She is a research psychologist, best known for her studies into working memory deficits in children.
[2] Gathercole was born in 1958 in Macclesfield and lived in the Manchester area until the age of 13, when her family moved to Hertfordshire.
Following graduation, she won a Social Science Research Council studentship at City University, where she studied for a PhD, under the supervision of John Gardiner and Vernon Gregg, on the subject of auditory short-term memory.
[3] Gathercole's findings have demonstrated the link between working memory deficits in children and poor academic performance.
[4] Gathercole was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to psychology and education.