Efthymia Kapnoula

Research

Associate Group Leader - Ikerbasque Research Fellow 2021-2026 - Ramón y Cajal Fellow 2024-2028.

Keywords: spoken language processing, mental lexicon, word learning, word recognition, speech perception, phoneme categorization, language learning, language plasticity, individual differences.

Dr. Efthymia Kapnoula is an Ikerbasque Research Fellow and Associate Leader of the Spoken Language group.

Dr. Kapnoula's research examines how humans perceive and learn language, focusing on speech perception, phoneme categorization, word recognition, and word learning. The theoretical framework of her work postulates that language is a dynamic and malleable system and that systematic patterns of linguistic experience can shape the underlying processing system. Within this framework, she asks questions related to how humans process language in real time, how we learn language, and how experience changes the way we process linguistic input. To address these questions, she uses a range of methodological tools including experimental behavioral, eye-tracking, and electrophysiological (EEG) paradigms.

Dr. Kapnoula holds a BA in Psychology and a MSc in Cognitive Science from the University of Athens (Greece). She received her PhD in Psychology from the University of Iowa (USA) in 2016. She has been awarded several competitive fellowships and grants to support her research including a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship (European Commission), an Ikerbasque Research Fellowship (Basque Foundation for Science), and a Ramón y Cajal Fellowship (Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation). In addition, her work has been formally acknowledged by her previous institution (D.C. Spriestersbach Dissertation Prize for best dissertation in Social Sciences, University of Iowa), and more broadly in the field of cognitive psychology (ESCoP Early Career Publication Award, European Society for Cognitive Psychology).

Research group: Spoken Language

e.kapnoula@bcbl.eu

+34 943 309 300 Ext.: 224

2025

Baese-Berk, M.M., Kapnoula, E.C., & Samuel, A.G. (2025). The relationship of speech perception and speech production: It’s complicated. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 32(1), 226-242. Doi:10.3758/s13423-024-02561-w

2024

Kapnoula, E.C., & Samuel, A.G. (2024). Sensitivity to Subphonemic Differences in First Language Predicts Vocabulary Size in a Foreign Language. Language Learning, 74(4), 950-984. Doi:10.1111/lang.12650

Kapnoula, E.C., Jevtović, M., & Magnuson, J.S. (2024). Spoken Word Recognition: A Focus on Plasticity. Annual Review of Linguistics, 10, 233-256. Doi:10.1146/annurev-linguistics-031422-113507

2023

Kapnoula, E.C., & Samuel, A.G. (2023). Wait long and prosper! Delaying production alleviates its detrimental effect on word learning. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 38(5), 724-744. Doi:10.1080/23273798.2022.2144917

2022

Apfelbaum, K.S., Kutlu, E., McMurray, B., & Kapnoula, E.C. (2022). Don't force it! Gradient speech categorization calls for continuous categorization tasks. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 152(6), 3728-3745. Doi:10.1121/10.0015201

Kapnoula, E.C., & Samuel, A.G. (2022). Reconciling the Contradictory Effects of Production on Word Learning: Production May Help at First, but It Hurts Later. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning Memory and Cognition, 48(3), 394-415. Doi:10.1037/xlm0001129

2021

Kapnoula, E.C., & McMurray, B. (2021). Idiosyncratic use of bottom-up and top-down information leads to differences in speech perception flexibility: Converging evidence from ERPs and eye-tracking. Brain and Language, 223. Doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2021.105031

Kapnoula, E.C. (2021). On the Locus of L2 Lexical Fuzziness: Insights From L1 Spoken Word Recognition and Novel Word Learning. Frontiers in Psychology, 12. Doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.689052

Kapnoula, E.C., Edwards, J., & McMurray, B. (2021). Gradient activation of speech categories facilitates listeners’ recovery from lexical garden paths, but not perception of speech-in-noise.. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 47(4), 578-595. Doi:10.1037/xhp0000900

2020

Sarrett, M.E., McMurray, B., & Kapnoula, E.C. (2020). Dynamic EEG analysis during language comprehension reveals interactive cascades between perceptual processing and sentential expectations. Brain and Language, 211. Doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2020.104875

Bourguignon, M., Baart, M., Kapnoula, E.C., & Molinaro, N. (2020). Lip-reading enables the brain to synthesize auditory features of unknown silent speech. Journal of Neuroscience, 40(5), 1053-1065. Doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1101-19.2019

