Courtney Hooton

Courtney Hooton is a postgraduate research student and Graduate Teaching Associate at the Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London. She holds a BSc (Hons) in Psychology from the same institution and is pursuing her PhD while contributing to teaching responsibilities.

Research Interests:

• Reading and language acquisition in children
• Role of orthography in teaching foreign vocabulary
• Naturalistic, research-informed methods for primary school language education
• Neuroscience of communication development
• Intersection of psychology and educational practice

Labs & Collaborations:

• Language and Reading Acquisition (LARA) Lab
• Neuroscience of Communication Development (N-CoDe) Lab

Educational Background:

• BSc (Hons) Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London (2019-2022), First Class Honours

Teaching Roles:

• Leads workshops and lab classes for Introduction to Psychological Research (PS1010)
• 40% teaching commitment under Graduate Teaching Associate studentship

Scientific Awards:

• EPS New Graduate Research Bursary (2022)

Professional Activities:

• Organizer of symposium at Society for the Scientific Study of Reading 31st Annual Conference (2024)
• Speaker at multiple conferences including SSSR and FRiLL (2024)
• Participant in Research & Practice Event 2024 focusing on vocabulary learning in noise

Projects:

• PhD studentship: "The role of orthography when teaching new foreign vocabulary in British primary schools" (2019-2026)
• Research Social Science Impact Accelerator: "Teenage Reading Network- student voices" (2024)