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Professor Caroline Edmonds

Professor of Experimental Psychology

Health and Wellbeing Research Group, Psychology

Caroline Edmonds is Professor of Experimental Psychology at the University of East London (UEL) and Visiting Fellow at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton. Her PhD was at the Department of Psychology at UCL. She then spent 7 years as a Research Fellow at the MRC Childhood Nutrition Research Centre at the Institute of Child Health, UCL, before moving to UEL.

    I teach on undergraduate and post graduate programmes and enjoy supporting our students on their academic journeys. I supervise research students at all levels.

    My academic leadership roles enable the success of others by encouraging a supportive, inclusive environment in the School and University. These roles focus on equality, inclusion and research. I am School Athena SWAN champion, led our recent successful Bronze Award application, and continue to lead the group in its work towards a School Silver application. I have served on the institutional Athena SWAN group since its inception. I also formally and informally mentor staff in both the School and University.

    I actively work to build a supportive research environment within which all School research can thrive. For example, I initiated and lead the School’s Writing programme, which has galvanised a change to an enriched research culture in the School and increased journal submissions by participants.



    Chartered Psychologist
    Chartered Scientist
    Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society
    Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
    Member of the British Feeding and Drinking Group


    2008 – PG Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, Merit, University of East London
    2001 – PhD Psychology, University College London
    1995 – BSc Psychology, First Class Honours, Goldsmith’s College

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    Visiting Fellow, Clinical Neuroscience, Clinical and Experimental Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton

    Highlights

    Overview

    The focus of my research is to investigate factors that affect cognitive performance in children and adults, including typically developing children in schools, and children who suffered adverse events around birth that could result in brain damage.

    Research on hydration aims to explore the effects of drinking water on cognitive performance and mood. This work examines groups “at risk” of dehydration, including children and older adults, and the normal population.  Fundamental work has concentrated on the parameters of the effect of water supplementation on cognitive performance, including the particular cognitive processes affected and mechanistic explanations. This research has provided foundations for applied research, for example the association between fluid availability and students’ performance in exams.

    Research on long term neurodevelopmental outcome after early difficulties includes the effect of pre- and post-natal nutritional influences on cognition, brain structure and the relationship between the two. Further work includes the investigation of long term neurodevelopmental outcome in children who suffered adverse effects on the peri/neonatal period, or who were born preterm or with intrauterine growth restriction. Current funded projects focus on the long term impact on neurocognitive development in children with hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) that was treated with therapeutic hypothermia.

    My personal webpage can be found here.


    Collaborators

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    Research

    Horbury, S.R., Edmonds, C.J. (2020). Taking class notes by hand compared to typing: effects on children’s recall and understanding.  Journal of Research in Childhood Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/02568543.2020.1781307 

    Edmonds, C.J., Hart, D., Zatorska, A., Gupta, N., Cianfaglione, R. Helps, S., Vollmer, B. (2020). Minor neurological signs and behavioural function at age 2 years in neonatal hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE).  European Journal of Paediatric Neurology. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.ejpn.2020.04.003 

    Edmonds, C.J., Skeete, J., Klamerus, E., Gardner, M.R. (2019). Effect of mouth rinsing and mouth drying on cognitive performance and mood in adults. Psychological Research.
    https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-019-01229-8 (full text access - https://rdcu.be/bJ8BC)

    Vollmer, B., Edmonds, C.J. (2019). School age neurological and cognitive outcomes of fetal growth retardation or small for gestational age birth weight. Frontiers in Endocrinology. Special issue – Causes and consequences of intrauterine growth restriction. https://doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2019.00186 

    Chard, A., Trinies, V., Edmonds, C.J., Sogore, A., Freeman, M.C. (2019). The impact of water consumption on hydration and cognition among schoolchildren: Methods and results from a crossover trial in rural Mali. PLoS One, 14 (1) e0210568. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0210568 

