PhD Studentship: The development of early executive functions

Executive functions are the set of high-level goal-directed thinking skills that develop rapidly during early childhood. While a lot is known about executive function development between the ages of 3 and 5, we know much less about how executive functions develop over the toddler years, known as the ’dark ages’ of cognitive development. In some of our recent work, we have found that important developments occur between the ages of 2 and 3 in children’s ability to flexibly switch their behaviour. A project in this area would extend this work to look at a wider range of executive functions. Projects could examine how executive functions develop over time during this stage of development, how they predict more complex emerging cognitive skills and/or how they are influenced by socioeconomic factors.

Funding Notes

This is one of many projects in competition for the current funding opportunities available within the Department of Psychology. Please see here for full details: http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/psychology/prospectivepg/funding
Overseas students are welcome to apply for funding but must be able to demonstrate that they can fund the difference in the tuition fees.

Requirements: We ask for a minimum of a first class or high upper second-class undergraduate honours degree and a distinction or high merit at Masters level in psychology or a related discipline.