Ana Beatriz Arêas da Luz Fontes

Curriculum Vitae

Department of Psychology
University of Texas at El Paso
El Paso, TX 79968
Office phone: 915-747-7365
Cell phone: 915-256-1540
Email: aafontes@miners.utep.edu

Education

Ph.D.
(Expected May 2010) Psychology, The University of Texas at El Paso; An
investigation of the cognitive factors that contribute
to second language reading

M.A. 2008 Psychology, The University of Texas at El Paso;

Developing lexical competition resolution
mechanisms through reading experiences

B.A. 2005 Communication, The University of Texas at El Paso

Research Interests

Psycholinguistics and Cognition

Bilingualism, second language reading development, lexical access, lexical

disambiguation, individual differences in working memory capacity, applied
psycholinguistics

Education

Apply cognitive, psycholinguistics research to improve bilingual and second language

learner’s academic achievement
 Professional Positions

2005 – Present Graduate Research Assistant to Dr. Ana I.

Schwartz, Department of Psychology, The
University of Texas at El Paso, Psycholinguistics
Research on Bilingualism and Reading

Summer 2007;
August 2008 – present Research Assistant to Dr. Penelope Espinoza,
Department of Education, The University of Texas
at El Paso, Center for Research on Education
Reform; Attributional Gender Bias: How Teachers
Explain Girls' vs. Boys' Math Performance

2007 – 2008 Research Assistant to Dr. Ana Macias, Department

of Education, The University of Texas at El Paso,
Teachers for a New Era Program; Teaching English
Language Arts in Spanish?: An Exploration into
Sheltered English Instruction

2003 – 2006 Sports Editor, The Prospector, The University of

Texas at El Paso

Publications

Arêas da Luz Fontes, A.B & Schwartz, A.I. (in press). On a different plane: Cross-
language effects on the conceptual representations of within-language homonyms.
Language and Cognitive Processes.

Schwartz, A.I., & Arêas da Luz Fontes, A.B. (2008). Cross-language mediated priming:
Effects of context and lexical relationship. Bilingualism: Language and
Cognition, 11, 1-16.

Submitted Manuscripts

Arêas da Luz Fontes, A.B & Schwartz, A.I. (2009). The effects of working memory
capacity on cross-language activation during lexical disambiguation. Preparing
revision for resubmission to Bilingualism: Language & Cognition.

Schwartz, A.I., Yeh, L., Arêas Da Luz Fontes, A. B. (2009). Bilingual lexical
disambiguation in context: The role of non-selective cross-language activation.
Manuscript under review.
 Presentations

Espinoza, P. P., Arms-Chavez, C. & Arêas da Luz Fontes, A.B (accepted) Attributional
Gender Bias: How Teachers Explain Girls' vs. Boys' Math Performance. Paper
submitted to the American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting,
Denver, Colorado.

Arêas da Luz Fontes, A.B. & Schwartz, A.I. (2009) On a different plane: Cross-
language effects on the conceptual representations of within-language homonyms.
Poster presented at the International Symposium on Bilingualism 7, Utrecht,
Holland

Francis, W., Duran, G., Arêas Da Luz Fontes, A. B., de la Riva Lopez, E., Yeh, L.
(2008) Introducción de Psicología cognoscitiva. Paper presented at 28th
Asamblea de FENAPSIME: Congreso Internacional de Psicología, Ciudad de
Juárez, México

Yeh, L., Arêas Da Luz Fontes, A. B., Chen, H, Gutiérrez, M. & Morera O. (2008)
Bilingual’s Attitude toward Code-Switching. Poster presented at the
5th Quantitative Training for Underrepresented Group (QTUG) conference,
Northeastern University, Boston, MA

Arêas da Luz Fontes, A. B. & Schwartz, A. I. (2008) Effects of language-specific

working memory capacity on the resolution of lexical ambiguity. Poster presented
at Armadillo: The Southwest Cognition Conference, El Paso, Texas.

Arêas da Luz Fontes, A. B. & Schwartz, A. I. (2008) Norming ambiguous cognates.

Oral presentation at the 2008 American Association of Applied Linguistics
Conference, Washington, D.C., U.S.A.

