Professor Ian Apperly BA PhD

Professor Ian Apperly

School of Psychology
Professor of cognition and development
Director of Research for the School of Psychology

Contact details

Telephone
0121 414 3339
Email
i.a.apperly@bham.ac.uk
View my research portal
Address
School of Psychology
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Ian Apperly is an experimental psychologist, and his main research interest is in “mindreading” – the ability to take other people’s perspectives for communication, co-operation, competition or deception. He is the author of over 80 journal articles, and the 2010 book, entitled “Mindreaders: The cognitive basis of theory of mind”.

Qualifications

  • BA, University of Cambridge
  • Ph.D., University of Birmingham

Biography

Ian Apperly attended Ivybridge Community College in Devon, studied Natural Sciences at St John’s College, Cambridge, and came to Birmingham in 1995 to study for his Ph.D. with Liz Robinson.

Teaching

His research interests inform Ian Apperly’s teaching, which includes a Second Year module on Cognitive Development, and part of a Final Year module on Higher Cognitive Functions.

Postgraduate supervision

The work of students and postdocs in his group varies in its emphasis on developmental, cognitive or neuroscientific methods, and often involves collaboration with other colleagues in the School. Professor Apperly supervises doctoral researchers on all topics related to his research interests. Prospective doctoral researchers interested in joining the lab should email Ian in the first instance. Professor Apperly has previously supervised a number of PhDs on topics including psychological and spatial perspective-taking in children and adults, the relationship between reasoning and executive function and individual differences in the basic theory of mind in typical adults.

Research

Ian Apperly is an experimental psychologist, and his main research interest is in “mindreading” – the ability to take other people’s perspectives for communication, co-operation, competition or deception. He is the author of over 80 journal articles, and the 2010 book, entitled “Mindreaders: The cognitive basis of theory of mind”.

Other activities

Ian Apperly has received early career prizes from the British Psychological Society and the Experimental Psychological Society. He is on the editorial board of the journal Cognition, and has been treasurer of the European Society for Philosophy and Psychology, and a member of the Psychology committee of the British Science Association.


http://www.ianapperly.eclipse.co.uk/honours.htm 

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Cutting, N, Apperly, I, Chappell, J & Beck, S 2019, 'Is tool modification more difficult than innovation?', Cognitive Development, vol. 52, 100811. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2019.100811

Apperly, IA 2019, 'The benefit of seeing in company', Trends in Cognitive Sciences, vol. 23, no. 6, pp. 451-453. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2019.03.005

Zhao, L, Wang, JJ & Apperly, I 2018, 'The cognitive demands of remembering a speaker's perspective and managing common ground size modulate 8- and 10-year-olds' perspective-taking abilities', Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, vol. 174, pp. 130-149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2018.05.013

Abu-Akel, A, Apperly, I, Muller Spaniol, M, Geng, J & Mevorach, C 2018, 'Diametric effects of autism tendencies and psychosis proneness on attention control irrespective of task demands', Scientific Reports, vol. 8, 8478. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-26821-7

Upthegrove, R, Abu-Akel, A, Chisholm, K, Lin, A, Zahid, S, Pelton, M, Apperly, I, Hansen, PC & Wood, SJ 2018, 'Autism and psychosis: Clinical implications for depression and suicide', Schizophrenia Research, vol. 195, pp. 80-85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2017.08.028

Biervoye, A, Meert, G, Apperly, IA & Samson, D 2018, 'Assessing the integrity of the cognitive processes involved in belief reasoning by means of two nonverbal tasks: rationale, normative data collection and illustration with brain-damaged patients', PLoS ONE, vol. 13, no. 1, e0190295. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0190295

Reindl, E, Apperly, I, Beck, S & Tennie, C 2017, 'Young children copy cumulative technological design in the absence of action information', Scientific Reports, vol. 7, 1788. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-01715-2

Milward, S, Kita, S & Apperly, I 2017, 'Individual differences in children's co-representation of self and other in joint action', Child Development, vol. 88, no. 3, pp. 964–978. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12693

Cane, JE, Ferguson, HJ & Apperly, I 2017, 'Using perspective to resolve reference: the impact of cognitive load and motivation', Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. https://doi.org/10.1037/xlm0000345

Abu-Akel, A, Apperly, I, Wood, S, Hansen, P & Mevorach, C 2017, 'Autism tendencies and psychosis proneness interactively modulate saliency cost', Schizophrenia bulletin, vol. 43, no. 1, pp. 142-151. https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbw066

Ferguson, HJ, Apperly, I & Cane, JE 2016, 'Eye tracking reveals the cost of switching between self and other perspectives in a visual perspective-taking task', The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, pp. 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2016.1199716

Wang, JJ & Apperly, IA 2016, 'Just one look: Direct gaze briefly disrupts visual working memory', Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, pp. 1-7. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-016-1097-3

Abu-Akel, A, Apperly, I, Wood, S & Hansen, P 2016, 'Autism and psychosis traits diametrically modulate the right temporo-parietal junction', Social Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470919.2016.1190786

Comment/debate

Hartwright, CE, Hansen, PC & Apperly, IA 2016, 'Current knowledge on the role of the Inferior Frontal Gyrus in Theory of Mind – A commentary on Schurz and Tholen (2016)', Cortex, vol. 85, pp. 133-136. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2016.10.005

Review article

Apperly, I 2018, 'Mindreading and psycholinguistic approaches to perspective taking: establishing common ground', Topics in Cognitive Science, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 133-139. https://doi.org/10.1111/tops.12308

View all publications in research portal