Paola (Giuli) Dussias
Biography
I am a Professor of Spanish in the Department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese with an affiliate appointment in the Department of Psychology. I completed my doctoral studies in the interdisciplinary program in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching at the University of Arizona, with a specialization in linguistic analysis and a minor concentration in second language processing. I then held a faculty position at the University of Illinois for four years (1996-2000), where I was a primary collaborator in pioneering a computer-enhanced Spanish language instruction curriculum consisting of mixed classroom and computer-assisted instruction. Prior to assuming my current position at Penn State, I was a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Mississippi (2000-2001), where I was hired to implement the model for the Spanish language curriculum developed at Illinois. Click on the following link for my Lab page.]
Education
Research Interests
Research
Recent Publications
*Denotes publications with graduate students and doctoral fellows
*López-Beltrán, P., & Dussias, P. E. (2023). Heritage speakers’ processing of the Spanish subjunctive: A pupillomery study. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism. https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.21030.lop
*Valdés Kroff, J. R., & Dussias, P. E. (2023). Production, processing, and prediction in bilingual codeswitching. In K.D. Federmeier & J. L. Montag (Eds.), Psychology of Learning and Motivation (Vol. 78, pp. 195-237). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.plm.2023.02.004
*Beatty-Martinez, A. L., Guzzardo Tamargo, R. E., & Dussias, P. E. (2021). Phasic pupillary responses reveal differential engagement of attentional control in bilingual spoken language processing. Scientific reports, 11, article number 23474. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-03008-1
*Dussias, P. E., Kroll, J. F., Fricke, M., & Johns, M. A. (2020). Language contact in the lab. In E. Adamou & Y. Matras (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Language Contact.
*Johns, M. A., Valdés Kroff, J. R., Dussias, P. E. (2019). Mixing things up: How blocking and mixing affect the processing of codemixed sentences. International Journal of Bilingualism, 23, 584-611. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367006917752570
*Valdés Kroff, J. R., Dussias, P. E., Gerfen, C., & Perrotti L. (2017). Experience with code- switching modulates the use of grammatical gender during sentence processing. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 7, 163-198. doi: 10.1075/lab.15010.val
Kroll, J. K., & Dussias, P. E. (2016). Language and Productivity for all Americans. American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Commission on Language Learning. https://www.amacad.org/multimedia/pdfs/KrollDussias_April%205.pdf
*Guzzardo Tamargo, R. E, Valdés Kroff, J. R., & Dussias, P. E. (2016). Examining the relationship between comprehension and production processes in code-switched language. Journal of Memory and Language, 89, 138-161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2015.12.002
*Dussias, P. E., Valdés Kroff, J. R., Guzzardo Tamargo, R. E., & Gerfen, C. (2013). When gender and looking go hand in hand: Grammatical gender processing in L2 Spanish. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 35, 353-387. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0272263112000915
Dussias, P. E., & Sagarra, N. (2007). The effect of exposure on syntactic parsing in Spanish English bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 10, 101-116. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728906002847
Courses Regularly Taught
3 Credits
Graduate Linguistics
3 Credits
Graduate Linguistics
3 Credits
Graduate Linguistics
3 Credits
Graduate Linguistics
Current Graduate Advisees
Editorial Positions
Grant Funding
EXTERNAL FUNDING. Selected
2021-2025 National Science Foundation (NRT 2125865). Linguistic diversity across the lifespan (LINDIV): transforming training (PI Janet van Hell; Co-PIs Paola E. Dussias, Carrie Jackson, Carol Miller). Funding to provide transdisciplinary training to graduate students in order to address a societal need for attentiveness to linguistic and cultural diversity in the development of technology to advance human-technology interaction. $2,999,920
2016-2026 National Science Foundation (OISE 1545900). Translating cognitive and brain science in the laboratory and field to language learning environments (PI at UC Riverside, Judith F. Kroll; PI at Penn State, Paola E. Dussias; Co-PIs at Penn State, John Lipski, Janet van Hell). Funding to promote international engagement by US undergraduate and graduate students to translate language science research to learning environments, $5,000,000
