I work as a senior research associate in the Language & Brain Laboratory (PI: Professor Lahiri). My current research focusses on phonological and morpho-phonological processing in L1 and L2 with EEG as my main experimental method. I am particularly interested in loanword and cognate processing.
I am also interested in speech production, particularly in combination with EEG. My project Bilingual Word Production examines the planning of complex words in L2 English speakers and is supported by the John Fell Fund.
Until 2023, I worked on the experimental strand of our Journey of words: Manuscript to Mind project which combined psycho- and neurolinguistic investigations with historical linguistic analyses.
I am also interested in making linguistic findings (theoretical and experimental) accessible to language teachers in order to bridge linguistic research and classroom practice.
Since MT25, I am the Linguistics Organising Tutor for Exeter College.
Before joining the Language and Brain Lab in September 2020, I worked on different levels of language processing. As a postdoctoral researcher at NTNU in Trondheim (Norway), I investigated semantic and syntactic composition looking at how our brain combines single words in order to make sense of phrases and sentences. For my PhD studies at the University of Birmingham, I conducted experiments investigating how iconic gestures and speech interact during discourse comprehension and sentence production.
Publications
Journal Publications:
Fritz, I., & Lahiri, A. (2025). Native prosodic structures constrain L2 word recognition: Evidence from Bengali-English bilinguals. Brain & Language, 264, 105553. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105553
Cappellaro, C., Dumrukcic, N., Fritz, I., Franzon, F., & Maiden, M. (2024). The cognitive reality of morphomes. Evidence from Italian. Morphology, 34(1), 33-71. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11525-023-09419-2
Fritz, I., Lahiri, A., & Kotzor, S. (2023). Shared Loanword Recognition in German–English Bilinguals: The Role of Metrical Phonology. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 35(12), 2028–2048. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_02063
Fritz I., & Baggio, G. (2022). Neural and behavioral effects of typicality, denotation, and composition in an adjective-noun combination task. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 37(5), 537-559. https://doi.org/10.1080/23273798.2021.2004176
Fritz I., Kita S., Littlemore J., & Krott A. (2021). Multimodal Language Processing: How Preceding Discourse Constrains Gesture Interpretation and Affects Gesture Integration When Gestures Do Not Synchronise with Semantic Affiliates, Journal of Memory and Language, 117, 104191. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2020.104191
Fritz I., & Baggio, G. (2020). Meaning composition in minimal phrasal contexts: Distinct ERP effects of intensionality and denotation, Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 35(10), 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/23273798.2020.1749678
Olstad, HAM.*, Fritz, I.*, & Baggio, G. (2020). Composition decomposed: Distinct neural mechanisms support processing of nouns in modification and predication contexts, JEP: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 46(11), 2193–2206, https://doi.org/10.1037/xlm0000943 *equal contribution
Fritz I., Kita S., Littlemore J., & Krott A. (2019). Information packaging in speech shapes information packaging in gesture: The role of speech planning units in the coordination of speech-gesture production. Journal of Memory and Language, 104, 56-69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2018.09.002
Vulchanova M., Vulchanov V., Fritz I. & Milburn E (2019). Language and perception: introduction to the special issue speakers and listeners in the visual world. Journal of Cultural Cognitive Science, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41809-019-00047-z
Conference Proceedings
Lahiri, A., Booth, J., Fritz, I., Lindsay-Smith, E., Wynne, H. (accepted) Pertinacity in diachrony and synchrony. 26th International Conference on Historical Linguistics (Heidelberg, Germany). https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:a1f73133-4555-4ffd-b258-6b7f9b84ef3d
Fritz, I., Lahiri, A., & Kotzor, S. (2021). The role of metrical stress differences in learner word recognition. ExLing 2021, 85-88. https://doi.org/10.36505/ExLing-2021/12/0022/000495
Fritz I., Kita S., Littlemore J., & Krott A. (2015). The Influence of Clause Structure on Gestural Depiction of Motion Events. In G. Ferré, & M. Tutton (Eds.), Proceedings of the 4th GESPIN - Gesture & Speech in Interaction Conference. Nantes: Université of Nantes, 113-117. https://hal.science/hal-01195646