Karina T
- Research Program Mentor

PhD candidate at Princeton University

Expertise

Psychology, Linguistics, Neuroscience, Language education

Bio

I am a graduate student at Princeton University, studying towards a PhD in cognitive psychology. I research the intersection of memory and language through behavioral and fMRI studies. I'm especially interested in second language learning and how memory mechanisms studied in cognitive neuroscience can help us better understand the difficulties of learning languages. My interest in language comes from growing up in a multi-lingual home (Japanese, Portuguese, and English). I hope that my research can one day translate into real classroom practices so we can all learn many languages! I love pointing out psycholinguistic phenomena in everyday life, and would love to teach a class on psycholinguistics through fictional languages in movies and tv shows when I become a professor!

Project ideas

Project ideas are meant to help inspire student thinking about their own project. Students are in the driver seat of their research and are free to use any or none of the ideas shared by their mentors.

Bilingualism and cognition

How does bilingualism affect general cognition? In turn, how does cognition affect bilingualism? In this project, we will examine the intersection of bilingualism and domain-general cognitive processes such as attention, executive function, cognitive control, and memory. We will also review the similarities and differences between various types of bilinguals, such as simultaneous bilinguals vs. late learners.

Coding skills

Python, R, some Matlab

Languages I know

Portuguese, Japanese, Spanish

Teaching experience

I have been the teaching assistant, planning and leading the discussion sections for psychology of language for 2 semesters. I have also lead the lab for intro to psychology. I have mentored 3 undergraduate students who were involved in the research at the lab.

Credentials

Work experience

AGI Innovations (2014 - 2016)

AI psychologist

Education

University of California Berkeley (UC Berkeley)

BA Bachelor of Arts (2014)

Psychology, Linguistics

Princeton University

MA Master of Arts (2019)

Cognitive psychology