I'm currently a PhD researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics (Nijmegen, NL) in the Multimodal Language Department and LEADS group, under the supervision of prof. dr. Asli Ozyurek, prof. dr. Judith Holler and dr. Limor Raviv. 

I obtained a BSc and MSc in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Amsterdam and Utrecht University, with a focus on cognitive modeling, linguistics and natural language processing. 

My research profile is highly interdisciplinary, spanning linguistics, cognitive science, computational modeling and artificial intelligence. I'm especially interested in how communicative systems self-organize under cognitive, pragmatic, and social pressures. I use a mixture of methods, including laboratory communication experiments and computational modeling. 

View my CV here.

Contact: lois.dona@mpi.nl 

2025

• Dona, L., Özyürek, A., Holler, J., Woensdregt, M., & Raviv, L. (2025). The role of the face in language emergence. Talk presented at the MEDAL Conference: New Challenges, Novel Approaches. Tartu, Estonia. 

• Dona, L., Özyürek, A., Holler, J., Woensdregt, M., & Raviv, L. (2025). Do facial signals support language emergence during communication? An experimental approach. Talk presented at Protolang 9. Vienna, Austria. 

• Dona, L., Özyürek, A., Holler, J., Woensdregt, M., & Raviv, L. (2025). The role of face-to-face communication in language evolution. Poster presented at the 10th Conference of the International Society for Gesture Studies (ISGS 2025), Nijmegen, The Netherlands. 

• Does the face support language emergence during communication? Talk presented at MPI Proudly Presents. Nijmegen, The Netherlands.

• The role of the face in language emergence. Talk presented at University of Amsterdam Face Day. Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

2024

• Dona, L., Özyürek, A., Holler, J., Woensdregt, M., & Raviv, L. (2024). Communicating confidence and doubt through the face: Implications for language emergence. Poster presented at the Highlights in the Language Sciences Conference 2024, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.

• Dona, L., Özyürek, A., Holler, J., Woensdregt, M., & Raviv, L. (2024). The role of facial expressions signalling confidence or doubt in language emergence. Poster presented at the IMPRS Conference 2024, Nijmegen, the Netherlands. 

• Dona, L., & Schouwstra, M. (2024). Balancing regularization and variation: The roles of priming and motivatedness. In J. Nölle, L. Raviv, K. E. Graham, S. Hartmann, Y. Jadoul, M. Josserand, T. Matzinger, K. Mudd, M. Pleyer, A. Slonimska, & S. Wacewicz (Eds.), The Evolution of Language: Proceedings of the 15th International Conference (EVOLANG XV) (pp. 130-133). Talk presented at The Evolution of Language Conferences, Madison, US. 

2022

• Dona, L., & Schouwstra, M. (2022). Modelling the Emergence of Linguistic Conventions for Word Order: The Roles of Semantics, Structural Priming, and Population Structure. Poster presented at the 44th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (CogSci 2022), Toronto, Canada. 

• Dona, L., & Schouwstra, M. (2022). The Role of Structural Priming, Semantics and Population Structure in Word Order Conventionalization: A Computational Model. In A. Ravignani, R. Asano, D. Valente, F. Ferretti, S. Hartmann, M. Hayashi, Y. Jadoul, M. Martins, Y. Oseki, E. D. Rodrigues, O. Vasileva, & S. Wacewicz (Eds.), The evolution of language: Proceedings of the Joint Conference on Language Evolution (JCoLE) (pp. 171-173). Talk presented at the Joint Conference on Language Evolution (JCoLE), Kanazawa, Japan. 

• Bosscha, S. A. M., Haagen, T. E., Koetschruyter, R. A., Dona, L., & Castro, B. Z. (2022). Verb Phrase Ellipsis: Identifying Verb-Subject Dependencies Using a Probe Model. Poster presented at the 32nd Meeting of Computational Linguistics in The Netherlands (CLIN 32), Tilburg, The Netherlands.