About
Senior Lecturer
Areas of interest
My main research interests are:The representation of knowledge, the kinds of knowledge that is natural for humans to acquire, and the methods of learning that result in a constructive representation of knowledge. The domain of knowledge in which I specialize is numerical cognition and part of my study focuses on the improvement of numerical skills.
The mental representation and automatic processing of multi-element numbers like fractions and multi-digit numbers. When symbols are built of other – simpler – symbols, the automatic processing of the more complex symbol in influenced by the processing of its components. In my research I identify primitive entities that are stored in LTM as such. This information is useful to help us understand some of the difficulties encountered by children (and adults) in their processing of multi-element numbers.
The representation and processing of relative size and quantity (as opposed to absolute size and quantity). I am interested in the ways non-symbolic fractions and ratios are processed. For instance, how children before formal instructions about fractions process parts of the whole and proportions.