My research focus is on the neurocognitive development of numerical cognition using behavioral and computational methods, amongst others.

I am currently a postdoc in the Psychological and Brain Sciences department at Indiana University. Previoulsly I received my PhD at the University of Wisconsin and SB at MIT. Originally, I hail from Atlanta, GA.

rwprathe AT indiana DOT edu

Current & Upcoming

Prather, R. W. (in review) Arithmetic learning is influenced by neural priming of relative magnitude.

Prather, R. W. (2011) Further connecting neural coding to number cognition. Society for Neuroscience Conference. Neural Bases of Human Cognition and Attention Nanosymposium. (blurb in Scientific American)

Prather, R.W. (in prep) From Percept to Concept: A behavioral & computational exploration of development of magnitude perception.

Prather, R.W., Street, S., Smith, L.B. (in prep) Errors in writing numbers predict better number knowledge.

Prather, R. W., Stitzel, C. Mix, K., Smith, L. (in prep) Children's Early Knowledge of Physical and Written Number Systems.

Publications, Proceedings, Presentations

Prather, R. W. (accepted) Connecting neural coding to number cognition: A computational account. Developmental Science (preprint)

Prather, R. W. & Alibali, M.W. (2011).Children's Acquisition of Arithmetic Principles: The Role of Experience. Journal of Cognition and Development, 12(3) (pdf)

Hattikudur, S., Prather, R.W., Asquith, P., Knuth, E., Nathan, M. J., & Alibali, M. W. (2011). Constructing graphical representations: Middle schoolers’ developing knowledge about slope and intercept. School Science and Mathematics.

Prather, R. W. & Alibali, M. W. (2009).Development of arithmetic principle knowledge: How do we know what learners know? Developmental Review, 29(4), 221 - 248. (pdf)

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

Prather, R. W., et. al. (2011) Counting And Estimating: Developmental Relations Between Magnitude Estimation And Counting Skill. To be presented at Cognitive Development Society Conference 2011.

Prather, R.W. (2010) Change in Stimuli Encoding Facilitates Principle Acquisition. Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (p. xxx). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Prather, R. W. & Alibali, M. W. (2008). Implicit learning of arithmetic principles. In J. McClelland & J. Weng (Eds.), Proceedings of the 7th IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning. (pdf)

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. (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.

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.