New Arts faculty member in 2021-22: Dr. Stephanie Bugden

Wed. May. 18, 2022

The Faculty of Arts is pleased to welcome new faculty members in several departments this year including: Criminal Justice; English; History; Political Science; Psychology; Religion and Culture; Rhetoric, Writing, and Communications; Sociology; Theatre and Film; and Urban and Inner-City Studies.

We're asking each of our new faculty members to introduce themselves by providing us with a brief profile highlighting their research, a list of courses they'll teach, and a photo. That way we'll recognize them when we meet them in the halls on campus or in Zoom meetings online.

Dr. Stephanie Bugden (Psychology)

Dr. Derrick Bourassa, Chair of Psychology, states that the Department is “thrilled to have Dr. Bugden aboard,” citing the “quality and breadth of her work.” (photo supplied)

Here, we feature Dr. Stephanie Bugden, who is Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology. Dr. Bugden has a background in psychology and education having completed her PhD in psychology and her MEd, both at Western University. In her postdoc in psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Bugden studied factors underlying individual differences with respect to numerical and math skills. 

Dr. Derrick Bourassa, Chair of the Department of Psychology, enthuses, “We're thrilled to have Dr. Bugden aboard!” Dr. Bourassa points to “the quality and breadth of her work” and states that, “Dr. Bugden is an outstanding researcher who is answering important questions about cognitive development and disability.” Dr. Bourassa notes that Dr. Bugden recently received an NSERC grant to continue this work. He adds that “Dr. Bugden is also making exceptional contributions in the areas of cultural and educational psychology.”

Please join us all in welcoming Dr. Bugden to the Faculty of Arts. And thank you to her for providing her profile info and photo.

Biography and Research Interests

How do children acquire numerical and math skills? Why do some people excel in math, while others struggle? How can we improve math skills in children who have difficulties? These questions inspire Dr. Bugden to use behavioural and functional brain imaging methods to explore the basic cognitive and neural mechanisms that support individual differences in numerical and math development.

Prior to arriving at the University of Winnipeg, Dr. Bugden completed a post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. During that time, her research involved examining the relationship between preverbal representations of quantity (i.e., sets of objects) and exact symbolic mathematics (e.g., 24 + 12) in adults and school-aged children. Expanding on this work, she is exploring the associations among pre-verbal quantity representations and learning the meaning of verbal number words in children prior to starting formal school. She is also interested in cross-cultural influences on the development of numeracy and math skills. Her goal is that answers to these basic science questions can improve tools for identifying children at risk for developing math learning difficulties and can inform classroom teaching practices to augment learning for all children.

Degrees

PhD – Psychology, Western University

MA – Special Education and Educational Psychology, Western University

BA – Psychology, Western University

Courses

Developmental Psychology Fundamentals I – PSYC-2200
Topics in Cognitive Psychology: Mind, Brain, and Education – PSYC-4630