Curriculum Vitae

Current position

2019-Present: Principal Investigator at the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry,  

        Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (Germany)

 

Previous academic positions

2021: Visiting Professor, Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of Trento (Italy)

 

2017-2018: Post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry,  

        Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (Germany)

 

2015-2017: Post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialisation,

Università degli Studi di Padova (Italy)

Supervisor: Dr. Claudio Mulatti

 

2011-2015: PhD in Cognitive and Brain Science from Macquarie University, funded by a university 

scholarship (MQRES)

Awarded without corrections (25/3/15)

            Supervisors: Dr. Eva Marinus, Prof. Max Coltheart, and Prof. Anne Castles

            Thesis title: Methodological and theoretical issues in cross-linguistic reading research

Education

2017: Graduate Certificate of Statistics at the University of Sheffield (UK) (Distance education)

2015: PhD in Cognitive and Brain Science from Macquarie University (Sydney, Australia)

2011: Bachelor of Science (Psychology) (Honours) from the Australian National University

            2nd class, 1st division

2010: Non-award studies at the University of New England (Armidale, NSW, Australia)

            Introductory Genetics and Linguistics

2009: Bachelor of Science (Psychology) from the Australian National University

Major studies in Psychology; distinction average

2008: Exchange semester at Stockholm University

            Studies in Psychology and Swedish as a second language

2006: Higher School Certificate from Armidale High School (NSW, Australia)

List of peer-reviewed publications

Schmalz, X., Mulatti, C., Schulte-Körne, G., & Moll, K. (2022). [Registered Report]. Effects of complexity and unpredictbabiltiy on the learning of an artificial orthography. Cortex, 152, 1-20.

 

Schmalz, X., Birrun Manresa, J., & Zhang, L. (in press). What is a Bayes factor? Psychological Methods. Preprint: https://osf.io/vgqbt/

 

Schmalz, X., Treccani, B., & Mulatti, C. (2021). Developmental dyslexia, reading acquisition, and statistical learning: A sceptic's guide. Brain Sciences, 11(9), 1143.

 

de Simone, E., Beyersmann, E., Mulatti, C., Mirault, J., & Schmalz, X. (2021). Order among chaos: Cross-linguistic differences and developmental trajectories in pseudoword reading aloud using pronunciation entropy. Plos One, 16(5), e0251629.

 

Schmalz, X., Schulte-Körne, G., de Simone, E., & Moll, K. (2021). What do Artificial Orthography Learning tasks actually measure? Correlations within and across tasks. Journal of Cognition, 4(1).

 

Schmalz, X., Robidoux, S., Castles, A., & Marinus, E. (2020). Variations in the use of simple and context-sensitive grapheme-phoneme correspondences in English and German developing readers. Annals of Dyslexia, 1-20.

 

Galuschka, K., Görgen, R., Kalmar, J., Haberstroh, S., Schmalz, X., & Schulte-Körne, G. (2020). Effectiveness of spelling interventions for learners with dyslexia: A meta-analysis and systematic review. Educational Psychologist, 55(1), 1-20

 

Schmalz, X., Moll, K., Mulatti, C., & Schulte-Körne, G. (2019). Is statistical learning related to reading ability, and if so, why? Scientific Studies of Reading, 23(1), 64-76. Preprint: https://osf.io/fqdnh/.

 

Schmalz, X., & Mulatti, C. (2018). Busting a myth with the Bayes Factor: Effects of letter bigram frequency in visual lexical decision do not reflect reading processes. The Mental Lexicon, 12(2). 263–282.

 

Schmalz, X., Altoè, G., & Mulatti, C. (2017). Statistical learning and dyslexia: a systematic review. Annals of Dyslexia, 67(2). 147-162. doi:10.1007/s11881-016-0136-0

 

Schmalz, X., Porshnev, A., & Marinus, E. (2017). Two distinct parsing stages in nonword reading aloud: Evidence from Russian. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 70(12). 2548-2559doi:10.1080/17470218.2016.1247895

 

Schmalz, X., Robidoux, S., Castles, A., Coltheart, M., & Marinus, E. (2017). German and English bodies: No evidence for cross-linguistic differences in preferred grain size. Collabra, 3(1). 5. doi: 10.1525/collabra.72

 

