Victoria Cano Sánchez

I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Linguistics and Basque Studies Department at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), and a member of the Bilingual Mind research group. My main research line concerns the processing of language during healthy aging. Specifically, my dissertation, under the supervision of Dr. Mikel Santesteban and Prof. Itziar Laka aims to investigate the predictive processes and agreement computation during language comprehension, as well as the associated cognitive load required to properly compute it and how do these processes evolve with age. To this end, I analyze how individual cognitive abilities, such as working memory capacity, processing speed and executive control relate to the cost of language processing, assessed through eye movement patterns.
Recently, I have also developed a growing interest in neurophysiological techniques, particularly EEG, as a means to complement and compare the behavioral metrics from my eye-tracking experiments with neural markers of predictive processing.
Before attending the UPV/EHU, I funded VCS Traducciones and worked as a freelance translator for different private and public institutions and organisms, such as CSIC, FISABIO or KONSBERG MARITIME, as well as a teacher in the public Spanish and French secondary educational systems. In addition, I earned my B.A., in Translation and Interpreting from the University of Málaga, Spain.

Research interests

Neurolinguistics, psycholinguistics, language processing, (healthy) ageing, lexical prediction, agreement computation, executive functions, memory, language disorders, bilingualism, neuroimaging techniques.

PUBLICATIONS & MANUSCRIPTS

4 – Benaiges, K., Santesteban, M. & Cano-Sánchez, V. (in prep.). Does bilingualism shape predictive language processing? Evidence from lexical and morphosyntactic cues.

3 – Cano-Sánchez, V., Laka, I. & Santesteban, M. (in prep.). Predictive abilities in language processing in the healthy elderly brain: a focus on lexical and morphosyntactic processing.

2 – Cano-Sánchez, V. & Fuente-García, P. (2023). Can older adults anticipate words better than younger adults? [artículo divulgativo]. Mapping Ignorance. País Vasco, (España). [Disponible aquí en inglés].

1 – Fuente-García, P. & Cano-Sánchez, V. (2023). Bilingualism and cognitive reserve: unlocking the benefits of multilingualism [artículo divulgativo]. Mapping Ignorance, País Vasco, (España). [Disponible aquí en inglés].

PRESENTATIONS IN CONFERENCES

Conference talks:

Cano-Sánchez, V., Laka, I., Foucart, A. & Santesteban, M. (2025). Exploring predictive processing and cognitive decline in aging: an eye-tracking approach. Talk at theXVII Symposium of Psycholinguistics,Barcelone (Spain), 26th-28th May 2025.

Cano-Sánchez, V., Laka, I., & Santesteban, M. (2025). Age-related vulnerability and cognitive load on agreement errors: insights from an eye-tracking study in Spanish. Talk at the LIII Symposium of the Spanish Society of Linguistics (SEL 2025), Salamanca, Extremadura (Spain) 20th-23rd January 2025.

Cano-Sánchez, V., Laka, I., Reifegerste, J. & Santesteban, M. (2024). Age-related differences in agreement processing: insights from an eye-tracking study. Talk at the AMLaP-Asia conference, Singapore (Asia), 5th-7th December 2024.

Cano-Sánchez, V., Laka, I., Santesteban, M. (2024). Age-related decline in agreement resolution: an eye-tracking study in Spanish. Talk at the International SEPEX Meeting, Almería, Andalucía (Spain), 23rd-25th october 2024.

Cano-Sánchez, V., Laka, I. & Santesteban, M. (2024). Aging effects in prediction and agreement processing. Talk at the Workshop on Language Processing in Healthy Aging, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Basque Country, (Spain), 23rd may 2024.

Cano-Sánchez, V., Laka, I. & Santesteban, M. (2023). Eye tracking agreement processing and attraction errors in aging: A Subject-Verb agreement study in Spanish. Talk at the International Multidisciplinary Symposium for PhD Students (CIMED), San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Tenerife, Canary Islands (Spain),  22nd-24th March 2023.

Cano-Sánchez, V., Laka, I. y Santesteban, M. (2021). Eyetracking prediction and ungrammaticality detection in the healthy aging brain. Talk at the Architectures and Mechanisms of Language Processing (AMLaP), Paris (France), 2nd-4th September 2021.

