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
200 Level
3 Credits
Fall 2026 Semester
Class Times
Mondays, Wednesdays from 11:15 a.m.–12:05 p.m.
Prerequisite
SPAN 100 or SPAN 100A or SPAN 100B or SPAN 100C or SPAN 100H or SPAN 200
Bachelor of Arts
World Language (All), Humanities, World Cultures, Social and Behavioral Sciences
General Education
Humanities (GH), Social and Behavioral Scien (GS), Integrative: Interdomain Honors
GenEd Learning Objective
Effective Communication, Crit and Analytical Think, Integrative Thinking, Key Literacies
This course is required toward the Spanish major and can count toward the Spanish minor
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