Schmalz, X., Beyersmann, E., Cavalli, E., & Marinus, E. (2016). Unpredictability and complexity of print-to-speech correspondences increase reliance on lexical processes: More evidence for the Orthographic Depth Hypothesis. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 28(6). 658-672 doi: 10.1080/20445911.2016.1182172

 

Schmalz, X., Marinus, E., Coltheart, M., & Castles, A. (2015). Getting to the bottom of orthographic depth. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 22(6), 1614-1629. doi: 10.3758/s13423-015-0835-2

 

Schmalz, X., Treccani, B., & Mulatti, C. (2015). Distinguishing Target From Distractor in Stroop, Picture–Word, and Word–Word Interference Tasks. Frontiers in Psychology, 6. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01858

 

Schmalz, X., Marinus, E., Robidoux, S., Palethorpe, S., Castles, A., & Coltheart, M. (2014). Quantifying the reliance on different sublexical correspondences in German and English. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 26(8), 831-852. doi: 10.1080/20445911.2014.968161

 

Schmalz, X., Marinus, E., & Castles, A. (2013). Phonological decoding or direct access?

Regularity effects in lexical decisions of Grade 3 and 4 children. Quarterly Journal of

            Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 66(2), 338-346. doi: 10.1080/17470218.2012.711843

Selected other publications

Schmalz, X. (2016). The power is in collaboration: Developing international networks to

increase the reproducibility of science. The Winnower, 3:e146178.82672. doi: 10.15200/winn.146178.82672

 

Schmalz, X. (2016, September). Some thoughts on methodological terrorism. Blog post featured by

PLOS ERC Community. Retrieved from: http://blogs.plos.org/thestudentblog/2016/09/30/some-thoughts-on-methodological-terrorism/

 

Schmalz, X. (2016, March). Good scientist or successful academic? You can’t be both. Blog post

featured by Times Higher Education. Retrieved from: www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/ good-scientist-or-successful-academic-you-cant-be-both 

Selected Grants and awards

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) (2022-2026) Project: Cognitive processes while reading across languages. (€620,750)

 

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) (2021-2025) Project: Towards falsifiable theories in psychological sciences. (€226,460)

 

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) (2019-2021) Project: Neurocognitive processes underlying the learning of letter-sound correspondences. (€221,203)

 

Fellow-Programm “Freies Wissen” (2018-2019) Project: Effects of complexity and unpredictability on reading acquisition: Behavioural and computational studies. (€5000)

 

Friedrich Baur Stiftung (2019–2020) Project: Neuronale Phasenkopplung während der Sprachverarbeitung bei typischer und atypischer Leseentwicklung [Neural phase coupling during language processing in typical and atypical reading acquisition]. Awarded to S. Bakos, X. Schmalz, K. Moll, & G. Schulte-Körne (€6,000)

 

German Academic Exchange Services (DAAD) (2018): Travel stipend (Kongressreisestipendium) to attend the Annual Meeting of the Society of the Scientific Studies of Reading in Brighton, July 2018. (€700)

 

Annals of Dyslexia New Investigator Award (2018): Recognition of article "Statistical learning and dyslexia: a systematic review" (US$500)

 

LMU Excellent Travel Award (2018): Travel stipend to attend the International Meeting of the Psychonomic Society in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, May 2018 (€1036).

 

Università degli Studi di Padova (2015 - 2016). Project: What is orthographic depth?

Behavioural and computational studies. Awarded to Mulatti, C., Castles, A., Coltheart, M., Schmalz, X., & Marinus, E. ($69,762)

Computer, data processing and analysis skills

R: Data processing & analysis; linear mixed effect models, Bayesian analyses, Bayesian &

frequentist meta-analysis

Python: Data visualisation, data processing & analysis, basic computational modelling

Manuscript preparation: In LaTeX (bibtex) and Microsoft Word (EndNote)

SPSS, Excel and JASP: Data processing, ANOVA, regression (Bayesian & frequentist)

 

Language skills

Native speaker of English, German, and Russian

Czech: Completed advanced (level C1) language course at Tschechisches Zentrum München (2022)

Italian: Completed advanced (level C1) language course at Padova University (2015)

Swedish: Completed intermediate-level language course at Stockholm University (2008)

French: Completed intermediate-level language course at the Australian National University (2008)

Career break

Son David, born in February 2021