Doctoral Programme in Developmental Psychology
Staff in psychology are active in a variety of topics in developmental psychology including the development of executive functioning, language development (including languages other than English, such as Scottish Gaelic), and in developmental disorders including autism, specific language impairment, and dyslexia. Psychology at Edinburgh has an in-house pre-school nursery available for research in these areas.
In general, Doctoral students would take a one-year MSc followed by 3 years of Doctoral Study. Your choice of MSc should be guided by your area of interest.
To learn more about opportunities for doctoral study at Edinburgh, feel free to contact any of the Staff below, all of whom have interests in developmental psychology.
| Tim Bates | Developmental and genetic studies of dyslexia language and cognition |
| Holly Branigan | Emergence of Linguistic Competence |
| Morag Donaldson | Language development and impairment |
| Margaret McGonigle | Autism and Fragile X syndrome |
A selection of recent/current PhD topics in this area:
- Acquisition of passive structures in children's language production (Supervisor: Holly Branigan)
- Children’s interpretation of Dog’s communication signals (Supervisor: Morag Donaldson)
- Culture and expression in mother-infant vocal play: do vowels regulate intrersubjectivity? (Supervisor: Morag Donaldson)
- Implicit Learning in Developmental Dyslexia (Supervisor: TBA)
For further information, contact the Programme Secretary, Toni Noble or, to discuss academic matters, contact the Programme Director, Martin Corley.
