Role
Lecturer
Qualifications & background
BA (Hons) Social Anthropology and Visual Studies
BSc (Hons) Psychology
Postgraduate Certificate in Education
MA Fine Art
PhD Conditional reasoning in autism spectrum disorder: activation and integration of knowledge and belief
Teaching interests
Developmental psychology
Autism and related conditions
Research interests
Autism
Developmental psychology
Thinking and reasoning
Other research
Ongoing Research projects
FMRI study funded by UoP. Relational integration and autism. Roser, McKenzie, Bach (UoP) Benattayallah, Fulford (Peninsular MR Research Centre).
ESRC standard grant application in progress. Autism and the Selection Task. McKenzie; Handley and Evans
Pilot study. The embedded figures task and negative affect among adolescents with autism. McKenzie (UoP) and Schnall (University of Cambridge).
ESRC small grant application in progress. Syllogistic reasoning among autistic children: content and complexity. McKenzie (UoP) and Jarrold (University of Bristol)
Research study. Counterfactual and Contrary-to-Fact reasoning among children with autism. McKenzie and Arreckx (UoP).
Pilot Study. Attention to detail and the influence of background knowledge on conditional reasoning. McKenzie and Arreckx
Publications
McKenzie, R., Evans, J. St. B. T., & Handley, S. J. (2010). Conditional reasoning in autism: activation and integration of knowledge and belief. Developmental Psychology, 46, 391-403
McKenzie, R., Evans, J. St. B. T., & Handley, S. J. (2011). Autism and performance on The Suppression Task: reasoning, context and complexity. Thinking and Reasoning, 17, 182-196
McKenzie, R. (in press). A different way to think about creativity: the case of autism and outsider art. available online at www.inter-disciplinary.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/rmckenzie.pdf
McKenzie, R. & Handley, S. J. (2011). Children’s reasoning with false premises: Do instructions and fantasy contexts work in the same way? Manuscript submitted to Educational Psychology.
Reports & invited lectures
Conferences
2011 Plenary meeting of the International Society for Research on Emotion, Kyoto. Paper: emotional state, autistic traits, detail-based processing and social skills.
2011 7th Global Conference: Creative Engagements, Oxford. Paper: A different way to think about creativity: the case of autism and outsider art
2008 6th International Conference on Thinking, Venice. Poster: Everyday thinking in context among autistic and typically developing children.
2007 BPS Developmental Section Conference, Plymouth. Paper: Conditional reasoning in children with autism: activation and integration of knowledge and belief.
2005 XII European Conference on Developmental Psychology, Tenerife. Paper:
Counterfactual reasoning, inhibitory control and belief independent reasoning in children.
Invited Presentations
2009 Bristol Autism Research Group 'Conditional reasoning among adolescents with autism'
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2008 Guest speaker at The University of Edinburgh. Experimental psychology seminar 'Counterexamples and autism'
2008 Guest speaker at The University of Bristol. Developmental psychology seminar 'Conditional reasoning and autism'
Conferences organised
Member of the organising committee for the BPS Developmental Section Conference 2007
Other academic activities
Organiser of the Plymouth Autism Network
