Developmental Psychology Section Annual Conference 2022

Submissions

Key Submission Dates

March 2022: Online submission system opens

23 May 2022: The deadline for all Symposia, Oral Presentations, Poster Presentation, 5 Minute Challenge Presentations and Masterclass submissions 

June 2022: Notification of submission outcomes for all Symposia, Oral Presentations, Poster Presentation, 5 Minute Challenge Presentations and Masterclass submissions

How to Submit

Please ensure you read the submission guidelines below before submitting, including the reviewer guidelines. These allow you to see how your submissions will be reviewed. 

If you any queries about submissions please contact us at [email protected]

• Access Submission Guidelines and Submit Symposia 
• Access Submission Guidelines and Submit All Submissions except Symposia 

Registration

Registration is available online only. All rates listed are inclusive of VAT at 20%. Early bird registration end on 31 August 2022.

BPS Concession

• 3 Day Attendance: early rate - £200 / standard rate - £278
• 2 Day Attendance (Wednesday & Thursday): early rate - £176 / standard rate - £203
• 2 Day Attendance (Thursday & Friday): early rate - £175 / standard rate - £201
• Single Day Attendance (Wednesday): early rate - £97 / standard rate - £126
• Single Day Attendance (Thursday): early rate - £97 / standard rate - £126
• Single Day Attendance (Friday): early rate - £96 / standard rate - £124

DEV Member

• 3 Day Attendance: early rate - £300 / standard rate - £361
• 2 Day Attendance (Wednesday & Thursday): early rate - £229 / standard rate - £264
• 2 Day Attendance (Thursday & Friday): early rate - £227 / standard rate - £261
• Single Day Attendance (Wednesday): early rate - £130 / standard rate - £163
• Single Day Attendance (Thursday): early rate - £130 / standard rate - £163
• Single Day Attendance (Friday): early rate - £128 / standard rate - £161

BPS Member

• 3 Day Attendance: early rate - £360 / standard rate - £434
• 2 Day Attendance (Wednesday & Thursday): early rate - £275 / standard rate - £316
• 2 Day Attendance (Thursday & Friday): early rate - £273 / standard rate - £314
• Single Day Attendance (Wednesday): early rate - £159 / standard rate - £196
• Single Day Attendance (Thursday): early rate - £159 / standard rate - £196
• Single Day Attendance (Friday): early rate - £156 / standard rate - £193

BPS Affiliate Subscriber

• 3 Day Attendance: early rate - £390 / standard rate - £470
• 2 Day Attendance (Wednesday & Thursday): early rate - £298 / standard rate - £343
• 2 Day Attendance (Thursday & Friday): early rate - £295 / standard rate - £340
• Single Day Attendance (Wednesday): early rate - £173 / standard rate - £212
• Single Day Attendance (Thursday): early rate - £173 / standard rate - £212
• Single Day Attendance (Friday): early rate - £170 / standard rate - £209

Non-BPS Member

• 3 Day Attendance: early rate - £495 / standard rate - £607
• 2 Day Attendance (Wednesday & Thursday): early rate - £385 / standard rate - £443
• 2 Day Attendance (Thursday & Friday): early rate - £382 / standard rate - £439
• Single Day Attendance (Wednesday): early rate - £227 / standard rate - £275
• Single Day Attendance (Thursday): early rate - £227 / standard rate - £275
• Single Day Attendance (Friday): early rate - £223 / standard rate - £271

Additional Registration Items VAT included

• Conference dinner taking place on 15 September 2022 / £35

Returning Customers (Members and non-members)

In order to register for the event, you will need to sign in using your BPS website log in details. We have implemented a new Membership Database (CRM) recently and if you haven't received your pre-registration email please contact [email protected] to request a re-send and follow the instructions received. Once pre-registered on the CRM use your USERNAME and PASSWORD to log in to register for the event.

Non-returning customers (Members and non-members)

If you are not a returning customer, you will need to create a free account. Once set up use your USERNAME and PASSWORD to log in to register for the event.

Accommodation

Hotel bookings at a discounted rate can be made via our partner HotelMap. Please note the bookings are made through a third party and we recommend you check the cancellation policy at the time of booking.

Conference Dinner

Join us for an evening of networking and further discussion at the Developmental Psychology Section 2022 Annual Conference Dinner, taking place at the Forum in Sheffield on 15 September from 7pm. Your Conference Dinner ticket includes a delicious buffet dinner, a drinks voucher with alcoholic and non-alcoholic options and entertainment.

Speakers

Dr Duncan Astle

Duncan is a Programme Leader at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, where he leads the 4D Research Group. He is also a Fellow and Director of Studies at Robinson College. Prior to this he completed his training at Durham and Nottingham, and held fellowships at Oxford, Royal Holloway and Cambridge.

He is a developmental cognitive neuroscientist and his research uses multiple methods to explore how brain systems develop through childhood, and the mechanisms that give rise to divergent developmental trajectories or neurodevelopmental disorders. This programme of work has been supported by the Royal Society, the British Academy, the Medical Research Council, the Economic and Social Research Council, James S. McDonnell Foundation, Templeton World Charitable Foundation, and multiple charities.

