Emma James

Emma James

Developmental Psychologist

I am a Lecturer in Psychology at the University of York. My research fundamentally concerns how we learn. How do we learn new words, and how might the underlying processes change with development? How does language impact literacy, and what are the implications for later life outcomes? I welcome contact from students interested in pursuing PhD research in related topics - please do get in touch via email.

I am currently the Early Career Researcher Representative on the committee for the Experimental Psychology Society, and would be very glad to discuss ideas for supporting the ECR community.

You can find out more about my research projects below.

Interests

  • Learning and memory
  • Language acquisition
  • Literacy development
  • Reproducible science

Education

  • PhD in Psychology, 2019

    University of York

  • MSc in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 2015

    University of York

  • BA in Experimental Psychology, 2013

    University of Oxford

Projects

Precursors and consequences of reading comprehension difficulties

Ongoing: Secondary data analysis with Prof. Kate Nation

Identifying difficulties in reading comprehension

Ongoing; collective effort in combining reading comprehension datasets

Sleep-associated consolidation in app-based language learning

Ongoing; ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship research

Understanding memory processes across development

2019: Postdoctoral research with Dr Aidan Horner

Individual differences in word learning and consolidation

2014–2019: PhD research with Dr Lisa Henderson and Prof. Gareth Gaskell
PDF

The role of morphological awareness in reading comprehension

2013–2014: Research Associate for Prof. Kate Cain

Upcoming & Recent Talks

Slow and steady wins the race? Consolidating new vocabulary in childhood and adulthood [Provisional title]

21 Nov, 2024 1:00 PM — 2:45 PM University of Cambridge
Project

The educational attainment and wellbeing of children with comprehension weaknesses

Some children have disproportional difficulties in understanding what they read. These children frequently have underlying oral …
11 Jul, 2024 9:30 AM — 10:30 AM Newcastle University
Project

Heterogeneity in children's reading comprehension difficulties: a latent class approach

26 Jan, 2024 12:30 PM — 1:30 PM Online
Project Video
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Recent Publications

Emma James, Paul Thompson, Lucy Bowes, Kate Nation (2024). What Are the Long-Term Prospects for Children With Comprehension Weaknesses? A Registered Report Investigating Education and Employment Outcomes. Journal of Educational Psychology, 116(6).

PDF Dataset DOI

Emma James, Paul Thompson, Lucy Bowes, Kate Nation (2024). Language and beyond: a registered report examining single and multiple risk models of later reading comprehension weaknesses [Stage 1 IPA]. Developmental Science.

PDF Dataset

Emma Sullivan, Emma James, Lisa M. Henderson, Cade McCall, Scott Cairney (2023). The influence of emotion regulation strategies and sleep quality on depression and anxiety. Cortex, 166.

PDF Dataset DOI

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Recent Blog Posts

Last updated on 19 Sep, 2024 2 min read 0 CommentsRecruitment

PhD Opportunities [2025 start]

I am keen to support PhD applications in the domains of learning, language, and/or literacy development. Some suggested project remits are described below that align with my current work, but these are by no means prescriptive.

Last updated on 24 Sep, 2020 2 min read 0 CommentsResearch summary

From little to large: the importance of understanding morphemes for understanding texts

Lots of words are made up of smaller units of meaning, called morphemes. We measured children’s awareness of morphemes, and looked at its importance for reading comprehension.

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