Professor Norman Freeman
Professor Norman Freeman
5D8,
Clifton,
Bristol
BS8 1TU
(See a map)
n.freeman@bristol.ac.uk
Telephone Number (0117) 928 8563
home page
Organisations
Representational Development
Biography
I spent from 1962 to 1969 at Cambridge doing the Natural Sciences tripos then a doctorate in animal behaviour, including short spells gaining research experience at the maritime station in Naples, the psychiatric social work unit in Hanwell, and the human learning centre at the University of Adelaide. A three-year Research Fellowship at the University of Durham then gave me the space to change direction somewhat and work on cognitive development, a field in which I have remained. In 1972 I joined the Department of Experimental Psychology in the University of Bristol as a lecturer, and became Reader in 1982 (again with short spells in various places: Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Italy), becoming Professor of Cognitive Development in 2000. I am a Chartered Psychologist and an elected fellow of the British Psychological Society.
Research overview
I work in cognition, mostly trying to model and test hypotheses about representational development, where I have invented a few experimental techniques. I focused initially on picture-production and have moved to analysing the conceptual change in children’s beliefs about pictures, their theory of pictures. The application was in art-education, where I have been active. When I began, there had been no hypothesis-testing tradition with children's pictorial representation (apart from one precocious study in 1897). I published methods for posing simple pictorial puzzles, and rules for inferring children's strategies of bringing visual order onto a page. My second aim had been to acquire a range of cognitive research skills so as to be able flexibly to promote research as and when circumstances demanded. I transferred the same set of research habits collaboratively to publish refereed papers on topics as diverse as phonological impairment, effects of early cardiac surgery, semantic change, infant spatial search, theory-of-mind inference, early counting. All illuminate the complexity of representational changes.
Key words
Cognition, Development, Theory of mind, Number, Drawing
Processes and functions relevant to this work
Domain specific learning
Collaborations
Dr Esther Adi-Japha (Jerusalem), Prof Neil Brown (University of New South Wales), Prof Charlie Lewis (University of Lancaster), Prof Katerina Maridaki-Kassotaki (Harokopio University Athens), Dr Melissa Preissler (University of Lancaster)
Latest publications
- Damian, MF & Freeman, NH 2008, ‘Flexible and inflexible response components: A Stroop study with typewritten output’. Acta Psychologica, vol 128., pp. 91-101
- Freeman, N, Hood, B & Meehan, C 2004, ‘Young children who abandon error behaviourally still have to free themselves mentally: a retrospective test for inhibition in intuitive physics’. Developmental Science, vol 7 (3)., pp. 277 - 282
- Freeman, N 2004, ‘Aesthetic judgement and reasoning’. in: E W Eisner, M D Day (eds) Handbook of research and policy in art education. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, pp. 359 - 378
- Freeman, N 2004, ‘Aesthetic judgement and reasoning’. in: E W Eisner, M D Day (eds) Handbook of research and policy in art education. Routledge; lay-flat binding edition, pp. 359 - 378
- Freeman, N 2004, ‘Aesthetic judgement and reasoning’. in: E W Eisner, M D Day (eds) Handbook of research and policy in art education. Taylor & Francis Group, pp. 359 - 378
- Maridaki-Kassotaki, K, Lewis, C & Freeman, N 2003, ‘Lexical choice can lead to problems: what false-belief tests tell us about Greek alternative verbs of agency’. Journal of Child Language, vol 30 (1)., pp. 1 - 20
- Freeman, N 2002, ‘What children know about knowledge’. in: Initiatives in learning and instruction. Athens: Kentro Ereinas, pp. 259 - 272
- Williams, S, Wright, D & Freeman, N 2002, ‘Inhibiting children's memory an interactive event: the effectiveness of a cover-up’. Applied Cognitive Psychology, vol 16 (6)., pp. 651 - 664
- Adi-Japha, E & Freeman, N 2001, ‘Development of differentiation between writing and drawing systems’. Developmental Psychology, vol 37 (1)., pp. 101 - 114
- Freeman, N 2001, ‘What is currently known about the mental work of children in making art?’. in: N Brown, K Maras (eds) Reassessing the foundations of art in education. Sydney: COFA, pp. 22 - 35
Full publications list in the University of Bristol publications system