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 of Birmingham
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 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

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 “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

Highlight publications

Devine, RT & Apperly, I 2021, 'Willing and able? Theory of mind, social motivation and social competence in middle childhood and early adolescence', Developmental Science, vol. 25, no. 1, e13137. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13137

Qureshi, AW, Monk, RL, Samson, D & Apperly, IA 2020, 'Does interference between self and other perspectives in theory of mind tasks reflect a common underlying process? Evidence from individual differences in theory of mind and inhibitory control', Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 178-190. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-019-01656-z

Ellis, K, Moss, J, Stefanidou, C, Oliver, C & Apperly, I 2021, 'The development of early social cognitive skills in neurogenetic syndromes associated with autism: Cornelia de Lange, fragile X and Rubinstein-Taybi syndromes', Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases, vol. 16, no. 1, 488. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13023-021-02117-4

Apperly, I & Butterfill, SA 2009, 'Do humans have two systems to track beliefs and belief-like states?', Psychological Review, vol. 116, no. 4, pp. 953-70. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016923

Apperly, I 2010, Mindreaders:the cognitive basis of "theory of mind". Taylor & Francis.

Recent publications

Article

Apperly, IA, Lee, R, van der Kleij, SW & Devine, RT 2024, 'A transdiagnostic approach to neurodiversity in a representative population sample: The N+ 4 model', JCPP Advances. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcv2.12219

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, Happé, 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, 'Defining key concepts for mental state attribution', Communications Psychology, vol. 2, no. 1, 29. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44271-024-00077-6

Wang, J, Zhao, L, Alegado, J, Webb, J, Wright, J & Apperly, I 2024, 'Express: Remembering visual and linguistic common ground in shared history', The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1177/17470218241256651

Agostini, V, Apperly, I & Krott, A 2024, 'Greater sensitivity to communication partners’ perspectives in children learning a second language at school', Bilingualism: Language and Cognition.

Baber, C, Kandola, P, Apperly, I & McCormick, E 2024, 'Human-centred explanations for artificial intelligence systems', Ergonomics. https://doi.org/10.1080/00140139.2024.2334427

Yeung, K, Apperly, I & Devine, RT 2024, 'Measures of individual differences in adult theory of mind: A systematic review', Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews, vol. 157, 105481. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105481

Pomareda, C, Devine, RT & Apperly, IA 2024, 'Mindreading quality versus quantity: A theoretically and empirically motivated two-factor structure for individual differences in adults’ mindreading', PLOS One, vol. 19, no. 6, e0305270. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0305270

Wilson, R, Hruby, A, Perez-Zapata, D, van der Kleij, SW & Apperly, IA 2023, 'Is recursive "mindreading" really an exception to limitations on recursive thinking?', Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0001322

Markiewicz, R, Rahman, F, Apperly, I, Mazaheri, A & Segaert, K 2023, 'It is not all about you: Communicative cooperation is determined by your partner's theory of mind abilities as well as your own', Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. https://doi.org/10.1037/xlm0001268

Abu-Akel, A, Wood, SJ, Upthegrove, R, Chisholm, K, Lin, A, Hansen, PC, Gillespie, SM, Apperly, IA & Montag, C 2022, 'Psychosocial functioning in the balance between autism and psychosis: evidence from three populations', Molecular Psychiatry, vol. 27, no. 7, pp. 2976-2984. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-022-01543-5

van der Kleij, SW, Apperly, I, Shapiro, LR, Ricketts, J & Devine, RT 2022, 'Reading fiction and reading minds in early adolescence: A longitudinal study', Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, vol. 222, 105476. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2022.105476

Reindl, E, Tennie, C, Apperly, I, Lugosi, Z & Beck, S 2022, 'Young children spontaneously invent three different types of associative tool use behaviour', Evolutionary Human Sciences, vol. 4, e5. https://doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2022.4

Chapter

Apperly, IA 2021, Cognitive basis of mindreading in middle childhood and adolescence. in RT Devine & S Lecce (eds), Theory of Mind in Middle Childhood and Adolescence: Integrating Multiple Perspectives. 1st edn, Routledge, pp. 37-54. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429326899-4

Comment/debate

Samuel, S, Erle, TM, Kirsch, LP, Surtees, A, Apperly, I, Bukowski, H, Auvray, M, Catmur, C, Kessler, K & Quesque, F 2024, 'Three key questions to move towards a theoretical framework of visuospatial perspective taking', Cognition, vol. 247, 105787. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2024.105787

Preprint

Perez-Zapata, DI & Apperly, I 2022 'An International Study of Pure Coordination Games: Adaptable Solutions When Intuitions Are Presumed to Vary' PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/8fqwn

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