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Dr. John W. Adams |
Research area - Cognitive Development & Education
Department of Psychology
University of Durham (Queen's Campus)
University Boulevard
Thornaby
Stockton-on-Tees
Cleveland
TS17 6BH
E-mail: j.w.adams@durham.ac.uk
Tel: +44 0191 334 0108
Fax: +44 0191 334 0006
Brief autobiography
After graduating from UCNW Bangor with a degree in Psychology (1992), I moved on to Lancaster University where I completed a MSc in Psychological Research Methods in 1993. Subsequently, I embarked on a PhD in working memory and children's arithmetic with Professor Graham Hitch. From January 1997, I worked as a Research Fellow with Professors Charles Hulme and Maggie Snowling at the Centre for Reading and Language (Department of Psychology), University of York. In September 1999 I became a lecturer of Psychology at the University of Durham (Queen's Campus, Stockton), where I teach developmental and educational psychology on the BSc Applied Psychology programme.
Research interests -
My core research interest is in cognitive development and its relation to educational attainment. My work has included investigations on the cognitive aspects of behaviour problems in primary school children, the role of short-term (working) memory in the development of reading and arithmetic, and the phonological skills children have when beginning to read. The common goal of these studies is to understand the relationship (from an individual differences perspective) between underlying cognitive skills and attainment in children with and without learning difficulties. The aim of such work is to facilitate the early identification of children at risk of developing problems in literacy and numeracy. I am also interested in how knowledge is represented in the brain. Recent studies have investigating visuospatial cognition in adult's and children's numerical processing, the development of analogical reasoning, a modelling approach to solving anagrams, and developmental dyscalculia.
Currently I am working on an interdisciplinary
project called SynergyNet.
Central to SynergyNet is a new form of
computer interface (for desks and presentation boards) that each integrate a
large built-in multi-touch surface. So, within the SynergyNet classroom, a
single multi-touch desk will operate as a set of individual computerised work
spaces and/or a single large digital workspace allowing pupils both to work
individually and to collaborate on a task.
Postgraduate students -
I have supervised and currently supervising a number of postgraduate students in the areas of reading and
mathematical development, mathematical difficulties and working memory.
My other pages
- A collection of useful academic links, including psychology, education and careers.
- A complete list of my publications.
- Links to my courses and lecture notes via DUO......
Last updated 23rd February 2011
“There’s something about a university that gets into the blood. It is a place not of the world; it partakes of a certain fantasy. It is, in many ways, not entirely sane. The reaching after knowledge becomes a purpose that bears no relationship to reality.”
(Clifford D. Simak, 1976).