2015-2018 National Science Foundation (BCS 1535124). The fate of the native language in second language learning (PI, Paola Dussias, Co-PI, Judith Kroll), $146,884
2010-2017 National Science Foundation (OISE 0968369). PIRE: Bilingualism, mind, and brain: An interdisciplinary program in cognitive psychology, linguistics, and cognitive neuroscience (PI, Judith Kroll, Co-PIs, Paola Dussias & Janet van Hell). Funding to promote international engagement by US undergraduate and graduate students to conduct research in the language science of bilingualism, $2,800,000
2015-2018 National Institutes of Health (R21-HD082796). A new hypothesis about second language learning (PI, Judith Kroll, Co-PI, Paola Dussias until 2016), $414,427
2012-2016 National Institutes of Health (R21 HD071758). Effects of the second language on syntactic processing in the first language (PI), $297,134
2010-2014 National Science Foundation Grant, BCS-0955090: Language Processing in bilinguals (Co-PIs Paola Dussias, Janet Van Hell, Ana Schwartz; Consultants: Teresa Bajo, Dorothee Chwilla, Rosa Sánchez-Casas), $249,694
2008-2012 National Science Foundation (BCS-0821924). Processing mixed language (PI, Paola Dussias, Co-PI Chip Gerfen), $280,000
2005-2007 National Institutes of Health (R03HD50629). Ambiguity resolution in Spanish-English bilinguals, (PI, Paola Dussias), $72,300
EXTERNAL FUNDING TO GRADUATE STUDENTS AND POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWS. Selected
2022-2023 National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Award (BCS- 2146232). Doctoral Dissertation Research: Examining the Role of Literacy on Predictive Processing during Spoken Language Comprehension (PI, Paola E. Dussias, Co-PI Jessica Vélez-Avilés), $18,825
2020-2022 National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Award (BCS-1939903). Doctoral Dissertation Research: Heritage speakers processing of the Spanish subjunctive during online comprehension (PI, Paola E. Dussias, Co-PI Priscila López-Beltrán), $19,103
2018-2022 National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Award (BCS-1823634). Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Psycholinguistic Status of Lone English-Origin Nouns in Spanish: Integrating Sociolinguistic Approaches (PI, Paola E. Dussias, Co-PI Michael Johns), $ 17,096
2019-2021 National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Award (BCS-1844188). Doctoral Dissertation Research: Processing of L2-specific multi-word units and the impact on representation and generalization: an ERP study (PI, Paola E. Dussias, Co-PI Manuel Pulido Azpíroz), $16,674
2018-2019 Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship to Anne Beatty-Martínez
2015-2018 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship to Michael Johns. Teasing Apart the Cognitive Aspects of Code-Switching: A Study on Gender Concord in Spanish (Advisor, Paola Dussias), $96,000
2014-2016 National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (SMA-1409636). The behavioral and neural basis of codeswitching: bilingual speech, executive control, and language processing (PI, Melinda Fricke, Co- PIs Judith Kroll, Paola Dussias), $ $196,294
2014-2016 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship to Christian Navarro-Torres(Co-advisor, Primary advisor Judith Kroll), $96,000
2013-2015 National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Award (BCS-1331709). Doctoral Dissertation Research: Using syntactic priming to identify cross-language constraints in bilingual language processing (PI, Judith F. Kroll, Co-PIs Jason Gullifer, Paola Dussias), $17,513
2011-2013 National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Award (BSC-1123874). Doctoral Dissertation Research: Linking comprehension costs to production patterns during the processing of mixed language (PI, Paola E. Dussias, Co-PIs, Rosa Guzzardo, Chip Gerfen), $12,000
2011-2013 National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Award (BSC-1124218). Doctoral Dissertation Research: Using eye-tracking to study auditory comprehension in codeswitching: Evidence for the link between production and comprehension (PI Paola E. Dussias, Co-PIs, Jorge Valdés Kroff, Chip Gerfen), $12,000
2010-2013 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship to Amelia Dietrich (1 of 10 Graduate Fellowships awarded in Linguistics by NSF for funding cycle (Advisor: Paola Dussias), $90,000
2008-2011 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship to Jorge Valdés Kroff (1 of 5 Graduate Fellowships awarded in Linguistics by NSF for funding cycle (Primary advisor: Paola Dussias, Co-advisor: Chip Gerfen), $90,000
2007-2009 National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Award (BCS-0718454). Doctoral Dissertation Research: The role of verb bias on the processing of syntactically ambiguous sentences in Spanish-English bilinguals (PI, Tracy R. Cramer Scaltz, Co-PI, Paola Dussias), $11,999
