Developmental
Psychology Graduate Core Course
85-710,
Spring 2008
Time:
Tuesday,
Thursday 3.00-4.20 p.m.
Main
Instructors:
Charles Kemp BH340T 84680 ckemp@andrew.cmu.edu
David Klahr BH354M 8-3670 klahr@andrew.cmu.edu
Kevin Pelphrey BH356D 8-9718 kpelphrey@cmu.edu
David Rakison BH354N 8-3477 rakison@andrew.cmu.edu
Robert Siegler BH331D 8-2809 rs7k+@andrew.cmu.edu
Erik
Thiessen BH335G 8-6747 thiessen@andrew.cmu.edu
Web
address for discussion questions: http://121forum.activeboard.com/
Course
Objectives:
This
course provides an introduction to central issues in the study of development,
especially cognitive development. We have two main goals: (1) To convey to you
the issues that are at the heart of the field, and various theories that
address those issues, and (2) To familiarize you with key empirical findings in
a number of areas in the field. An additional goal is to help improve the
quality of students’ writing.
Readings:
The course will include a
number of readings from diverse sources. In addition, we will use Bob Siegler's
(and Martha Alibali’s) textbook Children's
Thinking to convey an overall sense of the field. Since we will be reading many
of the chapters from the book, we recommend that you purchase it from the
bookstore. You should purchase the 2005
(current) edition.
Structure of
the class:
A
different instructor will be responsible for each week of class (with the
exception of week 1). The first class of the week (the Tuesday class) will be a
lecture-oriented class in which the instructor will cover the most important aspects of the focus
area for that week. The second class of the week (the Thursday class) will be
more discussion based with a specific focus on the assigned readings for the
week and the questions posted on the discussion board.
Participation:
The
heart of this seminar is the readings and class discussion. We encourage
students to participate actively in class. Students are expected to read all
the assigned readings prior to class and to be prepared to discuss them.
We will consider class participation and preparedness when assigning final
grades. You are also expected to post discussion points for each class (see
below).
Requirements
and Evaluation:
There are two components to your
course grade. First, there will be a take-home essay exam after 4 weeks of the
course, and a take-home essay final exam at the end of the course. You will
have a weekend (Thursday to Monday) to complete each exam. The exams will
require you to complete two questions from a total of three offered questions.
The best answers are typically 3-4 typed pages. Your two papers should be
emailed (as separate Word files) to Erik Thiessen by 10 a.m. on the Monday
after the questions were given to you. More details
will be provided about the papers during the course. Second, for each class you
will be required to post questions, thoughts, or comments on the website (http://121forum.activeboard.com/ )
(login: 710core; password; forum), which we will endeavor to work into
discussion. These can be specific questions related to the readings or more
general issues that are covered in the key questions. Please post questions at
the website by 9 pm on each Tuesday.
Organization
and administration:
This year, David Rakison and Erik
Thiessen are the organizers and coordinators of the Developmental Core. If you
have questions about general administration, dates, grades, and so on, you
should direct them to either of them. Different lectures will be presented by
different faculty members, as indicated in the syllabus. If you have questions
pertaining to a specific class meeting, topic, set of readings, or reading
questions, you should direct them to the faculty member responsible for that
class meeting.
Schedule
|
|
Topic |
Instructor |
|
1. Tuesday, January 15 |
Overview of issues |
Klahr |
|
2. Thursday, January 17 |
Methods |
Rakison |
|
3. Tuesday, January 22 |
Piaget and Information
processing |
Siegler |
|
4. Thursday, January 24 |
Piaget and Information
processing |
Siegler |
|
5. Tuesday, January 29 |
Perceptual and conceptual
development |
Rakison |
|
6. Thursday, January 31 |
Perceptual and conceptual
development |
Rakison |
|
Exam 1 |
||
|
7. Tuesday, February 5 |
Language development |
Thiessen |
|
8. Thursday, February 7 |
Language development |
Thiessen |
|
9. Tuesday, February 12 |
Modeling development |
Kemp |
|
10. Thursday, February 14 |
Modeling development |
Kemp |
|
11. Tuesday, February 19 |
Developmental Neuroscience |
Pelphrey |
|
12. Thursday, February 21 |
Developmental Neuroscience |
Pelphrey |
|
13. Tuesday, February 26 |
Academic Skills and
Scientific Learning |
Klahr |
|
14. Thursday, February 28 |
Academic Skills and
Scientific Learning |
Klahr |
|
Exam 2 |
||
Required
Textbook:
Siegler,
R. S. & Alibali, M. W. (2005). Children's thinking, 4th edition.
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Class #1. Jan 15, Tues:
Overview of Issues (David Klahr)
Siegler, R. S., &
Alibali, M. (2005). Children’s Thinking. 4th
Edition, Chapter 1.
Case, R.
(1998). The development of conceptual structures. In D. Kuhn and R. S. Siegler
(Eds.), Handbook of Child Psychology (5th
Edition) Volume 2: Cognition, Perception, and Language. N.Y.: Wiley.
Class #2. Jan 17, Thur: Overview of Methods (David
Rakison)
Field, T.
(1982). Infancy. In Ross Vasta (Ed.), "Strategies and Techniques of Child Study" (pp. 13-46).
New York: Academic Press.
