Research
My research interests lie in the development of non-literal language skills (e.g. irony) in children. I am also interested in the impact cognitive (e.g. cognitive flexibility) and mentalising skills may have on this development. Whereas the understanding of non-literal language in typically developing children develop over time, we are still lacking a satisfying description of why this type of language use continue to be challenging for most children with autism. In the Research Council of Norway FINNUT project, Creativity and Convention in Pragmatic Development, our goal is to use a combination of implicit (eye gaze) and explicit (forced-choice tasks) techniques to clarify which factors that are involved in this development
Background
2020: PhD Psychology, Lancaster University (Supervisor: Charlie Lewis)
2013: MSc Developmental disorders, Lancaster University
2012: BSc Psychology, University of Stirling
2019/2020: RA at The University of Edinburgh- Managing Repetitive Behaviour:
A clinical and cost effectiveness trial of a parent group intervention to manage restricted and repetitive behaviours in young children with Autism
(PI: Sue Fletcher-Watson)
Teaching
2021: HON2120 21H Innføring i tverrfaglige forskningsmetoder for honours-studenter
2022: LING1107- vår 2022
Awards
2015-2019: PhD teaching scholarship
(Faculty of Science and Technology, Lancaster University)
Publications
Iversen, R. K., & Lewis, C. (2021). Executive Function Skills Are Linked to Restricted and Repetitive Behaviors: Three Correlational Meta Analyses. Autism Research, https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.2468
Grahame, V., Dixon, L., Fletcher-Watson, S., Garland, D., Glod, M., Goodwin, J., Grayson, Z., Heron, S., Honey, E. Iversen, R. et al. (2021) A clinical and cost-effectiveness trial of a parent group intervention to manage challenging restricted and repetitive behaviours in young children with autism spectrum disorder: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial. Trials. 22, 240. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-021-05175-y