Loel Tronsky

Loel Tronsky is a cognitive psychologist whose general research focus is on learning and memory. More pointedly he is interested in understanding how different memory systems function and how that can help us to understand typical and atypical development of academic skills.

His specific research interests include:

• Understanding the role of working memory in the development of basic (understanding quantities; basic mental calculation) and more complex (e.g., complex calculation skills; solving of word problems) skills
• Understanding how basic math facts are stored in, and accessed from, long-term memory

While he has plans to continue these lines of research, Professor Tronsky also would like to expand his research program. One focus would be to examine the role that morphological knowledge, the conscious awareness of the meaning-based components in a language, has on the development of component processes in reading. Finally, he has recently become interested in research in the domain of positive psychology and has developed a seminar course on that topic. He strongly encourages students who are interested in engaging in research in any of the aforementioned domains to work with him, as he has consistently included students in his research program. Below you will find a short list of his representative presentations and publications; student collaborators are denoted with an asterisk.

In addition to the above research interests, Professor Tronsky has been actively involved in securing external funding for educationally-related projects. He was fortunate to have received a number of Connecticut Teacher Quality Partnership grants that enabled him to partner with local public school STEM leaders and teachers to use the Japanese lesson study approach to developing interdisciplinary lessons. More recently, he was the project director on a Title III grant from the Department of Education that focused on the development of a more holistic student-advisement system at Albertus Magnus College.

He has a wide range of teaching interests and experience at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, and his current courses include Research Methods in Psychology, Human Memory, and Positive Psychology.

Representative publications/presentations

Tronsky, L. N. (2016). The obligatory activation of practiced complex multiplication facts and what it tells us about models of arithmetic processing. Journal of Numerical Cognition, 2, 140-165.

Tronsky, L. N., Iannuccilli, L.*, & Pollock, J.* (2016). Answers to complex division problems are automatically activated after practice. Poster presented at the 57th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Boston, MA.

Tronsky, L. N., Corvino, A.*, Levin, A.*, & DeCusati, A.* (2013). The locus of interference effects in complex multiplication. Poster presented at the 53rd Annual Meeting of the New England Psychological Association, Housatonic Community College, Bridgeport CT.

Tronsky, L. N., McManus, M.*, & Anderson, E. C.* (2008). Strategy use in mental subtraction determines central executive involvement. American Journal of Psychology, 121, 189-207.

Tronsky, L. N. (2005). Complex multiplication: Strategy use, the development of automaticity with practice, and working memory involvement. Memory & Cognition 33, 927-940.