She holds a PhD in Psychology visual processing and is now an emeritus professor of clinical neuropsychology at the University College London.
As of June 2015, she is an emeritus professor of clinical neuropsychology at the University College London, specifically in the UCL Institute of Neurology.
Warrington played a key role in the British development of Cognitive Neuropsychology a research approach that has had implications beyond the clinical sphere, providing important insights into the way that the normal human brain perceives, remembers, and talk about words, objects and events.
In one of Warrington's earliest studies, she investigated eighty right-handed patients who showed signs of a unilateral cerebral lesion resulting from problems such as a stroke or tumor.
The results of these studies provided evidence of hemispheric lateralisation of function[3] and also had a major impact on David Marr's theory of object recognition.
Entirely by accident, Warrington working together with Lawrence Weiskrantz discovered a task in which patients with severe amnesia displayed signs of memory.
One of her most influential collection of tests is the Visual Object and Space Perception Battery, or the VOSP, published by Warrington and Merle James in 1991.
This collection of tests was based on over twenty years' research into object and spatial perception in people with damage confined to one side of the brain.
Although the tests were originally devised to investigate theoretical issues, they have excellent selectivity and sensitivity in a clinical context leading to their wide adoption.
The VOSP tests were designed to place limited demands on other cognitive abilities and are generally easy for people without brain disorders.
VESPAR is able to overcome many restraints that arise when performing more conventional reasoning tests by using stimuli that is more readily accessed by patients with physical or cognitive impairments due to neurological illness.
Thus, although originally developed for adult neurological populations, the test is suitable for a wide range of clinical, educational, occupational, and research applications.