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Allison Nguyen

Assistant Professor
Psychology
Office
DEG Degarmo Hall 435
Office Hours
Please email for office hours.
  • About
  • Education
  • Awards & Honors
  • Research

Biography

I am a psycholinguist deeply interested in understanding how people can shape the conversations they participate in. My work sits at the intersection of linguistic representation and spontaneous communication, with much of my work exploring how conversational effects arise from the interaction of semantic, pragmatic, and contextual factors. I employ a variety of methods in my work, including experimental methods, corpus analyses, and qualitative methods, as well as collaborating with psychologists across subfields, linguists across subfields and scholars in neighboring fields, such as computer science. I hold a B.S. in Cognitive Science from UCLA, a MS in Psychology (Cognitive) from UCSC, a PhD in Psychology (Cognitive), and an MA in Linguistics from UCSC.

Current Courses

PSY 455.001 Cognitive Science

PSY 331.002 Laboratory In Research Methods For Psych: Cognitive Processes

PSY 290.016 Special Projects: Research Apprenticeship

PSY 390.016 Advanced Research Apprenticeship

PSY 499.016 Independent Research For The Master's Thesis

PSY 111.009 Introduction To Psychology

PSY 111.010 Introduction To Psychology

PSY 111.011 Introduction To Psychology

PSY 331.002 Laboratory In Research Methods For Psych: Cognitive Processes

PSY 415.002 Laboratory In Research Methods For Psych: Cognitive Processes

PSY 290.016 Special Projects: Research Apprenticeship

MA Linguistics

University of California, Santa Cruz

PhD Cognitive Psychology

University of California, Santa Cruz

MS Cognitive Psychology

University of California, Santa Cruz

BS Cognitive Science

University of California, Los Angeles

Impact Award

Illinois State University
2025

Outstanding TA Award

UCSC Psychology Department
2023

Humanizing Technology Teaching Fellowship

UCSC The Humanities Institute
2022

Quarter Dissertation Fellowship

UCSC Division of Social Sciences
2022

Summer Dissertation Fellowship

UCSC Psychology Department
2022

Frank X. Barron Award in Creativity Research

UCSC Psychology Department
2019

Summer Research Award

UCSC Psychology Department
2019

Fellowship

UC Regents
2018

The Federico and Rena Perlino Award

UCSC Psychology Department
2018

Travel Grant

UCSC Psychology Department
2017

Journal Article

Nguyen, A., & Fox Tree, J. Pragmatic uses of I don’t know, boosters, and hedges in text and talk. Dialogue & Discourse 16.1 (2025): 68-90.
Fox Tree, J., Herring, S., Nguyen, A., Whittaker, S., Martin, R., & Takayama, L. Conversational Fluency and Attitudes Towards Robot Pilots in Telepresence Robot-Mediated Interactions. Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) 33.3 (2024): 473-498.
Guydish, A., Nguyen, A., & Fox Tree, J. Discourse markers in small talk and tasks. Discourse Studies 26.5 (2024): 606-620.
Nguyen, A., Guydish, A., & Fox Tree, J. Backchannels in the lab and in the wild. Interaction Studies. Social Behaviour and Communication in Biological and Artificial Systems 25.1 (2024): 70-99.
Nguyen, A., Roberts, T., Anand, P., & Fox Tree, J. Look, Dude: How hyperpartisan and non-hyperpartisan speech differ in online commentary. Discourse & Society 33.3 (2022): 371-390.

Presentations

Authority and Expressions of Knowledge. Annual Meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association. (2025)
Authority and Expressions of Knowledge. Illinois State University Research Symposium. (2025)
Do college students understand political orientation?. Annual Meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association. (2025)
Knowing versus Believing: the effects evidentials and authority have on certainty. Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society. (2025)
New Discourse Markers in Mediated Communication. Illinois State University Research Symposium. (2025)
Online Discourse Markers, LOL. Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society. (2025)
Optimizing AAC board layouts: the impact of organization on communication efficiency. Illinois State University Research Symposium. (2025)
Political Orientation and Ostracism. Illinois State University Research Symposium. (2025)
Reading comprehension as a result of syntactic structures. Illinois State University Research Symposium. (2025)
What do you meme? Memes & Internet Virality. Science on Tap. (2025)

Grants & Contracts

BirdFEEDER. Illinois State University. Illinois State University. (2024)