Susana Araújo

I have a background in psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and neuropsychology, with specific training in electrophysiology (EEG-ERPs) and eye-tracking methods. My research probes the neurocognitive mechanisms of successful and failing reading acquisition and explores the impact of literacy on independent cognitive systems.

I’m an Associate Researcher at CICPSI Research Unit, ULisboa, funded by the competitive FCT’s CEEC-Ind program, and a Senior Investigator at the Memory & Language team. Since 2023, I’m the Coordinator of the Cognition in Context Group (CO2) of CICPSI, which integrates several teams.

In 2017-21, I held a FCT-Investigator contract at CICPSI, secured through a Starting Grant evaluated with the highest Career Development score, marking the inception of my independent research career. Previously, and immediately after my FCT-funded PhD in Experimental and Cognitive Psychology (UAlgarve, Portugal; Donders Institute, the Netherlands), I was awarded two Postdoctoral Fellowships (2012-17), laying the groundwork for my expertise in EEG and Eyetracking. I was also a Visiting Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics (the Netherlands) in 2015.

Cognitive psychology
Visual word recognition
Reading acquisition and development
Reading disorders
Literacy
Visual object recognition

2020-2024
LEMON, LEtter learning through MOtor training: Neurocognitive specialization for the written code investigated with electrophysiological, eye-tracking, and computational tools. Universidade de Lisboa (Role: Principal Investigator; Project ref. PTDC/PSI-GER/3281/2020; FCT-funded: € 158.684,18).

2023-2024
Neurophysiological markers of statistical learning deficits in Developmental Dyslexia? Universidade do Minho (Role: Team Member; PI: Ana Paula Soares; Project ref. 2022.05618.PTDC; FCT-funded: € 49.954,04).

2018-2021
VOrtEx, Visual word recognition and Orthographic processing: Experiments and contributions from cognitive psychology, neurosciences, and computational modeling. Universidade de Lisboa (Role: Co-Principal Investigator; PI: Tânia Fernandes; Project ref. C490630733-00081487 (02/SAICT/2017 – SAICT; FCT-funded & FEDER & FEEI – European Union: € 183.589,99).

2017-2021
The fast road to automation: Exploring the functional tuning to the orthographic code. Universidade de Lisboa (Role: Principal Investigator; PI; Project ref. IF/00533/2015/CP1307/CT0001; FCT-funded: € 50.000,00).

2015-2018
Developmental dyslexia in adulthood: cognitive profiles, oculomotor behavior and concurrent predictors of reading? Universidade do Algarve (Role: Team Member; PI: Alexandra Reis; Project ref. PTDC/MHC-PCN/1175/2014; FCT-funded: € 157.102,00).

2014-2015
Do reading strategies modulate the word recognition potential (N170) and its hemispheric lateralization. Universidade do Algarve (Role: Team Member; PI: Luís Faísca; Project ref. EXPL/MHC-PCN/0299/2013; FCT-funded: € 41.549,00).

2011-2014
Mechanisms of Implicit Learning: From Artificial Grammars to Dyslexia? Universidade do Algarve (Role: Team Member; PI: Karl Magnus Petersson; Project ref. PTDC/PSI/110734/2009; FCT-funded: € 153.562,00).

2007-2011
Assessment and characterization of the reading disabilities in Portuguese children and adults with dyslexia. Universidade do Algarve (Role: Team Member; PI: Alexandra Reis; Project PTDC/PSI/64920/2006; FCT-funded: € 120.000,00).

2007-2009
Profiling poor readers and their support: PROREAD. Maastricht Universidade (Role: Colaborator; PI: Leo Blomert; Project 2006 – 2798-001-001 SO2 610BGE, Financed by the SOCRATES program: € 60.000,00 for Portugal).

Araújo, S., Narang, V., Misra, D., Lohagun, N., Khan, O., Singh, A., Mishra, R. K., Hervais-Adelman, A., & Huettig, F. (2023). A literacy-related color-specific deficit in rapid automatized naming: Evidence from normally-developed completely illiterate and literate adults. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 152(8), 2403-2409. DOI: 10.1037/xge0001376

Fernandes, T., Xavier, E., Domingues, M., & Araújo, S. (2022). Where is mirror invariance? Masked priming effects by mirrored and rotated transformations of reversible and nonreversible letters. Journal of Memory and Language, 127, 104375. DOI: 10.1016/j.jml.2022.104375

Araújo, S., Domingues, M., & Fernandes, T. (2022). From hand to eye: A meta-analysis of the benefit from handwriting training in visual graph recognition. Educational Psychology Review, 34, 1577-1612. DOI: 10.1007/s10648-021-09651-4

Araújo, S., Huettig, F., Meyer, A. (2021). What underlies the deficit in rapid automatized naming (RAN) in adults with dyslexia? Evidence from eye movements. Scientific Studies of Reading, 25(6), 534-549. DOI: 10.1080/10888438.2020.1867863

Araújo, S., Fernandes, T., & Huettig, F. (2019). Learning to read facilitates the retrieval of phonological representations in rapid automatized naming: Evidence from unschooled illiterate, ex‐illiterate, and schooled literate adults. Developmental Science; e12783. DOI: 10.1111/desc.12783

Araújo, S. & Faísca, L. (2019). A meta-analytic review of naming-speed deficits in developmental dyslexia. Scientific Studies of Reading, 23(5), 349-368. DOI:  10.1080/10888438.2019.1572758

Faísca, L., Reis, A., & Araújo, S. (2019). Early brain sensitivity to word frequency and lexicality during reading aloud and implicit reading. Frontiers in Psychology, 10:830. 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00830

Araújo, S., Faísca, L., Reis, A., Marques, F. & Petersson, K. M. (2016). Visual naming deficits in dyslexia: An ERP investigation of different processing domains. Neuropsychologia, 91, 61-76. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2016.07.007

visual word recognition;
reading aquisition;
developmental reading disorders;
EEG-ERPs;
eyetracking;