Dr Michelle EllefsonPrincipal Investigator - University Lecturer in Psychology and Education, University of Cambridge  Michelle is the reason for the INSTRUCT group madness. Her scientific interests in cognitive science, neuroscience, cognitive development and education are the reason why we are all here. She's often heard telling people that INSTRUCT exists because of her own excitement about the science of cognition and her desire to work with teachers/schools so that our children can be empowered by an education that is improved by research about what makes learning most exciting and successful. See Michelle's profiles with The Faculty of Education webpage and Cambridge Neuroscience or download a copy of her recent curriculum vitae. In addition to her research, she is the Undergraduate Course Manager for the Education Tripos, a bye-fellow and Director of Studies for Education at Gonville and Caius College and an external Director of Studies for Education at Emmanuel College.
Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Department of Psychology, University of Warwick
Elisabeth has  recently completed a PhD at the University of Warwick, continuing her research there as a post-doctoral research fellow. The focus of her research includes how visual attention is affected by emotional stimuli; more specifically, the spatial and temporal selection of schematic e
motional faces and their effect on attention capture and engagement. She is interested in the differences between negative and positive facial expression and their relation to the theories of threat relevance and negative affect bias associated with underlying mechanisms of visual attention. In addition, she does work in sublimin
al motor priming and visuo-motor control, and the development of executive function. Dr. Blagrove has been an integral part of our task switching projects in arithmetic and reading.
Post-Graduate Research Student, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge Sean is a consultant cardiologist and clinical teacher to medical students from the University of Cambridge. His education research interests include the role of constructivist teaching theory in undergraduate medical education. He has recently completed a project investigating the effects of teaching structured pattern recognition to facilitate electrocardiogram analysis. This work will form the basis for his Postgraduate Certificate in Educational Enquiry.
Research Assistant, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge Connor is interested in the intersection of research and practice in psychology and education. He has worked in a wide variety of educational settings including basic adult education, refugee support, and working with vulnerable children. He first joined the INSTRUCT group as part of his MPhil Psychology and Education where his research focussed on early cross-modal processes in dyslexia and the impact these have on the development of phonological representations. He is continuing his work with the INSTRUCT group as a research assistant on a multidisciplinary project investigating young children’s reasoning about chemistry in their everyday life. He is excited to be part of the dynamic atmosphere of the Cambridge Faculty of Education with its mix of researchers and practitioners.
Data Coordinator, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge Polly has recently joined the INSTRUCT research group. Following a masters degree at the University of Oxford in 2005 Polly has worked as a researcher on a number of academic projects including refugee health, public health law and child development. She has previously worked with children as an English teacher, a health worker in a Palestinian refugee camp and as a volunteer for a local children’s charity in Cambridge. Polly is particularly interested in the factors that contribute to child decision-making and development. Currently, she is working on a project applying cognitive science to learning chemistry. The project uses a popular experimental paradigm in cognitive science to the context of chemistry, with the goal of better understanding learning science and decision- making.
Data Coordinator, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge Hyunji is currently a PhD student at the department of Social and Developmental Psychology, University of Cambridge. Her PhD involves relating Social Psychology theoretical frameworks (e.g., Psychological distance) to real life decision making such as inter-temporal choice and consumer choice. The ultimate goal of PhD is to understand underlying mechanisms of decisions we make on a daily basis. On top of that, the future research goal is also opened to looking at some of the brain networks that take part in how we make certain judgement and decision making. To find out how human brain works and the consequences of it manifested in our daily life is the most exciting thing of her life.
Data Coordinator, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge
Edel’s delight when discovering the seeming magic of a petal (see photo) is only rivaled by her enthusiasm when discovering the workings of the mind. What specific cognitive processes are involved in problem-solving and creativity? How can one enhance logical learning and intellectual development? These are questions relevant to Edel’s PhD dissertation at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge in which she is exploring the relationship between musical training and mathematical thinking in a school-based experiment. Earlier research she co-conducted at Columbia University noted a positive correlation between these two areas. You can download a full report here. Edel is honoured to work with the INSTRUCT research group and determined to contribute research that can improve children’s educational experiences.
MPhil student alumna Psychology & Education, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge With a professional background in training and adult education, Alison is especially interested in the cognitive mechanisms of learning, and how these can be applied in educational practice for all age groups. Her current research project is on the metacognitive aspects of learning – how people think about their thought processes – and the task-specifity of metacognitive judgement s and awareness. This topic is highly relevant for the theoretical debates on the nature of metacognitive judgements, and the domain-specificity or generality of cognitive functions, but also has applied implications in how individuals monitor, regulate and control their learning in the classroom, university and workplace.
MPhil student Psychology & Education, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge Pranav has always been interested in understanding how and why people think and learn in the ways that they do. Along the lines of that longstanding interest, his thesis investigates how people's tendency to attribute agency to inanimate objects facilitates or impairs their causal inferences in the context of chemistry. Given the centrality of causal inference to learning and the frequency and early appearance of agency attribution, this project will likely have theoretical significance beyond chemistry learning. Furthermore, the pervasiveness of goal oriented terminology in educators' and students' descriptions of the natural sciences suggests that it may also yield practical implications.
Undergraduate Research Student, PPSIS Faculty, University of Cambridge Anna has chosen to specialise in Psychology for Part II of the PPS (Politics, Psychology and Sociology) Tripos. Her second year research project investigated the effect of parenting styles on the development of inhibition skills in the development of inhibition skills in preschoolers. The project taught her valuable research skills, and included eating lots of Smarties. It was completed in May 2011 and presented as a poster at the BPS Developmental Section Annual Conference at Northumbria University in September 2011. Anna is now working on her final year dissertation, which will examine the relations between religiosity, parenting styles and the development of executive functions in young children. Undergraduate Research Student, PPSIS Faculty, University of Cambridge Jo is in her final year of the PPS Tripos, specialising in Psychology. Her second year research project investigated the role of executive functions in adult literacy and numeracy, and examined to what extent executive functions are separable processes in this relationship. Continuing her interest in how executive functioning interacts with other cognitive processes, Jo's dissertation research uses an experimental paradigm to determine what aspects of social interaction may benefit executive abilities in adults. The results may shed light on the question of domain-specificity between executive functioning and social cognition, and indicate whether a bidirectional influence exists in their development.
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