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Professor Norman Freeman

Emeritus Professor of Cognitive Development
and Senior Research Fellow

telephone: +44 (0)117 92 88563 email: N.Freeman@bris.ac.uk

Room 5D19

Biographical details


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 interests
Key words: cognition, development, preschool, theory of mind, number, drawing, domain specific learning.

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.

Publications

Freeman, N. H. (2010). Children as intuitive art critics. In C. Milbraith & C. Lightfoot (Eds.), Art and human development (pp. 185-212) Hove, East Sussex: Psychology Press.

Freeman, N. H. (2009). A look back at Art learning in developmental perspective. In S. Herne, S. Cox & R. Watts (Eds.), Readings in primary art education (pp. 207-218). Bristol, UK: Intellect Books & Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Muldoon, K, Lewis, C., & Freeman, N. H. (2009). Why set-comparison is vital in early number learning. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 13, 203-208.

Muldoon, K, Lewis, C., & Freeman, N. H. (2008). Don’t throw the baby out with the math water: Why discounting the developmental foundations of early numeracy is premature and unnecessary. Behavioral and brain sciences, 31, 663-664.

Damian, M., & Freeman, N. H. (2008). Flexible and inflexible response components: A Stroop study with typewritten output.. Acta Psychologica, 128, 91-101.

Freeman, N..H., & Adi-Japha, E. (2008). Pictorial intention, action and interpretation. In C. Lange-Kuttner & A. Vinter & (Eds.), Drawing and the non-verbal mind: A lifespan perspective(pp 104-120). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Freeman, N. H., Varouxaki, A., & Maridaki-Kassotaki, K. (2008). Young children’s decisions about the power of inference. In J.A.Elsworth (Ed.), Psychology of decision making in education (pp. 56-69). New York: Nova Science.

Freeman, N. H. (2008). Pictorial competence generated from crosstalk between core domains. In C. Milbrath & A. Trauttner (Eds.), Children’s understanding and production of pictures, drawing and art: theoretical and empirical approaches (pp. 33-52). Cambridge, MA: Hogrefe.

Freeman, N. H., & Maridaki-Kassotaki, K. (2007). Encouraging comparative measurement in young children. In V. N. Galwye (ed.), Progress in educational psychology research (pp. 57-71). New York: Nova Science.

Freeman, N. H. (2006). Psychological analysis of deciding if something is presented in a picture. In R. Maniura & R. Shepherd (Eds.), Presence: the inherence of the prototype within images and other objects (p.135-144). Aldershot, Hants: Ashgate.

Freeman, N. H. (2006). Development of children’s pictorial reasoning. In P. McKeon & K. Snepvangers (Eds.), Learning and teaching new media practice: the frames in visual arts and photography (pp. 7-14). Sydney, NSW: COFA.

Freeman, N. H. (2005). Motricité de dessin et motricité d’écriture. Enfance, 57, 5-10.

Freeman, N. H., & Jackson, L. (2005). Belief-emotion lag and the child’s idea of heroism: can the curse of knowledge lift for dispositional inference? Hellenic Journal of Psychology (Special issue on theory of mind), 2, 46-58.

Freeman, N. H. (2005). Theories of the child’s mind. In B. Hopkins, R. G. Barr, G. F. Michel & P. Rochat (Eds.), The Cambridge encyclopedia of child development (p. 84-88). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Freeman, N. H., Hood, B. M., & Meehan, C. (2004). Young children who abandon error behaviourally still have to free themselves mentally; a retrospective test for change in intuitive physics. Developmental Science, 7, 277-282.

Freeeman, N. H. (2004). Aesthetic judgement and reasoning. In E. W. Eisner & M. D. Day (Eds.). Handbook of research and policy in art education (pp. 359-378). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. National Art Education Association (USA).

Freeman, N.H. (2004). Children's human figure drawing. In R.L. Gregory (Ed.), The Oxford companion to the mind (second edition) (p. 159-164). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Maridaki-Kassotaki, K., Lewis, C., & Freeman, N. H. (2003). Lexical choice can lead to problems: what false belief tests tell us about Greek alternative verbs of agency. Journal of Child Language, 30, 1-20.

Muldoon, K., Lewis, C., & Freeman, N. H. (2003). Putting counting to work: preschoolers’ understanding of cardinal extension. International Journal of Educational Research (special issue on children’s mathematical development and education), 39, 695-718.

Williams, S. J., Wright, D. & Freeman, N. H. (2002). Inhibiting children’s memory of an interactive event: the effectiveness of a cover up. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 16, 651-664.