    Edmonds, C.J., Harte, N., Gardner, M.R. (2018). How does drinking water affect attention and memory? The effect of mouth rinsing and mouth drying on children's performance.Physiology & Behavior, 194, 233-238. 10.1016/j.physbeh.2018.06.004 

    Gardner, M.R., Bileviciute, A.,Edmonds, C.J. (2018). Implicit mentalising during level-1 visual perspective-taking indicated by dissociation with attention orienting. Vision, 2, 3. doi:10.3390/vision2010003 

    Gardner, M.R., Hull, Z., Taylor, D., Edmonds, C.J, (2018). 'Spontaneous' Visual Perspective-Taking Mediated by Attention Orienting that is Voluntary and not Reflexive. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 71(4), 1020-1029. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1080/17470218.2017.1307868 

    Edmonds, C.J., Crosbie, L., Fatima, F., Hussain, M., Jacob, N., Gardner, M., (2017). Dose-Response Effects of Water Supplementation on Cognitive Performance and Mood in Children and Adults. Appetite, 108, 464-470. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2016.11.011 

    Rowlatt, G., Bottoms, L., Edmonds, C.J., Buscombe, R. (2016). The effect of carbohydrate mouth rinsing on fencing performance and cognitive function following fatigue-inducing fencing. European Journal of Sport Science, 9, 1-8. 

    Taylor, Flynn, Edmonds, C.J., Gardner, M.R. (2016). Observed bodies generate object-based spatial codes. Acta Psychologia, 169, 71-78.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2016.05.009 

    Andersson, H., Sinclair, J., Knight, A., Buscombe, R., Edmonds, C.J., Bottoms, L. (2016). The effect of carbohydrate mouth rinse on a 30-minute arm cranking performance. Comparative Exercise Physiology, 12 (1), 41-47. 

    Benton, D., Braun, H., Cobo, J.C., Edmonds, C., Elmadfa, I., El-Sharkawy, A., Feehally, J., Gellert, R., Holdsworth, J., Kapsokefalou, M., Kenney, W.L., Leiper, J.B., Macdonald, I.A., Maffeis, C., Maughan,

    R.J., Shirreffs, S.M., Toth-Heyn, P., Watson, P. (2015). Executive summary and conclusions from the European Hydration Institute expert conference on human hydration, health, and performance. Nutrition Reviews, 73 (S2), 148-150. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/nutrit/nuv056 

    Gardner, M.R., Brazier, M. Edmonds, C.J, Gronholm, P.C. (2013). Strategy modulates spatial perpective-taking: evidence for dissociable disembodied and embodied routes Frontiers in Human Neuroscience; Perspective Taking: building a neurocognitive framework for integrating the “social” and the “spatial”. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00457 

    Ranpura, A., Isaacs, E., Edmonds, C.J., Rogers, M., Lanigan, J., Singhal, A., Clayden, J., Clark, C., Butterworth, B. (2013). Developmental trajectories of grey and white matter in dyscalculia. Trends in Neuroscience and Education, 2, 56-64. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tine.2013.06.007 

    Edmonds, C.J., Crombie, R., Gardner, M.R. (2013). Subjective thirst moderates changes in speed of responding associated with water consumption. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience; Nutritional influences on human neurocognitive functioning,7:363. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00363 

    Pawson, C., Gardner, M.R., Doherty, S., Martin, L., Soares, R, Edmonds, C.J. (2013). Fluid availability is associated with enhanced examination performance in adults. Psychology Teaching Review, 19 (1), Spring 2013. 

