Nicolas Chevalier

Nicolas Chevalier is a Reader in the Department of Psychology at the University of Edinburgh, affiliated with the School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences. He holds a Ph.D. from Aix-Marseille University and has held postdoctoral positions at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the University of Colorado Boulder. His research focuses on cognitive control development in children, leveraging behavioral experiments, neuroimaging (ERP, NIRS), and physiological methods to understand how children develop executive function, metacognitive strategies, and adaptive decision-making. He leads the Wee Science research group, collaborating with families and schools to study childhood cognition and learning.

His work spans developmental cognitive neuroscience, examining how environmental cues, cognitive resources, and prior experiences shape children’s ability to prioritize tasks and regulate attention. Key areas include statistical learning, metacognitive monitoring, and the genetic and environmental influences on executive function. Chevalier teaches Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience at the undergraduate level and supervises MSc and PhD students, emphasizing proactive control and its academic impacts.

His research has been funded by the ESRC, NIH, and Leverhulme Trust. Notable projects investigate the role of inner speech in ADHD, calcium dynamics in embryonic gut development, and genetic mediators of executive function. Chevalier’s publications bridge cognitive, developmental, and clinical psychology, with over 50 peer-reviewed articles since 2015.