Publications

Villata, S. (2024). Intervention Effects in Sentence Processing. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

• Pañeda, C., Kush, D.,Villata, S. & Sprouse, J. (2024). A translation-matched, experimental comparison of three types of wh-island effects in Spanish and English. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics. [pdf]
• Villata, S., & Franck, J. (2024). An empirical investigation of featural similarity in wh-islands. International Journal of Linguistics, 16(1), 1-27. [pdf]
• Villata, S., & Tabor, W. (2022). A self-organized sentence processing theory of gradience: The case of islands. Cognition, 222. [pdf]
• Fukumura, K., Hervé, C., Villata, S., Zhang, S., & Foppolo, F. (2022). Representations underling pronoun choice in Italian and English. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 75(8), 1428–1447. [pdf]
• Shlonsky, U., Villata, S., & Franck, J. (2020). Covert movement in multiple wh questions: Experimental and theoretical investigations. Syntax, 23 (2), 185-202. [pdf]
• Villata, S., & Franck, J. (2020). Similarity-based interference in agreement comprehension and production: Evidence from object agreement. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 46(1), 170–188. [pdf]
• Villata, S., Tabor, W., & Franck, J. (2018). Encoding and retrieval interference in sentence comprehension: Evidence from agreement. Frontiers in Psychology. [pdf]
• Villata, S., Rizzi, L., & Franck, J. (2016). Intervention effects and Relativized Minimality: New experimental evidence from graded judgments. Lingua (179), 76-96. [pdf]
• Hirèche, S., & Villata, S.(2013). Eating Animals and the Moral Value of Non-Human Suffering. Grazer Philosophische Studien, 88(1), 247-256. [pfd]

Peer-reviewed conference proceedings

• Villata, S., Sprouse, J., & W. Tabor (2019). Modeling Ungrammaticality: A Self-Organizing Model of Islands. CogSci. In A.K. Goel, C.M. Seifert, & C. Freska (Eds.) Proceedings of the 41^stAnnual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 1178-1184). Montreal, QB: Cognitive Science Society. [pdf]
• Villata, S., & J. Franck (2016). Semantic similarity effects on weak islands acceptability. Rivista di Grammatica Generativa (38), pp. 269-285. [pdf]

Book Chapters

• Sprouse, J. and S. Villata (2021). Island Effects. The Cambridge Handbook of Experimental Syntax. Edited by Grant Goodall. Cambridge University Press, pp. 227-257. [pdf]
• Villata, S., & P. Lorusso (2020). When initial thematic roles attribution lingers: Evidence for digging-in effects in Italian relative clauses. In Torrens (ed.) Typical and Impaired Processing in Morphosyntax. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 57-71. [pdf]

Dissertation

Villata, S. (2017). Intervention effects in sentence processing. Unpublished PhD dissertation.

Invited Talks

• Villata, S. Feature Manipulation in Ungrammatical Sentences: A Jabberwocky Study on the Source of Amelioration Effects in Syntactic Islands.  Beyond Agreement Closing Workshop, University of Geneva (Switzerland). June 20-21. [slides]
• Villata, S. Comprendre l’architecture de la grammaire: apports de la linguistique expérimentale. Department of Linguistics, University of Geneva (Switzerland). June 14. [slides]
• Villata, S. (2023). The strong/weak island distinction – A large-scale acceptability judgment study in English.Workshop “Mente e linguaggio II. Prospettive psicolinguistiche sulla percezione e sulla produzione del linguaggio”. University of Udine, Italy, May 26.
• Villata, S. (2023).The strong/weak island distinction – A large-scale acceptability judgment study in English. University of the Basque Country, HiTT Linguistic Group, April 21.
• Villata, S. (2022).Experimental evidence for gradient effects and their consequences for theories of grammar. University of Geneva, December 19.
• Villata, S. (2022). Gradient Effects. An investigation of the nature of the grammar, the parser, and their relation. University of Florence, May 10.
• Villata, S. (2022). Gradient Effects. An investigation of the nature of the grammar, the parser, and their relation. University of Georgia (US), January 21. Job talk interview for tenure track position.
• Villata, S. (2020). Intermediate Grammaticality. Logic Uconn Group. 13 November. [slides] [talk]
• Villata, S. (2019). Experimental evidence for gradient effects in islands, and their consequences for theories of islands. Department of Linguistics, University of Geneva. [slides]
• Villata, S. (2019). Gradient Effects in Islands. Experimental and Computational Modeling Results. Symposium on Syntactic Islands in Scandinavian and English. Invited talk, June 11. [slides]
• Villata, S. (2019). A new approach to gradient effects in islands. University of Massachusetts. Invited talk, March 26.
• Villata, S. (2017). Similarity effects in wh-island acceptability: A new perspective. Geneva Passives Workshop. 10-14 January, Geneva (Switzerland).
• Villata, S., (2016). Attraction and similarity-based interference in object gender agreement. Language and Cognition Seminar, UConn, Connecticut (US), March 15.
• Villata, S. (2015). Locality and Intervention effects: Evidence from acceptability judgments. Seminaire de recherche en Linguistique. Genève (Switzerland). April 14.