2019

Gussow, A.E., Kapnoula, E.C., & Molinaro, N. (2019). Any leftovers from a discarded prediction? Evidence from eye-movements during sentence comprehension. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 34(8), 1041-1058. Doi:10.1080/23273798.2019.1617887

Kapnoula, E.C., & Samuel, A.G. (2019). Voices in the mental lexicon: Words carry indexical information that can affect access to their meaning. Journal of Memory and Language, 107, 111-127. Doi:10.1016/j.jml.2019.05.001

Behroozmand, R., Johari, K., Kelley, R.M., Kapnoula, E.C., Narayanan, N.S., & Greenlee, J.D.W. (2019). Effect of deep brain stimulation on vocal motor control mechanisms in Parkinson's disease. Parkinsonism and Related Disorders, 63, 46-53. Doi:10.1016/j.parkreldis.2019.03.002

2017

Kapnoula, E.C., Protopapas, A., Saunders, S.J., & Coltheart, M. (2017). Lexical and sublexical effects on visual word recognition in Greek: comparing human behavior to the dual route cascaded model. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 32(10), 1290-1304. Doi:10.1080/23273798.2017.1355059

Kapnoula, E.C., Winn, M.B., Kong, E.J., Edwards, J., & McMurray, B. (2017). Evaluating the sources and functions of gradiency in phoneme categorization: An individual differences approach. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 43(9), 1594-1611. Doi:10.1037/xhp0000410

2016

Protopapas, A., & Kapnoula, E.C. (2016). Short-term and long-term effects on visual word recognition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning Memory and Cognition, 42(4), 542-565. Doi:10.1037/xlm0000191

Kapnoula, E.C., & McMurray, B. (2016). Newly learned word forms are abstract and integrated immediately after acquisition. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 23(2), 491-499. Doi:10.3758/s13423-015-0897-1

Protopapas, A., Orfanidou, E., Taylor, J.S.H., Karavasilis, E., Kapnoula, E.C., Panagiotaropoulou, G., Velonakis, G., Poulou, L.S., Smyrnis, N., & Kelekis, D. (2016). Evaluating cognitive models of visual word recognition using fMRI: Effects of lexical and sublexical variables. NeuroImage, 128, 328-341. Doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.01.013

Kapnoula, E.C., & McMurray, B. (2016). Training alters the resolution of lexical interference: Evidence for plasticity of competition and inhibition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 145(1), 8-30. Doi:10.1037/xge0000123

McMurray, B., Kapnoula, E.C., & Gaskell, M.G. (2016). Learning and integration of new word-forms: Consolidation, pruning and the emergence of automaticity. In G. Gaskell, & J. Mirkovic (Eds.), Speech Perception and Spoken Word Recognition. Psychology Press.

2015

Kapnoula, E.C., Packard, S., Gupta, P., & McMurray, B. (2015). Immediate lexical integration of novel word forms. Cognition, 134, 85-99. Doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2014.09.007

2013

Terkourafi, M., Kapnoula, E.C., Panagiotopoulou, P., & Protopapas, A. (2013). Triangulating the GRID: A corpus-based cognitive linguistic analysis of five Greek emotion terms. In J. Fontaine, K. R. Scherer, & C. Soriano (Eds.) Components of emotional meaning: A sourcebook. Oxford University Press. Doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199592746.001.0001

Protopapas, A., & Kapnoula, E.C. (2013). Exploring word recognition with selected stimuli: The case for decorrelated parameters. Cooperative Minds: Social Interaction and Group Dynamics - Proceedings of the 35th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, CogSci 2013, 1169-1174.

2024

LEXI:TRACK: Lexical Trajectories: Tracking the Encoding, Establishment, and Development of Words in the Mental Lexicon

Program: Plan Nacional 2023, PID2023-146423NB-I00
Funding agency: Spanish Ministry
09/2024- 08/2028
Funding: 119.000 €
PI: Efthymia Kapnoula & Arthur Samuel

2021

COLEXI: Connecting Words: The Role of Co-Activation in Lexical Acquisition

Program: PID2020-113348GB-I00
Funding agency: Spanish Ministry
09/2021- 08/2024
Funding: 66.550 €
PI: Efthymia Kapnoula & Arthur Samuel

2019

OptiSeLL: Optimizing Second Language Learning: An Examination of Individual Differences in Speech Processing and their Role in Language Learning

Program: H2020-MSCA-IF-2017-GA-793919
Funding agency: European Commission
09/2019- 12/2021
Funding: 170.122 €
PI: Efthymia Kapnoula

2018

Control Of Lexical Acquisition: Perception Or Production

Program: PSI2017-82563-P
Funding agency: Spanish Ministry
01/2018- 12/2023
Funding: 80.800 €
PI: Arthur Samuel Postdoctoral Researcher: Efthymia Kapnoula

Ramón y Cajal Fellowship (01/2024 - 12/2028), Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (State Research Agency). BCBL-Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, Donostia-San Sebastián.

