Members of the Lifespan Lab
Alphabetical order
 | Dr Kirsten Blakey, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Psychology and Philosophy My research interests include social learning, cognitive development, cumulative cultural evolution, comparative cognition, and prosocial behaviour. MORE INFO |
 | Dr Line Caes, Associate Professor in Psychology I am passionate about gaining a better understanding of what influences how children and parents interact and communicate with each other throughout development, i.e., from pre-schoolers all the way up to young adults. These interactions change a lot throughout development and have a strong impact on the child’s mental and physical wellbeing. With my research I aim to understand how exactly these interactions change and how they impact child wellbeing. Such understanding will help to better support families who experiencing difficulties with these interactions. MORE INFO |
 | Professor Christine Caldwell, Professor in Psychology I am interested in the evolution of human learning and cognition. I investigate this by studying differences between species, and changes over the lifespan. MORE INFO |
 | Dr Pawel Fedurek, Lecturer in Psychology My research has centred mainly around vocal behaviour in non-human primates, particularly chimpanzees, and I have done extensive fieldwork on several communities of wild chimpanzees in Uganda. The topic of particular interest to me has been the social function of chimpanzee calls, especially their role in mediating affiliative and aggressive interactions. I also investigate the link between the acoustic complexity of calls and their function. More recently, I established the Crow Behaviour and Cognition Project studying the carrion crows residing on the University’s campus. In a broader perspective, I am interested in how the above relates to human evolution. I have been also involved in research on chimpanzee conservation. MORE INFO |
 | Dr Lily FitzGibbon, Lecturer in Psychology I investigate cognitive, behavioural and emotional responses to uncertain situations, including adventurous play, curiosity, decision making, and counterfactual thinking in children and adults. MORE INFO |
 | Dr Catherine Grainger, Lecturer in Psychology My research interests focus on cognitive and developmental psychology. I am particularly interested in understanding what factors influence quality of life and mental health outcomes in neurodiverse populations and projects that explore how we can best support autistic individuals across the lifespan. MORE INFO |
 | Dr Sharon Kessler, Lecturer in Psychology My work integrates disease ecology and animal cognition. I am interested in the role of cognition in the evolution of behavioural defences against infectious disease. This has both applied and theoretical implications.My work also has exciting new theoretical implications. Humans have a very unusual strategy for disease control — we provide care to sick and infectious individuals. I am developing a novel theoretical framework which situates the evolution of human care-giving (for the sick) within the broader context of animal health and cognition. MORE INFO |
 | Dr Eva Rafetseder, Senior Lecturer in Psychology My main research interests lie in the area of social cognitive development. Most of my work focusses on the development of counterfactual reasoning (i.e., what children conclude, if past events had not occurred the way they did) and how this is related to the development of complex emotions (e.g. regret, relief) and theory of mind. More recently I have started to investigate how schooling affects neuro-cognitive development. MORE INFO |