Elena Nicoladis
Professor
Psychology
Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Research Themes: The Communicating Mind and Body
Elena Nicoladis is a professor in the psychology department at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan Campus. Her research interests include bilingual language learning (mostly with children), gesture use, cross-linguistic and/or cross-cultural similarities and differences in language learning and processing, thinking for speaking, and the relationship between language and thought.
Over the course of doing her research, she has developed strong arguments on many of these topics, including whether bilingualism confuses children (it doesn’t) and whether children are sensitive to iconicity in gestures (mostly they’re not, except when they are). Dr. Nicoladis once had a prediction for a study upheld exactly as predicted, an event that led to a 3-month-long depression.