Duncan currently serves on the Medical Research Council's Neurosciences and Mental Health Board, as Chair of the Cambrige NIHR BioResource's Scientific Advisory Board, and as Chair of the University's LGBT+ Staff network. He has won a number of Prizes for his research, most recently the Vice-Chancellor's 2020 Award for Impact and Engagement by an established researcher.

Development, diversity and data science: A transdiagnostic approach to understanding neurodevelopment

Abstract:

Macroscopic brain organisation emerges early in life, even prenatally, and continues to change through adolescence and into early adulthood. The emergence and continual refinement of large-scale brain networks, connecting neuronal populations across anatomical distance, allows for increasing functional integration and specialisation. But this gradual process of network emergence is incredibly variable across individuals, and it is not clear why the diversity exists, what consequences it holds for cognition, or what factors might shape it over time.  

This talk will showcase the application of different AI-inspired computational models to address three crucial challenges that we face as developmental scientists. Firstly, how do we capture the incredible heterogeneity that exists across childhood and adolescence, and do these differences map to established diagnostic categories? Secondly, can we build developmental models that formalise simple biological principles in order to capture complex developmental phenomena? Thirdly, can we use these models to bridge scales and species to establish fundamental and causal mechanisms that shape development?

The take home message? Whilst certain modelling techniques might appear new, in reality they offer us a formal way of addressing some of the most long-standing questions at the heart of developmental science.

Professor Carol Martin

Carol Martin has strong expertise related to gender development, gender segregation and integration, and peer influence and relationships. Martin has been interested in gender since the beginning of her career, when she formulated (with Charles Halverson) a theory of gender development called Gender Schema Theory (Martin and Halverson, 1981) that has become one of the most highly cited and heavily researched theories of gender development. For many years after receiving her doctorate, she tested the ideas proposed in the theory. She has written (with Diane Ruble) two chapters outlining the state of the science of gender development for the "Handbook of Child Psychology." She was an associate editor for Developmental Psychology and has served on editorial boards of several journals. In the past 15 years or so, her work has turned toward the study of gender in peer relationships and academics.

She has published more than 100 papers, with publications appearing in top-tier journals (Science, Psychological Bulletin, Annual Review of Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Child Development, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology). Her work has been funded by NICHD, National Science Foundation, Department of Health and Human Services, and the T. Denny Sanford Foundation. Martin also has expertise in the translation of scientific findings related to peer relationships and classroom functioning to schools. Every two years, Martin co-organizes (with Campbell Leaper, UC-Santa Cruz) the Gender Development Research Conference in which scholars from all over the world present the latest gender-related research.

Gender Development is Complex: Children's gender identities and relationships

Gender development is complex – many children do not fit traditional gender norms. What are the consequences of these variations? How do children who feel different from others relate to their peers?  My talk will focus on both of these themes—the patterns we see in gender development and how the social environment is shaped by and shapes gender development. In the first part of my talk, I discuss different views of gender and will introduce a novel measure of gender similarity, which assesses how children view themselves in relation to other girls and boys. I will present research that identifies four patterns of gender similarity and suggest that this measure provides new insights into understanding gender identity, gender expression, and gender development. Then I will shift focus to exploring how variations in children's social environments influence gender development. I will review research focused on the consequences of children having strong same-gender peer preferences and more recent research on the importance of having relationships with other-gender peers. Finally, I will discuss how parents and teachers can shape gender relationships at home and in classrooms.

Lisa Henderson

Lisa Henderson is a Senior Lecturer at the University of York, where she carries out research primarily into the critical role that sleep plays in typical and atypical language development. Combining experimental, neuroscientific, psychometric and interdisciplinary approaches, she asks theoretical questions that have societal importance, and led amongst the first UK studies to use in-home polysomnography to relate sleep to mechanisms of learning and memory in children with autism and developmental language disorder. 

Prior to this Lisa completed her PhD with Prof Maggie Snowling and Dr Paula Clarke where she used on-line methods to identify where and how semantic processing can break down as speech unfolds in real-time in children with comprehension difficulties.

The impact of sleep on  language development: From mechanisms to translation

Abstract: Sleep is a universal state of perceptual disengagement from our environments. The benefits of this seemingly unresponsive state are vast, not least for our mental and physical health but also for our cognitive abilities. For instance, a wealth of evidence suggests that sleep facilitates the consolidation of newly learned language, working to strengthen memory for new words exactly as they are learned and integrate them with existing lexical knowledge.

However, there is substantial variability in sleep both across and within individuals, and how this variability contributes to language development remains unclear. The first part of this talk will present research that shows how studying variation in sleep over development and in neurodevelopmental disorders can advance our mechanistic understanding of the role that sleep plays in supporting language acquisition.

We will explore theoretically motivated questions such as: how do the sleep-associated mechanisms that contribute to language learning differ over development? How is consolidation of new language affected in developmental disorders such as autism, where sleep architecture differs? How can we use this information to optimize the consolidation of new language in children? The second part of this talk will present accumulating evidence from outside of the lab, showing that sleep has a real-world impact on language development, allowing us to move the fundamental science towards influencing policy and practice.

