Dr. Christine E. Potter

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How do people learn language? And why do some people seem to learn new languages so much more easily than others? My lab’s research investigates how language experience shapes infants’, children’s, and adults’ ability to identify relevant cues in their environment, to use those cues to learn, and to build knowledge across time. We use both experimental and descriptive approaches to understand the types of experience that are most supportive of learning. By working with community partners and collaborators, we are able to explore how real-life contexts, such as bilingual environments, affect how and what children learn.

UTEP Faculty Profile

Sample Publications:

Williams, R.L., Potter, C.E. & Ivanova, I. (2026). Filled pauses engage attention but, uh, don’t seem to affect structural processing. Discourse Processes, 63(8), 741-767.

Benitez, V.L, & Potter, C.E. (2026). The promise of bilingual shared reading as a tool for promoting emergent biliteracy. Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 13(2), 390-398.

Potter, C.E., Fourakis, E., Morin-Lessard, E., Byers-Heinlein, K., & Lew-Williams, C. (2019). Bilingual toddlers’ comprehension of mixed sentences is asymmetrical across their two languages. Developmental Science, 22(4), e12794.

Potter, C.E., & Saffran, J.R. (2017). Exposure to multiple accents supports infants’ understanding of novel accents. Cognition, 166, 67-72.