Freeeman, N. H. (2002). What children know about knowledge. In A. Dimaras (Ed.), Symposium on recent initiatives in learning and instruction (p. 259-272). Athens: National Centre for Educational Research.

Adi-Japha, E. & Freeman, N. H. (2001). Development of differentiation between writing and drawing systems. Developmental Psychology, 37, 101-114.

Freeman, N. H. & Parsons, M. J. (2001). Children’s intuitive understanding of pictures. In B. Torff & R. J. Sternberg (Eds.), Understanding and teaching the intuitive mind: Student and teacher learning (pp. 73-91). London: Erlbaum.

Freeman, N. H. (2001). What is currently known about the mental work of children in making art? In N. M. C. Brown & K. Maras (Eds.), Reassessing the foundations of art in education (pp. 22-35). Sydney: UNSW COFA.

Freeman, N. H., Antonucci, C., & Lewis, C. (2000). Representation of the cardinality principle: early conception of error in a counterfactual test. Cognition, 74, 71- 89.

Adi-Japha, E. & Freeman, N. H. (2000). Regulation of division of labour between cognitive systems controlling action. Cognition, 76, 1-11.

Maridaki-Kassotaki, K. & Freeman, N. H. (2000). Concepts of pictures on display. Empirical Studies of the Arts,18, 151-158.

Freeman, N. H. (2000). Drawing on the imagination in young children. In J. Mottram (Ed.), Drawing across boundaries (pp. 1-10). Loughborough: Loughborough University.

Freeman, N. H. (2000). Communication and representation: why mentalistic reasoning is a lifelong endeavour. In P. Mitchell & K. Riggs (Eds.), Children’s reasoning and the mind (pp. 349-366). Hove: Psychology Press.

Freeman, N. H. (2000). Desarollo de la concepcion del arte infantil. In M. H. Belver & M. S. Mendez (Eds.), Educacion artistica y arte infantil (pp. 59-63). Madrid: Editorial Fundamentos.

Freeman, N. H. (1999). Young people bring with them a theory of art to hospital experience. In Roselli, M. (Ed.), Visual art in hospitals (pp. 232-240). Florence: Gli Ori -- Mashietto e Musolino.

Also in Italian as: I giovani portano con loro una nuova teoria artisica all’interno dell’esperienza ospedaliera. In Roselli, M. (Ed.), Arte e ospedale (pp. 223-231).

Adi-Japha, E. & Freeman, N. H. (1999). Development of handwriting as a domain of skilled performance. In G. Leedham, Leung, M., Sagar, V. & Xuhong Xiao (Eds.), Proceedings of the 9th Biennial Conference of the International Graphonomics Society (pp.283-287). Singapore: Nanyang Technological University.

Varouxaki, A., Freeman, N. H., Peters, D. & Lewis, C. (1999). Inference neglect and ignorance denial. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 17, 483-499.

Freeman, N. H. & Brown, N. C. M. (1998). Putting a theory of pictures to work. In J. Swift (Ed.), Art education discourses I (pp.141- 156). Birmingham: Article Press.

Freeman, N. H. (1998). Kako otroci razmislajo o umetnosti. Likovna Vzgoja, 5, 9-10.

Varouxaki, A. & Freeman, N. H. (1998). Young children’s understanding of other people’s inferences. Psychologia: Journal of the Hellenic Psychological Society, 5, 20 -30.

Berti, A. E. & Freeman, N. H. (1997). La produzione di innovazione pittoriche nei bambini di 5 anni. Eta Evolutiva, 57, 76-81.

Pinto, G., Bombi, A. S. & Freeman, N. H. (1997). L’emergere della raffigurazione del volto umano. Eta Evolutiva, 57, 82-88.

Freeman, N. H. ( 1997). Identifying resources from which children advance into pictorial innovation. Journal of Aesthetic Education, 31, 1-11.

Berti, A. E. & Freeman, N. H. (1997). Representational change in resources for pictorial innovation: a three-component analysis. Cognitive Development, 12, 501-522.

Freeman, N. H. (1996). Art learning in developmental perspective. Journal of Art and Design Education, 15, 125-131.

Reprinted in Dutch as Kunsteducatie in Ontwikkelingsperspectief in J. Ensink (Ed.), Katernen Kunsteducatie (pp.37-46). LOKV Utrecht.
Reprinted with amendment and new overview in 2009 art education reader, Intellect Books, Bristol.

Gardner, F. V., Freeman, N. H., Black, A. M. S. & Angelini, G. D. (1996). Disturbed mother-infant interaction in association with congenital heart disease. Heart (ex. British Heart Journal), 76, 56-59.