Ikerbasque Research Fellowship (12/2021 - 12/2026), Basque Foundation of Science. BCBL-Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain.

Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship (09/2019 - 12/2021), European Commission. BCBL-Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, Donostia-San Sebastián. Spain.

Juan de la Cierva Formación Fellowship (03/2018 - 08/2019), Spanish Ministry. BCBL-Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, Donostia-San Sebastián. Spain.

In progress

Predictors of individual differences in non-native listening comprehension University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU (2022 - 2026)

The role of lexical co-activation in word learning University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU (2022 - 2026)

Defended

Longitudinal cross-linguistic study of phonemic recalibration during reading acquisition University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU (2019 - 2023)

2024

Effects of semantic density on novel word learning University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU

2022

Predictors of L2 word learning University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU

2021

The effect of lexical co-activation in L2 word learning University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU

The effect of lexical predictability on audio-visual processing of natural speech University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU

2019

The facilitatory effect of regular rhythm in the perception of linguistic and non-linguistic sounds by Basque-Spanish bilinguals University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU

2018

Language mode flexibility in bilinguals: Evidence from a picture-word lexical decision task University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU

2017

Prediction During Speech Comprehension: The Role of Grammatical Gender University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU

The Impact Of Second Language Proficiency On Lexical Competition University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU

2023

Kapnoula, E.C., & Samuel, A.G. (2023). Linking L1 phoneme categorization to non-native phonetic learning: The role of gradiency. Poster presentation at the 23rd Conference of the European Society for Cognitive Psychology (ESCoP), Porto, Portugal.

Jevtović, M., Kapnoula, E., & Martin, C.D. (2023). To spell or not to spell? Explicit versus implicit creation of spelling expectations during spoken word learning. Oral Presentation at European Society for Cognitive Psychology (ESCoP), Porto, Portugal.

2022

Kapnoula, E.C. & Samuel, A.G. (2022). Immediate (but not delayed) production hurts word learning. Oral presentation at the Experimental Psychology Society Meeting, London, UK, Virtual Meeting.

Kapnoula, E.C. (2022). Individual differences in speech perception gradiency: Sources and consequences. Invited talk at the Language and Brain Lab, University of Connecticut, CT, USA.

2021

Kapnoula, E.C. & McMurray, B. (2021). Individual differences in speech perception: Evidence for gradiency in the face of category-driven perceptual warping. Oral presentation at the 180th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America - Acoustics in Focus, Virtual Meeting.

Kapnoula, E.C. & Samuel, A.G. (2021). Individual differences in L1 speech perception and L2 learning: The role of sensitivity to within-category differences. Oral presentation at the Bilingualism Matters Research Symposium 2021 (BMRS21), Edinburgh, UK, Virtual Meeting.

Kapnoula, E.C. (2021). What’s in a word? Insights from novel word learning. Invited talk at the Department of Psychology, University of Hull.

2020

Kim, D., Samuel, A.G., Kapnoula, E.C., Nash, A., & Dumay, N. (2020). Reconciling Subphonemic Mismatch Effects and Other Psycholinguistic Tests of Lexical Engagement. Poster presentation at the 61st Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Virtual Meeting.

2019

Kapnoula, E.C., & Samuel, A.G. (2019). Disentangling the effects of production and speaker variability on word learning. Poster presentation at the XIV International Symposium of Psycholinguistics (ISP 2019), Tarragona, Spain.

Kapnoula, E.C., & McMurray, B. (2019). What can continuous responses tell us about phoneme categorization? Oral presentation at the 21st ESCoP conference (ESCoP 2019), Tenerife, Spain.

2017

Kapnoula, E.C. (2017). Is it a word yet? Discussing the definition of lexicality in the context of word learning. Invited talk at the Workshop on Conversational Speech and Lexical Representations, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.

2016

Kapnoula, E.C. & McMurray, B. (2016). On the “what”s and the “how”s of word learning: From learning words to learning how to use them. Invited talk at the Sound to Word in Bilingual and Second Language Speech Perception conference, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA.