Dr Emma Blakey
School of Psychology
Senior Lecturer
School Co-Director of One University
Full contact details
School of Psychology
Interdisciplinary Centre of the Social Sciences (ICOSS)
219 Portobello
Sheffield
S1 4DP
- Profile
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I am a Developmental Psychologist and I’m part of the Sheffield Cognitive Development Lab. My research focuses on how children develop high-level cognitive skills known as executive functions, why we see differences in those skills, and how these skills can be best supported to foster learning. I am particularly interested in how social inequalities impact childhood outcomes and how we can mitigate the impact of this. I'm also really interesting in parenting, including parent mental health and how parents make sense of the transition to parenthood, and how we can ensure interventions targeting home learning environments seek the input of parents and align to parents own values and approaches. I use a range of methods in my work, including longitudinal and experimental methods to study development and mixed methods and co-design to seek the input of parents and practitioners.
I really enjoy working with families and early years educators to understand
how we might best support development and reduce the impact of social inequality on children’s outcomes. I am passionate about widening participation, public engagement and getting students involved in research. In both my research and my role as Department Parent Champion, I endeavour to do work that supports caregivers, parents, and teachers who are involved in raising and caring for young children.
I am also School Director of One University which covers People and Culture. In this role, I focus on creating an inclusive, supportive environment for working and studying, ensuring our policies and processes are transparent and equity-focused.
- Qualifications
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- PhD Developmental Psychology (University of Sheffield)
- MSc Psychological Research (University of Sheffield)
- BA Philosophy and Psychology (University of Sheffield)
- Research interests
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I’m interested in the development of children’s executive functions, which are the collection of cognitive skills that support goal directed thinking and self-regulation. I am interested in how they develop in early childhood, why we see individual differences in these skills and how their development can be best supported. My research also examines how executive functions might relate to school readiness and how social inequalities might shape their development.
I recently led an ESRC funded longitudinal study 'The Sheffield Early Years Study' to examine how executive functions develop in the toddler and preschool years. This project examined how language, parenting approaches and family factors shape development. For more information, please see our project website.
I have recently been working with colleagues at the University of Oxford and Ulster University to design and evaluate interventions to support maths skills and cognitive development. In one study we trialled whether we can reduce socioeconomic disadvantage in early maths by working with practitioners to embed executive functions into fun learning activities (The ONE intervention; funded by the Education Endowment Foundation). In another study, we co-designed with families a home maths programme to support early learning, and using large datasets, examined the role of home maths activities in early maths (PLUS study: Play and Learning at Ulster and Sheffield; funded by the Nuffield Foundation).
I'm also interested in parenting as a time of transition and change. I led a research project with Fiona Scott in the School of Education, Michelle McGillion (University of Warwick) and the National Childbirth Trust to understand the unique experiences new parents have faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Please see the project website .
I am part of the Sheffield Cognitive Development Group -where we run child development studies with local schools and families. If you would like to take part in our studies with your child, or if you want to find out more about our lab group, please follow the link.
- Publications
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Journal articles
- Engaging educators in the codesign, feasibility, and implementation quality of early years interventions: The ONE program. Mind, Brain, and Education. View this article in WRRO
- Is there an association between frequency of home mathematical activities (HMA) and children’s mathematical outcomes? Data harmonization and secondary analyses of U.K.-based data sets. Developmental Psychology. View this article in WRRO
- Becoming a new parent during the pandemic: experiences of pregnancy, birth, and the postnatal period. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, 25. View this article in WRRO
- Do home mathematical activities relate to early mathematical skills? A systematic review and meta-analysis. Child Development, 96(1), 451-468. View this article in WRRO
- Cognitive flexibility in early childhood: a contemporary view of the development of flexible goal-oriented behavior. Psikoloji Çalışmaları / Studies in Psychology, 43(2), 171-193. View this article in WRRO
- How do socioeconomic attainment gaps in early mathematical ability arise?. Child Development, 94(6), 1550-1565. View this article in WRRO
- The influence of bilingualism on adolescent cognition: The roles of biculturalism, the bilingual profile, and linguistic similarity. Cognitive Development, 63. View this article in WRRO
- Can we boost preschoolers’ inhibitory performance just by changing the way they respond?. Child Development, 92(6), 2205-2212. View this article in WRRO
- Biculturalism, linguistic distance, and bilingual profile effects on the bilingual influence on cognition: A comprehensive multipopulation approach. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 150(11), 2273-2292. View this article in WRRO
- Developmental profile of temporal binding: from childhood to adulthood. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 73(10), 1575-1586. View this article in WRRO
- The Role of Executive Functions in Socioeconomic Attainment Gaps: Results From a Randomized Controlled Trial. Child Development, 91(5), 1594-1614.