    Edmonds, C.J., Gardner, M.R., Crombie, R., Bailleux, H. & Dawkins, L. (2013). Water consumption and cognition: the role of expectancy. Appetite, 60, 148-153. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2012.10.016 

    Booth, P, Taylor, B., Edmonds, C.J. (2012). Water supplementation improves visual attention and fine motor skills in schoolchildren. Education and Health, 30 (3), 75-79. 
    http://sheu.org.uk/sheux/EH/eh303pb.pdf 

    Gardner, M.R., Sorhus, I., Edmonds, C.J., & Potts, R. (2012).  Sex differences in imagined spatial transformations of the human body. Acta Psychologica, 140, 1-6. 
    http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2012.02.002 

    Gronholm, P.C., Flynn, M., Edmonds, C.J. & Gardner, M.R. (2012). Empathic and non-empathic routes to visuospatial perspective taking. Consciousness and Cognition, 21, 494-500. 
    http://dx.doi:10.1016/j.concog.2011.12.004 

    Dawkins, L., Shahzad, F-Z, Ahmed, S.S., Edmonds, C.J. et al (2011). Effects of caffeine and expectancy on mood and behaviour. Appetite, 57, 597-600.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2011.07.011 

    Fewtrell, M., Edmonds, C.J., Isaacs, E., Bishop, N. Lucas, A. (2011). Aluminium exposure from parenteral nutrition in preterm infants and later health outcomes. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 70 (3), 299-304. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0029665111000498 

    Edmonds, C.J. (2010).  Does having a drink of water help children think? A summary of some recent findings. School Health, 6 (5), 58-60. 

    Edmonds, C.J., Isaacs, E.B, Cole, T.J., Rogers, M., Lanigan, J., Singhal, A., Gringras, P., Denton, J., & Lucas, A. (2010). The effect of intrauterine growth on verbal IQ scores in childhood: A study of monozygotic twins. Pediatrics, 126 (5), e1095-e1101. http://dx.doi.org/10.1542/peds.2008-3684 

    Edmonds, C.J. & Jeffes, B. (2009). Does having a drink help you think? 6–7 year old children show improvements in cognitive performance from baseline to test after having a drink of water. Appetite, 53, 469-472. doi:10.1016/j.appet.2009.10.002     

    Fewtrell, M.S., Bishop, N.J., Edmonds, C.J., Isaacs, E.B. & Lucas, A.L. (2009). Aluminium exposure from intravenous feeding solutions and later bone health: 15 year follow-up of a randomised trial in preterm infants. Pediatrics, 124, 1372-1379. http://dx.doi.org/10.1542/peds.2009-0783 

    Edmonds, C.J. & Burford, D. (2009).  Should children drink more water? The effects of drinking water on cognition in children. Appetite, 52, 776-779. 
    http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2009.02.010 

    Edmonds, C.J., Isaacs, E.B., Visscher, P.M., Rogers, M., Lanigan, J., Singhal, A., Lucas, A., Butterworth, B., Gringras, P., Denton, J., & Deary, I.J. (2008).  Inspection Time and cognitive abilities in twins aged 7 to 17 years: development, heritability and genetic covariance. Intelligence,36, 210-225. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2007.05.004 

    Edmonds,C.J. & Pring, L. (2006).  Generating inferences from written and spoken language: a comparison of children with visual impairment and children with sight.  British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 24, 337-351. http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/026151005X35994 

    Isaacs, E.B., Edmonds, C.J., Chong, W.K., Lucas, A., Morley, R., & Gadian, D.G.  (2004) Brain morphometry and IQ measurements in preterm children. Brain, 127, 2595-2607. 
    http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/brain/awh300 

    Isaacs, E.B., Edmonds, C.J., Chong, W.K., Lucas, A. & Gadian, D.G. (2003).  Cortical anomalies associated with visuospatial processing deficits.  Annals of Neurology, 53, 468-773. 
    http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ana.10546 

    Isaacs, E.B., Edmonds, C.J., Lucas, A. & Gadian, D.G. (2001). Calculation difficulties in children of very low birthweight: a neural correlate.  Brain, 124, 1701-1707. 
    http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/brain/124.9.1701 


    Highlights

    Publications

    My work is funded currently or previously by Action Medical Research, the Sir Halley Stewart Trust, European Hydration Institute, Nestec and the Nuffield Foundation. 

    Highlights

    Funding

    I contribute to Developmental Psychology modules on the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. I supervise research students at all levels, including BSc, MSc, PhD and Professional Doctorates.

    Highlights

    Teaching