Dr Kaitlyn Zavaleta

🎃 Happy Halloween!

Here's my super scary shirt for today because nothing is scarier than a p-value of 0.06. 😱

Don't worry, I'm working 😅

Isn't this just such a cool example of accents?

Follow me on Blue Sky https://sillyli.ng/TLZLsY

Happy International Cat Day to all those cats "helping" with work.

Tucson was such a great city to live in!

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It was great getting to spend the morning talking up our amazing Psychology provisions at DMU with my lovely colleagues and student!

🏫 Last week for , I had the pleasure of being invited back to a local primary school to hold assemblies all day (!) for years 1-6. We discussed what it looks like when your job is being a scientist, the importance of learning when your experiment doesn't go as planned, and how we change and adapt as language learners. We did the Stroop task - and even tried it in different languages to test our hypotheses! And of course, I brought along my brain for everyone to look at during the assemblies.

🙋 🙋‍♂️ These students really are fantastic - they love learning about the mind and the brain and have fantastic questions.

🧠 I strongly believe that if we want enthusiastic scientists and language learners in higher education, we need to encourage that from the beginning.

I've always enjoyed teaching about synesthesia. Synesthesia is a neurological phenomenon where different senses are processed simultaneously. But, I've never considered it in the context of language learning! How interesting is this?!

The people who 'see' foreign languages: How synaesthesia can help language learning Synaesthesia is a neurological condition found to enhance memory and learning. Now, scientists say seeing in colour could help when it comes to learning a second language.

Everyone learns differently; don't just assume you're "bad at languages"!

I had a difficult time learning Russian. As soon as I was selected as an astronaut I was assigned a wonderful instructor that understood I was not going to learn Russian by reading or doing the standard exercises. She taught me how to speak Russian like you might teach a toddler. She would correct me over and over and I would say it again and again, and eventually I got it, because I learned it by ear. It was a reminder that there are many paths to the same destination - find one that works for you! Thank you Dr. Hansen!