Arêas da Luz Fontes, A.B. (2006) Bilingual cross-language activation: The influence of
context on what becomes active from the non-target language. First Year Project
presented to the Psychology Department at the University of Texas at El Paso,
Texas.
Schwartz, A.I. & Arêas da Luz Fontes, A.B. (2006) Cross-language lexical activation:
What exactly becomes active? Poster presented at the 5th International Conference
on the Mental Lexicon, Montreal, Canada.

Schwartz, A.I. & Arêas da Luz Fontes, A.B. (2006) Cross-language lexical activation:
What exactly becomes active? Poster presented at Armadillo: The Southwest
Cognition Conference, Lubbock, Texas.

Grants and Awards

2009 Graduate School Travel Award – The University of
Texas at El Paso

2009 Graduate School Research Funding Award – The

University of Texas at El Paso

2009 Outstanding Graduate Thesis in Experimental

Psychology – The University of Texas at El Paso

2008 UTEP M-RISP Travel Award – The University of

Texas at El Paso

2008 Graduate School Travel Award – The University of

Texas at El Paso

2006 Dodson Travel Award Grant – The University of Texas at El Paso

2006 Graduate School Travel Award – The University of

Texas at El Paso

2005 Outstanding Academic Achievement in Print Media Award – The University of

Texas at El Paso

2005 Honorable Mention for Sports Page Design – Texas Intercollegiate Press Association

2004 Third Place for Sports Page Design – Texas Intercollegiate Press Association

Teaching Assistant Positions

Introduction to Psychology, The University of Texas at El Paso

Psychological Testing, The University of Texas at El Paso

Advanced Statistics, The University of Texas at El Paso

Statistical Methods, The University of Texas at El Paso

Learning and Memory, The University of Texas at El Paso

Psychobiology, The University of Texas at El Paso

Recent students supervised

Jessica Alvarez (Undergraduate student, August 2009 – present, UTEP)

Aldo Viramontes (Undergraduate student, January 2009 – present, UTEP)
Laura Mendoza (Undergraduate student, January 2009 – present, UTEP)
Eloy Castro (Undergraduate student, August 2007 – May 2009, UTEP)
Victoria Fatorinni (Undergraduate student, August 2007 – December 2008, UTEP)
Alejandra Dominguez (Undergraduate student, August 2007- December 2008, UTEP)
Belem Lopez (Undergraduate student, August 2007- December 2008, UTEP)
Senyi (Undergraduate student, August 2007- December 2007, UTEP)
Sofia Quezada (Undergraduate student, August 2007- December 2007, UTEP)
Stella Zayas (Undergraduate student, January 2007- December 2007, UTEP)
Ashley Rohn (Undergraduate student, August 2006- December 2006, UTEP)
John Salas (Undergraduate student, August 2005- May 2006, UTEP)
Zaira Chavez (Undergraduate student, August 2005- December 2005, UTEP)
Jessica Salas (Undergraduate student, January 2005- May 2005, UTEP)

Service

Community

Volleyball coach, Extreme Force Volleyball Club, El Paso, TX, January 2007 to May
2008

Volleyball coach, Elite Performance Volleyball Club, El Paso, TX, January 2006 to May
2007

Volleyball assistant coach, Sunspots Junior Volleyball Club, El Paso, TX, January 2004
to May 2004
 References

Ana I. Schwartz
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Phone: 1-915-747-7365
Fax: 1-915-747-6553
E-mail: aischwartz@utep.edu
110 Psychology Building
Department of Psychology
University of Texas at El Paso
El Paso TX, 79968

Donald E. Moss
Professor of Psychology
Phone: 1- 915-747-6566
Fax: 1-915-747-6553
E-mail: dmoss@utep.edu
211 Psychology Building
Department of Psychology
University of Texas at El Paso
El Paso TX, 79968

Penelope Espinoza
Assistant Professor of Education
Phone: 1-915-747-8784
Fax: 1-915-747
E-mail: ppespinoza@utep.edu
905 Education Building
Department of Education Leadership
University of Texas at El Paso
El Paso, TX, 79968