Kate Nation is an

experimental psychologist Experimental psychology is the work done by those who apply Experiment, experimental methods to psychological study and the underlying processes. Experimental psychologists employ Research participant, human participants and Animal testing, anim ...

and expert on language and literacy development in school age children. She is Professor of Experimental Psychology and Fellow of St. John's College of the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

, where she directs the ReadOxford project and the Language and Cognitive Development Research Group. Nation won the

Spearman Medal The Spearman Medal was an early-career award of the British Psychological Society's Research Board, given in recognition of outstanding published work in psychology which represented a significant body of work in terms of theoretical contributions, ...

in 2000, an award given by the

British Psychological Society The British Psychological Society (BPS) is a representative body for psychologists and psychology in the United Kingdom. History It was founded on 24 October 1901 at University College London (UCL) as ''The Psychological Society'', the org ...

for outstanding published work by an early career psychologist. Nation's Spearman Medal lecture focused on children with poor reading comprehension whose deficits in language processing often go unnoticed. Nation gave the 2007 Experimental Psychology Society Prize lecture on "Making connections between learning to read and reading to learn." She was awarded the 2018 AJLD Eminent Researcher Award from Learning Difficulties Australia in recognition of her research on "how children learn to read words and comprehend text, and more generally, the relationship between spoken language and written language".

Biography

Nation received her B.S. and

DPhil A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in Psychology from the

University of York The University of York (abbreviated as or ''York'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public Collegiate university, collegiate research university in York, England. Established in 1963, the university has expanded to more than thir ...

. Her dissertation, focusing on children's spelling development, was completed in 1994. Her early research, supervised by

Charles Hulme Charles Hulme, (born 12 October 1953) is a British psychologist. He holds the Chair of Psychology and Education in the Department of Education at the University of Oxford, and is a William Golding Senior Research Fellow at Brasenose College, Ox ...

, focused on young children's ability to form

analogies Analogy is a comparison or correspondence between two things (or two groups of things) because of a third element that they are considered to share. In logic, it is an inference or an argument from one particular to another particular, as oppose ...

between a visually presented stimulus word and a similar sounding target word to be spelled. Nation worked as a research fellow at the University of York for five years before being appointed as Lecturer in Psychology in 1999. As an early career researcher, Nation collaborated with

Maggie Snowling Margaret Jean Snowling (born 15 July 1955) is a British psychologist, and world-leading expert in language difficulties, including dyslexia. From 2012 to 2022 she was President of St John's College, Oxford and Professor in the Department of Expe ...

on studies of individuals with reading difficulties, which distinguished the clinical profiles associated with

dyslexia Dyslexia (), previously known as word blindness, is a learning disability that affects either reading or writing. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, reading quickly, wri ...

and impaired reading comprehension. Their collaborative work highlighted the importance of oral language skills in addition to phonological skills in the development of reading. Nation moved to the University of Oxford in 2002, where she teaches students in fields of psychology, psycholinguistics, and neuroscience. Nation is an affiliated researcher at the ARC Center of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders at

Macquarie University Macquarie University ( ) is a Public university, public research university in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the Sydney metropolitan area. ...

, where she has collaborated with Anne Castles on studies of orthographic processes in reading. Nation's research has been supported by grants from the

Economic and Social Research Council The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), formerly the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), is part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). UKRI is a non-departmental public body (NDPB) funded by the UK government. ESRC provides fundi ...

, the

Wellcome Trust The Wellcome Trust is a charitable foundation focused on health research based in London, United Kingdom. It was established in 1936 with legacies from the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome (founder of Burroughs Wellcome, one of the predec ...

, the

Nuffield Foundation The Nuffield Foundation is a charitable trust established in 1943 by William Morris, Lord Nuffield, the founder of Morris Motors Ltd. It aims to improve social well-being by funding research and innovation projects in education and social pol ...

, and the

Leverhulme Trust The Leverhulme Trust () is a large national grant-making organisation in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1925 under the will of the 1st Viscount Leverhulme (1851–1925), with the instruction that its resources should be used to cover ...

. She was elected a

Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (post-nominal letters FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in t ...

in 2023.

Research

Nation's research program has focuses on the psychology of language and literacy, in typical children and in clinical populations such as children with

autism spectrum disorder Autism, also known as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by differences or difficulties in social communication and interaction, a preference for predictability and routine, sensory processing di ...

. Her work indicates that both phonological processing deficits and language comprehension deficits contribute to the development of reading difficulties. Such findings have implications for designing targeted interventions for children with poor reading comprehension skills.

Representative Publications

* Nation, K., Adams, J. W., Bowyer-Crane, C. A., & Snowling, M. J. (1999). Working memory deficits in poor comprehenders reflect underlying language impairments. ''Journal of Experimental Child Psychology'', ''73''(2), 139–158. *Nation, K., Clarke, P., Marshall, C. M., & Durand, M. (2004). Hidden language impairments in children: Parallels between poor reading comprehension and specific language impairment? ''Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research'', ''47''(1), 199–211. *Nation, K., Clarke, P., Wright, B., & Williams, C. (2006). Patterns of reading ability in children with autism spectrum disorder. ''Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders'', ''36''(7), 911–919. *Nation, K., & Snowling, M. J. (1998). Semantic processing and the development of word-recognition skills: Evidence from children with reading comprehension difficulties. ''Journal of Memory and Language'', ''39''(1), 85-101. * Nation, K., & Snowling, M. J. (2004). Beyond phonological skills: Broader language skills contribute to the development of reading. ''Journal of Research in Reading'', ''27''(4), 342–356.

References

External links

Faculty PageLanguage and Cognitive Development Research Group
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nation, Kate Living people British psychologists British women psychologists Fellows of the British Academy Fellows of St John's College, Oxford Alumni of the University of York Year of birth missing (living people)