on neuroadaptive changes occurring in the brains of bilingual individuals, and it was the topic that made me highly interested in neurolinguistics. Personally, I love expressing myself through art, and jewellery making gives me a lot of satisfaction.
- anna.osinska@student.uj.edu.pl
OUR TEAM:
Zofia Wodniecka – principal investigator
Jakub Szewczyk – co-investigator
Marta Marecka – postdoctoral researcher
Alba Casado – postdoctoral researcher
Kalinka Timmer – postdoctoral researcher
Keng-Yu Lin – postdoctoral researcher
Joanna Durlik – PhD student
Patrycja Kałamała – PhD student
Jonas Walther – PhD student
Agata Wolna – PhD student
Sofía Castro – PhD student
Sadiye Cankurtaran – PhD student
Anna Meliksetian – PhD student
Michał Remiszewski – lab manager/research assistant
Piotr Górniak – lab manager/research assistant
Kinga Masłowska – research assistant
Teresa Kulej – master student
Anna Osińska – master student
PAST MEMBERS (in alphabetical order):
Zofia Kania
Dorota Peszkowska
Weronika Browarczyk
Anna Drożdżowicz
Karolina Łukasik
Paweł Mandera
Anna Marzecova
Monika Pilarska
Klaudia Tondos
Paulina Rubach
Mateusz Wojnarowicz
Paulina Jasińska