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<Research>

I am a graduate student in the cognitive area of the Psychology department at the University of Wisconsin. My research is generally concerned with the mechanisms of learning in human cognition. I focus specifically on numerical and arithmetic learning. I do this through behavioral methods with adults and children. I am also interested in developing computational models of these aspects of cognition.

Curriculum Vitae (pdf)

<Publications and Presentations>

Prather, R. W. & Alibali, M. W. (2008). Understanding and using principles of arithmetic: Operations involving negative numbers. Cognitive Science, 32(2),  445-457.

Prather, R. W. (2007) Implicit Learning of Arithmetic Principles. In R. Alterman & D. Kirsch (Eds.), Proceedings of the Twenty-Ninth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (p. 1839). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Prather, R. W. & Alibali, M. W. (2004). Principles of arithmetic with positive and negative numbers. In K. Forbus, D. Gentner & T. Regier (Eds.), Proceedings of the Twenty-Sixth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (p. 1620). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Prather, R. W. & Boroditsky, L. (2003). Left of zero: Representations of negative numbers on the mental number line. In R. Alterman & D. Kirsch (Eds.), Proceedings of the Twenty-Fifth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (p. 1394). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Prather, R.W. & Alibali, M.W. (2007, October). Children's Arithmetic Principle Knowledge. Poster presented at the Beinnial Meeting of the Cognitive Development Society, Santa Fe, NM.

Prather, R. W. & Alibali, M. W. (2007, March). Knowledge of an arithmetic principle in symbolic and verbal contexts: Do children know what adults know? Poster presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Boston, Massachusetts.

Alibali, M. W. & Prather, R. W. (2007, March). Improvements in problem encoding lead to changes in strategy evaluations. Poster presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Boston, Massachusetts.

Hattikudur, S., Prather, R. W., Asquith, P., Knuth, E., Nathan, M. J., & Alibali, M. W. (2007, April). Graphing slope and intercept in middle school. Poster presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Boston, Massachusetts.

Hattikudur, S., Prather, R. W., Asquith, P., Knuth, E., Nathan, M. J., & Alibali, M. W. (2007, April). Constructing graphical representations: Exploring middle schoolers’ intuitions and developing knowledge about slope and intercept. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, Illinois.