Rate My Professor Kachina Allen

Dr. Kachina Allen is a Lecturer in Psychology in the Faculty of Health at Southern Cross University. She holds a Bachelor of Science from Macquarie University and a PhD from the University of Sydney. Her academic interests include psychophysiology, neuroimaging, attention, and perception, with expertise in cognitive psychology and neuroscience. Dr. Allen employs advanced techniques such as functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate auditory and visual processing, metacognition, grammatical constructions, pitch and time processing in speech, and functional connectivity in brain regions like the periaqueductal gray during phonation. More recently, her research has extended to mental health outcomes in transgender and gender diverse populations, predictors of psychological well-being, and the integration of generative AI in health education.

Prior to joining Southern Cross University, Dr. Allen worked as a Research Assistant at Rutgers University from 2012 to 2014 and as a Research Specialist in the Department of Psychology at Princeton University from 2018 to 2019, following positions at McGill University. Key publications encompass 'Shortcomings of transgender identity concealment research: a scoping review of associations with mental health' (2024), 'Predictors of Psychological Well-being in Transgender and Gender Diverse Australians: Outness, Authenticity, and Harassment' (2023), 'Differences in the detail: Metacognition is better for seen than sensed changes to visual scenes' (2023), 'Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Studies in Sexual Medicine: A Primer' (2022), 'Male Urogenital System Mapped Onto the Sensory Cortex: Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Evidence' (2020), 'Distinguishing grammatical constructions with fMRI pattern analysis' (2012), 'A Collection of Pseudo-Words to Study Multi-Talker Speech Intelligibility without Shifts of Spatial Attention' (2012), and 'Masker location uncertainty reveals evidence for suppression of maskers in two-talker contexts' (2011). With over 680 citations on Google Scholar, her contributions demonstrate significant influence in cognitive neuroscience and related fields. At Southern Cross University, she supervises doctoral students, participates in the Mental Health and Psychosocial Wellbeing research team, and advances United Nations Sustainable Development Goals through her scholarship.