Katerina is currently working as coordinator for Dr Joe McCleery’s behavioural and EEG/ERP research on language development in toddlers at high risk of developing autism, funded by the UK-based charity organisation Autistica. She is also working with Dr Kita on further projects on infant’s perception and use of sound symbolism.
She was also involved in initiating and establishing the participant database for parents interested in taking part in studies within the Infant and Child Laboratory.
Katerina completed her BSc. at the University of Birmingham in 2004. She then completed her PhD at the University of Birmingham in 2011, under the supervision of Dr Sotaro Kita. The title of her thesis was “Children and adult’s understanding and use of sound symbolism in novel words.”
Katerina’s dissertation research involved studies of language development in children, and specifically the use of sound symbolism. For example, properties of words that make them symbolic, cross-linguistic sensitivities to sound symbolism, and the use of sound symbolism in word learning by children.
Kantartzis, K., Imai, M. & Kita, S. (2011). Japanese sound-symbolism facilitates word learning in English-speaking children. Cognitive Science, 35, 575-586.
Kita, S., Kantartzis, K., & Imai, M. (2010). Children learn sound-symbolic words better: Evolutionary vestige of sound-symbolic protolanguage. In A. D. M. Smith, M. Schouwstra, B. de Boer, & K. Smith (Eds.), The evolution of language: Proceedings of the 8th international conference on the Evolution of Language (EVOLANG8) (pp. 206-213). Singapore: World Scientific.
Kantartzis, K., Imai, M. & Kita, S., Japanese sound symbolism facilitates verb learning in English 3-year-olds (2009), Proceedings of CogSci2009.