Doreen Kimura

Who is Doreen Kimura?

Doreen Kimura was a Canadian psychologist who was professor at Simon Fraser University. She held a PhD in psychobiology. Among other interests, her interests included the relationship between sex and cognition and promoting academic freedom; she was the founding president of the Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship.

While some criticized Lawrence Summers' claims that differences in male-female representation in the sciences could be due to innate ability, Kimura supported him. She was a critic of affirmative action, arguing that it is demeaning to women. She also supported the concept of the biological origin of differences in cognitive ability between males and females.

According to the CISG's 'Canadian Guidelines on Auditory Processing Disorder in Children and Adults: Assessment and Intervention', "In 1961, Doreen Kimura proposed a theory that would attempt to explain dichotic listening abilities in humans. As a testament to her theory, her views on dichotic processing of auditory information recently celebrated a 50th anniversary."