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SILC Press for 2012

♦ Clifford, Stephanie (December 3, 2012). More Dads Buy the Toys, So Barbie, and Stores, Get Makeovers. Susan Levine (Co-PI) and SILC-funded research is mentioned in this article. Retrieved April 1, 2013.

♦ Fischer, Kim (July 31, 2012). Spatial skills may be improved through training, new review finds. Retrieved January 17, 2013.

♦ SILC's research helped inform Providence Children's Museum's new exhibit: ThinkSpace. See their blog about the exhibit: http://providencechildrensmuseum.blogspot.com/search/label/ThinkSpace. Retrieved December 6, 2012. Our PI, Nora Newcombe, and our SILC website are referenced at the bottom of one of their blog articles here. Retrieved December 17, 2012.

♦ Fischer, Kim (November 8, 2012). Spatial cognition researchers will connect through grant-funded virtual institute. SILC receives a Science Across Virtual Institutes (SAVI) grant from the National Science Foundation to create the Thematic Network in Spatial Cognition. Retrieved November 13, 2012.

♦ Paul, A. M. (October 24, 2012). Why Parenting Is More Important Than Schools. Time Magazine (on-line). The article cites SILC Faculty Member and Co-PI Susan Levine's work on the importance of counting at home. Retrieved October 25, 2012.

♦ Shellenbarger, Sue (August 29, 2012). Teaching Kids to Love Math: A worksheet for Math-phobic parents. Wall Street Journal on-line. Retrieved September 19, 2012. SILC co-PI, Susan C. Levine, is mentioned in the article: [Author] Sue Shellenbarger shared that she received a great response to the column and Susan Levine [mentioned in Paragrah 4] followed up with some other resources for parents interested in promoting mathematics learning among their preschoolers (quoted from William Harms, University of Chicago). Sue Shellenbarger's follow-up to her article: (September 25, 2012) Sue Shellenbarger answers readers' questions. Retrieved September 26, 2012: SILC Co-PIs, Susan Levine and Susan Goldin-Meadow, have been working on an update of the early childhood Everyday Mathematics curriculum, which is mentioned in a feature article on the University of Chicago website: Harms, William (March 3, 2012). Solving the puzzle of early learning. Retrieved September 26, 2012:

♦ Dreyfuss, Ira (2012). Audio clip: Space by the numbers. HHS HealthBeat. Our SILC Member, Elizabeth Gunderson is quoted in this clip. Retrieved September 26, 2012. Transcription of audio clip:

♦ Prossnitz, Lindsay (July 10, 2012 at 7:00 pm CST). Here is the webpage that includes the video clip from WTTW's Scientific Chicago with Neil Shubin: Mosquitoes, Spatial Learning, Lefties, Higgs Boson Particle. Both Susan Levine (Co-PI) and Elizabeth Gunderson (SILC Postdoc) highlight SILC research pertaining to spatial relationships and the understanding of numbers. Retrieved September 26, 2012. PDF of the webpage:

♦ Tricoles, Robin (June 18, 2012). The Benefits of Spatial Thinking. Our PI, Nora S. Newcombe, was interviewed for FABBS (Federation of Associations in Behavioral & Brain Sciences) Foundation's Foundation Science Communications program. Retrieved August 9, 2012.

♦ White, Mercedes (July 18, 2012). Fractions, spatial skills key for success in math, Deseret News. This article mentions research by our SILC Members, specifically Nora S. Newcombe (PI) [Picture This: Increasing Math and Science Learning by Improving Spatial Thinking ] and Shannon M. Pruden, Susan C. Levine (Co-PI), Janellen Huttenlocher [DOI: Children’s spatial thinking: Does talk about the spatial world matter?]. Retrieved July 23, 2012:

♦ Gunderson, E. A., Ramirez, G., Beilock, S. L., & Levine, S. C. (Co-PI) (2012, March). The Relation Between Spatial Skill and Early Number Knowledge: The Role of the Linear Number Line. Developmental Psychology. Retrieved June 18, 2012:

Retrieved July 12, 2012:

Scientific Chicago with Neil Shubin: Mosquitoes, Spatial Learning, Lefties, Higgs Boson Particle (WTTW Chicago Tonight: Scientific Chicago)

♦ Our SILC Faculty Member, Terry Regier has been exploring work on kinship, which draws on and develops the same general principles as his work on space and his earlier work on color.
Retrieved June 14, 2012:

Kemp, C. and Regier, T. (May 2012). Kinship Categories Across Languages Reflect General Communicative Principles. Science, 336(6084), 1049-1054. [doi: 10.1126/science.1218811 ]
Bruce Bower (May 24, 2012). Family labels framed similarly across cultures: Descriptions of kin reflect trade-off between simplicity and utility. Science News.

