Office: Room 516, Department of Psychological Sciences
tel: +44 (0)20 3926 1083
email: marie.smith@bbk.ac.uk

Professor Marie Smith’s research encompasses several interconnected strands. A major focus of her work examines the development of face processing across childhood, alongside an ongoing program investigating face and facial expression processing in typical adult populations, as well as the factors that influence both expertise and difficulty in individuals.

Funding from the Leverhulme Trust and Wellcome has supported a team of early career researchers exploring the typical and atypical development of face processing abilities from middle childhood (ages 5–13) through adulthood. This work includes studies with individuals with Williams and Down syndromes, aiming to characterise their strengths and weaknesses in face processing and to understand how their distinctive profiles can inform theories of both typical and atypical face processing pathways.

Recently, through collaborations on projects funded by the La Caixa Foundation and the BIAL Foundation, Professor Marie Smith’s research has expanded to examine the development of prosocial behaviour during adolescence (ages 13–18) and early adulthood, with a particular focus on understanding the potential influence of social media in shaping these behaviours.

Finally, as a collaborator on a large ESRC-funded project, Professor Marie Smith is working with colleagues at the University of East Anglia (UEA) to investigate the bidirectional relationship between language acquisition and conceptual development. The project aims to understand how language guides category learning and to explore the impact that reduced access to language has on conceptual growth.

Please check out the BLoCKS website for more details: https://www.gligalab.co.uk/conceptual-development