Chris Ashwin
About Me
I did my undergraduate degree in Psychology at the University of Windsor in Ontario Canada.
This included an undergaduate thesis research project with Prof David Reynolds using computer
simulations to model large-scale brain activity and how it may be different in various psychiatric
conditions, including ADHD and autism. At this same time, I was also doing volunteer work at a
local children’s clinic and working with preschool children with autism doing ABA therapy in a
centre and in the home.
After seeing the difficulties of these wonderful children with autism and the troubles faced
by the families, I decided to try and further the understanding about autism spectrum
conditions. So I crossed the pond to England to do a PhD in autism research at the University of
Cambridge under the supervision of Prof Simon Baron-Cohen at the Autism Research Centre
(www.autismresearchcentre.com). My PhD research involved fMRI and computer-behvaioural
tasks investigating social-emotional functioning in people with autism spectrum conditions.
After completing my PhD I did a post-doc project at the ARC looking further at social-emotional
in autism spectrum conditions and also involving eye-tracking research.
I then did a post-doc at the University of Essex with Prof Elaine Fox looking at social-
emotional functioning in people with various anxiety conditions, and how it can be altered using
cognitive behavioural modification (CBM) paradigms. People with anxiety conditions typically
have attentional biases towards negative or threatening information, and CBM research uses
simple paradigms to shift attention away from threatening information and investigating the
effect this has on social and emotional processing.
I spent the summer of 2008 at the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge
doing further research testing with children, and then I took a position at the University of Bath
as a Lecturer in Cognitive Psychology. At Bath I am teaching various courses in Cognitive and
Biological Psychology and carrying out research on social cognitive neuroscience and how it
differs in people with autism spectrum conditions and anxiety. Anyone interested in doing a
PhD in one of these areas or who is interested in getting some research experience please
contact me.