Dr Linda Mortimer is a cognitive psychologist and researcher specialising in mental health, and cognitive processes, with particular expertise in episodic future thinking. She is currently a Research Associate in Psychological Medicine at King’s College London, where she contributes to applied health research using qualitative and mixed-methods approaches to understand health behaviours, long-term conditions, and health inequalities.

She completed her PhD in Psychology at Goldsmiths, University of London in 2024, examining the role of episodic future thinking in perinatal mental health, with a focus on anxiety and worry during pregnancy.

Dr Mortimer has held lecturing roles at University of Westminster and Goldsmiths, University of London, and she is currently an Associate Lecturer with The Open University. Prior to entering academia, she worked as a secondary school teacher, teaching Psychology, Sociology, and the Extended Project Qualification, bringing extensive experience of education, curriculum delivery, and applied learning into her academic and research practice.

Research Interests

Dr Mortimer's research interests include stigma as a social process, the long-term psychological impact of chronic illness and the development of psychologically informed interventions. Her current research focus is the role schools play in tackling childhood obesity. Her work explores how future-oriented cognition influences health-related behaviours, emotional wellbeing, and responses to risk in both perinatal and adolescent populations. Linda’s current research examines psychological and social predictors of depression related to diabetes. She has a strong track record in translational research, collaborative partnerships, and developing evidence-based approaches to support mental and physical health outcomes

Research Groups

FORECAST - Future Oriented Research in Emotion, Cognition, And Spontaneous Thought

The FORECAST research group combines expertise, knowledge, and research related to prospective cognition in a number of contexts.

Areas of interest include:

Mental time travel
Prospective thinking biases
Ways to improve prospective cognition
The Relationship between prospective cognition and psychological wellbeing/distress
Spontaneous future thinking
The nature and function of future-oriented emotions
Children’s and adults’ understanding of time
Future identity