Katie Carpenter

Katie Carpenter is a Post-Doctoral Researcher Associate at the University of Kent's School of Psychology, currently working under Dr Kirsten Abbot-Smith on cognitive constraints in conversational topic maintenance among autistic and typically developing children, with emphasis on cognitive flexibility and attention.

Her educational background features a PhD in Psychology from the University of Kent, funded by an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) studentship, where she investigated metacognition and mindreading in autistic adults.

Her research centers on cognitive mechanisms in autism spectrum disorder, examining how metacognitive processes and social-cognitive constraints influence communication. Key investigations include:

• Metacognitive accuracy disparities in autistic populations
• Cognitive flexibility's role in conversational dynamics
• Interest intensity modulation during topic maintenance
• Developmental trajectories of social communication

Publication trends (2022-2025) show evolution from meta-analytic reviews of adult metacognition toward experimental child-focused studies on conversation, highlighting methodological shifts toward real-time conversational analysis with neurodivergent participants.

No scientific awards were documented in available sources.

Funding includes ESRC support for doctoral research; current project details under Dr Abbot-Smith lack specified sponsorship. No student advising responsibilities are indicated.

She operates within Dr Abbot-Smith's experimental pragmatics team, collaborating across institutions including University of Cambridge and Autism Europe networks to investigate child conversational patterns through controlled experimental paradigms.