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Research Areas:

• Cognitive
• Developmental

Does Dr. Thompson plan to recruit a doctoral student for the next incoming class?

Research Interests:

Research in the KSU Cognitive Development Lab investigates the ways children learn, develop strategies to solve problems, generalize knowledge to novel contexts, and remember information. Current projects in the KSU Cognitive Development Lab focus on shifts in children's numerical representations with increasing age and experience, circumstances under which transfer of numerical knowledge is facilitated or inhibited, children's use of "buggy" estimation strategies, how children draw analogies between numerical contexts to help them solve problems, the costs and benefits of representational change, and the impact that numerical representations have on the types of numbers children are able to remember. Research in the KSU Cognitive Development Lab can inform classroom interventions and best practices in teaching children about numbers.

Lab Site:

COURSES FREQUENTLY TAUGHT:

• PSYC 11762 - 007 General Psychology - Honors
• PSYC 41574 - 001 Lab Exper : Cognitive / Learning

Selected Publications:

• Sidney, P., Thompson, C. A., & Rivera, F. (2019). Number lines, but not area models, support children’s accuracy and conceptual models of fraction division. Contemporary Educational Psychology. Full Text
• Sidney, P., Thalluri, R., Buerke, M., & Thompson, C. A. (2018). Who uses more strategies? Linking mathematics anxiety to adults’ strategy variability and performance on fraction magnitude tasks. Thinking & Reasoning. 
• Opfer, J. E., Thompson, C. A., & Kim, D. (2016). Free versus anchored numerical estimation: A unified account. Cognition, 149, 11-17. 
• Wall, J., Thompson, C. A., Dunlosky, J., Merriman, W. (2016). Children can accurately monitor and control their number-line estimation performance. Developmental Psychology, 52, 1493-1502.  
• Ratcliff, R., Thompson, C. A., & McKoon, G. (2015). Modeling individual differences in response time and accuracy in numeracy. Cognition, 137, 115-136.
• Fazio, L. K., Bailey, D. H., Thompson, C. A., & Siegler, R. S. (2014). Relations of different types of numerical magnitude representations to each other and to mathematics achievement. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 123, 53-72.
• Siegler, R. S., & Thompson, C. A. (2014). Numerical landmarks are useful—except when they’re not. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 120, 39-58.
• Ratcliff, R., Love, J., Thompson, C. A., & Opfer, J. E. (2012). Children are not like older adults: A diffusion model analysis of developmental changes in speeded responses. Child Development, 83, 367-381.
• Siegler, R. S., Thompson, C. A., & Schneider, M. (2011). An integrated theory of whole number and fractions development. Cognitive Psychology, 62, 273-296.
• Opfer, J. E., Thompson, C. A., & Furlong, E. (2010). Early development of spatial-numeric associations: Evidence from spatial and quantitative performance of preschoolers. Developmental Science, 13(5), 761-771.
• Thompson, C. A., & Opfer, J. E. (2010). How 15 hundred is like 15 cherries: Effect of progressive alignment on representational changes in numerical cognition. Child Development, 81, 1768-1786.
• Thompson, C. A., & Siegler, R. S. (2010). Linear numerical magnitude representations aid children’s memory for numbers. Psychological Science, 21, 1274-1281.
• Siegler, R. S., Thompson, C. A., & Opfer, J. E. (2009). The logarithmic-to-linear shift: One learning sequence, many tasks, many time scales. Mind, Brain, & Education, 3, 143-150.
• Opfer, J. E., & Thompson, C. A. (2008). The trouble with transfer: Insights from microgenetic changes in the representation of numerical magnitude. Child Development, 79, 790-806.
• Thompson, C. A., & Opfer, J. E. (2008). Costs and benefits of representational change: Effects of context on age and sex differences in magnitude estimation. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 101, 20-51.