Associate Professor

Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience

Office: 213B Hobbs
Phone: 615-343-6072
Fax: 615-343-9494
Email: 

Personal Website

Curriculum Vitae

---

Degrees

• B.S. (The University of Iowa, 1981)
• Ph.D. (Stanford University, 1986)

Research Area

• Professor Novick's research is focused on examining the strategies, processes, and representations that college students use to reason and solve problems. On the one hand, she is interested in skilled problem solving, including its relation to less skilled problem solving, so her work often considers individual differences. On the other hand, she is also interested in general principles of, or constraints on, cognition that are related to reasoning and problem solving. She has studied these issues in a variety of content domains, which were chosen because they are good ones for investigating questions of representation, solution strategies, and expertise. Her current research is primarily focused on (a) students' knowledge and use of three spatial diagram representations (matrices, networks, and hierarchies) for problem solving and reasoning and (b) students' comprehension of biological diagrams (cladograms) used to represent evolutionary relationships among taxa. More detailed information about Professor Novick's research may be found on her personal web page.

Current Positions

• Associate Professor of Psychology, Peabody College
• Associate Professor of Psychology, College of Arts and Science (secondary appointment)

Representative Publications

• Novick, L. R. (2006). Understanding spatial diagram structure: An analysis of hierarchies, matrices, and networks. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 59, 1826-1856.
• Hurley, S. M., & Novick, L. R. (2006). Context and structure: The nature of students’ knowledge about three spatial diagram representations. Thinking & Reasoning, 12, 281-308.
• Novick, L. R. (2006). The importance of both diagrammatic conventions and domain-specific knowledge for diagram literacy in science: The hierarchy as an illustrative case. In D. Barker-Plummer, R. Cox, & N. Swoboda (Eds.), Diagrams 2006, LNAI 4045 (pp. 1-11). Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
• Whitley, K. N., Novick, L. R., & Fisher, D. (2006). Evidence in favor of visual representation for the dataflow paradigm: An Experiment Testing LabVIEW’s Comprehensibility. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 64, 281-303.
• Novick, L. R., & Bassok, M. (2005). Problem solving. In K. J. Holyoak & R. G. Morrison (Eds.), Cambridge handbook of thinking and reasoning (Ch. 14, pp. 321-349). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
• Novick, L. R. (2004). Diagram literacy in pre-service math teachers, computer science majors, and typical undergraduates: The case of matrices, networks, and hierarchies. Mathematical Thinking and Learning, 6, 307-342.
• Novick, L. R., & Cheng, P. W. (2004). Assessing interactive causal influence. Psychological Review, 111, 455-485.
• Novick, L. R. (2003). At the forefront of thought: The effect of media exposure on airplane typicality. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 10, 746-752.
• Novick, L. R., & Sherman, S. J. (2003). On the nature of insight solutions: Evidence from skill differences in anagram solution. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 56A, 351-382.
• Novick, L. R., & Hurley, S. M. (2001). To matrix, network, or hierarchy: That is the question. Cognitive Psychology, 42, 158-216.