Professor Ian Apperly - School of Psychology

Professor Ian Apperly BA PhD

School of Psychology
Professor of cognition and development
Director of the Centre for Developmental Science

Contact details

Telephone: 0121 414 3339
Email: i.a.apperly@bham.ac.uk

Address: School of Psychology
University 麻豆精选
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Ian Apperly is an experimental psychologist. He is interested in how we take other people’s perspectives, how these abilities develop, and why they vary. This has led to an interest in neurodiversity, and other sources of variability in how people understand one another. He is the author of over 100 journal articles, and the 2010 book, entitled “Mindreaders: The cognitive basis of theory of mind”.

Qualifications

BA, University of Cambridge
Ph.D., University 麻豆精选

Biography

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

Teaching

Ian Apperly's research interests inform his teaching, which includes a Masters level module on Neurodiversity, and part of a Final Year module on Different Minds: Child and Animal Intelligence.

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 鈥渕indreading鈥� 鈥� the ability to take other people鈥檚 perspectives for communication, co-operation, competition or deception. He is the author of over 80 journal articles, and the 2010 book, entitled 鈥淢indreaders: The cognitive basis of theory of mind鈥�.

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.

Publications

Highlight publications

Devine, RT & Apperly, I 2021, '', Developmental Science, vol. 25, no. 1, e13137.

Qureshi, AW, Monk, RL, Samson, D & Apperly, IA 2020, '', Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 178-190.

Ellis, K, Moss, J, Stefanidou, C, Oliver, C & Apperly, I 2021, '', Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases, vol. 16, no. 1, 488.

Apperly, I & Butterfill, SA 2009, '', Psychological Review, vol. 116, no. 4, pp. 953-70.

Apperly, I 2010, . Taylor & Francis.

Recent publications

Article

Agostini, V, Apperly, I & Krott, A 2025, '', Bilingualism: Language and Cognition.

Baber, C, Kandola, P, Apperly, I & McCormick, E 2025, '', Ergonomics, vol. 68, no. 3, pp. 391-405.

van der Kleij, SW, Devine, R, Shapiro, LR, Ricketts, J & Apperly, I 2025, '', Developmental Psychology.

Apperly, IA, Lee, R, van der Kleij, SW & Devine, RT 2024, '', JCPP Advances, vol. 4, no. 2, e12219.

Agostini, V, Apperly, I & Krott, A 2024, '', Bilingualism: Language and Cognition.

Quesque, F, Apperly, I, Baillargeon, R, Baron-Cohen, S, Becchio, C, Bekkering, H, Bernstein, D, Bertoux, M, Bird, G, Bukowski, H, Burgmer, P, Carruthers, P, Catmur, C, Dziobek, I, Epley, N, Erle, TM, Frith, C, Frith, U, Galang, CM, Gallese, V, Grynberg, D, Happ茅, F, Hirai, M, Hodges, SD, Kanske, P, Kret, M, Lamm, C, Nandrino, JL, Obhi, S, Olderbak, S, Perner, J, Rossetti, Y, Schneider, D, Schurz, M, Schuwerk, T, Sebanz, N, Shamay-Tsoory, S, Silani, G, Spaulding, S, Todd, AR, Westra, E, Zahavi, D & Brass, M 2024, '', Communications Psychology, vol. 2, no. 1, 29.

Wang, J, Zhao, L, Alegado, J, Webb, J, Wright, J & Apperly, I 2024, '', The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology.

Yeung, K, Apperly, I & Devine, RT 2024, '', Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews, vol. 157, 105481.

Pomareda, C, Devine, RT & Apperly, IA 2024, '', PLOS One, vol. 19, no. 6, e0305270.

Wilson, R, Hruby, A, Perez-Zapata, D, van der Kleij, SW & Apperly, IA 2023, '', Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.

Markiewicz, R, Rahman, F, Apperly, I, Mazaheri, A & Segaert, K 2023, '', Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition.

Abu-Akel, A, Wood, SJ, Upthegrove, R, Chisholm, K, Lin, A, Hansen, PC, Gillespie, SM, Apperly, IA & Montag, C 2022, '', Molecular Psychiatry, vol. 27, no. 7, pp. 2976-2984.

Comment/debate

Samuel, S, Erle, TM, Kirsch, LP, Surtees, A, Apperly, I, Bukowski, H, Auvray, M, Catmur, C, Kessler, K & Quesque, F 2024, '', Cognition, vol. 247, 105787.

Conference contribution

Wang, Y, Dsouza, R, Lee, R, Apperly, I, Devine, RT, van der Kleij, S & Lee, M 2025, . in Proceedings of the 10th Workshop on Computational Linguistics and Clinical Psychology (CLPsych 2025)). Association for Computational Linguistics, ACL, The Workshop on Computational Linguistics and Clinical Psychology, Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States, 3/05/25.

Preprint

Perez-Zapata, DI & Apperly, I 2022 '' PsyArXiv.