BIOGRAPHY

Professor Christine Temple grew up in Edinburgh. She was awarded a Taylour Thomson bursary by the University of St Andrews and graduated with a first class honours degree in Psychology, also incorporating two years of study in Pure Mathematics. Awarded an EAP scholarship to the University of California, she studied at UCLA, graduating with an MA in Cognitive Psychology.

Returning to the UK for her doctoral work at the University of Oxford, she was supported by a Medical Research Council Studentship, and supervised by Professor John Marshall & Dr Freda Newcombe, whose innovative studies of gunshot injured war veterans contributed
substantially to the development of the field of Cognitive Neuropsychology.

Professor Temple's doctoral work addressed the patterns of reading disorder seen in neurological cases and in children with developmental dyslexia. Awarded a Weir Research Fellowship, at University College, Oxford, her studies of children with developmental disorders at the Medical Research Council's Neuropsychology Unit, broadened to incorporate studies of language, literacy and arithmetical disorders.

Moving to the University of London, Professor Temple was progressively Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and Reader in Neuropsychology. She was the youngest recipient in the UK to be awarded a Personal Research Award from the Wolfson Foundation.

Professor Temple established the Developmental Neuropsychology Unit. The Unit conducts research into a range of developmental and acquired neuropsychological disorders in children. Research grant support for the Unit has come from the ESRC, the Wellcome Trust, The Nuffield Foundation, the Leverhulme Trust, the Child Growth Foundation and the Universities of London and Essex. The Developmental Neuropsychology Unit, moved to the University of Essex in 1991 upon Professor Temple's appointment to the Foundation Chair of Psychology.

Professor Temple had responsibility for establishing the new undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes, and the research centre for the new department, which now has over 30 permanent members of academic staff and over 500 students.

From 2004-2010, Professor Temple was a member of the senior executive team at the University, having two, three-year terms as Pro Vice-Chancellor (Resources) and additionally was Pro Vice-Chancellor for the Faculty of  Science & Engineering from 2007-2010.

RESEARCH OVERVIEW

Professor Temple has made a fundamental contribution to the establishment of the field of Developmental Cognitive Neuropsychology.

Her research and publications address developmental disorders within Child Neuropsychology with current emphasis upon disorders of literacy, calculation, naming, memory and executive functions.

She also has particular interest in the genetic disorders Turner's Syndrome, Williams Syndrome and Klinefelter's Syndrome and Downs Syndrome as well as the disorder of callosal agenesis.

Professor Temple is the author of a range of scientific papers and chapters covering diverse topics within child neuropsychology. She is also the author of The Brain (Penguin, 1993) and Developmental Cognitive Neuropsychology (Psychology Press, 1997).

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Robinson, S. & Temple, C.M. (2012) Dissociations in mathematical knowledge: case studies in Downs syndrome and Williams syndrome. Cortex (in press)

 

Robinson, S. & Temple, C.M. (2012) Semantic knowledge fractionations: verbal propositions vs. perceptual input? Evidence from a child with Klinefelter syndrome.  Neurocase (in press)

 

Temple, C.M. & Shephard, E. (2012) Exceptional lexical skills but executive language deficits in school starters and young adults with Turners syndrome: implications for X chromosome effects on brain function. Brain and Language, 120, 345-359.

Robinson, S.J. & Temple, C.M. (2010) Atypical semantic knowledge and autobiographical memory disorder in a young adult with Downs syndrome. Neurocase, 16, 377-396

Temple, C.M. (2010) Klinefelter’s Syndrome. In R. D. Nass & Y. Frank(eds) Cognitive & Behavioural Manifestations of Pediatric Disease. Oxford University Press. New York.

Robinson, S.J. & Temple, C.M. (2009) The representation of semantic knowledge in a child with Williams syndrome. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 26, 307-337.
 
Temple, C.M. & Richardson, P. (2006) Developmental amnesias: Fractionation of developing memory systems. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 23, 762-788.

Temple, C.M. (2006) Developmental and Acquired Dyslexias. Cortex, 42, 898-910.

Temple, C.M. (2006) Genetic Disorders and the Brain. In M. Wilson, N. South, M. Sellens, & J. Pretty (ed) The University of Essex Guide to a Healthy Planet. University of Essex. Colchester.

Temple, C.M. (2007) Dyslexia. In A. Baum, S. Newman, J. Weinman, R.West and C. McManus(eds) Cambridge Handbook of Psychology Health and Medicine (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.

Temple, C.M. & Richardson, P. (2004) Developmental amnesia: a new pattern of dissociation with intact episodic memory. Neuropsychologia, 42, 764-781.

Temple, C.M. (2004) Developmental amnesia and acquired amnesias of childhood. In A Baddeley, M. Kopelman & B. Wilsin (Eds.) The Essential Handbook of Memory Disorders for Clinicians. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, West Sussex.

Rushe, T.M., Temple, C.M., Rifkin, L. Woodruff, P.W.R., Bullmore, E.T., Stewart, A., Simmons, A., Russell, T.A. and Murray, R.M. (2004) Lateralisation of language in young adults born very preterm. Archives of Diseases in Childhood, 89, 112-118.

Clahsen, H, Ring M & Temple C (2004). Lexical and morphological skills in English-speaking children with Williams Syndrome. In: S. Bartke & J. Siegmueller (eds.), Williams Syndrome Across Languages, Benjamins: Amsterdam.v36. 221-244.

Temple, C.M. (2003) Neuropsychological assessment of developmental disorders. In P. Halligan, U. Kischka & G. Beaumont (eds) Oxford Handbook of Clinical Neuropsychology. Oxford. OUP. 401-425.

Temple, C.M. & Martin Sanfilippo, P. (2003) Executive skills in Klinefleter's syndrome. Neuropsychologia, 41, 1547-1559.

Temple, C.M. (2003) Deep Dyslexia in Williams Syndrome. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 16, 457-488.

Clahsen, H. & Temple, C.M. (2003) Words and rules in children with William's syndrome. In Y. Levy and J. Schaeffer (eds) Language Competence Across Populations: Toward a Definition of Specific Language Impairment. Erlbaum. Hillsdale, NJ. pp 323-352.

Temple, C.M. (2002) Oral fluency and narrative production in children with Turner's syndrome. Neuropsychologia, 40, 1419-1427.

Temple, C.M. & Sherwood, S. (2002) Representation and retrieval of arithmetical facts: developmental difficulties. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 55A, 733-752.

Temple, C.M., Almazan, M. & Sherwood, S. (2002) Lexical skills in Williams' syndrome: A cognitive neuropsychological analysis. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 15, 463-495.

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