What do children know about mathematics before they start learning it in school? How do external factors like language, education, and culture affect children’s understanding? What is the best way to structure an environment so they have the building blocks needed for success in math? These are just some of the questions Notre Dame psychologist Nicole McNeil seeks to answer in her research, for which she recently received a three-year, $565,000 grant from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES). Read More

From the moment they’re born, babies are highly attuned to communicate and motivated to interact. And they’re great listeners. New psychology research from the University of Notre Dame shows that during the first year of life, when babies spend so much time listening to language, they’re actually tracking word patterns that will support their process of word-learning that occurs between the ages of about 18 months and two years. Read More

Research G.A. Radvansky recently published in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology is attracting all sorts of media attention. The story—about how walking through a doorway affects memory—was picked up by Men’s Health Magazine, MSNBC.com, Freakonomics, U.S. News & World Report, Time, National Geographic, ABC News, CBS News, The Huffington Post, and dozens of other news outlets around the world (including Canada, the United Kingdom, India, Korea) and even on the Middle East North Africa Financial Network. Go ahead and Google it. But best of it all, it was the set-up for a joke on Leno! Leno! Read More