Olga Capirci

Research Director at the National Research Council’s (CNR) Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies (ISTC).
Head of the Language and Communication Across Modalities (LaCAM) Laboratory.
Head of the Action, Gesture, and Sign language (AG&S) Research Unit

She has been working at ISTC since 1996 on developmental psychology, philosophy of Language and Sign Language Linguistics. In particular, her research has contributed to enhancing the relevance of a multimodal approach to communication, considering different modalities of expression (e.g. speech, gesture, signs) in children with typical (including bilingual children) and atypical development (i.e. children with language delay or disorders, with Autism, with Down syndrome, with Williams syndrome) and of Sign Language in both children and adult population at different ages and within different interaction contexts and cognitive tasks over the last 30 years. The ultimate goal of these researches is to reach a more profound understanding of universal as well as modality dependent features of human linguistic abilities. In particular, her work centering on the co-development of language and perceptuo-motor processes and on understanding language acquisition as semantically driven and embodied. She has also contributed to the development of better taxonomies and use of novel tools to code multimodal communication (e.g., ELAN coding grids, use of body worn-sensors, use of optical motion capture and robotic applications). Within an embodied approach to semantics, she is currently investigating the role of iconicity and simultaneity in efficient communication in the visual modality (i.e. Italian Sign Language and silent gesture) and she elaborate a very innovative model to describe sign languages in a triangular semiotic dimension. She is author of over 100 publications in international peer-reviewed journals, conferences and books; member of the International Society for Gesture Studies, member of the ISTC’ Institute Committee