Natalie Kacinik

Dr. Natalie Kacinik is an Assistant Professor in Psychology at Brooklyn College and on the doctoral faculty of the Cognition, Brain, and Behavior subprogram at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She has B.A. (Hons) and M.A. degrees from the University of Western Ontario, a Ph.D. from the University of California, Riverside, and was a postdoctoral scholar and adjunct lecturer at the University of California, Davis, prior to starting her faculty position in 2008. Dr. Kacinik’s research investigates the cognitive and neural bases of language processing, ranging from individual words, up to sentences and discourse. She is particularly interested in social aspects of communication (i.e., pragmatics) involving theory of mind and figurative expressions like metaphors, idioms, and irony. In collaboration with her graduate students, she is also investigating dyslexia, and the extent to which our mental representations and processes are grounded in perceptual and motor experiences (i.e., embodied cognition). This research is conducted using both behavioral and cognitive neuroscience methods like visual half-field presentation, event related potentials (ERPs), structural MRI, and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS).

She is currently teaching Introductory Psychology and the Psychology of Language, but she has also taught Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuropsychology and Aging, and a doctoral seminar on Language and Communication.