- Temporal binding, causation and agency: Developing a new theoretical framework. Cognitive Science, 44(5). View this article in WRRO
- When causality shapes the experience of time: evidence for temporal binding in young children. Developmental Science, 22(3). View this article in WRRO
- More than a feeling: Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) is characterized by reliable changes in affect and physiology. PLoS ONE, 13(6). View this article in WRRO
- Not all distractions are the same: Investigating why preschoolers make distraction errors when switching. Child Development, 89(2), 609-619. View this article in WRRO
- Cognitive Flexibility in Young Children: Beyond Perseveration. Child Development Perspectives, 10(4), 211-215. View this article in WRRO
- Different Executive Functions Support Different Kinds of Cognitive Flexibility: Evidence From 2-, 3-, and 4-Year-Olds. Child Development, 87(2), 513-526. View this article in WRRO
- A Short Executive Function Training Program Improves Preschoolers’ Working Memory. Frontiers in Psychology, 6. View this article in WRRO
- Improving how we measure child socioeconomic disadvantage: a more holistic and contextual approach. Child Development Perspectives. View this article in WRRO
- How is musical expertise related to executive functions? A systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review. View this article in WRRO
- Enhancing Children’s Numeracy and Executive Function Skills via Explicit Integration: A Randomized Controlled Trial. npj Science of Learning.
- Making the Executive ‘Function’ for the Foundations of Mathematics: The Need for Explicit Theories of Change for Early Interventions. Educational Psychology Review.
Book chapters
- Developmental dyscalculia, Understanding Dyscalculia (pp. 23-40). Routledge
Preprints
- Engaging educators in the codesign, feasibility, and implementation quality of early years interventions: The ONE program. Mind, Brain, and Education. View this article in WRRO
- Research group
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Sheffield Cognitive Lab
Cognitive and neural processes across the lifespan
Current PhD students
- Molly Willis: A closer look at parent responsiveness and childhood outcomes: A mixed method approach. With Danielle Matthews and Sally Pearse (second supervisors). Funded by a White Rose DTP studentship.
- Ben Burrell: Predictors of success and struggle in mathematics. With Sabrina Burr (first supervisor).
- Rosemary O'Connor (University of Oxford): The preschool Environment, Inequalities and Cognitive Development. With Gaia Scerif (first supervisor)
Former PhD students
- Christ Billy Aryanto: The Structure and Mechanism of the Relation between Music Making, Executive Function, and Sensory Discrimination. With Claudia von Bastian (1st Supervisor).
- Ella James-Brabham: Understanding how we can close the achievement gap: The role of SES and cognitive factors on early mathematical skills. Funded by an ESRC studentship award co-supervised by Dan Carroll and Paul Wakeling (University of York).
- Yesim Yavaslar: The development of cognitive flexibility in early childhood. Funded by the Turkish Government co-supervised by Dan Carroll.
- Aleksandra Laketa (International Faculty, City College, Thessaloniki): The role of acculturation and motivation in testing the bilingualism cognitive advantage. Funded by a SEERC fee scholarship and co-supervised by Ana Vivas (SEERC) and Elisavet Chrysochoou (Aristotle University).
