Richard Allen

Professor Richard Allen holds the position of Professor of Cognitive Psychology at the University of Leeds, School of Psychology. He joined the university in 2008 as a Lecturer, became Associate Professor in 2015, and was promoted to full Professor in 2025. His academic journey includes a BSc and PhD in Psychology from the University of York, followed by postdoctoral research at the University of Bristol and University of York with renowned psychologists Alan Baddeley and Graham Hitch. He is an Associate Editor of Psychonomic Bulletin & Review (2019–2024) and previously served at Memory (2013–2019). He organized the 4th International Conference on Working Memory (2024) and is involved in international memory conferences. His research focuses on memory function across populations, including mechanisms of binding in working memory, attentional control, and aging. Key projects include ESRC-funded work on cognitive ageing and ARC-funded studies on cognitive offloading in children. He leads the Working Memory and Cognition (WoMCog) and Psychology of Ageing at Leeds (PAL) research groups, and his work is supported by grants from ESRC, ARC, and others. He has supervised over 20 PhD students and teaches at all levels in the School of Psychology.

Research interests emphasize memory binding, attention-memory interactions, and applications to education/clinical settings. His work explores how information is encoded, maintained, and retrieved across modalities, with a focus on lifespan development and neurodegenerative conditions. Recent studies include detecting long-term forgetting in epilepsy and improving memory strategies for older adults. He has pioneered concepts like 'visuospatial bootstrapping' and 'strategic prioritization' in memory research.