Professor Christopher Jarrold

Research summary

My research focuses on children’s cognitive development, and particularly on the processes that underpin goal-directed behaviour and the maintenance of information in immediate memory.  These abilities in turn affect children’s control of behaviour, and aspects of their language learning and educational attainment.  Although my work is grounded in a detailed understanding of typical development, much of it is applied to developmental conditions including autism, Down syndrome, and Williams syndrome, and consequently it has both educational and clinical relevance.

Recent and current grants

• Jarrold C. & Towse J. N. ‘The development of working memory’. ESRC research award. £460k (plus £52k ...

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Biography

I completed a degree in Cambridge in 1990, followed by a Ph.D. on pretend play in autism in Sheffield. In 1993 I returned to Cambridge to work on executive control in autism. I came to Bristol in 1996, becoming a lecturer in 1998, a Reader in 2003, and Professor in Cognitive Development in 2009. I was Honorary Secretary of the Experimental Psychology Society from 2007 to 2010, and am a core member of the Bristol Autism Research Group. In 2000 I received the British Psychological Society’s Neil O’Connor Award for research in developmental disabilities.

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Recent publications

• Purser, HRM & Jarrold, C 2013, ‘Poor phonemic discrimination does not underlie poor verbal short-term memory in Down syndrome’. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, vol 115., pp. 1-15
• Jolley, RP, O'Kelly, R, Barlow, CM & Jarrold, C 2013, ‘Expressive drawing ability in children with autism’. The British journal of developmental psychology, vol 31., pp. 143-149

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View complete publications list in the University of Bristol publications system