Dr Stuart Bell

Research Associate

Stuart completed an MA in Natural Sciences at Trinity College, Cambridge in 2000, where he was a Senior and Yeoman Scholar. Specialising in Experimental Psychology, he became interested in both linguistic processing and the nature of autism spectrum disorders, as a consequence of many stimulating conversations with Dr Matt Davis and Dr Fiona Scott. In 2004 he completed his PhD, "The Use of Linguistic Context by Children with Autism", which was supervised by Dr Kate Plaisted.

Now working as a postdoctoral researcher, Stuart is involved with a number of projects, including analysis of perceptual grouping by children with autism, the design of a linguistic analogy to the children's embedded figures test, and a series of experiments studying prototyping and peak shift effects in both adults and children. He is additionally working with Professor Nick Mackintosh and Dr Kate Plaisted on a project investigating sex differences in IQ, which also has possible implications for autism research.

Outside the lab, Stuart is a freelance producer for broadcast radio, a keen cyclist, and is also the lighting designer for many of Ely Cathedral's after-dark events.

Publications

Plaisted, K.C., Dobler, V.B., Bell, S.J., & Davis, G.J. (2006). The microgenesis of global perception in autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 36, pp.107-116.

Bell, S.J. (2004). The use of linguistic context by children with autism. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Cambridge.

Bell, S.J., Davis, M.H., & Plaisted, K.C. (in preparation). Children with autism exhibit reduced use of semantic context in continuous speech.

Bell, S.J., Davis, M.H., & Plaisted, K.C. (in preparation). A linguistic analogy to the embedded figures test.