Mr Kye Palmer

Higher Degree by Research Candidate

School of Psychology

College of Education, Behavioural and Social Sciences

Available For Media Comment.


I am a PhD candidate and researcher in the Develop Well Research Group at Adelaide University, supervised by Dr Nicole Nelson and Dr Mark Kohler.
 
My research interests sit within developmental, social, and cognitive psychology, with a focus on how children understand and express emotion across early childhood and adolescence. I’m particularly interested in emotional communication within families - including parent-child and sibling dynamics. I also have a growing interest in LGBTQIA+ research, particularly around identity development and emotional wellbeing.
 
Alongside my research, I work as an academic tutor and marker, supporting students in understanding key psychological concepts and building confidence in research and critical thinking.
 
I am passionate about early childhood development, and how children learn to understand and communicate with the world as they grow up. Currently, my research explores how children learn to understand, express, and communicate emotions through their interactions with parents, siblings, and peers, and whether there are similarities in emotional expressivity and comprehension within families. 

My research examines how children learn to understand and express emotions using face and body cues within family contexts. 

Date Position Institution name
2026 - ongoing Academic Tutor Adelaide University
2024 - 2025 Academic Tutor University of Adelaide
2023 - ongoing PhD Candidate Adelaide University

Date Institution name Country Title
2022 - 2022 University of Adelaide Australia Honours Degree of Bachelor of Psychological Science
2019 - 2021 University of Adelaide Australia Bachelor of Psychological Science

Year Citation
2026 Palmer, K., Kohler, M., & Nelson, N. (2026). Expressive Communication in Families: Familiarity and Accuracy in an Interactive Emotion Recognition Task. In International Society for Research on Emotion Conference 2026. Brisbane, Australia.
2025 Palmer, K., Buttle, H. M., Kohler, M., Fong, F. T. K., & Nelson, N. L. (2025). Parent-Child Emotion Recognition: the role of familiarity in interactive contexts. In joint meeting of Australasian Experimental Psychology Conference (EPC) and Asia Pacific Conference on Vision (APCV). Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Year Citation
2024 Palmer, K., Holdsworth, I., Rayner, C., Tuza, A., Van Der Zant, T., & Nelson, N. L. (2024). Infant-directed emotional expressions in everyday life - the role of parent gender and infant age. Poster session presented at the meeting of Experimental Psychology Conference 2024. Adelaide, SA, Australia.
2024 Holdsworth, I., Palmer, K., Rayner, C., Tuza, A., Van Der Zant, T., & Nelson, N. (2024). Characteristics of Adults' Facial Expressions As Seen By Infants. Poster session presented at the meeting of Experimental Psychology Conference 2024. Adelaide, South Australia.
2022 Van Der Zant, T., Holdsworth, I., Palmer, K., Rayner, C., Tuza, A., & Nelson, N. (2022). Emotional Expressions in Infant's Environment. Poster session presented at the meeting of Oral Presentations, Society of Australasian Social Psychologists Conference 2022. Adelaide, South Australia.

Year Citation
2026 Palmer, K., Van Der Zant, T., Holdsworth, I., Rayner, C., Tuza, A., & Nelson, N. (2026). Infants’ Everyday Exposure to Caregiver Facial Expressions: Evidence from Naturalistic Head-Mounted Camera Data.
DOI
Year Course Role
2026 Health & Lifespan Development Psychology
(PSYC 3040)
 
2026 Introductory Psychology Research Methods
(PSYC 1000)
Tutor/Marker
2024 - 
2025
Research Methods in Psychology
(PSYCHOL 1004/1005; UofA)
Tutor/Marker
2024 -
2025
Health & Lifespan Development
(PSYCHOL 3021; UofA)
Tutor/Marker
2024 Foundations Health & Lifespan Development
(PSYCHOL 2005; UofA)
Tutor

 

Date Role Research Topic Location Program Supervision Type Student Load Student Name
2026 - ongoing Co-Supervisor Eye-Tracking and Naturalistic Expressions Adelaide University Psychology (Honours) Honours Full Time Manmeet Daurka

Connect With Me

External Profiles