Society, September 2007

Presidents' Award

Professor Susan Gathercole of the University of York has been awarded the 2007 Presidents' Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychological Knowledge.

The Presidents' Award is a mid-career recognition of the achievements of psychologists who are currently engaged in research of outstanding quality.

Over the past 25 years as a cognitive psychologist, Professor Gathercole has worked in the field of human memory and in particular on short-term memory in children and adults; the role played by verbal short-term memory in acquiring vocabulary; and the constraints imposed by working memory on children's classroom functioning and learning.

Professor Gathercole was nominated by her colleagues Professors Andy Ellis, Graham Hitch and Andy Young, who said: 'Sue has made an outstanding contribution with her empirical research, which has been published in many high-quality international journals, but she has also been strongly committed to translating current research into practical inputs into education and child psychology.'

Professor Gathercole gained her first degree in psychology at the University of York in 1979. This was followed by a PhD at City University, London in 1983. After postdoctoral posts at the University of Oxford and at the MRC Applied Psychology Unit at Cambridge, she took her first lectureship at Lancaster University in 1988. After five years she moved on to the University of Bristol and then the University of Durham in 2001, before completing the circle and returning to the University of York in 2006 as a Professor of Psychology.
Professor Gathercole has written or contributed to more than 100 journal articles, penned several book chapters and seven books, and is the co-founding editor of the journal Memory.

She is a member of the Experimental Psychology Society, and a Chartered Psychologist with the British Psychological Society. She also received the Society's Spearman Medal in 1989.

Accepting the accolade, Professor Gathercole said: 'I am honoured that the Society has recognised my work in this award, and look forward to communicating the ways in which cognitive psychology can be translated into practical application, particularly within education.'

Policy Support Unit

www.bps.org.uk/consult
July was a relatively quiet month for the PSU with just six consultation responses submitted. Three of these had an academic or research focus. The first, a discussion paper from the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) regarding doctoral programmes, was responded to by the Research Board, the Training Committee for Counselling Psychology and the Psychology Postgraduate Affairs Group. The response stressed the importance of retaining flexibility on entrance requirements and the need to protect the status of doctoral students as students.

The second academic-related consultation was also from the QAA and related to the section of their draft revised code of practice which concerns academic appeals and student complaints (Section 5). The Psychology Education Board supported the proposals laid out in the consultation paper and had no additional points to raise.

The third consultation concerned the Home Office's review of its use of science, which is now in its second phase. The response acknowledged the impressive success of the Home Office in utilising science in formulating its policy and noted that this has ensured that, in many arenas, the UK has kept its position as a world leader in developing and implementing policy. Recommendations for the future included: the adoption of a peer-reviewed, open competition, responsive-mode funding model; a greater emphasis on reviewing and harnessing existing research work; and the development of a more effective policy to foster the dissemination of Home Office research through standard academic routes. The response also identified a need for clearer and more effective publication policies to improve the coordination of knowledge transfer across the various bodies falling within the Home Office's remit.

The remaining three consultations were from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse, and the Department for Education and Skills. These concerned, respectively, the promotion of mental health in the workplace, guidelines for the clinical management of drug misuse, and how best to consult with children. The last of these (Let's Talk, Let's Listen), was broadly welcomed by the Division of Educational and Child Psychology. However, an emphasis on 'making good business sense' was of some concern since it implied that, were it not for commercial interests, it would not be necessary to consult with children. The adoption of a humanist perspective, considering the importance of consulting with children and young people as a human right in itself, was recommended.

Contact the Policy Support Unit on 0116 252 9926, [email protected].