• Director
  
• Research Specialists & Postdoctoral Researchers
  
• Graduate Researchers
  
• Junior Research Specialists
  
• Undergraduate Researchers
  
• Interns
  
• Friends & Collaborators
  
• CoLaLab Alumni

Principal Investigator & Director

	Lisa S. Pearl
	[website]

Research Specialists & Postdoctoral Researchers

Graduate Researchers

Niels Dickson

Interests: language acquisition, cognitive constraints on efficient communication, lossy knowledge representation, computational modeling NSF Doctoral Dissertation Research 2025: ``How Cognitive Limitations and Input Variation Affect the Acquisition of Wh-Dependencies''. Advancement 2024: "The computations underlying language acquisition: A case study of syntactic islands" Concentration exam 2022: "The computations underlying the acquisition of syntactic categories"

Junior Research Specialists

Undergraduate Researchers

Interns

Friends and Collaborators

	Greg Scontras
	UC Irvine, MeaningLab [website]
	Jon Sprouse
	UConn, SynLab [website]
	Richard Futrell
	UC Irvine, Language Processing Group [website]
	Mark Steyvers
	UC Irvine, MaDLab [website]
	Sameer Singh
	UC Irvine, Computer Science [website]
	Sharon Goldwater
	University of Edinburgh, Informatics [website]
	Joachim Vandekerckhove
	UC Irvine, Cognition and Individual Differences Lab [website]
	Michael Lee
	UC Irvine, MaDLab [website]
	Jeff Lidz
	UMaryland, Acquisition Lab [website]
	Ivano Caponigro
	UC San Diego, Linguistics [website]
	Dave Barner
	UC San Diego, LaDLab [website]
	Amy Weinberg
	UMaryland, CLIP Lab & CASL [website]
	Charles Yang
	UPenn, Linguistics & Computer Science [website]

CoLa Lab Alumni

Postdoctoral

	Sue Braunwald
	Sue Braunwald is a developmental psychologist (Ph.D., UCLA, 1980). She joined the lab in order to participate in an interdisciplinary dialogue about the process of language development. Sue began her career as a parent-diarist and recently contributed a chat version of the diary, The Braunwald-Max Planck corpus to CHILDES. The CHILDES version lacks the detailed information in the original handwritten diary that she is using as a database for her current research in collaboration with Lisa on the productivity of early verbs.
	Hannah Forsythe [website] After CoLaLab: Data Analayst with the Epidemiology Department of the State of Michigan, in conjunction with a local non-profit Michigan Public Health Institute
	Interests: experimental and theoretical approaches to language acquisition, acquisition of pronouns and agreement, gradable semantics, Spanish, Vietnamese
	Emma Nguyen [website] After CoLaLab: Lecturer (equivalent to US tenured position) of Child Language Acquisition at Newcastle University
	Interests: language acquisition, computational modeling, neurolinguistics NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship 2021: "Using quantitative methods to understand the impact of input on development" Dissertation 2021: "The predictive power of lexical semantic features on the acquisition of passive voice in young children" (pdf)
	Fabio Paolizzo [website]
	Working with both the University of Rome Tor Vergata (Electronic Engineering) and UC Irvine (Cognitive Sciences & Dance), Fabio runs the Musical-Moods project.

