Cognitive Development (Psyc 4540)
WF 11:00 - 12:50, Winter 1997
Frontier Hall 158 , University of Denver
Yuko Munakata
munakata@kore.psy.du.edu
Frontier Hall 343, 871-4151

Course Goals The primary goal of this course is to understand cognitive development from a range of theoretical perspectives. As we go through the course, you should keep in mind the following questions: What are the origins of our knowledge? What is the nature of developmental change? How does such change occur? You should come away from this course with answers to these questions for various aspects of cognitive development, including problem-solving, language, and the representation of objects, number, and space. By understanding both current findings and theoretical approaches in cognitive development, you should be in a position to evaluate new developments in the field and to design experiments that can further enhance our understanding of cognitive development.

Readings

There is no required text. We will read current and classic journal articles and book chapters. The readings for each week are in a file box in Frontier Hall 130 (near the department fax machine). To abide by copyright laws, students are responsible for making their own copies. You may speak with Nancy Pleiman about making copies with the Psychology Department copier. Please record your name, the course number, and the number of copies in the copier log book. The departmental charge is 6.5 cents per page.

If you need a refresher in cognitive development, you should skim a solid introductory text such as Siegler (1998) or Flavell, Miller, & Miller (1992).

Evaluation Your grade will consist of the following:

Let's consider each of these in turn.

Reading Questions

You will be asked to contribute at least one discussion question in writing for each of the readings (unless you are leading the session, see below). These will be collected at the end of each class.

Participation

You will be expected to read the assigned readings the week they are assigned and to come to class prepared to ask questions and actively participate in discussion. Your participation and ideas will be crucial to our evaluation of the ideas in the field, and will help you to get the most out of this class. To support and encourage effective discussions, part of the first class meeting will be devoted to a discussion of ``What makes a discussion bad (and what we can do about it).'' Throughout the class term, we will evaluate the effectiveness of our discussions and welcome suggestions on improving them to help futher our understanding of issues in cognitive development.

Session Leading

You will be asked to lead discussion in several class sessions. Such session leading may include very brief summary presentations of the readings, posing of questions for discussion, and moderating of discussion/debate.

Final Paper The final paper (8-12 double-spaced pages) requires a discussion of the following:

How useful, valid, and unique are various theoretical perspectives on the study of cognitive development? That is, to what extent do different theoretical frameworks advance our understanding, tap fundamental principles, and provide distinct perspectives on cognitive development? To answer this question, choose one topic in cognitive development and contrast the usefulness, validity, and uniqueness of at at least three theoretical approaches to that topic.

You should be in a good position to answer this question for the final paper because the course focuses on understanding both issues in and theoretical approaches to cognitive development. In your paper, you may build on topics covered in class or you may explore other areas of cognitive development. In either case, your paper should - in a concise, scientific style: 1) provide background on the topic, 2) describe at least three theoretical approaches to that topic, and 3) evaluate and compare/contrast the usefulness, validity, and uniqueness of each of those approaches.

This assignment will require careful preparation and thought. The following timeline is designed to ensure that you make progress on your paper and that you receive feedback on it before turning in the final version. Three of the 20 points for the paper will come from simply making each of the 3 writing deadlines before the final due date:

NOTE: For each day that the final paper is late, 5% will be deducted from your final paper grade.

Final Presentation

You will be asked to give an oral presentation of your final paper. The other members of the class will have read your first draft, so you may assume some familiarity with the issues and arguments. This experience is designed to allow you both to present your critical synthesis of issues in cognitive development, and to generate discussion and reaction from the class that may be useful to your thinking and for your final paper revisions.

Grading Policy Grades are not curved; they are based on percentages:

Class Schedule

Additional Materials of Interest Journals

Books

Bremner, J. G. (1994). Infancy. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.

Carey, S., & Gelman, R. (Eds.). (1991). The epigenesis of mind. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

Elman, J., Bates, E., Karmiloff-Smith, A., Johnson, M., Parisi, D., & Plunkett, K. (1996). Rethinking innateness: A connectionist perspective on development. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Flavell, J. H. (1985). Cognitive development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Flavell, J. H., Miller, P. H., & Miller, S. A. (1992). Cognitive development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 3rd edition.

Gelman, R., & Au, T. K.-F. (1996). Perceptual and cognitive development. San Diego: Academic Press.

Johnson, M. H. (Ed.). (1993). Brain development and cognition: A reader. Oxford: Blackwell.

Johnson, M. H. (Ed.). (1997). Developmental cognitive neuroscience: An introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.

Karmiloff-Smith, A. (1992). Beyond modularity: A developmental perspective on cognitive science. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Siegler, R. (1998). Children's thinking. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 3rd edition.