Cano-Sánchez, V., Laka, I. & Santesteban, M. (2021) Prediction and ungrammaticality detection: Young vs. old adults. Talk at the International Online Workshop on Language in Healthy and Pathological Aging (Agelang), 29th-30th April 2021. https://agelang.wordpress.com/

Poster presentations:

Cano-Sánchez, V., Laka, I., Foucart, A., & Santesteban, M. (2025). Eye-tracking predictive processing and cognitive decline. Poster at the 38th Annual Conference on Human Sentence Processing (HSP), Maryland, EE.UU, 27th-29th March, 2025. [Forthcoming link to the poster]

Cano-Sánchez, V., Laka, I., & Santesteban, M. (2025). Agreement attraction and cognitive load in the aging-brain: eye-tracking evidence from Spanish. Poster at the 38th Annual Conference on Human Sentence Processing (HSP), Maryland, EE.UU, 27th-29th March, 2025. [Forthcoming Link to the poster]

Cano-Sánchez, V., Laka, I. Lago, S., Reifegerste, J. & Santesteban, M. (2024). Aging increases agreement errors: eye-tracking older and younger adults. Poster at the the Architectures and Mechanisms of Language Processing (AMLaP), Edinbourgh (Scotland), 5th-7th September 2024.

Cano-Sánchez, V., Laka, I., Lago, S., Reifegerste, J. y Santeseban, M. (2023). Eyetracking agreement and attraction effects in the aging brain: A Subject-verb agreement comprehension study in Spanish. Poster at the XVI International Symposium of Psycholinguistics, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Basque Country (Spain), 31st-2nd June 2023. [Link]

Cano-Sánchez, V., Laka, I., Lago, S., Reifegerste, J. & Santeseban, M. (2022). Eye tracking subject-verb agreement attraction errors in the bilingual aging brain. Poster at Workshop on L2 Sentence and Discourse Processing, Cologne (Germany), 18th November 2022. [Link]

Cano-Sánchez, V., Laka, I. & Santesteban, M. (2021). Predictability in the healthy aging brain: an eye-tracking study of sentence comprehension in older adult Spanish speakers. Poster at the XV International Symposium of Psycholinguistics, Madrid (España), 22nd-25th June 2021. [Link]

Cano-Sánchez, V. & Santesteban, M. (2020). Eye tracking syntax, semantics and working memory during sentence processing. Poster at the Cross-Language Interplay in a Bilingual Mind and Erasmus I-Brain event, Moscow (Russia) 10th-12th December 2020. [Link]

Cano-Sánchez, V. & Santesteban, M. (2019). On the interaction between syntax, semantics and working memory during sentence processing: An eye tracking study. Poster at the 6th Summer School on Bi- and Multilingualism, Barcelone (Spain) 17th–20th September 2019. [Link]

SCIENTIFIC OUTREACH

2024:

Participation in the 2024 edition of the Bilingual Mind and She Mentoring physical stands for the Week of Science, Technology and Innovation organized by the University of the Basque Country.

Cano-Sánchez, V. (2024). Unlocking the adult brain: a look at that predictive machine [outreack talk]. The science week (zientzia club-monologue), University of the Basque Country (Spain), 8th November 2024 [Available here in Spanish]

Participation in the online edition (2024) of the She Mentoring campaign at the European Researchers’ Night, 27th september 2024.

Cano-Sánchez, V. (2024). How do we process language during healthy aging? Changes, invariable aspects and causes [outreach talk]. Seminar series of the Linguistics department. University of Málaga, Spain, Málaga, 18th April, 2024.

2023:

Participation in the 2023 edition of the Bilingual Mind and She Mentoring physical stands for the Week of Science, Technology and Innovation organized by the University of the Basque Country.

Cano-Sánchez, V. (2023). Finalist at the 3 minutes thesis competition [outreach talk]. The Science Week, Nebrija University, Madrid, 16-17 November, 2023. [Available here in Spanish. Minute: 46:27].

Cano-Sánchez, V. (2023). The aging brain: a predictive machine with “gains and losses” [outreach talk]. The Science week, University of the Basque Country, Basque Country (Spain), 12th November, 2023.

Cano-Sánchez, V. What does your research consist of? How does it align with the sustainable developmental goals? (2023). Talk at the III Doctoral Seminar (Planeta Group): sustainable developmental objectives [ODS_EHUagenda2030], Bilbao, Basque Country (Spain), 6th July 2023.

Cano-Sánchez, V. & Fuente-García, P. (2023). Can older adults anticipate words better than younger adults? [outreach article]. Mapping Ignorance, Basque Country (Spain). [Available here in English].

Fuente-García, P. & Cano-Sánchez, V. (2023). Bilingualism and cognitive reserve: unlocking the benefits of multilingualism [outreach article]. Mapping Ignorance, Basque Country (Spain). [Available here in English].

2022:

Cano-Sánchez, V. (2022). Language processing in healthy aging [outreach talk], Seminar series of the Gogo Elebiduna Group at the University of the Basque Country, Gipuzkoa (Spain), 6th April 2022.

Cano-Sánchez, V. (2022). SheMentoring: Female scientists you could run into the street [outreach video]. The Science week, University of the Basque Country, online, November 2022. [Available here in Spanish].