Lewis, C., Freeman, N. H., Kyriakidou, C., Maridaki-Kassotaki, K. & Berridge, D. (1996). Social influences on false belief access:specific sibling influences or general apprenticeship? Child Development, 67, 2930-2947.

Freeman, N.H. & Habermann, G. (1996). Linguistic socialisation: A Chinese Perspective. In M. Bond (Ed.), The handbook of Chinese psychology (pp. 75- 88). Hong Kong: Oxford University Press.

Freeman, N.H. (1995). The emergence of a framework theory of pictorial reasoning. In C. Lange-Kuttner and G.V. Thomas (Eds.), Drawing and loooking: Theoretical approaches to pictorial representation in children (pp 135-146). London: Harvester Wheatsheaf.

Freeman, N.H. (1995). Theories of mind in collision: Plausibility and authority. In M. Davies & T. Stone (Eds.), Mental simulation: Evaluations and applications (pp. 68-86). Oxford: Blackwell.

Freeman, N.H. (1995). The emergence of pictorial talents. In J. Freeman, P. Span and H. Wagner (Eds.), Actualising talent (pp. 115-127). London: Cassell.

Freeman, N. H. & Sanger, D. (1995). Commonsense aesthetics of rural children. Visual Arts Research, 21, 1-10.

Freeman, N.H. (1995). Teoria della mente, teoria delle rappresentazioni pittoriche: un progresso concettuale nell'infanzia. Eta Evolutiva, 50, 111-117.

Freeman, N.H. & Lacohée, H. (1995). Making explicit three-year-olds’ implicit competence with their own false beliefs. Cognition, 56, 31-60.

Freeman, N.H., Lacohée, H. & Coulton, S. (1995). Cued-recall approach to three-year- olds' memory for an honest mistake. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 60, 102-115.

Bird, J., Bishop, D.V.M. & Freeman, N.H. (1995). Phonological awareness and literacy development in children with expressive phonological impairments. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 38, 446-462.

Freeman, N.H. (1994). Redescription of intentionality. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 17, 717-718.

Lewis, C., Freeman, N.H., Hagestadt, C. & Douglas, H. (1994). Narrative access and production in preschoolers' false-belief reasoning. Cognitive Development, 9, 397-424.

Freeman, N.H. (1994). Associations and dissociations in theories of mind. In C. N. Lewis and P. Mitchell (Eds.), Origins of an understanding of mind (pp.95-111). Hove: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Freeman, N.H. (1993). Drawing: the representation of public representations. In C. Pratt and A. F. Garton (Eds.), Systems of representation in children: Development and use (pp. 113-132). New York: Wiley.

Freeman, N. H. & Brown, N. C. M. (1993). Children’s theory of depiction: intentional net analysis. Australasian Association for Research in Education Conference Fremantle 2 December (e-publication).

Freeman, N.H. & Sanger, D. (1993). Language and belief in critical thinking: Emerging explanations of pictures. Exceptionality Education Canada, 3, 43-58.

Freeman, N.H., Lewis, C. & Doherty, M. (1991). Preschoolers' grasp of a desire for knowledge in false-belief prediction: Practical intelligence and verbal report. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 9, 139-157.

Reprinted (1991) in G.E. Butterworth, P. L. Harris, A. M. Leslie and H. M. Wellman (Eds.), Perspectives on the Child's Theory of Mind pp. 139-157). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Freeman, N.H. (1991). The theory of art that underpins children's naive realism. Visual Arts Research, 17, 65-75.

Reed, H. J. & Freeman, N. H. (1991). Does an absence of gape markings affect survival of leucistic young in the Zebra Finch? Bird Behaviour, 9, 58-63.

Freeman, N.H. (1991). Quando i bambini sviluppano una teoria della rappresentazione pittorica. In G. Di Stefano and M. Tallandini (Eds.), Meccanismi e processi del sviluppo: l'interpretazione post-piagetiana (pp. 233-253). Milano: Cortine.

Freeman, N.H. (1990). Innovation in children's art. European Journal for High Ability, 1, 52-63.

Reprinted (1993) in Greek translation in Modern Education.

Freeman, N.H. (1990). Children's implicit theory of art. Australian Art Education, 14, 31-39.

Reprinted (1993) in Greek translation in Psychological Issues.

Freeman, N.H. (1989). A computational theory of picture production and consumption is needed right here. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 12, 82-84.

Freeman, N.H. (1989). Childlike thinking. In J.G. Beaumont (Ed.), Brainpower, (pp. 172-179). New York: Harper and Row.

