Advanced Developmental Psychology - 1

Advanced Psychology: Seminar in Cognitive Development

PSYC498H/PSYC679A
Spring, 2007

Time: Mondays, 230-5:00

Location: PLS 1146

Instructor:
Amanda Woodward, awoodward@psyc.umd.edu, BPS 2147B
Office hours: Thursday 12:00-2:00 or by appointment.

Teaching assistant
Sarah Gerson, sgerson@psyc.umd.edu, BPS 2109B
Office hours: Tuesday 11:15-12:15

Course Description
In the first years of life, children’s cognition undergoes dramatic qualitative and
quantitative change. For nearly a century, experimental psychologists have sought to
understand the nature and causes of these developmental changes. This course
surveys classic and current approaches to the study of cognitive development in infants
and children. We will begin with a review of the major theoretical perspectives from
which cognitive development has been investigated. Then we will survey development
in topical domains including: perception, concepts, memory, problem solving, social
cognition, language and academic skills. The seminar will involve active group
discussion and analysis of the course readings, with occasional lectures to set the stage
for discussion. Assignments will include weekly essays, leading class discussion, and a
take home final exam.

Attendance
Because this seminar will rely on the active analysis of course readings during class
discussion, attendance and participation are essential both to learning something from
the class and for the course grade.

Assignments

Readings. The readings for the course will be drawn from both the primary literature
and the book, Children’s Thinking: Fourth Edition, by Robert Siegler and Martha Alibali.
This book can be purchased at the UMD bookstore. Each week, 3 or 4 primary papers
or chapters are assigned. Students are to complete all the readings for the week before
the class meeting. Readings will be made available via electronic reserve at McKeldin
Library.

Leading class discussion. Each student will lead class discussion 3 times over the
course of the semester. Students will work in groups of 3-4. Serving in this role will
require a great deal of preparation. The group should meet with the instructor the week
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before their presentation, and each group should meet independently to plan the class
as well. Discussion leaders are expected to know the weekly readings in minute detail,
to present the central themes and questions for the week, and to lead an active group
discussion on these issues. Each student in the group is expected to play an active role
in the discussion. Grades will be assigned to each individual student based on his or her
contributions.

Exam. There will be take-home final examination handed out on May 7 and due by
noon in BPS 2147B on May 14.

Term paper. Students will write a term paper of approximately 20 pages, due on the
last day of class (May 7). The assignment will differ for graduate students (registered
for 679A) and undergraduates (registered for 498H).

Graduate students should identify a research question concerning cognitive

development and then consider this question from at least two of the diverse theoretical
perspectives considered in this class. Students are encouraged to choose a question
close to their own work, but they must consider the question from novel theoretical and
empirical perspectives. For example, the acquisition of grammar or morphology could
be considered as deriving strongly from innate core knowledge, as a problem for a
general purpose learning machine, or as an aspect of socio-cultural development. The
paper should begin with a delineation of the focal aspect of development, followed by a
description of two (or more) different theoretical perspectives on the issue and a review
of the relevant empirical evidence. Consider how the different perspectives would define
the problem and interpret the evidence. Is one perspective more useful or more “right”?
If so, why? If not, why not?

Undergraduate students should identify a research question concerning cognitive

development from among the course readings and then consider two distinct theoretical
perspectives on this problem, again chosen from those described in the course.
Consider how each theoretical perspective would define the problem, and how each
perspective would explain this aspect of development and the empirical findings that
exist on the topic. This will require library research to identify and review a set of
relevant empirical papers. Consider whether one perspective is more “right” or more
useful and say why this is or is not the case.
Undergraduates will work closely with the teaching assistant in the writing
process, according to the following schedule:
Week of March 5: All undergraduates will meet with the teaching assistant to
discuss the topic of their paper. Students should schedule the meeting at least 1 week
in advance and arrive at the meeting with a clear idea or ideas about the paper topic.
April 9 (at the start of class): All undergraduates will hand in a complete draft of
the paper in APA format. Late papers will not be accepted.
April 16: Undergraduates will receive written comments on the paper, and can
schedule a meeting for further discussion if needed.
May 7: Final paper is due at the start of class. No late papers will be accepted.
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Undergraduates are encouraged to visit the teaching assistant during her office hours or
to make appointments to meet with her throughout the semester.

Grading
Late papers will not be accepted and missed assignments cannot be made up except
under exceptional circumstances. Students who anticipate a course conflict due to
religious observance should contact me well in advance to make alternative
arrangements. The final grade will be based on leading class discussion (1/3), the term
paper (1/3), and the final exam (1/3).

Academic integrity.
It is assumed that students are aware of the University of Maryland’s standards for
academic integrity and that they understand the consequences of academic dishonesty.
If you do not, please consult the university’s web pages, the graduate catalog or the
course registration booklet to become familiar with these issues.

Students with Disabilities.

If you are a student with a documented disability, please contact an instructor by the
first week of class so that we can make arrangements for the necessary
accommodations.
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Course schedule
(This is a working version. Revisions may occur as the semester unfolds. )

January 29, 2007: Introduction.

Siegler & Alibali, Chapter 1: An introduction to children’s thinking.

February 5, 2007 Piaget’s theory.

Siegler & Alibali, Chapter 2: Piaget’s theory of development

Piaget, J. (1964). Development and learning. In R. E. Ripple and V. N. Rockcastle

(eds.) Piaget rediscovered, a report on the Conference on Cognitive Studies and
Curriculum Development, (pp. 228-237).

Piaget, J. & Inhelder, B. (1969). The Psychology of the Child .Chapter 4: The “concrete”
operations of thought and interpersonal relations (pp. 192-129). New York: Basic Books.

