[2] Yardley studied psychology for her BSc at the University of Southampton, and during her undergraduate days formed links with the local community which resulted in her decision to stay in the area to progress her further training.
After completing her MSc in 1986, she worked as an audiologist at the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research and then at the Royal South Hants Hospital.
During her studies she also lectured at the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, but subsequently was invited to take up a non-clinical research position in the MRC Human Movement and Balance Unit at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London (now part of the University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust) where she completed her PhD and embarked on her career as an academic psychologist, specialising in psychological aspects of vestibular (dys)function.
[8] She then led the EPSRC-funded ‘UBhave’ programme to develop software for creating interventions for mobile phones, known as the ‘LifeGuide Toolbox’.
[8] She was awarded the title of Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences in 2010,[2] and in 2018 she was elected as a Fellow of the British Psychological Society.