Kathleen Corrigall

Dr. Kathleen Corrigall serves as Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology within MacEwan University's Faculty of Arts and Science, where she has contributed since 2013. Her interdisciplinary work bridges cognitive development, music perception, and evidence-based pedagogy, examining how musical experiences shape non-musical abilities in children.

Education

• PhD, McMaster University
• BA Honours, University of British Columbia

Her research program investigates music perception and cognition during early development, focusing on associations between music/dance training and cognitive skills, creativity, personality, and social-emotional competence. She explores why certain children pursue music lessons and how cultural exposure shapes musical understanding analogous to language acquisition. Recent work examines background music's impact on creativity, singing for stress relief, group music-making for prosociality, and dance training's effects on visual memory.

Analysis of her 15 most recent publications reveals consistent focus on children's musical enculturation (2010-2014), expansion into social-emotional outcomes (2015), and contemporary challenges to transfer-effect assumptions (2022-2024). Methodologically, she combines electrophysiological, behavioral, and survey approaches across Western and multicultural contexts.

Scientific Recognition

• SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship Award (2013)
• Teaching Innovation Fund Award (2020)
• NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship (2006)
• Multiple MacEwan University research grants (2014-2019)

Dr. Corrigall actively mentors junior teaching assistants and develops evidence-based pedagogy, including flipped classroom models for Introductory Psychology. Her research receives support from SSHRC, NSERC, and MacEwan internal funds. She leads the Child Development Lab investigating how music, dance, and cultural experiences shape developmental trajectories through sound-based communication.

The Child Development Lab conducts longitudinal studies with normal-hearing and hearing-impaired children, examining how musical experiences affect problem-solving, social interaction, and emotional regulation. Current projects include stress-relief applications of music listening and cross-domain transfer effects between dance training and visual memory systems.