Cano-Sánchez, V. (2022). The stroop effect [outreach video] at The Science Week, University of the Basque Country, online, November 2022. [Available here in Spanish].

2021:

Cano-Sánchez, V. (2021). Can bilinguals predict the upcoming words? [outreach video]. Based on the paper Can bilinguals see it coming? Word anticipation in L2 sentence reading by Foucart et.al. (2014). Red Acelera, Univerisdad de Nebrija, online, March 2021. [Available here in Spanish].

Cano-Sánchez, V. (2021). The stroop effect [outreach video] at The Science Week, University of the Basque Country, online, November 2021. [Available here in Spanish].

INVITED TALKS

9. Colloquium speaker. Iker UMR5478. Centre de Recherche sur la langue et les textes basques. Bayonne, France. (2025, July).

8. Colloquium speaker. Deusto University. Bilbao, Basque Country. (2025, June).

7. Colloquium speaker. Talks on Formal Linguistics. Vitoria-Gasteiz, Basque Country. (2025, June).

6. Colloquium speaker. NeuroADaS Lab seminar series, eHealth Center: Health Sciences department. Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. Barcelone, Spain. (2024, October).

5. Colloquium speaker. GRECIL Lab seminar series, eHealth Center: Health Sciences department. Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. Barcelone, Spain. (2024, October).

4. Colloquium speaker. Linguistics department Permanent linguistics seminar series. University of Málaga, Málaga, Spain. (2024, April).

3. Colloquium speaker. Linguistics department seminar series. University of Málaga, Spain. (2024, April).

2. Colloquium speaker. Gogo Elebiduna Research Group seminar series. University of the Basque Country, Gipuzkoa, Spain. (2022, April).

1. Colloquium speaker. Psycholinguistics colloquium. Institut für Romanishce Sprachen und Literaturen, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany. (2022, December).

FUNDING AND AWARDS 

Awards

2023: Best Talk in the Arts and Humanities area at the International Multidisciplinary Symposium for PhD Students (CIMED) at San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Tenerife (Spain).

2019: PhD fellowship (FPI; PRE2019-089691), Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (Spain).

2017 – 2018: Teaching assistant fellowship (Tours, France), Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (Spain).

2014 – 2015: Erasmus+ scholarship (Brussels, Belgium). European Union.

Funding

The Bilingual Mind

IT1439-22 (2022-2025)
Funding agency: Department of Education, Universities and Science, Basque Government.
Principal investigator: Itziar Laka Mugarza.
Members: Miren Azkarate,  Beatriz Fernández, Mikel Santesteban, Kepa Erdocia, Adam Zawiszewski, Irene De la Cruz Pavía, Ane Berro, Ane Odria,  Miren Arantzeta,  Itziar San Martín, Svetlana Zimnukhova, Beatriz Gómez, Marta de Pedis, Noèlia Sanahuja, Victoria Cano, Marta Sánchez, Patricia Fuente.
Budget: 173.000 €

Cross-linguistic influence in language learning, processing and aging (CROSSLANGUAGING)

PID2021-124056NB-I00 (2022-2024)
Funding agency: Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (Spain).
Principal investigators: Mikel Santesteban & Kepa Erdozia.
Members: Victoria Cano, Noèlia Sanahuja, Eduardo Navarrete and Anna Hatzidaki
Budget: 51.424 €

Cross-Ling: Cross-linguistic activation effects in bilingual language processing and learning

PGC2018-097970-B-100 (2019-2021)
Entidad Financiadora: Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades.
Investigadora Principal: Kepa Erdozia & Mikel Santesteban.
Members:  Svetlana Zimnukhova, Anna Hatzidaki, Miren Arantzeta, Noèlia Sanahuja, Victoria Cano.
Budget: 60.500 €

The Bilingual Mind

IT1169-19 (2019-2021)
Funding agency: Department of Education, Universities and Science, Basque Government.
Principal investigator: Itziar Laka Mugarza.
Members: Miren Azkarate,  Xabier Alberdi, Beatriz Fernández, Maitena Echebarria, Mikel Santesteban, Kepa Erdocia, Adam Zawiszewski, Miren Arantzeta, Ane Berro, Ane Odria,  Luis Pastor,  David Lindemann, Sergio López-Sancio, Gillen Martínez de la Hidalga, Svetlana Zimnukhova, Marta de Pedis, Noèlia Sanahuja,Victoria Cano.
Budget: 202.300 €

MEDIA COVERAGE

Cano-Sánchez, V. (2024). Cover page of the article “How does our brain age?” senior class 5, Spring, from the Provincial Council of Àlava (Basque Country, Spain).

Cano-Sánvhez, V. (2023). Radio interview at ONDA CERO Vitoria, “La Brújula de Euskadi” [available here in Spanish. Min: 4].