Dr. Marcie Penner is a cognitive scientist, Associate Professor of Psychology at King’s University College, and Director of the Cognitive Science and Numeracy Lab. She earned her Ph.D. in Cognitive Science from Carleton University. Dr. Penner studies cognition using an interdisciplinary approach, employing methodologies spanning behavioral experiments, computational modelling, neural imaging, and meta-analysis. Dr. Penner also uses her expertise in research methods, statistics, computational modelling, and public policy to address societal issues, most recently employment equity. Prior to becoming an academic, Dr. Penner was the Chief Scientist of an educational software company.
Education
- Ph.D., Cognitive Science, Carleton University, 2009
- BA (Highest Honours), Cognitive Science, Carleton University, 2003
- Certificate in Connectionist Modelling, University of Oxford, 2003
Teaching
- Psych 2135: Intro to Cognition
- Psych 4694: Psychology for the Common Good: Creating Research-Based Applications
- Psych 3727: Decision Making
Research
- Numerical cognition in children and adults
- Applied cognitive science
- Employment equity
Selected Publications
Selected Book Chapters
- Raja, V., Penner, M., Uddin, L.Q. & Anderson, M.L. (2024). The neural reuse hypothesis. In K. Cohen Kadosh, (Ed.), Oxford Handbook of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience (pp. 7-26). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Penner, M., Buckland, C., & Moes, M. (2019). Early identification of, and interventions for, kindergarten students at risk for mathematics difficulties. In K. M. Robinson, H. Osana & D. Kotsopoulos (Eds.), Mathematical Learning and Cognition in Early Childhood: Integrating Interdisciplinary Research into Practice (pp. 57-78). New York, NY: Springer.
Selected Articles
- Smith-Carrier, T., & Penner, M. (2023, September 20). Gender Pay Equity in Academia. White Paper submitted to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Science and Research. Ottawa: Government of Canada.
- Penner, M., & Smith-Carrier, T. (2022, July 18). Gender pay gap: It's roughly half-a-million dollars for women professors across a lifetime. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/gender-pay-gap-its-roughly-half-a-million-dollars-for-women-professors-across-a-lifetime-183767
- Smith-Carrier, T., Penner, M., Cecala, A. L, & Agócs, C. (2021). It’s not just a pay gap: Quantifying the gender wage and pension gap at a post-secondary institution in Canada. Canadian Journal of Higher Education, 51(2), 74–84. https://doi.org/10.47678/cjhe.vi0.189215.
- Penner, M., Moes, M. & Cecala, A. L. (2020). Meta-analysis of the neural correlates of finger gnosis using activation likelihood estimation. In S. Denison, M. Mack, Y. Xu & B.C. Armstrong (Eds.), Proceedings of the 42nd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 3212–3218). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
- Stewart, T. C., Penner-Wilger, M., Waring, R. J., & Anderson, M. L. (2017). A common neural component for finger gnosis and magnitude comparison. In G. Gunzelmann, A. Howes, T. Tenbrink, & E. J. Davelaar (Eds.), Proceedings of the 39th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 1150–1155). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
- Stewart, T. C., & Penner-Wilger, M. (2017). Analysis of a common neural component for finger gnosis and magnitude comparison. Proceedings of the 15th Annual Meeting of the International Conference on Cognitive Modelling.
- Penner-Wilger, M. & Anderson, M. L. (2013). The relation between finger gnosis and mathematical ability: Why redeployment of neural circuits best explains the finding. Frontiers in Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, 4, 877. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00877
- Anderson, M. L. & Penner-Wilger, M. (2013). Neural reuse in the evolution and development of the brain: Evidence for developmental homology? Developmental Psychobiology, 55, 42-51.