Ann Dowker is a University Research Lecturer at the Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford and College Lecturer at Keble College and St Hilda’s College.
Her interests include many aspects of developmental psychology and individual differences. She is particularly interested in mathematical development and cognition. She has carried out extensive research on individual differences in arithmetic in both children and adults; on the reasons why some children have difficulty in acquiring arithmetic; on the influence of language and culture on arithmetical development; and on the phenomenon of ‘mathematics anxiety’. She is the author of ‘Individual Differences in Arithmetic: Implications for Psychology, Neuroscience and Education’ (Taylor and Francis; 1st edition, 2005; 2nd edition, 2019); and editor or co-editor of five books, including R Cohen Kadosh and A Dowker (eds): ‘Oxford Handbook of Numerical Cognition’ (Oxford University Press, 2015) and S Caviola, I Mammarella and A Dowker (eds) ‘Mathematics Anxiety: What is Known and What is Still Missing?’ ((Routledge, 2019). She is one of an international interdisciplinary team carrying out a project on ‘Paths to Character: Promoting agency, trust and hope for incarcerated Barbadian adolescents through community engagement’, with funding from the Templeton Foundation.
Dr Dowker has a special interest in the application of research in psychology to education and especially to the development of intervention programs for children with mathematical difficulties. She is the lead researcher on the Catch Up Numeracy intervention project: an individualized intervention programme for primary school children who are low achievers in mathematics. She is a member of the Early Years Mathematics Group and of the British Dyslexia Association Committee on Dyscalculia. She has written two reviews on mathematics intervention programmes for the British Government and one for the Education Endowment Foundation.