Susan Gathercole is the Unit Director at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit

Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit

The ' is a branch of the UK Medical Research Council, based in Cambridge, England. The CBSU is a world-leading centre for cognitive neuroscience, with a mission to improve human health by understanding and enhancing cognition and behaviour in health, disease and disorder...

. She is a research psychologist, best known for her studies into working memory

Working memory

Working memory has been defined as the system which actively holds information in the mind to do verbal and nonverbal tasks such as reasoning and comprehension, and to make it available for further information processing...

 deficits in children. She has worked extensively with Professor Alan Baddeley

Alan Baddeley

Alan David Baddeley FRS, CBE is a British psychologist. He is professor of psychology at the University of York. He is known for his work on working memory, in particular for his multiple components model.-Education:...

, the co-creator, along with Professor Graham Hitch

Graham Hitch

Professor Graham Hitch MA MSc PhD CPsychol is a Professor of psychology at the University of York, best known for his work with Alan Baddeley in developing a Working Memory Model....

, of arguably the most well-researched working memory model.

Gathercole's findings have demonstrated the link between working memory deficits in children and poor academic outcomes. Furthermore, she has contributed to recent research showing that working memory deficits can be overcome with computerised, adaptive working memory training.