Melissa Paquette-Smith
paquettesmith
Associate Professor of Teaching
Primary Area: Developmental Psychology
Address: Pritzker Hall 3536
Phone: (310) 794-9447
Email: paquettesmith@psych.ucla.edu
Research and Teaching Interests:
My research interests span a broad range of topics in psychology, including children’s early social and linguistic development and improving psychology instruction. In my developmental research, I examine how infants and young children process social information in the speech signal and how this relates to the development of linguistic and social competencies. My pedagogical work has focused on ways to optimize student learning in the classroom. In particular, I am interested in how student’s language background and life experiences influence learning.
Biography:
Prior to joining the Psychology Department at UCLA, Melissa received her PhD. in Psychology from the University of Toronto. She also holds her MA in Psychology and a BSc. in Psychology and Biology from the University of Toronto.
Representative Publications:
Imundo, M. N., Clark, C. M., & Bjork, E. L. Paquette-Smith, M. (early online). The effects of collaborative practice testing on memory for course content in Introductory Psychology. Teaching of Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1177/00986283251316581
Silaj, K., Frangiyyeh, A., & Paquette-Smith, M. (2024). The impact of multimedia design and the accent of the instructor on student learning and evaluations of teaching. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 38(1), e4143. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.4143
Breland, H., Clark, C. M., Shaked, S., Paquette-Smith, M. (2023). The benefits of participating in a Learning Assistant Program on the metacognitive awareness and motivation of Learning Assistants. CBE – Life Sciences Education, 22(3). https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.22-08-0156
Paquette-Smith, M., Schertz, J., & Johnson, E.K. (2021). Comparing phonetic convergence in children and adults. Language and Speech, 65(1), 240-260. https://doi.org/10.1177/00238309211013864
Paquette-Smith, M., Buckler, H., White, K.S., Choi, J. & Johnson E.K. (2019) The effect of accent exposure on children’s sociolinguistic evaluation of peers. Developmental Psychology. 55(4), 809–822. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000659
Melissa Paquette-Smith's Lab website