Dr Cathy Manning

Dr Cathy Manning is a lecturer at University of Reading focusing on the development of visual perception and decision-making through childhood, and how these processes are altered in neurodevelopmental conditions like autism and dyslexia. Prior to this, Cathy completed her PhD at the Institute of Education, London, before taking up a Junior Research Fellowship in Autism and Related Disorders at University College, Oxford. Cathy then held a Wellcome Trust fellowship at University of Oxford, with visiting scholarships at Stanford University and University of Amsterdam.

Visual motion and decision-making in dyslexia

Abstract: Children with and without dyslexia differ in their behavioural responses to visual information, particularly when required to pool dynamic signals over space and time. Importantly, multiple processes contribute to behavioural responses. In this study we investigated which processing stages are affected in children with dyslexia when performing visual motion processing tasks, by combining two methods that are sensitive to the dynamic processes leading to responses. We used a diffusion model which decomposes response time and accuracy into distinct cognitive constructs, and high-density EEG. Fifty children with dyslexia (24 male) and 50 typically developing children (28 male) 6-14 years of age judged the direction of motion as quickly and accurately as possible in two global motion tasks (motion coherence and direction integration), which varied in their requirements for noise exclusion. Following our preregistered analyses, we fitted hierarchical Bayesian diffusion models to the data, blinded to group membership. Unblinding revealed reduced evidence accumulation in children with dyslexia compared with typical children for both tasks. Additionally, we identified a response-locked EEG component which was maximal over centro-parietal electrodes which indicated a neural correlate of reduced drift rate in dyslexia in the motion coherence task, thereby linking brain and behaviour. We suggest that children with dyslexia tend to be slower to extract sensory evidence from global motion displays, regardless of whether noise exclusion is required, thus furthering our understanding of atypical perceptual decision-making processes in dyslexia.

Professor Robert Plomin

Robert Plomin is Professor of Behavioural Genetics in the Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry (SGDP) Centre at The Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London. His research brings together genetic and environmental strategies to investigate the developmental interplay between nature and nurture. In 1994 when he came to the UK from the US, he launched the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS), which continues to thrive. He has published more than 900 papers and a dozen books, which have been cited more than 130,000 times. His latest book is Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are (Penguin, 2019).

The DNA revolution in developmental psychology 

When I was an undergraduate student in psychology in the late 1960s, I never read or heard the word 'genetic'. At that time, psychology was dominated by environmentalism, the view that we are what we learn. In the following 50 years, I have seen a remarkable shift in psychology towards a more balanced view that recognises the importance of genetics as well as environment.

Nonetheless, it has been difficult for developmental psychologists to use genetics in their research because genetic methods have required twins or adoptees. Now, the DNA revolution is making it possible to incorporate genetics in any developmental study of unrelated individuals. A sign of this transformation of research is that all major developmental cohort studies now obtain DNA to capitalise on the power of using inherited DNA differences to predict promise as well as problems from birth. I will describe the DNA revolution and its implications and applications for developmental psychology.  

Professor Keiko Ejiri

Keiko Ejiri is a Professor of Developmental Psychology at the Department of Elementary Education, Ibaraki Christian University, Japan. 

She was a chief editor of The Japanese Journal of Developmental Psychology in 2020. She completed her PhD at Ochanomizu University in Tokyo in 1998. 

Her early research works on infant's vocal development were published in Phonetica (Ejiri, 1998), and Developmental Science (Ejiri and Masataka, 2001). A recent work on employment issues among mothers of children with intellectual disabilities was published in International Journal of Developmental Disabilities (Ejiri and Matsuzawa, 2019). 

Her works have been supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, KAKENHI Grant Number JP20K03374. Find out more. 

Employment, income, and health status among mothers of children with disabilities in Japan

Abstract: Previous studies in the U.S., Europe, and Australia have reported that mothers of children with disabilities had difficulty in combining paid employment and domestic care work. However, little is known about this issue in Japan. The present study conducted a questionnaire survey for Japanese mothers caring for children (6–18 years old) with intellectual disabilities, and analyzed data collected from 243 mothers (Ejiri & Matsuzawa, 2019).

The mothers in this study showed lower workforce participation and lower income than other Japanese mothers rearing children in the same age group. Over half of unemployed mothers in our sample showed a desire to work in the future. Mothers' better health, better education, use of childcare services, and the child's age were positively associated with maternal employment.

The mothers in our sample showed lower mental health status than other Japanese women in the same age group (Ejiri & Matsuzawa, 2021). Further social support and health care should be provided for the Japanese mothers caring for children with disabilities.

Location

Crowne Plaza Royal Victoria Sheffield, Victoria Station Rd, Sheffield, S4 7YE

Programme

This year's Developmental Psychology Section conference will be held 14-16 September at the Crowne Plaza Royal Victoria in Sheffield.

Download the latest event programme

You can also view the interactive version of the programme by visiting www.bpsdev.org.uk.