Role
Dr Christopher Atkin is a research fellow and associate lecturer in the Department of Psychology at Nottingham Trent University, and a Clinical Research Fellow with Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust based at the National Rehabilitation Centre. His research focuses on understanding how cognitive and perceptual processes influence everyday functioning, with the aim of developing interventions and technologies that support independence, safety, and wellbeing across diverse populations, including older adults, people with acquired brain injury, and people living with varying physical and mobility-related needs.
He currently works on a Road Safety Trust-funded project improving safety for users of motorised mobility devices (MMDs) and contributes to a UKRI-funded (MRC) programme developing practical methods to support everyday decision-making. Previously (2021–2023), he worked on an ESRC-funded project investigating multisensory stimulation as a means of enhancing cognition and wellbeing. His PhD research examined capacity limitations in imagination, visual working memory, and visual short-term memory.
Christopher teaches research methods to first- and second-year undergraduate students and supervises master’s projects, particularly those investigating cognition. He mentors research assistants and contributes to NTU Psychology’s Athena SWAN accreditation efforts, supporting the department’s commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion.
He welcomes collaborative opportunities in cognition and everyday functioning, health and wellbeing interventions, applied safety research, and the development of inclusive psychological and neurorehabilitation approaches.
Career overview
Prior to completing his PhD, Christopher studied Psychology with Sociology at NTU, graduating with a First Class degree and receiving The Vice-Chancellor’s Award for the School of Social Sciences, TILT’s Best Research Project, and an Achievement in Psychology Prize.
Research areas
Cognition
Health & Wellbeing
Ageing
Applied Interventions
Research Groups
- Ageing and Lifespan
- Perception Attention and Memory
- Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience
- The Transport Research in Psychology (TRiP)
External activity
- Hareth Al-Janabi (University of Birmingham)
- Harriet Allen (University of Nottingham)
- Helen Henshaw (University of Nottingham)
- Daniele Magistro (University of Southampton)
- Alain Morin (Mount Royal University)
- Rob Stephens (Consultant Clinical Neuropsychologist at Nottingham University Hospitals)
- Adam Winsler (George Mason University)
- Experimental Psychology Society (EPS)
- UK Healthy Ageing Innovation Consortium (UKHAIC)
- Vivensa Foundation
- Guest Editor, Aging-US – Special Collection on Cognitive Aging (Call for Papers: Special Collection on Cognitive Aging | Aging)
- Associate Editor, Cognitive Processing (Home | Cognitive Processing)
- Special Issue Editor, The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology on cognition and sensory impairment (Sensory Impairment call)
Collaborators
Membership of Professional Bodies
Editorial Roles
Publications
Atkin, C., Al-Janabi, H., Badham, S. P., Perry, S. J., & Roberts, K. L. (2026). Clear Decisions: Improved Perceptual Clarity Reduces Age-Related Decision-making Deficits. The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, gbag082.
Perry, S. J., Roberts, K. L., Atkin, C., Badham, S. P., & Al-Janabi, H. (2026). Multifaceted declines in everyday decision-making in older adults: a think-aloud study. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 07334648261440714.
Badham, S. P., Atkin, C., Allen, H. A., Stacey, J. E., Henshaw, H., & Roberts, K. L. (2026). Memory for multimodal picture-sound items: Influences of congruency, identifiability and cognitive ageing. Acta Psychologica, 266, 106876.
Atkin, C., Howard, C. J., Baguley, T., Baker, J., & Guest, D. (2025). The relation between the capacities of imagination and visual memory in the short-term. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance. 51(11).