About us
Meet the team!
¡Conoce al equipo!
¡Conoce al equipo!
Fall 2024 Members (picture coming soon)
Spring 2024 Members
Lab Director / Investigador principal
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Dr. Christine Potter studies the role of experience in language learning with an emphasis on learning across different communities and environments. She is interested in how people of different ages and backgrounds perceive, learn, understand, and use language and why some people seem to learn so much more easily than others. Her research includes infants, children, and adults, as well as monolinguals, bilinguals, and second language learners. By examining language within and between diverse populations and contexts, she hopes to better understand how early differences in experience may have long term consequences.
Faculty Page |
Graduate Students / Estudiantes graduados
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Liam Gleason is a fifth year PhD student who studies bilingualism, language, and cognition. He is interested in how the languages we speak can impact our memory and other cognitive functions. His current research focuses on how previous exposure to information can help listeners later in difficult learning environments. |
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Morgan Wagner is a third year PhD student who studies decision-making and justice system involvement. She is interested in the cognitive and social processes that can impact individuals’ decisions, especially concerning those with justice system involvement. Her current research focuses on the role of language proficiency on decision making and the impact it could have on the representation of language minorities in the criminal justice system. |
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Rachel Williams is a sixth year Ph.D. student who studies lexical and syntactic processing in monolinguals and bilinguals. They are interested in the role of cognitive mechanisms, like attention, on entrainment -or, the reuse of language that one has experienced before. |
Lab Manager / Administrador de laboratorio
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Gabriela M. Naime is a recent graduate from UTEP, earning a B.S. in Neuroscience with a concentration in Psychology. She has explored a variety of facets within research, including but not limited to, neurobiological processes related to decision-making and behavioral pharmacology. Her interests have led her to joining the CLP team, where she hopes to diversify her experience and apply her newfound knowledge to future studies exploring pharmacological treatment effects within underrepresented populations. She plans to continue on to graduate school in Fall 2025 and build a research-based career focused on improving accessibility of healthcare in underserved communities. |
Research Assistants / Asistentes de investigación
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Jessica Del Rio recently graduated from UTEP with a Master’s in Mental Health Counseling. She is mainly interested in the improvement of accessible mental health care services and hopes to encourage systemic change in the way we approach treatment. Ultimately, she is interested in how we change our behaviors and how emotions, motivations, costs, and rewards influence our decision-making and learning process. She plans on pursuing a Doctorate in Clinical Psychological and in Science and Cognitive neuroscience. |
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Christopher Sepulveda is pursuing a career in clinical psychology, currently gaining hands-on experience through various jobs and internships. He has a specific interest in language development and its impact on social cues, perception, and communication. He hopes to gain a deeper understanding of how language shapes human interaction and aspires to apply this knowledge through teaching, research, or clinical practice in the future. |
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Sophia Villalobos is an undergraduate senior, double majoring in psychology and creative writing. She is interested in learning more about language acquisition and its developmental effects. She is passionate about community service and wants to use her degrees to help others. After graduation, she will pursue a Creative Writing MFA and continue to learn more about how language can impact others. |
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David Ruvalcaba is an undergraduate junior, who is a rehabilitation sciences major with a minor in psychology. In his free time, he attends several clubs such as FOTA (Future Occupational Therapist Association) and STARS (Student Associations of Rehabilitation Sciences), and he also enjoys community service and rock climbing. After graduation, he intends to continue his education through medical school in hopes to further impact his community in a positive way. David was inspired to join the CLP lab by his interest in developmental psychology and strives to gain a deeper understanding of how children learn. |
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Brian Lopez graduated with a Bachelor's in Biology Biomedical and was fortunate to be part of research. Because of his research experience, he decided to pursue a degree in psychology with a goal to do research in both biology and psychology. He is currently working as a P.E. coach for a local high school and is the VP of his neighborhood association, where they have organized numerous neighborhood clean-ups and made improvements for safety. When he is not in neighborhood association meetings, Brian volunteers at his church as a knight of Columbus and helps fundraise to support many different causes.
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Former Students / Exalumnas
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Matthew “Mayew” Quijas is a recent NMSU graduate and former lab manager of CLP lab. After transferring from EPCC, they graduated with their Bachelor’s in Psychology with a minor in sociology at NMSU. They are interested in language learning and the developmental impacts associated with culture and social statuses, specifically, how culture affects the way people process emotion and perceive their external environments. They hope to normalize the differences in perception and cognitive development created by culture. |
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Clarisa Perez is an undergraduate senior who obtained her Associate of Arts in Psychology degree at EPCC while getting her high school diploma at Mission Early College high school. She is now at UTEP following a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology degree. She is interested in the mental health of both adults and children and hopes to destigmatize this by providing resources to those in need. She plans to go to graduate school in the hopes of getting into a program that specializes in counseling. In the future, she would like to be a therapist for children and/or adults. |
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Diego Estrada is an undergraduate senior who is interested with working with children and their psychological and language development. He wants to primarily focus on helping children if they deal with language impairment, as well as assisting with improving their mental or physical health. He is interested in continuing my studies in order to become either occupational therapist or child psychologist. |
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Diana Morales is an undergraduate senior interested in children’s development and learning. She grew up in Ciudad Juarez and then started to live in El Paso when she entered college. After earning her Associate of Science in Psychology degree in EPCC, she transferred to UTEP to follow a Bachelor of Science in Psychology. In the next few years, she plans to go to graduate school and pursue a career in clinical child psychology. She is interested in learning about children’s growth and behavior and helping them overcome the obstacles that they may encounter during their early years. |
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Aritza Amparan is an undergraduate senior. She is working a part-time job with kids which has left her interested in learning about children’s development and how to better suit the school system for their needs. She obtained an Associate of Arts in psychology at Valle Verde ECHS in 2021 and she hopes to graduate with her BS in psychology to go to graduate school to be an occupational therapist in schools. |
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Maria Urbina-Salas is an undergraduate senior obtaining a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor in linguistics. She finds it fascinating the amount of development that occurs during childhood and adolescents. Maria is interested in researching how children use and develop their language. She plans on continuing her education and apply to graduate school to study educational psychology or child psychology. Maria hopes to work with children and adolescents by providing counseling on learning, language or developmental difficulties. |
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Matt Guerra is a recent graduate, who is interested in studying psychological development from an evolutionary perspective. Specifically, he is interested in how thoughts have evolved over generations and what that implies for the future. He is a valuable member of our team, and lead the charge on our collaboration with ASU for the Bilingual Book Project. He aspires to enter a graduate program that focuses on evolutionary psychology. |
2023 Team Members
2022 Team Members