- Arvesa Studenica (International Faculty, City College, Thessaloniki): Mechanisms underpinning the so-called bilingual cognitive advantage. Funded by a SEERC fee scholarship and co-supervised by Ana Vivas (SEERC) and Elisavet Chrysochoou (Aristotle University).
- Grants
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- Educational Endowment Foundation (2023-2025) Trialling the ONE Intervention to Reduce Socioeconomic Disadvantage in Early Maths (£995,127). Co-PI with Gaia Scerif (University of Oxford). Co-I's include Simms (Ulster University), Merkley (Carleton), Hawes (Toronto) and Howard (Wollongong).
- ESRC New Investigator Award (2021-2024) (PI): Why do inequalities emerge in children’s early cognitive development? (£298,846). With Danielle Matthews (Co-I) (Sheffield).
- Nuffield Foundation (2023-2025). Improving Early Mathematical Skills by Supporting the Home Learning Environment. (£223,580). With Victoria Simms and Abbie Cahoon (Ulster University), Danielle Matthews (Sheffield) Ella James-Brabham (Loughborough).
- ESRC White Rose Network Grant (2017-2021): Inequalities in Cognitive Development (funded 3 x 1+3 PhD studentships across the White Rose doctoral training partnership). With Mark Mon-Williams (PI), Rosie McEachan, Liam Hill, Amanda Waterman, Dan Carroll, Kate Pickett and Paul Wakeling.
- The Nuffield Foundation (2017-2018): Testing a short executive function training intervention to improve academic skills in children before they start school (£179,111) (Co-PI). With Dan Carroll, Danielle Matthews (Sheffield), and Lucy Cragg (Nottingham).
- The Economic and Social Research Council Overseas Visit Award (2015): The neural correlates of cognitive flexibility in 2- to 4-year-olds. With Sandra Wiebe (ABCD Lab, University of Alberta).
- I have received a number of small grants from the Wellcome Trust, EPS, BPS and the Sheffield Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) scheme to fund undergraduates to do a summer research project.
- University of Sheffield Science Faculty Widening Participation Grant (2013) to develop a STEM activity for schools (£1200).
- Teaching activities
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I am Developmental Stream leader, leading the developmental teaching on our BSc Psychology course at levels one and two. I enjoy giving lectures on the Developmental Psychology modules, and being an academic tutor for undergraduates.
I supervise research projects at a range of levels including undergraduate dissertations, Masters students on the MSc Psychological Research Course, Clinical Doctorate Research Students, and PhD students.
- Professional activities and memberships
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Professional Responsibilites
I am the Science representative for the University Senate Research and Innovation Committee (SRIC). I am steering board member for the University Parents Network Committee and I co-chair the School One University Committee.
Events and Public Engagement
I enjoy organising exhibitions, talks and activities to demonstrate my research. These have been held as part of Pint of Science, Ignite Academy, exhibitions at the Wellcome Collection, Cambridge Secret Garden Party, the Sheffield Mobile University, Discovery Night, National Science and Engineering week and Sheffield City Council’s LearnFest. I also enjoying giving talks in schools and running workshops for educators on topics such as school readiness.
Articles and programmes
Developmental Psychology- I recently wrote an article on parenting for BOLD magazine.
Interview for Sheffield Star special issue on poverty
I was interviewed for the Learning Scientists podcast about my executive function research
I have written articles for The Conversation, and have been interviewed for articles on topics of Developmental Psychology e.g., Scientific American.
The Pandemic and Parents:
Medium Article - Becoming a New Parent in a Pandemic
BPS Article - Space for Parents and Children to grow together
Academia and Class:
The Psychologist
ASMR Research:
With Poerio, Hostler and Veltri I led one of the first scientific investigations on ASMR. This was featured in the Guardian BBC News: and BBC TV.
- PhD Opportunities
I am happy to receive applications for PhD study in my area of research.
We advertise PhD opportunities (Funded or Self-Funded) on FindAPhD.com
For further information, please see the department PhD Opportunities page.