Graduate

	Noa Attali
	After CoLaLab: Research and program development analyst at UC Irvine. Interests: spoken language production and processing, first and second language learning, ambiguity resolution, connections between intonation and meaning Dissertation 2024: "Disambiguating Information in Speech and Context" Advancement 2023: "Disambiguating Information in Speech and Context" NSF Doctoral Dissertation Research 2023: ``Disambiguating Information in Speech and Context''. Concentration exam 2021: "Interpretations of Quantifier-Negation Ambiguity"
	Galia Bar-Sever [website] After CoLaLab: Teaching Professor at Irvine Valley College + Insight Data Science Fellow; Visiting Assistant Professor of Linguistics at Pomona College
	Interests: quantitative approaches to language development, syntactic categorization, adjective ordering, ASL, clinical populations Dissertation, 2019: "A Quantitative Framework for Specifying Underlying Representations in Child Language Acquisition" (pdf) Associate Dean Fellowship recipient Fall 2018 Dissertation advancement proposal, 2018: "Language Development in Underrepresented Populations: Applying Quantitative Methods to Corpus Data" Pedagogical Fellowship 2017 recipient SURP 2013 Fellowship Recipient: "A Comparison of Signed and Spoken Language: A Look at Grammatical Categorization": presentation, May 2014 UROP 2012 Fellowship Recipient: "Understanding the "Less is More" Effect in Language Development: A Look at Word Segmentation": presentation
	Alandi Bates [website] After CoLaLab: Using her technical communication skills to teach and manage human resources.
	Interests: acquisition of syntax and syntactic categories, acquisition of pragmatics, computational modeling Concentration exam 2019: "Pronoun resolution, socioeconomic status, and the impact of input disparities on linguistic developmental outcomes in children". SURP 2016 Fellowship Recipient: "Learning Abstract Linguistic Categories: Formally Measuring Knowledge of "Verb" in a Young Child's Speech"
	Lawrence Phillips [website]
	After CoLaLab: A post-doctoral position at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Interests when a graduate student: language acquisition, computational modeling, phonology, speech perception NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Honorable Mention 2011 Associate Dean's Fellowship Recipient Fall 2012 Department Block Summer Research Award Recipient Summer 2013 Department Block Summer Research Award Recipient Summer 2014 Jean-Claude Falmagne Research Award Recipient Summer 2014 Dissertation Advancement Proposal (2013): "Incorporating Cognitive Realism into Models of Early Language Acquisition" (pdf) Dissertation (2015): "The Role of Empirical Evidence in Modeling Speech Segmentation" (pdf)
	Zachary Rosen [website] After CoLaLab: Analytic Linguist for Amazon.
	Interests: non-literal language understanding, metaphor, non-symbolic modeling Concentration exam 2021: "Extending Cognitive Models of Metaphor Inference: Integrating Generalizability and Discursive Context Effects"
	K.J. Savinelli
	Interests: language acquisition, computational modeling, semantics Dissertation advancement proposal, 2018: "The Development of Pragmatic Competence" Associate Dean Fellowship 2018 Recipient

Junior Research Specialists

	Megan Aikawa
	CoLa Lab Interests: acquisition of syntax
	Zephyr Detrano
	CoLa Lab Interests: acquisition of metrical phonology
	Anousheh Haghighi
	CoLa Lab Interests: linguistic cues to authorship
	Chloe Haviland
	CoLa Lab Interests: acquisition of grammatical categories, acquisition of verbs
	Tim Ho
	CoLa Lab Interests: acquisition of metrical phonology
	Kristine Lu
	CoLa Lab Interests: linguistic cues to authorship, linguistic cues to mental states Review of the state of the art in affect computing (as of November 2013): presentation
	BreAnna Silva
	CoLa Lab Interests: acquisition of syntax
	Arabella Watkins
	CoLa Lab Interests: acquisition of non-literal language, impacts of socioeconomic status
	Emily Yang
	CoLa Lab Interests: acquisition of syntax
	Frank Zarrinkelk
	CoLa Lab Interests: acquisition of non-literal language, quantitative approaches to language acquisition

