Specialist Research Laboratory

Mathematical Cognitive Development Laboratory

Research Activities

The aim of the research conducted by members of the Mathematical Cognitive Developmental Laboratory is to identify the cognitive, neurological, socio-cultural and educational bases of children's mathematical reasoning. We are especially interested in identifying different patterns of mathematical understanding and in the ways these patterns change or remain stable over time.

Current Areas of Research

Among other issues, we are currently conducting research on:

1. individual differences in preschool children's number, quantity and measurement competencies
2. transitions between informal and formal fractional number understanding
3. the cognitive and neurological bases of dyscalculia in young children
4. the relationships between the development of mathematical, language and general cognitive concepts across the primary-school years
5. the nature of indigenous children's number and measurement concepts
6. children's mathematical reasoning practices in difference cultural settings
7. the significance of individual differences in children's proportional reasoning
8. using interactive assessment to evaluate children's mathematical learning potential in rational number and algebra
9. the nature of students' analogical reasoning about rational number concepts
10. individual differences in the development of primary-school aged children's addition and subtraction concepts.

Research Staff:

• Professor Brian Butterworth, Professorial Associate, Department of Psychology, University of Melbourne (Professor of Cognitive Neurosciences & Psychology, University College, London)
• Dr Katherine Canobi, ARC Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Psychology, University of Melbourne.
• Professor David Clarke, Mathematics and Science Education, University of Melbourne
• Professor Philippa Pattison, Department of Psychology, University of Melbourne
• Associate Professor Robert Reeve, Department of Psychology, University of Melbourne

Research assistants:

• Judi Humberstone, Fiona Reynolds PhD, Elizabeth Thomas

Funding & Grants Information:

Research conducted in the laboratory is funded through grants from the following sources (eg):

Current Research Students:

• Rowena Beecham: Cognitive bases of mathematics and musical competence
• Joan Marsh: Individual differences in students' fraction analogies
• Fiona Reynolds: Individual differences in children's proportional reasoning