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.

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.   

My research investigates the roles that sensory systems play in motor coordination, learning, and recovering mobility. 

My research has applications in overcoming movement challenges, such as using rhythmic sounds to help walking for people with Parkinson’s disease, or developing sound-based guides for people with visual impairments. I am also interested in motor control and learning, and the processes that underpin these, across a range of skill domains, particularly music.

By incorporating different types of neural signals into brain-controlled computer games, I train human participants to modify specific aspects of their neurophysiological function. 

This methodology allows me to pursue three related lines of research; Firstly, I use neurofeedback as a scientific method to experimentally isolate and manipulate neural processes to investigate the neurophysiological basis of human behaviours (eg. sleep, motor learning, motor imagery, inhibitory control). Secondly, as my work often involves the use of Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI), I perform research to advance the current state of the art in BCI methodology. This involves devising novel approaches to BCI, as well as optimising existing technologies to improve clinical and scientific utility. Finally, the BCIs that I use offer opportunities for designing personalised interventions to improve human performance or reduce dysfunction by tuning patterns of neural activity towards an optimal pattern. One theme of my research involves promoting neural plasticity in the damaged motor system, and I am currently leading an investigation testing a novel neurofeedback protocol using TMS to accelerate recovery of upper limb sensorimotor function in stroke patients.

Eye-hand Coordination

My research focuses on the neural basis of, and computational mechanisms underlying, our ability to move (body parts) to stationary objects (such as picking up a cup of coffee) and moving objects (such as catching, hitting, and kicking). 

Using a range of tools, I study these topics both at a fundamental level (e.g., how sensory information is transformed by the brain into adequate motor commands) as well as at the applied level (e.g., understanding and subsequently improving performance in sports or designing human-robot interactions to capitalize on established neural and behavioural principles reflecting human preferences).

Posture, Gait and Ageing

I am an expert in sensorimotor neuroscience with a focus on posture and gait control. In my group we investigate the way sensory information (visual, vestibular and proprioceptive) and cognitive resources are used to control movement in healthy, neurotypical, atypical and clinical populations including young and older adults, autistic adults and people living with Parkinson's. 

The methods we use include posturography (Neurocom, AMTI), motion capture (Qualisys and xsens), brain stimulation (TMS, tDCS) and neuroimaging (fNIRS, Artinis Oxymon). Since 2023 I co-lead Parkinsons@NI, an inter-disciplinary evidence-led research hub on Parkinson’s research, the first of its kind in the island of Ireland.

My research concerns human brain plasticity, with a focus upon changes that occur across the lifespan. It is geared towards the development of methods to maintain and restore cognitive and movement function in later life. 

Much of my current clinical and pre-clinical research has a specific emphasis upon the rehabilitation of upper limb function in stroke survivors, including the development and therapeutic evaluation of assistive devices. I am also involved in the generation of diagnostic biomarkers for motor neurone disease. A particular interest is the neural basis of individual differences in the preservation of cognitive and motor function in older people.

My research interests focus on the neural and cognitive mechanisms underlying balance control and mobility impairments in neurological conditions, including Parkinson’s Disease (PD) and multiple sclerosis (MS). My research employs neuroimaging techniques, such as EEG, to investigate cortical activity associated with freezing of gait, fall risk, and mobility decline. I aim to identify neural markers of disease progression and develop targeted interventions to enhance balance and mobility. Additionally, my work explores the role of attention in balance control, particularly among older adults and individuals with PD.

My research focuses on understanding how both the infant's and the caregivers' brain and mind develop and change during the first years of a baby's life, with a particular focus on social development and neurodiversity. To address questions in this research topic, I use a combination of interdisciplinary methodologies that include behavioural observations, cognitive tests, fMRI, EEG, and computational modelling.

I am interested in how we can harness neural plasticity to improve outcomes in a range of different health conditions. My current research focus is on the use of brain-computer interfaces in motor rehabilitation following stroke, with a particular emphasis on making these tools accessible to people in their homes in the form of user-friendly, portable devices. I also have ongoing international collaborations on the use of non-invasive brain stimulation in depression, neural markers of inhibitory control in balance, and the neural correlates of perceptual decisions. My primary research tools include EEG, EMG and non-invasive brain stimulation.

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.