Conference Talks

• Villata, S., & Sprouse, J. (2025). An experimental investigation of [+np] island effect amelioration within featural Relativized Minimality in Italian. Incontro di Grammatica Generativa (IGG 50), Padova, 19-21 February. [slides]
• Villata, S., & Sprouse, J. (2023). The amelioration effect of “which” on strong/weak islands in English: an experimental study. Glow 46, Vienna, 11-15 April. [slides]
• Tabor, W., Villata, S., & Sprouse, J. (2020).  Strong and weak islands: A theory of graded accessibility in linguistic domains. AMLaP 2020, Potsdam, 3-5 September. [slides] [talk – 1h 39 min 07  sec]
• Tabor, W., Villata, S., Sprouse, J. (2020). A theory of island semi-accessibility: the case of the strong/weak distinction. The 33st Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing, Amherst, 19-21 March. [slides] [talk – min 23]
• Fukumura, K., Villata, S., Foppolo, F., Pozniak, C., Carminati, M. N., & Alario, X. (2019). Ambiguity avoidance independent of non-linguistic similarity. The 32nd Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing, Colorado (US), 29-31 March.
• Villata, S., Franco, L., & Lorusso, P. (2017). Digging-in effects in Italian relative clauses. Experimental Psycholinguistics Conference. 28-30 June, Menorca (Balearic Islands).
• Villata, S.(2016). Attraction and similarity-based interference in object gender agreement. Syncart Workshop. 11-15 July, Chiusi (Italy).
• Mirdamadi, F., Villata, S., Shlonsky, U., & Franck, J. (2016). Experimental judgment on multiple wh-questions in Persian. 9^thDays of Swiss Linguistics, Geneva (Switzerland), June 29-30.
• Villata, S., & Franck, J. (2016). Attraction and similarity-based interference in object gender agreement. The 29th Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing, Florida (US), March 3-5. [slides]
• Villata, S., & Franck, J. (2015). The complex case of weak islands. Workshop “Hard sentences: how to measure clausal complexity?” Congresso Internazionale SLI, Malta, 25 September.
• Villata, S., & Franck, J. (2015). Processing and grammar constraints in extraction from weak islands. IGG41. Perugia (Italy), February 26-28.
• Villata, S., Rizzi, L., Omaki, A., & Franck, J. (2014). New insights into intervention effects: an empirical investigation on Relativized Minimality. IGG40. Trento (Italy), February 12-14.
• Lassotta, R., Omaki, A., Panizza, D., Villata, S., & Franck, J. (2012). Linking cognitive control to revision of garden-path Wh-questions in adults and children. AMLaP. Riva del Garda (Italy), September 6-8.