Campbell, N.W., Freeman, N.H., Melhuish, C.R., Stonebridge, B.R. & Thomas, B.T. (1989) Blind person's assistant in terrain measurement, assessment and navigation: Feasibility study for stereo vision. Internal Working Paper of the Computer Science Department, University of Bristol (15 pp).

Freeman, N.H. & Schreiner, K. (1988). Complementary error-patterns in collective and individuating judgements: their semantic basis in 6-year-olds. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 6, 341-350.

Freeman, N.H. (1987). Critical notice on drawing and cognition. Journal of the Institute of Art Education, 11, 46-52.

Freeman, N.H. (1987). Critical notice: David Crystal on Linguistic encounters with language handicap. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 5, 91-98.

Freeman, N.H. (1987). Current problems in the development of representational picture- production. Archives de Psychologie, 55, 127-152.

Freeman, N.H. & Sepahzad, M. (1987). Competence of young children who fail to make a correct deduction. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 5, 275- 286.

Freeman, N.H. (1987). Children's human figure drawing. In R.L. Gregory (Ed.), The Oxford companion to the mind (pp. 135-139). Oxford: Oxford University Press. (second edition, revised, 2004).

Freeman, N.H. (1987) How to get three-year-olds to accept an equative anaphor. In P. Griffiths, J. Local and A.E. Mills (Eds.), Proceedings of the 1987 Child Language Seminar, (pp. 207-216). Department of Linguistic Science: University of York.

Freeman, N.H. & Stedmon, J. A. (1986). How children deal with natural language quantification. In I. Kurcz, G. W. Shugar & J. H. Danks (Eds.), Knowledge and language (pp. 21-48). Amsterdam: Elsevier North-Holland.

Reprinted in 1987 as Jak dzieci rozumieja kwantyfikatory jezyka naturalnego. Wiedza a jezyk.Tom II. Jezyk dziecka, pp. 327-350. Wroclaw: Ossolineum.

Freeman, N.H. (1986). Children's drawing. In R. Harré and R. Lamb (Eds.), The dictionary of developmental and educational psychology (pp. 29-31). Oxford: Blackwell.

Freeman, N.H. (1986). Pattern-making and pictographics: what relationship should be looked for? Journal of the Institute of Art Education, 10, 55-62.

Freeman, N.H. (1986). How should a cube be drawn? British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 4, 317-322.

Freeman, N.H., & Cox, M.V. (Eds.) (1985) Visual order: the nature and development of pictorial representation. Cambridge University Press. (pp. 395).

Digitized for reprinting 2010.

Freeman, N.H. (1985). Reasonable errors in basic reasoning. Educational Psychology, (special Double Issue on Developmental Psychology and Education), 5, 239- 249.

Stedmon, J.A. & Freeman, N.H. (1985). When reference fails: analysis of the use and misuse of quantified expressions to make identifying reference. In J. H. Allwood & E. Hemlquist (Eds.), Foregrounding background (pp.185- 208). Lund: Doxa.

Freeman, N.H., Chen, M.J. & Hambly, M. (1984). Children's different use of alignment cues when encoding and when producing a match to target. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 2, 123-127.

Chen, M.J. & Freeman, N.H. (1984). Orientation of the diamond and the square revisited. Australian Journal of Psychology, 36, 327-335.

Freeman, N.H. (1983). Picture-plane bias in children's representational drawing. Australian Journal of Psychology, 35, 121-133.

Lloyd, S.E. & Freeman, N.H. (1983). Infant search strategies with containers that move but do not alter the location at which contents can be found. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 35, 449-456.

Freeman, N.H. (1983). The experimental psychology of children's drawing. Journal of the Institute of Art Education, 7, 1-17.

Freeman, N.H. (1983). Horizontal and vertical axes in depth-composition between the ages of five and seven years. Journal of the Institute of Art Education, 7, 41- 50.

Barnard, B.M. & Freeman, N.H. (1983). Regras infantis nos desenhos de adultos mentalmente perturbados. Analise Psicologica, 3, 177-182.

Giles, H., Harrison, C., Creber, C., Smith, P.M. & Freeman, N.H. (1983). Developmental and contextual aspects of children's language attitudes. Language and Communication, 3, 1-5.

Freeman, N.H. (1983). Perceptual development. In R. Harré and R. Lamb (Eds.), The encyclopedic dictionary of psychology, Oxford: Blackwell.

Reprinted (1986) In R. Harré and R. Lamb (Eds.), The dictionary of developmental and educational psychology (pp. 174-177). Oxford: Blackwell.

Freeman, N.H., Sinha, C.G. & Stedmon, J.A. (1982). All the cars -- which cars?: from word-meaning to discourse-analysis. In M. Beveridge (Ed.), Children thinking through language, (pp. 52-74). London: Edward Arnold.

