Kathleen Rastle

Kathleen Rastle is a leading figure in cognitive psychology at Royal Holloway, University of London, where she has been Professor since 2006. Her career spans significant leadership roles including Head of Psychology Department (2015-2019) and Associate Vice Principal for Research (2014-2015). She holds an international reputation through her honorary associate role at Australia's Centre for Cognition and its Disorders since 2002.

• Education
  • PhD in Cognitive Science, Macquarie University (1997)
  • BA in Psychology, Pomona College (1992)

Rastle's research focuses on the cognitive mechanisms underlying language processing and reading acquisition. She investigates how orthographic representations facilitate reading, computational modeling of cognition, and evidence-based reading education policies. Her work bridges laboratory research with real-world educational implementation.

Her publications demonstrate dominant themes in neuroimaging studies, reading research, and psycholinguistics. Key subfields include morphology in literacy development, stress assignment in speech production, and phonics-based instruction validation. Her 2001 DRC model remains foundational in visual word recognition research with over 3,885 citations.

• Scientific Recognition
  • Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (2018)
  • British Psychological Society Cognitive Section Prize (2018)
  • Experimental Psychology Society Mid-Career Prize Lecturer (2017)
  • Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (2010)
  • Fellow of the British Psychological Society (2011)

As Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Memory & Language and former associate editor for multiple journals, Rastle shapes academic discourse. She has secured extensive funding from ESRC, BBSRC, Leverhulme Trust, and international agencies (Australian Research Council, National Research Foundation Korea), totaling £3.75 million over a decade.