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Brighton & Sussex Medical School

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BSMS > About BSMS > Contact us > Staff > Dr Rebecca Atkinson

Dr Rebecca Atkinson

Rebecca Atkinson profile photo

Biography

Rebecca atkinson is currently an NIHR ARC KSS Research Fellow working on the Living well with Dementia theme. Before joining the ARC KSS, she completed her PhD in Psychology at the University of Sussex. Her thesis explored the effect of carrying a genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease (the APOE-ɛ4 allele) and the impact of cognitive and leisure activities on healthy cognitive ageing across the lifespan. she then worked as a Lecturer in the School of Psychology at the University of Sussex, teaching research methods and statistics (using R).

Research

Rebecca has a wide range of research interests, centred on two themes: 1) how people can change their lifestyle to prevent or slow the onset of dementias, and 2) how to promote quality of life and functional independence in people with dementia. She is particularly interested in the impact of lifestyle factors (e.g., social engagement, cognitive and leisure activities, diet) on wellbeing and cognitive function in people with dementia. Rebecca has a keen interest in identifying barriers to dementia support for minority and disadvantaged groups. She uses a broad range of methods to investigate these topics, including both experimental and longitudinal modelling approaches.

BACKGROUND IMAGE FOR PANEL

Teaching

Rebecca teaches on Clinical Psychology and Mental Health (Year 2, MSc), BSMS Module 202: Neuroscience and Behaviour, and the Centre for Dementia Studies MSc in Dementia. 

She previously taught psychological research methods and statistics on Analysing Data (Year 1), Discovering Statistics (Year 2, MSc), Qualitative and Quantitative Methods (Year 2, MSc), An Adventure in Statistics (MSc), and Structural Equation Modelling (MSc).