Montserrat Comesaña obtained her PhD in Basic Psychology with the qualification of cum laude in the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC) thanks to the funding from the Galician Government. In that year she was hired for an I+D+i company (N-Red Soluciones Informáticas S.L.) to work as a research technician. In 2008, she started her post-doctoral career as an auxiliary researcher at the CIPsi (Centro de Investigação em Psicologia, School of Psychology, University of Minho) to give support a new created area in Basic Psychology Department (Language area), thanks to the funding from the Foundation for Science and Technology -FCT (Programme Ciência 2008). Since that year she has been combining Psycholinguistic research and teaching. Regarding Psycholinguistics research, she have published 32 papers in highly respected journals, such as Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition and PLoS One, and a book chapter. At the end of the contract (April 2013), she still working at CIPsi thanks to the funding from the Galician Government (Plan I2C, from April 2013 to Dezember 2013). In Dezember 2013 she got a new contract as an Auxiliar Researcher at CIPsi, again funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology -FCT (Concurso Investigador, 2013 –a highly competitive programme). She is currently the PI of a project on bilingualism funded by the FCT (IF/00784/2013), which gives continuity to another project previously funded by the same entity (PTDC/PSI-PCO/104671/2008). Besides, she is a regular reviewer for a number of international respected scientific journals such as Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, Behavior Research Methods, Journal of Cognitive Psychology, Second Language Research, among others, and also acts as an expert evaluator of research proposals for the executive government agency of National Science Centre (Narodowe Centrum Nauki – NCN, Poland; http://www.ncn.gov.pl). Regarding teaching, she has taught courses in an integrated Master’s in Experimental Psychology and its Applications at the School of Psychology, as well as in the Basic Psychology program (University of Minho). Besides, she has been giving classes on Bilingualism in other institutions (e.g., SCALab, University of Lille) and she integrates the group of teachers of the PhD Program in Psychological Processes and Social Behavior (USC).
Her main area of research focuses on the functional architecture of the bilingual memory and how this organization changes throughout the lifespan, as well as on second language acquisition (SLA). Specifically, she is particularly motivated to understand the interplay of linguistic (i.e., age of acquisition, lexical frequency, cognate status, etc.) and contextual factors (i.e., language exposure, learning methods) in the cerebral representation and processing of two languages. Moreover, she is interested in how perceptual factors affect the way readers understand words with impressive efficiency.
Bilingualism
Second Language Acquisition
Visual word recognition and reading
Selected publications
Comesaña, M., Ferré, P., Romero, J., Guasch, M., Soares, A. P., & García-Chico, T. (2015). Facilitative Effect of Cognate Words Vanishes When Reducing the Orthographic Overlap: The Role of Stimuli List Composition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 41(3), 614-635. Q2 (IF = 2.862) DOI
Comesaña, M., Fraga, I., Moreira, A. J., Frade, C. S., & Soares, A. P. (2014). Free associate norms for 139 European Portuguese words for children from different age groups. Behavior Research Methods, 46(2), 564-574. Doi: 10.3758/s13428-013-0388-0. Q1 (IF = 3.048) DOI
Comesaña, M., Soares, A. P., Perea, M., Piñeiro, A., Fraga, I., & Pinheiro, A. P. (2013). ERP correlates of masked affective priming with emoticons and words ?. Computers in Human Behavior, 29, 588-595. Doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2012.10.020. Q1 (IF = 2.880) DOI
Comesaña, M., Perea, M., Piñeiro, A., & Fraga, I. (2009). Vocabulary teaching strategies and conceptual representations of words in L2 in children: Evidence with novice learners. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 104, 22-33. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2008.10.004. Q2 (IF = 2.549)
DOI
Other publications
Comesaña, M., Ferré, P., Romero, J., Guasch, M., Soares, A. P., & García-Chico, T. (2015). Facilitative Effect of Cognate Words Vanishes When Reducing the Orthographic Overlap: The Role of Stimuli List Composition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 41(3), 614-635. Q2 (IF = 2.862) DOI
Comesaña, M., Fraga, I., Moreira, A. J., Frade, C. S., & Soares, A. P. (2014). Free associate norms for 139 European Portuguese words for children from different age groups. Behavior Research Methods, 46(2), 564-574. Doi: 10.3758/s13428-013-0388-0. Q1 (IF = 3.048) DOI
Comesaña, M., Soares, A. P., Perea, M., Piñeiro, A., Fraga, I., & Pinheiro, A. P. (2013). ERP correlates of masked affective priming with emoticons and words ?. Computers in Human Behavior, 29, 588-595. Doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2012.10.020. Q1 (IF = 2.880) DOI
Comesaña, M., Perea, M., Piñeiro, A., & Fraga, I. (2009). Vocabulary teaching strategies and conceptual representations of words in L2 in children: Evidence with novice learners. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 104, 22-33. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2008.10.004. Q2 (IF = 2.549)
DOI
2023/2024
Bilinguismo
Integrated Master
Estágio de Investigação em Cognição Humana
Master
História da Psicologia
Bachelor
Investigação em Cognição Humana
Master
Projeto de Investigação em Cognição Humana
Master
Psicologia da Linguagem
Bachelor