Conference Posters

• Villata, S., & Sprouse, J. (2023). The strong/weak island distinction – A large-scale acceptability judgment study in English. AMLaP 29^th, San Sebastian, 31 August-2 September
• Pañeda,C., Villata, S., Kush, D., & Sprouse, J. (2023). No cross-linguistic variation in Spanish and English wh-island effects. AMLaP 29^th, San Sebastian, 31 August-2 September
• Villata, S., & Sprouse, J. (2023). The amelioration effect of “which” on strong/weak islands in English: an experimental study. Glow 46, Vienna, 11-15 April.
• Tabor, W., Villata, S. (2023). Metric Grammars. The 36^th Annual Conference on Human Sentence Processing(HSP), University of Pittsburgh, 9-11 March.
• Villata, S., Tabor, W., Sprouse, J. (2020). Gap-filling in English syntactic islands: Evidence from Forced Choice and Maze Tasks.AMLaP 2020, Potsdam, 3-5 September. [poster/ppt] [spiel]
• Villata, S., Tabor, W., Sprouse, J. (2020). Gap-filling in syntactic islands: Evidence for island penetrability from the Maze Task. The 33st Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing, Amherst (US), 19-21 March. [poster] [spiel]
• Fukumura, K., Villata, S., K., Foppolo, F., Céline Pozniak, & Alario, X. (2019). Avoiding ambiguous pronouns: A cross-linguistic study. AMLaP. Moscow (Russia), 6-8 September.
• Villata, S., Sprouse, J. & Tabor, W. (2019). A self-organizing model of islands. CUNY,Colorado (US), 29-31 March. [poster]
• Fukumura, K., Herve, C., Villata, S., Foppolo, F. & Alario, X. (2019). Cross-linguistic investigation of the choice of pronouns. CUNY,Colorado (US), 29-31 March.
• Fukumura, K., Herve, C., Villata, S., Foppolo, F. & Alario, X. (2018). Cross-linguistic investigation of the representations driving the choice between pronouns and nouns. AMLaP. Berlin (Germany), September 6-8.
• Villata S., & Lorusso, P. (2018). Early vs late cues in the processing of Italian relative clauses. 31^stAnnual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing. San Diego, March 15-17. [poster]
• Schmid, S., Villata, S., Tabor, W. & Franck, J. (2018). Two mechanisms underlying agreement errors. 31^stAnnual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing. San Diego, March 15-17.
• Villata, S., Ludovico, F., & Lorusso, P. (2017). Digging-in effects in Italian relative clauses. AMLaP. Lancaster (UK), September 7-9.
• Villata, S., Tabor, W., & Franck, J. (2017). Disentangling encoding and retrieval interference: evidence from agreement. AMLaP. Lancaster (UK), September 7-9. [poster]
• Villata, S., McElree, B., Wagers, M., & Franck, J. (2015). Interference effects in language comprehension. SSP-SGP Conference. Geneva (Switzerland), September 8-9.
• Villata, S., Canal, P., Franck, J., Moro, A., & Chesi, C. (2015). Intervention effects in wh-islands: an eye-tracking study. AMLap. Malta, September 3-5.
• Villata, S., & Franck, J. (2015). Processing and grammar constraints in extraction from weak islands. CUNY. Los Angeles (US), March 19-21. [poster]
• Villata, S., McElree, B., Wagers, M., & Franck, J. (2015). Temporal dynamics of weak islands: A speed-accuracy trade-off study. CUNY. Los Angeles (US), March 19-21. [poster]
• Villata, S., Rizzi, L., & Franck, J. (2015). Intervention effects in wh-islands and non-islands: experimental evidence. IGG41. Perugia (Italy), February 26-28.
• Villata, S., McElree, B., & Franck, J. (2015). The temporal dynamics of intervention effects: a speed-accuracy trade-off study on wh-islands. Biolinguistic Investigations on the Language Faculty. Pavia (Italy), January 26-28.
• Villata, S., McElree, B., & Franck, J. (2014). Temporal dynamics of extraction from wh-islands: a speed-accuracy trade-off study. AMLaP. Edinburgh (UK), September 3-6. [poster]
• Villata, S., Rizzi, L., Omaki, A., & Franck, J. (2014). Relativized Minimality: a systematic investigation on intervention effects. CUNY. Columbus (Ohio), March 13-15.
• Villata, S., Omaki, A., Rizzi, L., & Franck, J. (2013). Relativized Minimality and parsing: new insights on the role of similarity. AMLaP. Marseille (France), September 2-4.
• Lassotta, R., Omaki, A., Panizza, D., Villata, S., & Franck, J. (2012). Sentence revision and executive control in French-speaking children and adults: Evidence from wh-questions with filled-gaps. BUCLD. Boston (US), November 1-4.