Brenda Smith-Chant
Associate Professor and Psychology Department Chair

Research interests:

I am interested in cognitive development from the perspective that the experiences of children during the

development and acquisition of basic cognitive skills, such as reading and arithmetic, has a fundamental

influence on how information is organized in their memory as adults.  Accordingly, my research follows

three main streams:  1)  How children acquire basic math and literacy skills, particularly the influence

that their preschool learning environment has on their performance;  2)  How the performance of adults

reflects strategies developed during the process of learning basic math and literacy skills in childhood;

and 3)  Individual differences and atypical development of math and literacy skills.  My main project in

this stream is based on a longitudinal study of children with Spina Bifida who are at elevated risk of

developing a specific mathematics learning disability.

Teaching
PSYC-1030H-A WI PTBO:    Introduction to Psychology Part II: Social and Personality Perspectives.  

PSYC-1030H-B WI PTBO:    Introduction to Psychology Part II: Social and Personality Perspectives.

Selected publications

Smith-Chant, B.L. & LeFevre, J.(in press).  Doing as they are told and telling it like it is: Participant reactivity to

   self-report methodologies.  Memory & Cognition.

LeFevre, J., Smith-Chant, B.L., Hiscock, K., Daley, K., & Morris, J. (2002).  Young adults' strategic choices in

   simple arithmetic: Implications for the development of mathematical representations.  In A.J. Baroody & A.

   Dowker (Eds.)  The development of arithmetic Concepts and skills: Recent research and theory.  Mahwah, NJ: 

   Lawrence Erlbaum.

LeFevre, J., Lei, Q., Smith-Chant, B.L., & Mullins, D. (2001).  Multiplication by eye and by ear for Chinese-

   speaking and English-speaking adults.  Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 55, 277-284.

Sénéchal, M., LeFevre, J., Smith-Chant, B.L., & Colton, K. (2001).  On refining theoretical models of emergent

   literacy: The role of empirical evidence.  Journal of School Psychology, 39, 439-460.