Abstract highlighting my PhD work: The word is a basic unit of written language. Visual word recognition is achieved through both low level perceptual processes and higher level cognitive processes. To date, the data from cognitive sciences research highlight the speed and apparent ease with which individual written words can be identified generally demonstrating that less than half a second is necessary for word recognition. In my thesis, which primarily addresses the impact of orthographic prelexical and lexical information on visual word recognition, a series of seven experiments were reported that used event related potentials (ERPs), combined with masked priming paradigm to explore known components involved in various stages of word recognition. Overall, the ERP results showed clear orthographic effects at three distinct levels of recognition. The first of the observed effects takes place at around 200ms and it proved to be sensitive to the degree of prime-target orthographic overlap. I advance that this effect is related to the N250 component that has been previously reported to be sensitive to processing at the interface between sub-lexical and whole word representations. The second observed effect takes place at around 300ms and seems to be sensitive to the lexical process. Finally, The N400 effect reflects interactions between levels of representation for whole-words and concepts. These results suggest that orthographic information affects the core processes of lexical access and lexical processing during visual word recognition.
BIO - background:
- 2022: Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches - Université Lumière Lyon 2 (France). Title of the dissertation: Letter, word, sentence,... a story on expertise.
- Since 2017: Associate Professor (Maître de Conférences) at Université Lumière Lyon 2 (France) - Laboratoire d'Etude des Mécanismes Cognitifs (EA 3082).
- 2016-2017: Post-doctoral researcher (Juan de la Cierva Fellowship) at the grupo de Neuropsicología y Neuroimagen Funcional. (advisor: Pr. César Ávila Rivera, Castellón de la Plana, Spain).
- 2015-2016: Temporary teacher and researcher (ATER) at the Université de Nîmes (France).
- 2013-2015: Post-doctoral researcher (Marie Curie Fellowship) at the Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language. (advisor: Pr. Manuel Carreiras, Donostia, Spain).
- 2011-2013: Post-doctoral researcher (founded by Fyssen Foundation, Paris) at the Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language (advisor: Pr. Manuel Carreiras, Donostia, Spain).
- 2010: Instructor in ERP training at the Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive (Aix-Marseille University and CNRS, Marseille, France).
- 2007-2010: PhD grant from the Ministère français de la Recherche et de l’Enseignement Supérieur at the Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive (advisor: Jonathan Grainger, Marseille, France). Title of the dissertation: Electrophysiological studies on orthographic coding.
- 2009: In-doc grant for a project in the NeuroCognition Lab (advisor: Pr. Phillip Holcomb, Boston, USA). The visit to this lab had the goal of running an experiment on pseudoword superiority effect by using the ERP technique.
Awarded Scholarships and Research Grants:
2021-2025: ANR JCJC devOP - Developement of orthographic processing during the first years of reading acquisition. Total amount: 281.310 Euros
2016-2017 Juan de la Cierva Fellowship (Spanish goverment) - Total amount: 64.000 Euros
2013-2015 Marie Curie Fellowship FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF. Total amount: 168.896 Euros
2011-2012 Post-doctoral Grant, Fyssen Foundation. Total amount: 50.000 Euros
2009 In-doc stage, “Aires Culturelles” Grant. Visit to foreign center: NeuroCognition Lab (Director: P. Holcomb). Tufts University (Boston, MA, USA). Total amount: 600 Euros
2007-2010 Doctoral Grant (Allocation de recherche) from the French Ministry of Education. Total amount: 61.500 Euros
Participation in projects founded by public bodies:
2022-2026 ANR project "StratAgEm – Strategies and Cognitive Aging : the Roles of Emotions". Head researcher: Hanna Chainay (Laboratoire d’Etude des Mécanismes Cognitifs, Lyon, France)
2020-2024 ANR project "AVA - From lip- to script-reading: An integrative view of audio-visual associations in language processing". Head researcher: Chotiga Pattamadilok (Laboratoire Parole et Langage, Aix-en-Provence, France)
2019 Collaboration with Dr. Marie-Maude Geoffray (Paedo-psychiatrist at the Centre Evaluation Diagnosis Autism - CEDA, Hôpital Le Vinatier, Bron, France). Name of the project : To assess the reliability and validity of tools for measuring robust changes in social interactions of preschool children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (Total amount: 18 000 Euros)
2013-2015 Name of the project: Translation recognition in Bilinguals across lifespan. Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language (Donostia, Spain). Head researcher: Jon Andoni Duñabeitia (Total amount: 52.650 Euros)
2012-2013 Name of the project: The trilingual lexicon. Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language (Donostia, Spain). Head researcher: Jon Andoni Duñabeitia (Total amount: 23.924 Euros)
Current collaborations:
- Orthographic coding in visual word recognition,with Jonathan Grainger (Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, Aix-Marseille University & CNRS, France)
- Reading acquisition with Joana Acha (Universidad del Pais Vasco, Spain), Marta Vergara-Martinez (Universitat de Valencia, Spain)
- Speech perception, with Sophie Dufour (Laboratoire Parole & Langage, Aix-Marseille University & CNRS, France)
- Lexical processing with Manuel Perea and Marta Vergara-Martinez (Universitat de Valencia, Spain) and Pablo Gomez (CSUSB - California State University San Bernardino)
- Lexical consolidation with Nicolas Dumay (University of Exeter, UK)