My research examines how meaning, particularly emotional meaning, shapes attention, memory, and decision-making. Across my work, I have been especially interested in how affective and cognitively salient information guides what we notice, how we interpret it, and what we retain, both in controlled laboratory settings and in more clinically relevant contexts.

I completed my doctoral work in Cognition and Neural Science at the University of Utah in 2024. My graduate research focused on visual attention, language, and memory, with particular emphasis on how emotional information influences reading and encoding across the adult lifespan. Using eye-tracking, EEG, and behavioral methods, I studied how information appearing just outside direct gaze can shape ongoing comprehension and later memory, and how these processes differ between younger and older adults.

One of the central findings from my dissertation was an age-related difference in how emotional meaning guides attention during natural reading. Older adults showed a relative positivity effect, allocating more attention to positive material, whereas younger adults showed greater attentional capture by negative emotional content.

More broadly, my research has drawn on mixed methods and quantitative approaches to investigate language processing, attention, cognitive control, and performance in complex environments. I have contributed to work spanning emotional language, error monitoring, and attentional demands in high-load systems, with a consistent interest in how cognitive and neurophysiological measures can clarify mechanisms while also informing applied questions.

My current work has expanded into clinical and translational research in neuropsychiatric and brain health settings, including programs spanning early development through Phase 2 and Phase 3 trials. This work includes collaboration with physician investigators, pharmaceutical sponsors, and CRO partners across women’s health, brain health, and psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy research.

I have also increasingly taken on responsibilities related to research team leadership, operational planning, and the development of research infrastructure needed to support growing clinical programs.

At its core, my work is motivated by the goal of connecting mechanistic insight with real-world relevance through clinical trials, translational neuroscience, and scientific collaboration across research and healthcare settings.

Keywords: Eye-tracking/EEG/ CoRegistration/ Electrophysiology / psycholinguistics / semantic memory/ vision science / embodied cognition

Education

Doctorate of Philosophy, PhD, Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Utah (2022-2024) Open Science Framework (OSF) - Preregistration data and pipelines can be found at https://osf.io/s9bh6

Master of Science - MS, Cognitive Neuroscience / Psychology, University of Utah (2019-2022)

Graduate coursework / Communication Sciences & Disorders - Speech-Language Pathology (4.0 GPA), University of Utah, College of Health - (2018)

Graduate Certificate (Professional), Usability, & Assistive Technology / Augmentative & Rehabilitation Engineering, ADA Health Policy, California State University (DH), (2015)

Bachelor of Science - B.S. Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Idaho (2014-2016)

Bachelor of Science - B.S. Medical Anthropology (minor in Bioethics), San Francisco State University (2009-2012)

Conference Presentations & Invited Talks

Lopes, C.L., (2024) Rose-colored Semantics: Exploring Age Related Perceptual Changes Across the Perceptual Span. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, HELD Meeting.

Lopes, C.L., Payne, B.R., (2024) Motivated Attention in Reading: Lexical Valence Moderates Parafoveal Preview Benefits Differently in Younger and Older Adults, Evidence from Gaze-Contingent Boundary Paradigms. Psychonomic Society Annual Meeting 2024

Lopes, C.L., Payne, B.R., (2023) Investigating the Age-Related Positivity Effect in Parafoveal Word Processing During Natural Reading. Society for Affective Science Annual Meeting 2023

Lopes, C. L., Payne, B.R., (2022) Individual Differences in Verbal Working Memory and Parafoveal Word Processing During Natural Reading. Leading Edge Co-Registration Conference (NSF/Psychonomics Society).

Lopes, C.L., Payne, B.R., (2022) Understanding the time course of semantic processing across the visual field during reading: Reconciling evidence from ERPs and eye movement behavior. Society for Psychophysiological Research, 2022

Lopes, C.L., Silox, J.W., Payne, B.R., (2020) Probing Prediction Costs & Benefits: What Response Times and ERPs Reveal About the Role of Volitional Control in Context Processing. Society for Psychophysiological Research, 2020.

Silcox, J., & Lopes, C., Payne, B. (2019) The Role of the Left Inferior Frontal Cortex in Memory for Predictable and Unpredictable Words: An Event-Related rTMS Study.

Lopes, Erickson, Cooper, Wheatley, Strayer, (2019). Driven to comment: Learning from older drivers impressions of in-vehicle technologies. Proceedings of Human Factors and Ergonomics Society DOI: 10.1177/1071181319631134

University Courses Taught

• Sensation and Perception (2023, 2024) - taught 4x

• Cognitive Psychology (2021,2022,2023,2024) taught 6x

• Methods (2021)

• General Psychology