The University of Sheffield
Department of Psychology

Dr Mark Blades MA, BA, PhD, CPsychol

Address
The University of Sheffield
Sheffield S10 2TP, UK
Tel: (+44) 0114 222 6549
Fax: (+44) 0114 276 6515
Email M.Blades@sheffield.ac.uk
Room: 2-18

Qualifications and output

MA (Archaeology & Anthropology, Cambridge), BA (Psychology, Sheffield), PhD (Child Development, Sheffield). CPsychol.

Member: APA, SRCD, CDS, ESDP, BPS

Output: 9 books, 20 book chapters, 95 journal papers, 45 other papers and reports, 50 invited presentations, 200 conference presentations, including 3 international keynotes

Teaching and administrative duties

I am module organiser for Psy249. I also undertake duties as Library Officer and Test Collection.

Research Interests

Children's understanding of advertisements
There is a debate about the role of advertising in promoting unhealthy foods and unhealthy lifestyles to children, and whether advertising to children should be banned. We have investigated when children first appreciate that advertisers are trying to persuade them to buy a product. Most previous research has focused on children's understanding of television advertising, but we have also looked at children's understanding of print, ambient, and internet advertising. In general we have found that children before about 7 or 8 years of age have difficulty appreciating the aims of advertisers, and that they may be vulnerable to the persuasive nature of advertising. We are currently investigating the cognitive and social factors that contribute to young children´s understanding of advertising, marketing, and economics.

Children's eyewitness testimony
Most of this research has focused on the analyses of police interviews with vulnerable children in the UK and in other countries, and on ways to improve forensic interviewing techniques. We have also carried out a number of empirical studies investigating, for example: the effects of different types of questions on children's responses in interviews; how children cope with questions that they cannot answer; how well children recall faces of people they have seen during an event; children´s recall of colours they have seen, and children´s ability to report times and duration accurately.

Children's environmental cognition
My past research included studies of children's environmental cognition, in particular young children's understanding of maps and aerial photographs as representations of places in the world. We have also investigated how children learn and remember routes through new environments. Much of this research has been carried out with children who have disabilities, including children with visual impairments and, currently, with children with Williams syndrome. These are children who have difficulties learning new places and we have investigated ways to help such children improve their mobility and independence.

Grants

4 from National Science Foundation (USA) and 7 from ESRC, currently:

ESRC-ANR. "Strategies for environmental learning in typical and atypical development" with Emily Farran (Institute of Education, London), Yannick Courbois (Lille), Danielle Mellier (Rouen), Pascal Sockert (Lille). 2010-13. £630,000.

Editorial boards

Selected Publications

Blades, M., Oates, C. Blumberg, F. & Gunter, B. (Eds). Advertising to children: New issues and new media. Palgrave-Macmillan, forthcoming.

Bek, J., Blades, M. Siegal, M. & Varley, R. (in press). Language and spatial reorientation: Evidence from severe aphasia. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory & Cognition.

Farran, E., Blades, M., Boucher, J. & Tranter, L. (in press). How do individuals with Williams syndrome learn a route in a real world environment? Developmental Science.

Krahenbuhl, S., Blades, M. & Eiser, C. (in press). The effect of repeated questioning on children´s accuracy and consistency in testimony. Legal and Criminological Psychology.

Wilson, R., Blades, M. & Pascalis, O. (in press). Unfamiliar face recognition in children with autistic spectrum disorders. Infant and Child Development.

Krahenbuhl, S. & Blades, M. (in press). Does question repetition have an effect on children´s recall accuracy and consistency? International Journal of Police Science and Management.

Durkin, K. & Blades, M. (Eds.), (2009) Special Issue on Children and Media. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 27(1), 1-245.

Durkin, K. & Blades, M. (2009) Young people and the mass media. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 27, 1-12.

Moondore, A., Blades, M., Oates, C. & Blumberg, F. (2009). Young children´s ability to recognize advertisements on Web pages. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 27, 71-83.

Blades, M. & Oates, C.J. (2007). Advertising to children in China. In F. Blumberg (Ed.). East meets west: Media research and practice in US and China. Cambridge: Scholars Press.

Wilson, R., Pascali, O. & Blades, M. (2007). Familiar face recognition in children with autism: differential use of inner and outer face parts. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 37, 314-320.

Cremeens, J., Eiser, C. & Blades, M. (2007). Assessing the impact of scale type, types of items, and age on the measurement of school age children's self-report quality of life. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 32, 132-138.

Beresford, J. & Blades, M. (2006). Children´s identification of faces from line-ups - the effects of line-up presentation and instructions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91, 1102-1113.

Krahenbuhl, S. & Blades, M.B (2006). The effect of question repetition within interviews on young children´s eyewitness recall. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 94, 57-67.

Spencer, C. & Blades, M. (Eds.) (2006). Children and their environments: Learning, using and designing spaces. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Gunter, B., Oates, C., & Blades, M. (2004). Advertising to children on TV: Content, impact and regulation. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Erlbaum.

Waterman, A., Blades, M. & Spencer, C. (2004). Indicating when you do not know the answer: The effect of question format and interviewer knowledge on children´s `don´t know´ responses. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 22, 335-348.

Oates, C., Blades, M. & Gunter, B. (Eds.) (2003). Special Issue on Children and Marketing. Journal of Marketing Management, 19 (4), 401-512.

Oates, C., Blades, M. Gunter, B. & Don, J. (2003). Children´s understanding of television advertising: a qualitative approach. Journal of Marketing Communications, 9, 59-72.

Smith, P.K, Cowie, H. & Blades, M. (2003). Understanding children's development. Fourth edition. Oxford: Blackwell.

Siegal, M. & Blades, M. (2003). Language and auditory processing in autism. Trends in Cognitive Science, 7, 378-380.

Spencer, C. & Blades, M. (Eds.) (2002). Special Double Issue on Children and Environmental Psychology. Journal of Environmental Psychology. 22 (1-2), 1-210.

Patel, H., Blades, M. & Andrade, J. (2002). Children´s incidental recall of the colours of objects and clothing. Cognitive Development, 16, 965-985.

View a full list of Mark Blades' publications.

Postgraduate Students

Supervisor for 30 previous and current PhD students