Undergraduate

	Shawn Abrahamson
	CoLa Lab Interests: acquisition of signed languages ASL Overview, spring 2015
	Lyna Armendariz
	CoLa Lab Interests: acquisition of syntax, social dimensions of language After CoLaLab: Health educator at AmeriCorp
	Joshua Bancroft
	CoLa Lab Interests: acquisition of syntax
	Ariana Barcenas
	CoLa Lab Interests: acquisition in clinical populations
	Athenia Barouni
	CoLa Lab Interests: linguistic cues to mental states Review of the state of the art in politeness computing (as of November 2013): presentation
	Kristen Byer
	CoLa Lab Interests: acquisition of syntax
	Gabrielle Castro
	CoLa Lab Interests: acquisition of syntax
	Noel Covarrubias
	CoLa Lab Interests: acquisition of syntax
	Daniel De Vera
	CoLa Lab Interests: acquisition of syntax, social dimensions of language
	Igii Enverga
	CoLa Lab Interests: linguistic cues to message tone UROP Researcher of the Month, May 2014 SURP 2013 Fellowship Recipient: "Automatic Message Tone Detection Using Improved Linguistic and Machine Learning Methods" presentation, Oct 2013 (pdf)
	Meredith Fay
	CoLa Lab Interests: linguistic cues to deception detection Honors project 2009: "Linguistic Cues for Deception Detection in Online Mafia Forums" (pdf) After CoLaLab: Off to join the Foreign Service
	Jon Fero
	CoLa Lab Interests: acquisition of syntax
	Alec Finnell
	CoLa Lab Interests: acquisition of syntax After CoLaLab: Studying abroad at Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany.
	Levon Gevorgyan
	CoLa Lab Interests: acquisition of syntax
	Brennan Gonering
	CoLa Lab Interests: linguistic cues to gender identity After CoLaLab: Doctoral program at UC Davis Linguistics SURP 2016 Fellowship Recipient: "Automatic Detection of Gender Identity in Blog Texts using Stylometric Features"
	Julia Hershey
	CoLa Lab Interests: automatic evaluation of translations
	Doreen Hii
	CoLa Lab Interests: sentiment analysis Honors Thesis 2019: "Using Meaning Specificity to Aid Negation Handling in Sentiment Analysis" (pdf) UROP 2018 Honorary Fellowship Recipient: "Strategies for Handling Negation in Text-Based Sentiment Analysis"
	Sarah Hunt
	CoLa Lab Interests: acquisition of syntax
	Tricia Ignacio
	CoLa Lab Interests: acquisition of verbs
	Alejandro Ibarra
	CoLa Lab Interests: acquisition of verbs
	Natashka Jinadasa
	CoLa Lab Interests: acquisition of syntax
	Zeinab Kachakeche
	CoLa Lab Interests: quantitative approaches to language acquisition After CoLaLab: Joining the UCI Language Science PhD program.
	Mackenzie Kephart
	CoLa Lab Interests: differences in metaphor comprehension in autistic and non-autistic individuals Partnerships in International Research and Education award recipient 2020. Honors Thesis 2021: ``Research Unlocks Doors: Bayesian Cognitive Modeling of Metaphor Comprehension in Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorder''. Winner of Social Sciences Outstanding Honors Thesis 2021. (pdf)
	Katie Khuu
	CoLa Lab Interests: computational models of acquisition After CoLaLab: A permanent position at Expedia UROP 2015 Fellowship Recipient: "Adding Naturally Derived Utterance Types to a Model of Syntactic Category Acquisition", presentation May 2015 (pdf) UROP Researcher of the Month, May 2015 Winner of the EAP Undergraduate Research Award 2015 UROP 2016 Fellowship Recipient: "Evaluating Language Learning Strategies by how Useful they are to Children"
	Sarah Lazbin
	CoLa Lab Interests: linguistic cues to identity, authorship deception Honors Thesis 2018: "The Impact of Message Length and Medium on Imitation Attack Creation and Detection by Humans" (pdf) Winner of best Cognitive Science & Psychology honors thesis 2018 SURP & UROP 2017 Fellowship Recipient: "The Impact of Text Length and Medium on Imitation Attack Detection by Humans and Machines"
	Janice Lee
	CoLa Lab Interests: word segmentation in Korean, social dimensions of language
	Jessica Lee
	CoLa Lab Interests: acquisition of syntax
	Joanna Lee
	CoLa Lab Interests: acquisition of metrical phonology, acquisition of syntactic islands, cross-linguistic word segmentation
	Mona Lee
	CoLa Lab Interests: linguistic cues to deception
	Rachael Lee
	CoLa Lab Interests: acquisition of pragmatics Honors Thesis 2018: "How adjective ordering preferences develop in children" ( pdf) SURP 2017 Fellowship Recipient: "How Adjective Ordering Preferences Develop in Children"
	John Lu
	After CoLaLab: A software engineering position at Amazon CoLa Lab Interests: quantitative approaches to category learning
	Tiffany Ng
	CoLa Lab Interests: acquisition of syntax, cross-linguistic word segmentation After CoLaLab: Masters program in Communicative Disorders at CSU Fullerton
	Amanda Nili
	CoLa Lab Interests: acquisition of syntax After CoLaLab: Doctoral program in Clinical Psychology at Northwestern UROP Researcher of the Month, May 2014 UROP 2014 Fellowship Recipient: "The Relationship between Acceptability and Frequency of Syntactic Structures in Child-Directed Speech": presentation, May 2014 Frequency of what: How simple is the story of syntax acquisition? (honors thesis: pdf) (UROP journal: pdf)
	Uma Patel
	CoLa Lab Interests: acquisition of syntax, social dimensions of language After CoLaLab: Off to medical school
