mariakyr

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Academic interests

I am a researcher in Psycholinguistics, with a particular interest in attention and its role in language and communication. Specifically, I am interested in how individual differences in executive attention or reading ability influence the comprehension of figurative, nonliteral language, such as irony, during on-line processing. In my work I use eye-tracking as a main methodological tool, as well as behavioural tasks, surveys/questionnaires, and psychometric tests.

Currently, I am a postdoctoral research fellow on the project “Better attention, better communication? How ADHD and multilingualism influence children’s pragmatic development”, funded by the Research Council of Norway. The project explores how differences in executive attention profiles affect pragmatic development in monolingual and multilingual children with and without an Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) diagnosis.

Courses taught

  • LING1113 – Psykolingvistikk og sosiolingvistikk

Background

I completed my PhD in Psycholinguistics at the University of Nottingham (2019), where my doctoral research used eye-tracking and psychometric measures to investigate non-literal language comprehension in readers with and without dyslexia. Before this, I completed an MSc in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages at the University of Edinburgh, and a BA in Applied English Language Studies at the University of Reading.

During my PhD, I worked as a Teaching Affiliate and Psycholinguistics Lab Assistant at the University of Nottingham, teaching across psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, and literary linguistics, before joining the University of Oslo in 2022 as a postdoctoral research fellow. In 2024, I was awarded an Overseas Research Grant from the Research Council of Norway to lead a related study, as Guest Researcher and Principal Investigator, on attention and children's digital storybook comprehension at the University of Cyprus.

Tags: attention and executive function, eye-tracking methodology, reading and dyslexia, ADHD and neurodiversity, figurative and pragmatic language processing

Publications

  • Kyriacou, Marianna & Köder, Franziska Maria (2025). The cognitive underpinnings of irony comprehension: Fluid intelligence but not working memory modulates processing. Applied Psycholinguistics. ISSN 0142-7164. 45(6), p. 1219–1250. doi: 10.1017/S0142716424000444. Full text in Research Archive
  • Kyriacou, Marianna; Rummelhoff, Cecilie & Köder, Franziska Maria (2025). Irony Processing in Adults with ADHD: Evidence From Eye-Tracking and Executive Attention Tasks. Journal of Attention Disorders. ISSN 1087-0547. 29(9), p. 724–744. doi: 10.1177/10870547251333819. Full text in Research Archive
  • Kyriacou, Marianna & Köder, Franziska Maria (2024). Not Batting an Eye: Figurative Meanings of L2 Idioms Do Not Interfere with Literal Uses. Languages. 9(32), p. 1–15. doi: 10.3390/languages9010032. Full text in Research Archive

View all works in NVA

  • Köder, Franziska Maria & Kyriacou, Marianna (2024). Visual attention during irony processing in readers with and without ADHD: an eye-tracking study. Full text in Research Archive
  • Köder, Franziska Maria & Kyriacou, Marianna (2024). The functions of attention in communication: Investigating irony processing in adults with and without ADHD. Full text in Research Archive
  • Köder, Franziska Maria; Kyriacou, Marianna & Rummelhoff, Cecilie (2024). Irony processing in ADHD Evidence from eye-tracking and executive attention tests. Full text in Research Archive
  • Kyriacou, Marianna & Köder, Franziska Maria (2023). Processing idioms in the second language: is top-down phrasal predictability really getting in the way? Full text in Research Archive
  • Kyriacou, Marianna (2023). Cognitive tasks, constructs, theories and other fantastic beasts: looking at the case of irony processing. Full text in Research Archive
  • Kyriacou, Marianna & Köder, Franziska Maria (2023). Working out irony: investigating the role of fluid intelligence and working memory. Full text in Research Archive
  • Kyriacou, Marianna & Köder, Franziska Maria (2023). Executive attention & pragmatic skills: how do people with and without ADHD process irony. Full text in Research Archive

View all works in NVA

Published Mar. 1, 2022 2:00 PM - Last modified Aug. 20, 2026 10:07 AM