Lionel M./Blog1/Research Interests, etc.

Hi Y'all,
There, now you've all been referred to as "y'all" by a real Texan -- just one of many little idiosyncratic (i.e. goofy) sayings we have in the Lone Star State. Now let's see...introductions first; my name is Lionel Mendez, I come from San Antonio, and I did my undergrad at the new Texas A&M campus in San Antonio. During most of that time, I didn't bother with developing any research interests since I wasn't entirely convinced that grad school would be in my future. As such, it wasn't until much later, after I had finally decided to get serious about my schooling, that I developed an interest in cognitive psychology. I had taken the cog psych class as an elective and didn't expect much from it, but I was very pleased with what I saw. The human mind had always interested me on a personal, practical level, but never before as a scholarly subject. So, here now was a field that held inherent interest for me and had the added benefit of being a relatively new, emergent field -- full of virgin territory in which a dedicated young scientist might very well be able to make a name for himself. I felt that I had found my calling, if perhaps a little late, since I was already well into my senior year. Consequently, I was only involved in a single research study before the end of my time at A&M and now find myself on the threshold of my new graduate career with very limited research experience.

There, introductions are over; now let's discuss my research interests. My initial impulse was to study general human perception, but then it quickly became apparent that studying vision, hearing, speech, and everything else would be too much. With the help of my adviser, Duane Watson, I was able to narrow it down to psycholinguistics; a field that studies not only the perception, but also the production of language and how it is used and understood by the human mind. As of this moment, I have no more specific research interest than that, although Duane and I have discussed numerous possible avenues of research concerning English/Spanish bilingualism. Among these: "Is the increase in cognitive performance in executive function tasks seen in early bilinguals also evidenced in people who have learned a second language later in life?" There are still lots of questions like these to be asked and large areas of bilingualism that have had little to no research done on them. Oh, I'm bilingual by the way (Spanish)...I suppose I should have mentioned that earlier.

Well, that does it for me. I'm here, I'm part of this program, and I am totally committed to doing the best that I can here in the hopes that it will prepare me for grad school. See y'all around.