Doreen Kimura

Doreen Kimura (born Doreen Goebel 1933 (in Winnipeg, Manitoba)-February 27, 2013) was a Canadian psychologist who was professor at University of Western Ontario and professor emeritus at Simon Fraser University. She was the founding president of the Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship.

Kimura held a PhD in psychobiology. Her interests included the relationship between sex and cognition (see sex and intelligence) and promoting academic freedom.

While some criticized Lawrence Summers' claims that differences in male-female representation in the sciences could be due to innate ability, Kimura supported him. She was a critic of affirmative action, arguing that it is demeaning to women. She also supported the concept of the biological origin of differences in cognitive ability between males and females (see also nature versus nurture).

According to the CISG's (Canadian Inter-Organizational Steering Group for Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology) 'Canadian Guidelines on Auditory Processing Disorder in Children and Adults: Assessment and Intervention' (December 2012), "In 1961, Doreen Kimura proposed a theory that would attempt to explain dichotic listening abilities in humans. As a testament to her theory, her views on dichotic processing of auditory information recently celebrated a 50th anniversary."

Kimura was the mother of Charlotte Thistle, grandmother of Ella Archer, and sister of Shelagh Derouin and Amber Harvey.

• Neuromotor mechanisms in human communication (1993), Oxford: OUP ISBN 0-19-505492-X
• Sex and Cognition (2000), Cambridge, MA: MIT Press ISBN 0-262-61164-3