Sinha, C.G. & Freeman, N.H. (1981). L'effet canonique: une nouvelle perspective sur le concept objectal et sa representation linguistique. Bulletin de Psychologie, 34, 713-723.

Freeman, N.H., Sinha, C.G. & Stedmon, J.A. (1981). The allative bias is almost proof against task naturalness. Journal of Child Language, 8, 283-296.

Freeman, N.H. & Kelham, S.E. (1981). The interference of a baseline with children's orientation judgement need not entirely mask contextual responsiveness. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 33A, 145-154.

Lloyd, S.E., Sinha, C.G., & Freeman, N.H. (1981). Spatial reference systems, and the canonicality effect in infant search. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 32, 1-10.

Freeman, N.H., Sinha, C.G. & Condliffe, S. (1981). Collaboration and confrontation with young children in language comprehension tasks. In W.P. Robinson (Ed.), Communication in child development, (pp. 63-88). London:Academic Press.

Freeman, N.H. (1980) Strategies of representation in young children: analysis of spatial skills and drawing processes. London: Academic Press (pp. 392).

Freeman, N.H. (1980). Introduction to the diverse work that the concept of egocentrism has inspired and The underlying orderliness in children's drawing and Postscript In M.V. Cox (Ed.), Are young children egocentric? (pp.11-16, pp. 81-100 & pp. 147-148). London: Batsford Academic.

Freeman, N.H., Lloyd, S.E. & Sinha, C.G. (1980). Infant search tasks reveal early concepts of containment and canonical usage of objects. Cognition, 8, 243- 262.

Freeman, N.H. & Hayton, C. (1980). Gross failure to utilise alignment cues in children's drawings of three-dimensional relationships. Perception, 9, 353-359.

Freeman, N.H. (1977). What is the child's own view in a spatial task?: a spatial by temporal interaction affecting errors in perceptual reports. Perception, 6, 393- 398.

Freeman, N.H., Eiser, C., & Sayers, J. (1977). Children's strategies in producing three- dimensional relationships on a two-dimensional surface. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 23, 305-314.

Freeman, N.H. & Hargreaves, S. (1977). Directed movements and the body-proportion effect in preschool children's human figure drawings. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 28, 227-235.

Freeman, N.H. (1977). How young children try to plan drawings. In G.E. Butterworth (Ed.), The child's representation of the world,(pp. 3-30). London: Plenum Press.

Freeman, N.H. (1976). The production of representational drawing and the child's coding of spatial arrays. In S. Modgil & C. Modgil (Eds.), Piagetian research, Vol. 2. Windsor: NFER.

Inglis, I.R. & Freeman, N.H. (1976). Reversible effects of ambient housing stimulation upon stimulation-seeking in rats. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 28, 409-417.

Freeman, N.H. & Sinha, C.G. (1976). Problems of primary education. Journal of Applied Educational Studies, 5, 45-51.

Freeman, N.H. (1976). Children's drawings: cognitive aspects. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 17, 345-350.

Freeman, N.H. (1975). Do children draw men with arms coming out of the head? Nature, 254, 416-417.

Freeman, N.H. (1975). Temporal and spatial ordering in recall by five-to-eight-year-old children. Child Development, 46, 237-239.

Freeman, N.H. & Parker, D.M. (1973). Affective preference and misclassification in a novel/familiar identification task. British Journal of Psychology, 64, 77-81.

Freeman, N.H. (1972). The influence of short-term novelty on affective assertions in young children. British Journal of Psychology, 63, 547-553.

Freeman, N.H. (1972). Process and product in children's drawings, Perception, 1, 123- 140.

Freeman, N.H. & Janikoun, R. (1972). Intellectual realism in children's drawings of a familiar object with distinct features. Child Development, 43, 1116-1121.

Reprinted (1989) in Child Development Videos and Booklets, P.M. Greenfield (Ed.). New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.

Cosin, B.R., Freeman, C.F., & Freeman, N.H. (1971). Critical empiricism criticised: the case of Freud. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 1, 122-151.

Revised version (1983) in Philosophical Essays on Freud, R. Wollheim and J. Hopkins (Eds.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Freeman, N.H. (1971) Spatial variation as a conventional cue. Psychonomic Science, 22, 262-263.

Freeman, N.H. (1969) Curiosity and exploratory behaviour. Cambridge Research, 5, 12-16.

Wells, M.J., Freeman, N.H., & Ashburner, M. (1965). Some experiments on the chemotactile sense of octopus. Journal of Experimental Biology, 43, 553-563.

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