Nora S. Newcombe (born 1951 in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

) is the Laura H. Carnell Professor of Psychology and the James H. Glackin Distinguished Faculty Fellow at

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist minister Russell Conwell and his congregation Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia then called Ba ...

. She is a

Canadian-American Canadian Americans is a term that can be applied to American citizens whose ancestry is wholly or partly Canadian, or citizens of either country that hold dual citizenship. The term ''Canadian'' can mean a nationality or an ethnicity. Canadians ...

researcher in

cognitive development Cognitive development is a field of study in neuroscience and psychology focusing on a child's development in terms of information processing, conceptual resources, perceptual skill, language learning, and other aspects of the developed adult bra ...

cognitive psychology Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of mental processes such as attention, language use, memory, perception, problem solving, creativity, and reasoning. Cognitive psychology originated in the 1960s in a break from behaviorism, which ...

and cognitive science, and expert on the development of spatial thinking and

reasoning Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, lang ...

and

episodic memory Episodic memory is the memory of everyday events (such as times, location geography, associated emotions, and other contextual information) that can be explicitly stated or conjured. It is the collection of past personal experiences that occurred ...

. She was the

principal investigator In many countries, the term principal investigator (PI) refers to the holder of an independent grant and the lead researcher for the grant project, usually in the sciences, such as a laboratory study or a clinical trial. The phrase is also often us ...

of the Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center (2006-2018), one of six Science of Learning Centers funded by the

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...

Background

Newcombe attended

Antioch College Antioch College is a private liberal arts college in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Founded in 1850 by the Christian Connection, the college began operating in 1852 as a non-sectarian institution; politician and education reformer Horace Mann was its f ...

and completed an undergraduate degree in psychology in 1972. She continued her education at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, receiving a Ph.D. in psychology in 1976 under the supervision of

Jerome Kagan Jerome Kagan (February 25, 1929 – May 10, 2021) was an American psychologist, who was the Daniel and Amy Starch Research Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, as well as, co-faculty at the New England Complex Systems Institute. He was ...

. At Harvard, Newcombe collaborated with

Barbara Rogoff Barbara Rogoff is an American academic who is UCSC Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her research is in different learning between cultures and bridges psychology and anthropology. Education and c ...

and Kagan on studies of the development of

recognition memory Recognition memory, a subcategory of declarative memory, is the ability to recognize previously encountered events, objects, or people.Medina, J. J. (2008)The biology of recognition memory. ''Psychiatric Times''. When the previously experienced eve ...

. Newcombe taught at

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...

prior to joining the faculty of Temple University. Newcombe served terms as President of the American Psychological Association Division 7 (Developmental Psychology) (2001-2002), the

Eastern Psychological Association The Eastern Psychological Association (abbreviated EPA) is a professional organization for psychologists in the Eastern United States. It holds annual meetings where members present their research findings to colleagues. Established in 1896, it i ...

(2008-2009), the Cognitive Development Society (2009-2011), the

Federation of Associations in Behavioral & Brain Sciences The Federation of Associations in Behavioral & Brain Sciences (abbreviated FABBS) is a Washington, D.C.-based coalition of learned societies dedicated to psychology and related behavioral sciences. Its official journal is ''Policy Insights from t ...

(2018-2019), and the International Mind, Brain and Education Society. She previously served as the Chair of the Board of the

Cognitive Science Society The Cognitive Science Society is a professional society for the interdisciplinary field of cognitive science. It brings together researchers from many fields who hold the common goal of understanding the nature of the human mind. The society prom ...

and Chair of the Board of Scientific Affairs of the

American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States, with over 133,000 members, including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students. It ha ...

. Newcombe is an elected Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

, the

Society of Experimental Psychologists The Society of Experimental Psychologists (SEP), originally called the Society of Experimentalists, is an academic society for experimental psychologists. It was founded by Edward Bradford Titchener in 1904 to be an ongoing workshop in which memb ...

