Question: how had your work history impacted your current work? have the experiences made you understand more about the brain?

Jen Todd Jones answered on 8 Mar 2013:

My work history contributed more to my understanding of people than the brain I think, which was important for me as a Psychologist. I had lots of jobs where I had interaction with people of all ages, from all over the world and every walk of life which really taught me how to relate to people. Understanding what made these people different has helped me understand what’s interesting about them.

I did spend some work-experience in hospitals when I was doing my GCSEs and A-Level at Occupational Therapy wards helping people who had suffered strokes and other disabilities. This made me interested in what about their brain had changed and how therapy could change their disability, behaviour and perhaps even help mend their brain.

Also, I was born in Wales so I grew up as a bilingual person sometimes using it for jobs (I was pretty good at language at school and also studied French, Italian and Spanish) and have always been fascinated by what changes for people with more than one language. Now I get to perform experiments with bilingual people to help understand what it is that changes for them when they read or speak, and what’s similar to monolinguals.