Brain, Language and Bilingualism Lab (BLaB)
(Spring 2020 - Present)
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I am currently working under Dr. Rossi to design and launch an online study which will measure the decision making (in both the areas of risk taking and moral dilemmas) of early and late bilingual speakers in their two languages. We are aiming to uncover the neurological basis for these differences, which we believe may stem from the environment in which the language was acquired. We are also planning to expand this project in the future to include an auditory component which will investigate how hearing dilemmas in accented speech may interact with these moral decision making effects.
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During Spring 2020, I worked under Dr. Rossi and Megan Nakamura on a memory oscillation study which involves the use of EEG technology to measure brain activity in the form of Event-Related-Potentials (ERPs). We are using this technique to analyze sentence processing in groups with different levels of language proficiency, such as early and late bilinguals as well as monolingual speakers.
CURE Course (Mapping of Parking in Chiquilá, Mexico)
(Summer 2020)
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During my CURE experience over the Summer of 2020 under Dr. Timothy Murtha, I was part of a team which conducted remote satellite sensing and mapping in order to understand the development of the port town of Chiquilá on the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula.
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The focus of our research was to understand how the development of parking and commercial buildings over the last 15 years has changed the social and physical landscape of Chiquilá. As more and more tourists use Chiquilá as a stop on the way to the beach resort of Holbox, the town has begun to lose part of its unique social identity and natural beauty. While mapping the development of parking and impervious surfaces, our team found that the amount of space devoted to parking in Chiquilá had increased by 495%.