Professor Richard Cowan

  • Qualifications and position:
    • BA, PhD, CPsychol, AFBPsS
    • Professor of Psychology of Education
  • Faculty:
  • Department:
  • Summary:
    • I have a background in psychology and my interest is in the contribution psychology can make to understanding children's development and education, particularly in mathematics in the primary phase
      Savant syndrome
  • Teaching:
  • Research Projects:
  • Postgraduate Research:
    • Number development in preschool and primary children
      Caroline Hilton: Mathematical development in children with Apert Syndrome
  • Professional Activities:
    • Associate Editor for British Journal of Educational Psychology
  • Conferences/presentations:
    • Individual differences in primary school children's number development. Department of Educational Studies Oxford University Seminar. October 2008.

      Factors that complicate the learning and teaching of mathematics. II Congreso Internacional Calidad Educativa, Querétaro, Mexico. October 2006.

      Difficulties in the acquisition of counting skill. World Association of Early Childhood Educators First International Conference on Logical Mathematical Thinking, Madrid, Spain. April, 2006.
Professor Richard Cowan

Contact details

Contact details

Publications

  • Cowan, R., Saxton, M., & Tolmie, A. (Eds.) (2010) Understanding number development and difficulties. BJEP Monograph Series II, Number 7. Leicester: The British Psychological Society.
  • Cowan, R., & Saxton, M. (2010) 'Understanding diversity in number development', British Journal of Educational Psychology Monograph Series II: Psychological Aspects of Education - Current Trends 7, 1-14.
  • Cowan, R., & Frith, C. (2009) 'Do calendrical savants use calculation to answer date questions? A functional magnetic resonance imaging study', Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society London B 364(1522), 1417-1424. (Reprinted in F. Happé & U. Frith (Eds.), Autism and talent (pp. 105-117). Oxford: Oxford University Press).
  • Donlan, C., Cowan, R., Newton, E. J. and Lloyd, D. (2007) 'The role of language in mathematical development: Evidence from children with Specific Language Impairment', Cognition 103, 23-33.
  • Cowan, R. and Carney, D. (2006) 'Calendrical savants: Exceptionality and practice', Cognition 100, B1-B9.
  • Rieffe, C., Meerum Terwogt, M. and Cowan, R. (2005) 'Children's understanding of mental states as causes of emotions', Infant and Child Development 14, 259-272.
  • Cowan, R., Donlan, C., Newton, E. J. and Lloyd, D. (2005) 'Number skills and knowledge in children with specific language impairment', Journal of Educational Psychology 97, 732-744.
  • Cowan, R., Stainthorp, R., Kapnogianni, S. and Anastasiou, M. (2004) 'The development of calendrical skills', Cognitive Development 19, 169-178.
  • Cowan, R. (2003) 'Does it all add up? Changes in children's knowledge of addition facts, strategies, and principles' In A. J. Baroody and A. Dowker (eds), The development of arithmetic concepts and skills: Constructing adaptive expertise. (pp. 35-74) Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  • Cowan, R., O'Connor, N. and Samella, K. (2003) 'The skills and methods of calendrical savants', Intelligence 31, 51-65.