♦ Marlene Cimons (May 17, 2012). Science of Spatial Learning: Center seeks to transform teaching practices. U.S. News and World Report: Science. Retrieved May 17, 2012. This article is about our NSF-funded Science of Learning Center, The Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center (SILC).

♦ Two of our SILC Faculty Members, Kenneth D. Forbus and Dedre Gentner (Co-PI), received Laudations awarded by Helmut Schwarz, president of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. A short write-up on Forbus' award is available on the Northwestern University, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, website: Forbus lauded at 40th Symposium for Research Award Winners. Retrieved May 14, 2012.

Photo credits: Humboldt-Stiftung/ Fotostudio Albrecht G. W. Barthel, Bamberg.

♦ Harms, W. (April 5, 2012). Press Release (University of Chicago): Deaf children’s gesture mismatches provide clues to learning moments. Authors: Susan Goldin-Meadow (Co-PI), Aaron Shield, Daniel Lenzen (University of Chicago) and Melissa Herzig, Carol Padden (University of California, San Diego). Retrieved April 11, 2012. Permanent Link: More press coverage below:

♦ Villarica, H. (April 6, 2012). Professional Help: 5 Ways to Turn Your Preschooler into a Math Wiz. The Atlantic. Tips on how parents can help their preschoolers excel at mathematics from Susan Levine (Co-PI) and Graduate Student Elizabeth Gunderson, University of Chicago. Retrieved April 10, 2012. The link to the article is also listed under the press garnered for Early puzzle play: A predictor of preschoolers' spatial transformation skill. Permanent Link:

♦ SILC will be well represented at the upcoming CSS Conference in Sapporo, Japan, from 8/1 to 8/4 (Posted April 5, 2012):

Daniele Nardi, a former SILC postdoc now at La Sapienza in Rome has organized a symposium entitled "How Vertical Spaces Are Perceived and Represented". Other presenters are Steve Weisberg, a SILC graduate student from Temple, Frank Durgin from Swarthmore and Kate Jeffery from UCL.
Another graduate student from Temple, Ilyse Resnick, will be presenting an oral paper on “Examining the Representation and Understanding of Large Magnitudes Using the Hierarchical Alignment Model of Analogical Reasoning”.
From Northwestern University, Dedre Gentner and Stella Christie are part of a symposium on analogy where SILC work will be presented. Andrew Lovett is speaking about his Geometric Analogy model; the new model now accounts for over 90% of the variance in the behavioral data! And Ken Forbus will present at an intuitive physics symposium.
Chris Young, a SILC postdoc from the University of Chicago is presenting a poster on “Development of Graphical Understanding”.
Another SILC participant is Terry Regier from Berkeley, who has a paper accepted for oral presentation entitled “Grounding spatial language in non-linguistic cognition, co-authored with colleagues Michael Pacer and Alexandra Carstensen.

♦ Press coverage for SILC-generated research on: Early puzzle play: A predictor of preschoolers' spatial transformation skill by Susan C. Levine (Co-PI), Kristin R. Ratliff, Janellen Huttenlocher and Joanna Cannon. [DOI]. Retrieved March 14, 2012:

Retrieved March 27, 2012:

Retrieved April 10, 2012:

Professional Help: 5 Ways to Turn Your Preschooler into a Math Wiz (The Atlantic)

Retrieved April 26, 2012:

Puzzles improve spatial skills in children (The Conversation)

Retrieved July 26, 2012:

♦ Two of our SILC Faculty Members, Nora S. Newcombe (PI) and Thomas F. Shipley, delivered lectures on February 10, 2012 at the Department of Geography at Pennsylvania State University. For more information click on the flyer to the left.
Permanent link here:

♦ Megan Chiplock (Posting Date: January 25, 2012). Faculty Focus: Nora Newcombe. Retrieved January 26, 2012. [external link only. Also linked on our Talks & Interviews page].