Class #3: Jan 22, Tues: Piaget and Information processing (Bob
Siegler)
Siegler, R. S., &
Alibali, M. (2005). Children’s Thinking. 4th
Edition, Chapter 2
Three short readings
from Psychological Science (1996): Flavell, Fischer & Hencke, and Gopnik
Class #4. Jan 24, Thurs:
Piaget and Information processing (Bob Siegler)
Siegler, R.
S., & Alibali, M. (2005). Children’s Thinking. 4th Edition, Chapter 3
Munakata, Y.
(2006). Information processing approaches to development. In W. Damon & R.
M. Lerner (Series Eds.) & D. Kuhn & R. S. Siegler (Vol. Eds.), Handbook
of child psychology:Volume 2: Cognition,
perception, and language (6th ed., pp. 426 -445).
Class #5.
Jan 29, Tues: Perceptual and conceptual development (David Rakison)
Siegler, R. S., &
Alibali, M. (2005). Chapters 4 and 7 in Children's Thinking
Johnson, S. P., Amso,
D., & Slemmer, J. A. (2003). Development of object concepts in infancy:
Evidence for early learning in an eye tracking paradigm. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), 100,
10568-10573.
Spelke, E. S., & Kinzler, K. D. (2007). Core knowledge. Developmental Science, 10, 89-96.
Class #6.
Jan 31, Thurs: Perceptual and conceptual development (David Rakison)
Mandler,
J. M (2007). On the origins of the conceptual system. The American
Psychologist, 8, 741-751.
Haith, M.M. (1998). Who put the cog in
infant cognition: Is rich interpretation too costly? Infant Behavior and
Development, 21, 167-179.
Class #7. Feb 5, Tues: Language
Development (Erik Thiessen)
Siegler, R. S., &
Alibali, M. (2005). Chapter 6 in Children's Thinking
McClelland and
Patterson (2002). Rules or connections
in past-tense inflections: What does the evidence rule out? Trends
in Cognitive Science, 6, 465-472.
Class #8. Feb. 7, Thurs: Language Development (Erik
Thiessen)
Thiessen, E. D. (in
press). Statistical Learning of Language: Mechanisms, Development, and
Constraints. To Appear in: The Cambridge
Handbook of Child Language, E. Bavin (Ed.)
Saffran,
J.R., Aslin, R.N., & Newport, E.L. (1996). Statistical learning by
8-month-old infants. Science, 274,
1926-1928.
Class #9. Feb 12, Tues: Modeling development (Charles Kemp)
Siegler, R. S., &
Alibali, M. (2005). Chapter 3 in Children's Thinking (refresh your
memories)
Elman,
J.L. (2005). Connections models of development: Where next?. Trends in
Cognitive Science, 9, 111-117.
Gopnik,
A. & Tenenbaum, J. B. (2007). Bayesian
networks, Bayesian learning, and cognitive development. Developmental Science 10, 281-287.
Class #10. Feb 14, Thurs: Modeling development
(Charles Kemp)
Meeden,
L. A., & Blank, D. S. (2005). Introduction to developmental robotics (p 1-2
only). Connection Science, 18, 93–96.
B.
Kuipers, P. Beeson, J. Modayil, and J. Provost. Bootstrap learning of
foundational representations. In Proceedings
of the AAAI Spring Symposium on Developmental Robotics, AAAI Spring
Symposium Series, Stanford, CA, 2005
Class #11. Feb 19, Tues:
Developmental Neuroscience (Kevin Pelphrey)
Johnson,
M.H. (2001). Functional brain development in humans. Nature Reviews
Neuroscience, 2, 475-483.
Pelphrey,
K.A., & Perlman, S.B. (In Press). Charting brain mechanisms for the
development of
social
cognition. In J. Rumsey and M. Ernst (Eds.), Neuroimaging in developmental
clinical neuroscience. Cambridge, England:
Cambridge University Press.
Class #12. Feb 21, Thur:
Developmental Neuroscience (Kevin Pelphrey)
Munakata, Y., Casey, B.
J., and Diamond, A. (2004). Developmental
cognitive neuroscience: progress and potential. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8, 122-128.
Cantlon, J. F.,
Brannon, E. M., Carter, E. J., and Pelphrey, K. A. (2006). Functional imaging
of numerical processing in adults and four-year-old children. PLoS Biology, 4(5).
Class #13. Feb 26, Tues:
Academic Skills and Scientific
Learning (David Klahr)
Siegler,
R. S., & Alibali, M. (2005). Chapter
10 in Children’s Thinking.
Goals for Science Ed
(Chapter 2) in Duschl, R. A., Schweingruber, H. A., & Shouse, A. W. (Eds.)
(2007) Taking Science to School:
Learning and Teaching Science in Grades K-8 . Washington, DC.:
National Academies Press. (Committee on Science Learning, Kindergarten through
Eighth Grade.)
Class #14. Feb 28, Thur: Academic
Skills and Scientific Learning (David Klahr)
Siegler,
R. S., & Alibali, M. (2005). Chapter
11 in Children’s Thinking.
Klahr, D. & Li, J.
(2005) Cognitive Research and Elementary Science Instruction: From the
Laboratory, to the Classroom, and Back. Journal
of Science Education and Technology,4, 217-238.