Marta Łockiewicz is an associate professor at the Division of Psychology and Psychopathology of Development, the Institute of Psychology, Social Sciences Faculty at the University of Gdansk. Her work focuses on the process of reading and spelling in Polish as a First Language and English as a Foreign Language, including in learners with dyslexia. Marta visited the team at the POLIN lab, Department of Speech and Language Pathology, University of Zagreb, Croatia from 21/10/2024 to 29/10/2024.
I recently had an opportunity to visit the POLIN lab at the University of Zagreb, Croatia, for a Short-Term Scientific Mission (STSM). This turned out to be a perfect choice – it couldn’t have been different, really, as POLIN means Poland in Hebrew 😉 The main goals of my visit were to translate stimuli and instructions for an eye-tracking study from English to Polish, to review the existing translations, and to gain hands-on experience with eye-tracking equipment, which I don’t have access to in Poland. I also wanted to learn about the research group’s scientific work, especially as a psychologist myself, I needed theoretical insights and good practices from a linguistic perspective.
During my visit at the POLIN lab, I worked closely with my host, Dr. Pavlinušić Vilus, to make sure that the Polish translations and adaptations of the materials are accurate and ready for use by Polish labs participating in the MultiplEYE project, which included testing the questionnaire.
Moreover, I could observe eye-tracking and EEG experiments and, towards the end of my visit, even participate in an eye-tracking experiment myself, which was an eye-opening experience (pun totally intended). It was amazing to see how eye movements are tracked and recorded, and what these data can tell us about how people actually read. I will use this knowledge to inform my future research projects and teaching.
Moreover, I participated in several demonstrations and discussions with my host and other researchers in the lab, specifically Prof. Marijan Palmović, the head of the lab, and Tomislav Radosevic, PhD student, research assistant. Thus, I had the chance to learn about data processing and visualization in an eye-tracking study, and how to infer information about the participants’ skills meaningfully based on the eye-tracking data.
In the evenings, I did my best to discover Zagreb. The historic Upper Town, the Ilica street, and the Ban Jelačić Square were my favourite spots. A visit at a café or a restaurant – which there are hundreds of in the city centre – was a perfect way to end a day.
Overall, I feel that this STSM substantially advanced the preparation of the experiments in Poland, and I gained new skills and knowledge that will contribute to my research work.