Dr. Sandra Witelson - Early Academics

Dr. Witelson knew she wanted to study people so she decided to take a clinical Master’s program to give herself some exposure to people in a psychological setting. During this time she studied children with learning disabilities from a brain and behaviour perspective.

Her PhD dissertation outlined the effects of brain damage on children’s learning. She was interested in whether there were different effects on learning depending on which developmental stage the child was at when the damage occurred. Dr. Witelson based her research on a paper done by fellow Great Canadian Psychologist, Donald Hebb. She says, "I tried to model myself after him."