My primary research interest focuses on the processing of written language and the phenomena that occur at the syntax-semantics interface. My work investigates the mental processes involved in the syntactic and semantic analysis of sentences in the native language, aiming to identify cognitive patterns that are common across all languages, as well as those that are language-specific and vary according to the idiosyncratic features of each language. Secondarily, I also study the impact of prosody on sentence processing, whether implicit (e.g., through the use of commas) or explicit (via variations in rhythm and duration). My research combines online experimental methodologies, such as eye-tracking while reading and reaction time measures, with offline techniques that examine less automatic, more metacognitive processes.
PUBLICATIONS 2025:
- Zunino, G., Aguilar, M., Stetie, N., Rebolledo, C. M., & Hinojosa, J. A. (2025). Dresses and ties: the effect of grammatical gender and stereotypical semantic bias in three Spanish-speaking communities. Language and Cognition, 17, e35. https://doi.org/10.1017/langcog.2025.4
PUBLICATIONS 2024:
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Aguilar, M., Ferré, P., & Hinojosa, J. A. (2024). The landscape of emotional language processing in bilinguals: A review. Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 80, 1-32. 10.1016/bs.plm.2024.03.002
PUBLICATIONS 2022:
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Aguilar, M., Ferré, P., Hinojosa, J. A., Gavilán, J. M., & Demestre, J. (2022). Locality and attachment preferences in preverbal versus post-verbal Relative Clauses. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 37:10, 1303-1310. 10.1080/23273798.2022.2066701
PUBLICATIONS 2021:
- Aguilar, M. & Grillo, N. (2021) Spanish is not different: On the universality of minimal structure and locality principles. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics, 6(1):89.doi: https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.1251
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Aguilar, M., Ferré, P., Gavilán, J. M., Hinojosa, J. A., & Demestre, J. (2021). The actress was on the balcony, after all: Eye-tracking locality and PR-availability effects in Spanish. Cognition, 211, 104624. 10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104624
PUBLICATIONS 2019:
- Grillo, N., Aguilar, M., Roberts, L., Santi, A., & Turco, G. (2019). Prosody of classic garden path sentences: The horse raced faster when embedded. The 9th Conference of Speech Prosody, June 2018, Poznań, Poland. pp. 284-288. ffhal-02925400f