, the

Association for Psychological Science The Association for Psychological Science (APS), previously the American Psychological Society, is an international non-profit organization whose mission is to promote, protect, and advance the interests of scientifically oriented psychology in ...

, four divisions of the American Psychological Association, the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

, and the Cognitive Science Society. Newcombe was a

James McKeen Cattell James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...

Fellow for a sabbatical year at Princeton in 1999-2000. In 2020 she presented the

Paul B. Baltes Lecture The Paul B. Baltes lecture is held annually by the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. The lectures commenced in 2008 and are named after Paul Baltes, the German developmental psychologist. Each year the Academy selects a leadi ...

at the

Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities The Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (german: Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften), abbreviated BBAW, is the official academic society for the natural sciences and humanities for the States of Germany, German ...

. She is

Editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

of ''

Psychological Science in the Public Interest ''Psychological Science in the Public Interest'' is a triannual peer-reviewed open access academic journal covering issues in psychology of interest to the public at large. It is published by SAGE Publications on behalf of the Association for Psych ...

.'' She previously served as

of '' Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.''

Research

Newcombe 's contributions to

spatial cognition Spatial cognition is the acquisition, organization, utilization, and revision of knowledge about spatial environments. It is most about how animals including humans behave within space and the knowledge they built around it, rather than space itse ...

and its development are extensive. Her 2003 book ''Making Space,'' co-authored with

Janellen Huttenlocher Janellen Huttenlocher (February 17, 1932 – November 20, 2016) was a psychologist and professor known for her research in the field of the child's environment in the development of cognitive skills. She was the William S. Gray Professor Emer ...

, synthesized decades of research and provided a new direction for the field, and provided a new conceptualization of cognitive development different from either traditional nativist or from traditional empiricist approaches. In addition, she has worked on sex differences in cognition, beginning in the late 1970s with a critical look at a then-popular explanation of sex differences in spatial functioning in terms the onset of puberty. Since then, she has recognized the evolutionary and neural factors involved in sex differences while also emphasizing the malleability of cognitive ability as noted in the literature. (recently reprinted in a special issue celebrating 25 years of Applied Cognitive Psychology). Newcombe has been the keynote speaker discussing relevant developments in spatial cognition at several meetings such as the

Psychonomic Society The Psychonomic Society is an international scientific society of over 4,500 scientists in the field of experimental psychology. The mission of the Psychonomic Society is to foster the science of cognition through the advancement and communicati ...

, the American Psychological Society, the International Mind Brain Education Society and the German Psychological Society.

Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center

Newcombe led the Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center (SILC), one of 6 NSF-funded Science of Learning Centers that explore learning in an interdisciplinary framework, during its grant period from 2006-2018. She has thus brought spatial cognition to the forefront of our conceptualization of the human intellect and its potential for learning. In her work on memory and memory development, Newcombe has integrated research from adult cognitive psychology and neuroscience to the study of development, both in terms of distinctions between implicit and explicit memory and distinctions between semantic and episodic memory.

Awards

* APA Ernest R. Hilgard Lifetime Achievement Award (2020) * Psychonomic Society Clifford T. Morgan Distinguished Leadership Award (2020) * Society of Experimental Psychologists Howard Crosby Warren Medal (2019) * Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award from the

Society for Research in Child Development The Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) is a professional society for the field of human development, focusing specifically on child development. It is a multidisciplinary, not-for-profit, professional association with a membership of ...

(2015) * APA

William James Fellow Award The William James Fellow Award is an award of the Association for Psychological Science which "honors APS Members for their lifetime of significant intellectual contributions to the basic science of psychology". The requirement is that "recipient ...

(2014) * APA

G. Stanley Hall Granville Stanley Hall (February 1, 1846 – April 24, 1924) was a pioneering American psychologist and educator. His interests focused on human life span development and evolutionary theory. Hall was the first president of the American Psy ...