	Spencer Perry
	CoLa Lab Interests: acquisition of syntax
	Sarah Pieper
	CoLa Lab Interests: word segmentation in Japanese Honors project 2012: "Japanese word segmentation using Bayesian inference" (pdf)
	Alissa Powers
	CoLa Lab Interests: automatic detection of moods in musical lyrics, crowd-sourcing annotation After CoLaLab: A permanent position helping program UCI's very own educational environment. Honors thesis 2017: "Building a game-with-a-purpose to annotate mood on musical media data" SURP 2016 Fellowship Recipient: "Using a Game-with-a-Purpose to Create a Database of Musical Media Annotated with Mood Information"
	Chen Qin
	CoLa Lab Interests: acquisition of signed languages
	Margarita Rodriguez
	CoLa Lab Interests: morphosyntactic acquisition + theory of mind After CoLaLab: Headed to graduate school at UCI's master's in teaching program. NBC interview with Margarita: 2 minute video clip Honors thesis 2017: "Case Studies in Eliciting the Spanish Subjunctive in Heritage Bilingual Children" Simply unstoppable, May 2017 SURP 2016 Fellowship Recipient: "Connecting Language and the Mind: Acquisition of the Subjunctive and Theory of Mind in Bilingual Heritage Speakers"
	Charles Rodriguez-De Vera
	CoLa Lab Interests: computational sociolinguistics of identity and imitation attack detection
	Amy Rothermund
	CoLa Lab Interests: acquisition of syntax After CoLaLab: Off to a job using her writing and organizational skills
	Trinity Sanders
	CoLa Lab Interests: automatic detection of mood in text
	Lucas Lo Ami Alvino Silva
	CoLa Lab Interests: linguistic cues to sentiment presentation on sentiment analysis, May 2014 (pdf)
	Ashkan Shadi
	CoLa Lab Interests: word segmentation, acquisition of verbs, automatic deception detection
	Nazanin Sheikhan
	CoLa Lab Interests: word segmentation, acquisition of syntax
	Morgan Sheldon
	CoLa Lab Interests: syntactic acquisition
	Nayeem Siddique
	CoLa Lab Interests: acquisition of syntax
	Sunny Singh
	CoLa Lab Interests: acquisition of non-literal language, quantitative approaches to language acquisition After CoLa Lab: Masters Program in Computational Linguistics at the University of Washington
	Courtney Smith
	CoLa Lab Interests: acquisition of syntax After CoLa Lab: Pursuing a Masters degree
	Shannon Stanton
	CoLa Lab Interests: human-based computation of language, acquisition of syntax UROP 2011 Fellowship recipient UROP 2011 presentation: pdf Honors project 2011: "WordSleuth: Deducing Social Connotations from Syntactic Cues" (pdf)
	Brian Toms
	CoLa Lab Interests: acquisition of syntax
	Galina Tucker
	CoLa Lab Interests: human-based computation of language, acquisition of syntax Honors Thesis presentation: pdf Honors project 2011: "How to Get People to Want to Give You Data: Making WordSleuth Fun" (pdf) After CoLaLab: System Project Engineer at Thales
	Jasmine Uitz
	CoLa Lab Interests: acquisition of semantics and pragmatics After CoLaLab: Post-baccalaureate program in Communicative Disorders at CS Fullerton
	Ellen Uyeda
	CoLa Lab Interests: signed languages, natural language processing SURP 2018 Fellowship Recipient: "Creating a Machine Readable Dataset of Sign Language Annotation"
	Karen Villegas
	CoLa Lab Interests: word segmentation, linguistic cues to social information
	Nikolai Vogler
	CoLa Lab Interests: automatic deception detection & opinion spam After CoLa Lab: Headed to graduate school at Carnegie Mellon's Language Technology Institute Honors thesis 2017: "Automatic detection of deceptive opinions using automatically identified specific details" NSF Graduate Research Fellowship winner in 2017, for his project "Eliminating Human Bias and Reducing False Convictions with Automatic Multimodal Deception Detection in Real-Time" Member of research team working on "Remote Monitoring of Neurodegeneration through Speech" at the Center for Language and Speech Processing at JHU, 2016 SURP 2016 Fellowship Recipient: "Automatic Detection of Deceptive Opinions using Automatically Identified Specific Details"
	Caroline Wagenaar
	CoLa Lab Interests: acquisition of syntax, word segmentation, social information in language After CoLaLab: Teaching English in Hamburg, Germany
	Erika Webb
	CoLa Lab Interests: acquisition of syntax
	Cort Werner
	CoLa Lab Interests: acquisition of syntax, word segmentation After CoLaLab: Masters Program in Computer Science at the University of Southern California
	Jim White
	CoLa Lab Interests: cognitive models of word segmentation, syntactic tree generation After CoLaLab: Masters program in Computational Linguistics at the University of Washington
	Alicia Yu
	CoLa Lab Interests: cross-linguistic word segmentation Honors project 2014: "Establishing cross-linguistic validity for unsupervised word segmentation models: A look at Italian and Farsi" (pdf)
	Alan Yuen
	CoLa Lab Interests: sentiment analysis, information theoretic approaches to language

Interns

	Joseph Lou
	After CoLaLab: Princeton University CoLa Lab Interests: quantitative approaches to syntactic category development
	Rachel Obstfeld
	CoLa Lab Interests: sign language acquisition
	Sebastian Reyes
	CoLa Lab Interests: cross-linguistic word segmentation