Lifespan Development Research Group
The Lifespan Development research group carries out basic and applied research into cognitive and social development over the lifespan, from infancy through to older age. It draws upon quantitative and qualitative methods to explore contemporary issues in the development of children, adolescents, young adults, and older adults, exploring these in (and applying them to) a range of everyday contexts (e.g., education, work, and home/social settings).
Typical development and neurodiversity are both of interest to the Lifespan Development research group, with members having particular expertise in developmental dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in adulthood.
The group’s cognitive research is centred on memory, executive function, attention, time perception, numerical cognition, reading, and future-orientated cognition. To investigate these areas of cognition, research group members use traditional laboratory paradigms, naturalistic tasks, standardised clinical tests, self-report questionnaire and interview methods, and technologies such as virtual reality and EEG.
The group’s socioemotional research, meanwhile, focuses on family roles and relationships, mental health, play, and foster care and adoption. Traditional methods of investigation, such as questionnaires and focus groups are used, as well as creative visual methods and a strong focus on participatory methods.
Dyslexia and executive function in adulthood
Members of the research group are involved in several projects investigating executive functioning in adulthood. Some projects are laboratory-based and use experimental methods to understand dyslexia-related executive function difficulties and how to reconcile them with dyslexia theory, while other projects are focused on the everyday use and experience of executive function in dyslexic adults.
Neurodiversity in the workplace
Across several different projects, members of the research group are investigating the relationship between adult symptoms of dyslexia and ADHD and experience in the workplace.
Members of the research group are involved in collaborative research projects with the following:
- Dr Cristina Costescu, Special Education Department, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
- Dr Donatella Petretto and Dr Luca Gaviano, Department of Pedagogy, Psychology and Philosophy, University of Cagliari, Italy.
- Dr Ansam Elshaikh and Dr Julia Kovalenko, Department of Psychology, British University in Egypt, Egypt.
- Dr Magnus Liebherr and Eva Goesswein, Department of General Psychology: Cognition and Department of Human-Centered Computing and Cognitive Science, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany.