The University of Chicago
Department of Psychology
5848 South University Avenue
Chicago, IL, 60637
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Ian Lyons
Background
I received a Bachelor of Science degree from Brown University where I worked on models of human causal reasoning. I later worked as a research associate at Dartmouth College obtaining and analyzing neuroimaging data regarding the neural substrates of numerical cognition. I began my PhD here at the University of Chicago in September of 2006.
Research Interest
I am interested in understanding the neural and cognitive mechanisms underlying mathematical thinking. On the one hand I am interested in 'lower-level' perceptual and attentional processes responsible for the extraction and representation of basic numerical concepts, such as symbolic association and quantity representation. On the other hand, I am working to understand how numerically related processes interact with 'higher-level' functions such as working memory to produce more complex mathematical skills and behaviors. I believe both of these lines of research are important for understanding how social and developmental factors affect the fundamental and complex human ability to create and manipulate mathematical concepts.
Publications
Lyons IM and Beilock SL (in press). Beyond Quantity: Individual Differences in Working Memory and the Ordinal Understanding of Numerical Symbols. Cognition.
Lyons IM, Mattarella-Micke A, Cieslak M, Nusbaum HC, Small SL, Beilock SL (in press). The role of personal experience in the neural processing of action-related language. Brain and Language.
Lyons IM and Ansari D (in press). The Cerebral Basis of Mapping Nonsymbolic Quantities onto Abstract Symbols: an fMRI training study. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.
Beilock SL, Lyons IM, Marrarella-Micke A, Nusbaum HC, Small SL (2008). Sports experience changes the neural processing of action language. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, USA, 106(36): 13269-73.
Beilock SL and Lyons IM (2008). Expertise and the mental simulation of action. In Markman K, Klein B and Suhr J (Eds.), The Handbook of Imagination and Mental Stimulation, Psychology Press.
Ansari D*, Lyons IM*, van Eimeren L and Xu F (2007). Linking visual attention and number processing in the brain: the role of the temporopariental junction in small and large number processing, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 19(11): 1845-1853. (*Co-first-author publication with Ansari)