Award (2007) * APA Award for Distinguished Service to Psychological Science (2006) * Women in Cognitive Science Mentorship Award (2006) * APA George A. Miller Award for an Outstanding Recent Article on General Psychology ** (2003) Nora Newcombe, "The nativist-empiricist controversy in the context of recent research on spatial and quantitative development." ''Psychological Science,'' 2002, 13, 395-401. ** (2014) David H. Uttal, Nathaniel G. Meadow, Elizabeth Tipton, Linda L. Hand, Alison R. Alden, Christopher Warren, & Nora S. Newcombe. "The malleability of spatial skills: A meta-analysis of training studies.” ''Psychological Bulletin'', 2013, 139(2), 352-402.

Selected works

Theory

* Newcombe, N. S. (2011). What is neoconstructivism? ''Child Development Perspectives'', 5, 157-160
DOI: 10.1111/j.1750-8606.2011.00180.x
* Newcombe, N. S. (2002). The nativist-empiricist controversy in the context of recent research on spatial and quantitative development. ''Psychological Science'', 13, 395-401
DOI:10.1111/1467-9280.00471

Spatial Development

* Learmonth, A. E., Nadel, L. & Newcombe, N. S. (2002). Children's use of landmarks: Implications for modularity theory. ''Psychological Science'', 13, 337-341
PMID URL
* Newcombe, N. S. (2010). Picture this: Increasing math and science learning by improving spatial thinking. ''American Educator'', ''34''(2), 29-35. * Newcombe, N. S., Ratliff, K. R., Shallcross, W. L. & Twyman, A. D. (2010). Young children's use of features to reorient is more than just associative: Further evidence against a modular view of spatial processing. ''Developmental Science'', 13, 213-22
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2009.00877.x
* Newcombe, N. S. & Huttenlocher, J. (2000). ''Making space: The development of spatial representation and reasoning.'' MIT Press. * Twyman, A. D. & Newcombe, N. S. (2010). Five reasons to doubt the existence of a geometric module. ''Cognitive Science'', 34, 1315-135
DOI: 10.1111/j.1551-6709.2009.01081.x

Sex Differences

* Newcombe, N. S. & Bandura, M. M. (1983). Effects of age at puberty on spatial ability in girls: A question of mechanism. ''Developmental Psychology'', 19, 215-224
DOI: 10.1037/0012-1649.19.2.215
* Terlecki, M. S., Newcombe, N. S. & Little, M. (2008). Durable and generalized effects of spatial experience on mental rotation: Gender differences in growth patterns. ''Applied Cognitive Psychology'', 22, 996-101
DOI: 10.1002/acp.1420

Memory

* Newcombe, N. S. & Fox, N. (1994). Infantile amnesia: Through a glass darkly. ''Child Development'', 65, 31-40
jstor Stable URL
*Newcombe, N. S., Lloyd, M. E. & Ratliff, K. R. (2007). Development of episodic and autobiographical memory: A cognitive neuroscience perspective. In R. V. Kail (Ed.), ''Advances in Child Development and Behavior'', 35, (pp. 37–85). San Diego, CA: Elsevier
PMID URL

References

External links

Nora S. Newcombe, Department of Psychology, Temple University
(URL up-dated 9/25/2013)
Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center (SILC)Temple Infant and Child Laboratory
*See an , who is co-director of the Infant Lab along with

Kathy Hirsh-Pasek Kathy Hirsh-Pasek is the Stanley and Deborah Lefkowitz Professor of Psychology at Temple University in Philadelphia, where she directs the Temple University Infant Language Laboratory. She is the author of 14 books and over 200 publications on ear ...

. Produced by Temple University.
Research in Spatial Cognition (RISC) Lab
{{DEFAULTSORT:Newcombe, Nora 1951 births Living people American cognitive psychologists Harvard University alumni Fellows of the Cognitive Science Society Antioch College alumni Canadian psychologists Developmental psychologists Temple University faculty