Kids in Context research investigates the development of social cognition with a particular emphasis on how children and adults categorize others into social groups, and how these categories then guide further inferences and behaviour.

My research examines how young people develop social understanding in diverse and divided societies, using cross-cultural and mixed-methods approaches. I focus on three key areas: mitigating polarization by investigating how young people form and navigate polarized beliefs in domains like religion, science, and morality; understanding how social identity and categorization shape development, particularly through intuitive beliefs such as essentialism and structural thinking; and exploring the effects of social diversity and integration in fostering connections between groups and supporting peacebuilding. As director of the Kids in Context Research Centre, I lead a research team collaborating with schools, youth organizations, and cross-community initiatives to address real-world challenges.  

I have very broad interests in the psychology of thinking. For example, I have studied how people select and interpret information to decide between hypothetical possibilities and how they generalise based on samples of evidence. I am very interested in decision-related emotions such as regret and relief and how they might be used to help people make better decisions. In addition, I am currently involved in projects on the factors that determine whether people decide to seek and subsequently use debt advice, how conflicts of interest impact interpretation of scientific findings, and the psychology of ownership attributions.   

My general research interests are in the development of speech, language, and literacy. My recent work has focused on the importance of auditory sensitivity for speech processing, vocabulary learning and literacy development. My research involves understanding and supporting language and literacy development in neurotypical and neurodiverse populations of children, and children from disadvantaged backgrounds. I take advantage of a wide range of methods in my research, with a focus on complementary classroom observation, psychometric, psychoacoustic, and cognitive neuroscience (predominantly EEG) methods. 

I specialise in cognitive child development, with a particular focus on understanding learning variability in children and addressing questions that are highly relevant to educational practitioners and policymakers. My research investigates the role of executive function in academic progress and seeks to design innovative, evidence-based strategies to reduce educational underachievement. Currently, I am exploring the dynamics of mind wandering in children and the development of meta-attentional awareness. I am especially committed to creating scalable, classroom-based interventions that empower children to regulate their attention more effectively and make better future-oriented decisions, ultimately fostering their long-term educational success.  

I am a cognitive developmental psychologist. Much of my research has focused on the development of different aspects of temporal cognition in young children, and how this is related to other aspects of development, such as children’s decision making. My work on future thinking currently examines delay of gratification, and I am interested in how children can be encouraged to delay gratification. I have a long-standing interest in conducting interdisciplinary research with philosophers, particularly in the area of time.  

I am a cognitive psychologist with broad interests in applied educational research. Much of my work has a bilingual focus, involving children and university students learning in a second language or immersion setting. I collaborate with researchers in Canada, China, India and Chile on language learning and maths attainment in immersion and dual-language classrooms. Additionally I am interested in the impact of AI on language anxiety, motivation and academic performance in university students.   

I am interested in cognitive developmental psychology, with a primary research focus on advancing our understanding of children’s numerical knowledge. Specifically, I study the developmental course of number integration—the process of connecting number concepts with symbols—which is fundamental to children’s construction of higher-level mathematical understanding. Additionally, I am interested in cross-cultural comparisons of children’s home numeracy learning, their mathematical learning experiences, and developmental trajectories in schools, as well as in developing accessible interventions to improve cognitive and educational outcomes for children.