Nora S. Newcombe, Ph.D.

 

Email:  newcombe@temple.edu
Phone: (215) 204-6944

 

Interests: Spatial development and spatial cognition, individual differences in spatial ability, spatial thinking in PK-12 education and college teaching. Development of episodic and autobiographical memory.

 

Profile: Nora S. Newcombe, Ph.D. , is a Professor of Psychology at Temple University and PI of the Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center (SILC), headquartered at Temple and involving Northwestern, the University of Chicago and the University of Pennsylvania as primary partners. Dr. Newcombe was educated at Antioch College, where she graduated with a major in psychology in 1972; and at Harvard University, where she received her Ph.D. in Psychology and Social Relations in 1976. She taught previously at Penn State University.

A nationally recognized expert on cognitive development, Dr. Newcombe's research has focused on spatial development and the development of episodic and autobiographical memory. Her work has been federally funded by NICHD and the National Science Foundation for over 30 years. She is the author of numerous scholarly chapters and articles on aspects of cognitive development, and the author or editor of five books, including Making Space: The Development of Spatial Representation and Reasoning (with Janellen Huttenlocher) published by the MIT Press in 2000.

 

Dr. Newcombe has served as Editor of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General and as Associate Editor of Psychological Bulletin, as well as on numerous editorial boards and grant review panels. She is currently an Associate Editor for Cognitive Psychology and for WIRES in Cognitive Science. Honors include the George Miller Award and the G. Stanley Hall Awards from APA, the Award for Distinguished Service to Psychological Science, also from APA, and the Women in Cognitive Science Mentor Award. She is a fellow of four divisions of the American Psychological Association (General, Experimental, Developmental, and Psychology of Women), of the American Psychological Society, and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton, and the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Society of Experimental Psychologists.

Recent News and Events

Dr. Newcombe is quoted in these articles:

http://www.fabbs.org/fabbs-foundation/science-communications/the-benefits-of-spatial-thinking/

 

HEALTH | June 11, 2012 Well: The Makings of Our Earliest Memories By PERRI KLASS, M.D. Memories can form in even very young children, it seems, but it is not clear that they can be retrieved. <a href="http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/11/the-makings-of-our-earliest-memories/" class="more-link">Read more...</a>

Faculty Focus: Nora Newcombe
As part of a periodic video series profiling Temple faculty, Nora Newcombe, professor of psychology, discusses her work in the area of spatial intelligence. A nationally-recognized expert on cognitive development, Newcombe has a special interest in understanding how spatial ability develops, especially in children, and in applying that knowledge in educational settings.
Read more and view video [...]

How do people acquire knowledge? What are the mechanisms of cognitive development? Rochel Gelman brought together cognitive and developmental psychologists to grapple with these questions in a 1990 Special Issue of Cognitive Science that was influential in drawing attention to constraints on learning.  Twenty years later, Vladimir Sloutsky has brought together a panel of psychologists to debate anew the development of the human mind, with a particular focus on domain general and domain specific learning mechanisms. This 20th anniversary special issue of Cognitive Science can be found here!: Cognitive Science 34

Dr. Newcombe's article, Picture This, is featured in the Summer 2010 edition of American Educator. Follow the link to read the article: Picture This.

Dr. Newcombe is highlighted in an article in the September 4 edition of Science Magazine. Follow the link to read the entire article: 1190-b

Dr. Newcombe is highlighted in the July/August edition of the APS Observer. Follow the link to read the entire article: http://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/getArticle.cfm?id=2532

Dr. Newcombe gives presidential address at the recent 2009 EPA meeting. See her presentation here: EPA Presidential Address 2009

 

Read other recent articles about, or by, Dr. Newcombe:

http://www.slate.com/id/2194486/entry/2194525/

http://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/getArticle.cfm?id=2331

http://www.apa.org/science/psa/dec06cos.html

http://chronicle.com/article/A-Plea-for-Spatial-Literacy/20863

http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/524238/

http://www.apa.org/ppo/issues/nora0906.html

http://www.apa.org/monitor/apr05/culture.html

 

Nora Newcombe has recently received the following honors:

* Keynote speaker at the Psychonomics Society 2011; the talk can be downloaded from http://www.psychonomic.org/annual-meeting.html

* President of the Eastern Psychological Association.

* The American Psychological Association's Division 7 (Developmental Psychology) 2007 G. Stanley Hall Award for Distinguished Contribution to Developmental Psychology.

* Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Cambridge, MA.

* The American Psychological Association's 2006 Award for Distinguished Service to Psychological Science.

* Women in Cognitive Science Mentorship Award (2006).

* The American Psychological Association's Division 2 (Society for the Teaching of Psychology) 2006 G. Stanley Hall Lecturer.

* The George A Miller Award for an Outstanding Recent Article in General Psychology. Dr. Newcombe won the award for her article "The nativist-empiricist controversy in the context of recent research on spatial and cognitive development." Psychological Science , 2002, 13 , 395-401.

* The James H. Glackin Distinguished Term Faculty Fellow in Psychology.

* Temple University's 2004 Paul W. Eberman Faculty Research Award.

The 10th Annual CNSF Congressional Exhibition and Reception, Science at Work

The Coalition for National Science Funding held its 10th Annual CNSF Exhibition and Reception for Members of Congress, Science @ Work, on June 22. The purpose of the annual event is to showcase the crucial role of the National Science Foundation in meeting the nation's research and education needs. This year the Exhibition attracted a capacity crowd of over 370 people, including Members of Congress Bartlett R-MD, Coble R-NC, Ehlers R-MI, Etheridge D-NC, Hobson R-OH, Regula R-OH; John Marburger, Science Advisor to the President and Director of OSTP, Arden Bement, Interim Director of the NSF, and Joe Bordogna, Assistant Director of the NSF, Congressional staffers; and staff from OSTP and NSF. OPC staff joined SRCD member, Dr. Nora Newcombe of Temple University's Infant Lab in her poster presentation on spatial learning development. Dr. Newcombe also visited with representatives Jim Gerlach (R-PA) and Chaka Fattah (D-PA) to advocate for NSF funding, accompanied by OPC staff.

Dr. Newcombe at the CNSF Congressional Exhibition and Reception

The 2004 NAEYC Symposium on Assessment

At a meeting for the National Institute for Early Childhood Professional Development in Baltimore (June 20-23, 2004), Temple researchers participated in a session entitled "Using Science to Inform Preschool Assessment". The session showcased the existing knowledge base that is available about preschool development and assessment. Given the inadequacy of existing assessment tools for children 2 to 4 years old, the development of new methods and instruments is severely needed. Examples of the science behind several developmental domains and recommendations for how assessment could be improved were presented.

The 2004 NAEYC Symposium on Assessment

From Left: Nora Newcombe, Aquiles Iglesias, Anita Kochanoff, Marsha Weinraub, Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Herbert Ginsburg