Dilay Z. Karadöller, Ph.D. 

Short Biography

Dilay Z. Karadöller is an assistant professor of psychology and the primary investigator of the Multimodal Language and Cognitive Development Lab at the Middle East Technical University, Turkey. Dilay is also an affiliated researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, and an affiliated faculty member in the Cognitive Science Department at the Middle East Technical University, Turkey. 

She was born in Istanbul, Turkey. She received her BA and MA degrees from the Department of Psychology at Boğaziçi University in 2013 and 2016, respectively, and completed her PhD in 2022 at Radboud University Nijmegen, Department of Communication and Cognition, in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. As part of her doctoral dissertation, she published 3 articles in international journals and 2 full conference proceedings and presented her work at numerous international conferences. Her dissertation received the university’s thesis award, and she was invited to publish a summary of her dissertation in an international journal.

After returning to Türkiye, Dr. Karadöller continued her research as a postdoctoral fellow at the Koç University Language and Cognition Laboratory. In 2023, she was appointed as a faculty member in the Department of Psychology at Middle East Technical University (METU). At METU, she established the Multimodal Language and Cognitive Development Laboratory, supported by the Max Planck Society Cooperation Fund, where she currently conducts research with her master’s and doctoral students. Her work is funded by several national and international organizations, including the Max Planck Society, the Society for Research in Child Development, the U.S. National Science Foundation, TÜBİTAK 1001 and 1002 programs, and METU’s internal research funds.

Dr. Karadöller has published extensively in the field of language and cognitive development, including original research articles and reviews. Her work examines speech and sign language acquisition, as well as the environmental and cognitive factors shaping these processes, using comprehensive experimental designs, controlled stimuli, and advanced statistical analyses. Her findings have been published in top-quartile academic journals and presented as oral papers or invited talks at national and international conferences. She has also served as a reviewer for esteemed journals and as a member of the program and/or review committees of leading scientific meetings. In recognition of her outstanding academic contributions, she received the METU Development Foundation Young Researcher Achievement and Türkiye Academy of Sciences Outstanding Young Scientist awards in 2025.

In addition to her academic work, Dr. Karadöller actively engages in science communication. She developed a web-based application to support the language development of deaf and hard-of-hearing children, which she implemented in a pilot school in Ankara with the Ministry of National Education's approval. She is currently working on adapting the tool for nationwide use on iOS and Android platforms. Dr. Karadöller also provides volunteer training in schools and associations for the Deaf. She shares her research findings widely through invited talks on national and international radio programs, blog posts (e.g., MPI TalkLing), and her research group’s online platforms.

Contact

dilayk@metu.edu.tr

dilay.karadoller@mpi.nl

Twitter: @DilayKaradoller