Lindy Lab

We investigate language skills in atypical development paths and collaborate with associations in our environment.

About us…

We are a group of researchers interested in increasing our understanding of different types of language-related development trajectories.

We are a group of linguists, philosophers, psychologists and educators interested in increasing our understanding of different types of language-related development trajectories . By this we mean developmental paths in which the grammar of the individual’s mother tongue is not fully mastered, or in which the vocabulary is very limited and the prosody or intonation is atypical or those in which figurative meaning is difficult to understand, or others in which language does not seem to be incorporated as an instrument of thought, etc.

The main office of the laboratory is the Micaela Portilla Ikergunea Research Center of the UPV/EHU (Facultad de Letras, Campus of Álava) in Vitoria-Gasteiz. The group belongs to the Hizkuntzalaritza Teorikorako Taldea (Basque Research Group in Theoretical Linguistics, HiTT), which investigates the faculty of human language from a cross-linguistic perspective and through formal and experimental analysis in the domains of phonology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.

Members of the Lindy Lab include:
Elena Castroviejo (Ikerbasque & UPV / EHU); Agustín Vicente (Ikerbasque & UPV / EHU); Urtzi Etxeberria (IKER-CNRS); Marta Jorba (UPV / EHU); Valentina Petrolini (UPV/EHU); Óscar Fernández de Gamarra (Landaberde Daycare Center); Itziar Arbina (Landaberde Daycare Center); Marta Ponciano (UPV / EHU).

What we want to do

We aim to identify key elements in the development of both typical and atypical language that can help in diagnosis.

Atypical language development trajectories are very different from each other. Even focusing on Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC), the heterogeneity observed is impressive. It is very common in this area that the results of the studies are not replicated, partly because of this heterogeneity. We do not aspire to identify language-related problems shared by all individuals on the autism spectrum, but to find elements that can be problematic for certain subgroups, thus creating the conditions to achieve both a greater understanding of the linguistic abilities of different groups within the spectrum, and more precise diagnostic tools.

Mission & Values

Our group comprises researchers and educators. We seek to expand our knowledge and offer a return to the people we work with and their families.

Our group comprises people who come both from an academic and a scientific domain, and from intervention and diagnosis practice in care and assistance environments for individuals on the autism spectrum and their families. Thus, we investigate with the double objective of broadening knowledge about the linguistic and cognitive abilities of the population with ASC, and offering a return to the people and families with whom we work.

TEAM

Senior researchers

Agustín Vicente

Agustín is an Ikerbasque Professor at the UPV / EHU. His background is in philosophy, and he works in semantics and pragmatics and on the relationships between language and thought. In recent years, his research focuses on studying the cognitive role of inner speech.

Elena Castroviejo

Elena is a linguist and develops research related to natural language semantics and pragmatics. More specifically, she has investigated topics such as non-declarative sentence types (exclamatives and interrogatives), modification and gradability, discourse structure and non-literal meanings (implied, evaluative, expressive) from a formal and cross-linguistic perspective.

Laura Vela

Laura is a linguist and teacher of Spanish Language at the UPV/EHU. She develops her research in the field of morpho-syntax and semantics of natural languages, from both a theoretical and an experimental perspective. She is interested in studying the comprehension and production of complex sentences such as relative or comparative sentences and the types of connection between sentences in people with ASD.

Marta Jorba

Marta is a Serra Húnter (Associate) Professor at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF, Barcelona). Her research focuses on the fields of philosophy of mind and psychology, with special interest in the nature of thought, language and experience. She has worked on inner speech and its relationship with cognition and is interested in examining the role of inner speech in cognitive processes in people with ASC.

Urtzi Etxeberria

Urtzi is a permanent researcher at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and director of the IKER Research Center (UMR 5478) dedicated to the study of the Basque language and texts. He obtained his PhD in 2005 (UPV / EHU). His current research focuses on the study of the syntax-semantics and semantics-pragmatics interfaces by combining the methods of theoretical and experimental linguistics.

Valentina Petrolini

Valentina is a Juan de la Cierva postdoctoral researcher at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). Her research focuses on the philosophy of psychiatry and psychology. She has worked on delusions and on the boundary between mental health and pathology. She is currently interested in the role that executive functions, affect, and moods play in mental conditions such as schizophrenia, depression, and ASC.

Junior researchers

Isabel Martín

Isabel has a degree in Psychology from the Autonomous University of Madrid, and obtained her Master’s in Logic and Philosophy of Science from the University of Salamanca. She is currently working on a dissertation about the processing of non-literal language in ASC population as a member of the Lindy Lab and with a predoctoral contract from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation.

Marta Ponciano

Marta has a degree in English Philology and a Master’s in Theoretical and Experimental Linguistics from the UPV/EHU. She currently holds a predoctoral fellowship from the Basque Government to write a dissertation on ambiguity in the different linguistic profiles within ASC.

Natàlia Barbarroja

Natàlia is a primatologist with a degree in biology. After her BA she completed her education in Göttingen (Germany), where she learned about comparative psychology. In the past years, she has focused on imitation in learning in the ASC community, and has collaborated with various early assistance centers. She has joined the Lindy Lab with a contract from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, and her plan is to write a dissertation about cognition and language in minimally verbal ASC.

Educators and psychologists

Alba Raventós

Alba is a psychologist and has been working on psychological evaluation and intervention with children, teenagers and their families for 10 years. She specialized in direct intervention with people on the Autism Spectrum and has training in diagnostic through tools such as ADOS and ADI-R. She is currently carrying out research on the role of inner speech in the cognitive processes of people on the Autism Spectrum.

Ekaine Rodriguez

Ekaine is an Occupational Therapist by profession and has a PhD in Neuroscience. She performs her clinical practice with pediatric population and has participated in different research projects related to developmental difficulties.

Itziar Arbina

Itziar is a psychologist and educator. She has been working with children, adolescents and adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders for more than 10 years and has participated in psychosocial and sports programs. She currently works in an Adult Day Center with ASC.

Oiane Musitu

Oiane is a social worker and educator. She has worked for more than 10 years with children, teenagers and adults in programs concerning individuals on the Autism Spectrum. Currently she is an educator at Centro de Día Landaberde in Vitoria-Gasteiz.

Óscar Fernández de Gamarra

Oscar is a psychologist and educator. In the last 10 years he has worked as an educator and director at the Landaberde center in Vitoria, working with adults within the ASC.

Sara Moscardó

Sara is an elementary school teacher, and she has a degree in Pedagogy and an MA in Psychology and Child Psychopathology from U. València. She’s also an expert in ASC.

She has long worked on early attention services in La Rioja and Álava taking care of children with ASC and other developmental disorders, as well as their families. She’s currently leading her own center — Ilargia Desarrollo Infantil —, where she offers intervention and assessment to families with children with ASC and other developmental disorders.

COLLABORATORS

Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga

HU Berlín

Héctor Marín Manrique

University of Zaragoza

Ingrid Lossius Falkum

University of Oslo

Estibaliz Tejedor

Grammar & Cognition Lab

UPF