Role
As a senior lecturer, Harry’s time is divided between research and teaching students how to think more clearly about theory and methods in psychology.
Career overview
MA (cantab) Natural Sciences, University of Cambridge: 2002
PhD, Developmental Psychology, University of Bristol: 2007
Statistician, UK civil service: 2005-2007
Postdoctoral Fellow, Birkbeck College, University of London: 2007-2010
Postdoctoral Researcher, Institute of Education, UCL, University of London: 2010-2012
Lecturer, Kingston University: 2012-2014
Lecturer, University of Nottingham: 2014-2016
Research areas
Harry’s research interests include cognitive development, developmental disorders, cognitive structure, language, lexico-semantics, metaphor, short-term memory, working memory, attention, route learning, computational modelling, methodology, neuropsychology, and philosophy of mind.
Examples of his current projects include:
- the role of semantic representation in verbal short-term memory
- contextual effects of humour comprehension in developmental disorders
Sponsors and collaborators
Current grant: Building a foundation to develop an intervention to remediate humour comprehension deficits in autism and Down syndrome (BA / Leverhulme)
Publications
Purser, H. R. M., Van Herwegen, J., Ranzato, E., & Thomas, M. S. C. (2021). The role of context in verbal humor processing in autism. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 209, 105166.
Purser, H. R. M., Van Herwegen, J., & Thomas, M. S. C. (2020). The development of children’s comprehension and appreciation of riddles. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 189, 104709.
Purser, H. R. M., Farran, E. K., Courbois, Y., Lemahieu, A., Sockeel, P., Mellier, D., & Blades, M. (2015). The development of route learning in Down syndrome, Williams syndrome and typical development: investigations with virtual environments. Developmental Science, 18(4), 599-613.
Purser, H. R. M. & Jarrold, C. (2005). Impaired verbal short-term memory in Down syndrome reflects a capacity limitation rather than atypically rapid forgetting. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 91, 1-23.