Ajna F. Kertész

Ajna F. Kertész is a third-year developmental psychology Ph.D. student at The University of Texas at Austin at Dr. Catherine H. Echols’s Langauge Development Lab. She is interested in accented speach perception and the development of accent preferences in children. She is also interested in how social norms and identities shape behavior and conformity, as well as how children learn and evaluate novel information. She holds an M.A. from the University of Austin at Texas in Psychology. She graduated from Skidmore College with a B.A. with honors in psychology and anthropology and completed her senior thesis on children’s selective trust in accented speakers. Ajna hopes to use her research to inform public policy in education as well as to empower parents and caregivers by introducing practical learning and parenting strategies.