Dr. Katharine Graf Estes, Principal Investigator - Lab Director
Infants are immersed in a world of immense complexity, yet they display knowledge of the people, objects, actions, and sounds in their environments very early in life. My research explores the mechanisms that support this early learning. In particular, the ability to detect statistical regularities may play a fundamental role in how infants learn about a highly complex, highly salient aspect of the auditory world: language. Infants become especially attuned to regularities in the sound patterns of the ambient language, including its phoneme distinctions, sound combinations within words, and its cues to word boundaries in fluent speech. Thus, when infants begin to understand and produce words, they do not start as a blank slate. I am investigating how infants learn from statistical regularities in the language they hear and the nature of what they learn.
Dylan Antovich, Graduate Student
I graduated in 2010 from the University of Washington with a B.S. in psychology and minors in Italian language and music. I am currently in the Developmental Psychology Ph.D. program at UC Davis, with a focus on early language development. My research interests include bilingualism, cognitive development, communication disorders, language learning mechanisms, and early word acquisition. Working at the Language Learning Lab will be a great way to pursue these interests and to learn about the fascinating field of language development.
Erica Verde, Graduate Student
I am first year doctoral student in the developmental area in the psychology department. A simultaneous English-Spanish bilingual originally from Miami, I hold a bachelor's degree in Psychology from the University of Miami and a master's degree in Linguistics from Florida International University. Before joining the Language Learning Lab, I managed an infant language lab at Stanford University under Dr. Anne Fernald, as well as the ISI bilingual language processing lab under Dr. Paola Dussias at the Pennsylvania State University. I am broadly interested in lexical and semantic acquisition and processing in both monolingual and bilingual populations. In particular, I hope to explore the role of statistical learning in these processes and how variability in the input affects infants' ability to recognize meaningful language features.
Daniela Guarnizo, Lab Coordinator
I recently graduated from the University of Central Florida with a B.S. in Psychology. My research interests include the development of language, child self-regulation, and the interaction of biological, social and psychological factors in the development of children. My interest in language development research, arises not only for a professional desire to learn more about how language acquisition develops, but also from my personal experience as a Spanish – English bilingual who learned English as a second language at a young age. The world of human development mesmerizes me and, learning about how children learn and acquire information is a fascinating experience that continuously leaves me with a desire to learn more. Working at the Learning Language Lab gives me the space and tools I need to continue learning about the beautiful development of a child’s world!
Daria Tsakke, Lead Undergraduate Research Assistant
I am a fourth year undergraduate student at CSU-Sacramento, pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and a minor in Spanish. As a bilingual speaker of English and Russian who is also learning Spanish, I am continually fascinated by the dynamics of language acquisition and functionality. My research involvement with the Language Learning Lab will enable me to explore language from an observer’s perspective. I think that studying language in infants is a very effective way of capturing the process of language development due to the ability to observe fundamental changes in language abilities from month to month or even week to week. Outside of academics, I serve as a tutor for a reading development program and as a volunteer for children’s activities at the Sacramento Public Library. I would like to further study Cognitive Psychology (i.e. Psycholinguistics) in graduate school, with the goal of becoming a college faculty member and/or administrator. In my spare time, I enjoy traveling with others, hiking, sketching, reading, and philosophizing.
Maya Bowen, Undergraduate Research Assistant
I am a third year student at UC Davis, double majoring in Psychology and Human Development. I have a passion for working with children, helping guide them as they develop emotionally, physically, psychologically, and studying what factors might influence them as they grow up. These interests come from the time that I spent working with children in classrooms, camps and various internships. I joined the language learning lab because it is a great chance to study early language development in children and it is also an amazing opportunity to gain research experience. My experience working with children has primarily focused on the educational side, and I have seen how important it is for educators to understand how a child develops in order to help the child reach their full potential. I hope that by learning more about language development in children that I can become a better educator as well as gain valuable experience in the research field.
David Mena, Undergraduate Research Assistant
I am a third-year student at UC Davis studying Spanish and Cognitive Science. I am from San Juan Capistrano in Orange County. While at UC Davis, I have found a huge interest in learning about the capability of human beings to be able to learn a language and even be able to master two languages at a young age. I have worked with middle school student in the past and I can see a need for future educators in the field of language acquisition. I would like to pursue higher education in the field of linguistics to further expand my knowledge in how it is that language is acquired and how to be able to change current teaching techniques to help students with difficulty acquiring a second language at school. The Language Learning Lab is my first step towards understanding how language acquisition works especially in children and it is also introducing me to research. With the skills learned in this lab, I hope to be able to conduct on my own in the future. I am very excited to be able apart of the Language Learning Lab!
Grace Katzenson, Undergraduate Research Assistant
I am a junior transfer student at UC Davis majoring in Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior and minoring in Sociology. My interest in language development stems from my international background. I was born in the United States but have lived in Turkey, Germany and the Netherlands and traveled extensively in these regions. Therefore, I have been around bilingual and multilingual people for the majority of my life. I am planning to attend medical school and become a physician, and I strongly believe the skills and experiences learned in the Language Learning Lab will help me become a stronger doctor. Outside of the lab, I am the Chair of Osteopathic Medicine (D. O.) for the UC Davis Pre-Health Conference as well as a member of Phi Delta Epsilon International Medical Fraternity.
Kaija Holland, Undergraduate Research Assistant
I am a second-year undergraduate student double majoring in Psychology and English at UC Davis. My experiences working with children have made me especially interested in research regarding developmental psychology and the acquisition of linguistic and social processes. My motivation in joining the Language Learning Lab stems from these interests, and I am excited to research how children interact with and learn from the world around them! I am fascinated by the psychology behind how children acquire language and social skills, and I hope to apply what I learn in a future career. I plan to attend graduate school with an emphasis in either developmental or school psychology, so this opportunity will allow me to better understand and work with children either in a clinical or educational setting. Outside of academics, I enjoy hiking, reading, spending time with friends, and traveling.