February 12, 2007 Information processing, cognitive learning, and conceptual

change

Siegler & Alibali, Chapter 3: Information processing theories of development

Colunga, E. & Smith L B. (2003). The emergence of abstract ideas: Evidence from
networks and babies. In the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.

Gentner, D. (2003). Why we’re so smart. In D. Gentner & S. Goldin-Meadow (Eds.).

Language in the mind: Advances in the study of language and thought (pp. 195-235).
Cambrindge, MA: MIT Press.

Alibali, M. W. (2005). Mehcanisms of change in the development of mathematical

reasoning. In R. V. Kail (Ed.) Advances in Child Development and Behavior (pp.79-
123). Elsevier.

***A special event: Martha Alibali will give a talk: Wed, 2/14 2:00 in BPS 1142***

February 19, 2007: Core Knowledge

Spelke, E. S., Breinlinger, K., Macomber, J. (1992); Origins of knowledge.

Psychological Review, Vol 99(4), 605-632.

Feigenson, L., Dehaene, S., & Spelke, E. (2004). Core systems of number. Trends in
Cognitive Sciences, 8, 308-314.
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Johnson, S. C. (2000). The recognition of mentalisitic agents in infancy. Trends in

Cognitive Sciences, 4(1), 22-28.

Saxe, R. & Carey, S. (in press). The perception of causality in infancy. Acta
Psycholigica.

February 26, 2007 Cognitive development in its social and cultural context

Siegler & Alibali, Chapter 4: Sociocultural approaches to cognitive development

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in Society: Chapter 3: Mastery of memory and thinking (pp.
38-51); Chapter 4: Internalization of higher psychological functions (pp. 52- 57) and
Chapter 6: Interaction between learning and development (pp. 79-91). Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press.

Rogoff, B. (2003). The cultural nature of human development. Chapter 7: Thinking with
the tools and institutions of culture (pp.236-281). New York: Oxford University Press.

Tomasello, M., Carpenter, M., Call, J , Behne, T. & Moll, M. (2005). Understanding and
sharing intentions: The origins of cultural cognition. BEHAVIORAL AND BRAIN
SCIENCES, 28, 675–735.

March 5, 2007: Cognitive neuroscience approaches to development

Johnson, M. H. (2005). Developmental cognitive neuroscience. Chapter 1: The biology

of change (pp. 1-18), Chapter 2: Building a brain (pp. 20-52). Malden, MA: Blackwell
Publshing.

Greenough, W. T., Black J. E., & Wallace, C. S. (1987) Experience and brain
development. Child Development, 58, 539-559.

Neville H. J. & Bavalier, D. (1999). Specificity and plasticity in neurocognitive

development in humans. In M. Gazzaniga (Ed.) The new cognitive neurosciences
(second edition), pp. 83-98. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Nelson, C. A. (2000). Neural plasticity and human development: The role of early
experience in sculpting memory systems. Developmental Science, 3, 115-136.

March 12, 2007- AW Out of town CLASS CANCELLED

March 19-23 SPRING BREAK

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March 26, 2007: Cognition in Infancy

Siegler & Alibali, Chapter 5: Perceptual development.

Baillargeon, R. Li, J., Ng, W., Yuan,S. (in press). Am account of infants’ physical
reasoning. In A. Woodward & A. Needham (Eds.0 Learning and the infant mind.

Amso, D., & Johnson, S. P. (2006). Learning by selection: Visual search and object
perception in young infants. Developmental Psychology, 6, 1236-1245.

Aslin, R. N., & Fiser, J. (2005). Methodological challenges for understanding cognitive
development in infants. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9, 92-98.

April 2, 2007 Conceptual Development

Siegler & Alibali, Chapter 8: Conceptual development

Gelman, S. (2005). Two insights about naming in the preschool child. In P. Carruthers,
S. Laurence & S. Stitch (Eds.) The innate mind: Structure and Contents (pp.198-215).
Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Sloutsky, V. M., Kloos, H., & Fisher, A. V. (In press). When Looks Are Everything:
Appearance Similarity versus Kind Information in Early Induction. Psychological
Science.

Gelman, S. A. & Waxman, S. R. (in press). Looking beyond looks: Comments on

Sloutsky, Kloos, and Fisher. Psychological Science.

Sloutsky, V. M., Kloos. H., & Fisher, A. V. (In press). What’s beyond looks? Reply to
Gelman and Waxman. Psychological Science.

April 9, 2007 Folk psychology

Siegler & Alibali, Chapter 9: the development of social cognition

Wellman, H. R. (2002). Understanding the psychological world: Developing a theory of

mind. In U.Goswami (Ed.) Blackwell handbook of childhood cognitive development (pp.
167-187). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.

Scholl, B. J. & Leslie, A. M. (2000). Minds, modules and meta-analyses. Child

Development, 72, 696-701.
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Sabbagh, M. A., et al. (2006). The development of executive functioning and theory of
mind: A comparison of Chinese and U.S. Preschoolers. Psychological Science, 17, 74-
81.

Onishi, K. H. & Baillargeon, R. (2005). Do 15-month-old infants understand false belief?

Science, 308, 255-258.

April 16, 2007 Language Development

Siegler & Alibali, Chapter 6: Language Development

Saffran, J. R. (2003). Statistical language learning: Mechanisms and constraints.

Current Directions in Psychological Science, 12, 110-114

Marcus, G. (1996). Why do children Say 'breaked'? Current Directions in

Psychological Science, 5, 81-85.

Senghas, A., Kita, S., Özyürek, A., (2004). Children Creating Core Properties of
Language: Evidence from an Emerging Sign Language in Nicaragua. Science,
305(5691), 1779-1782.

Newport, E.S. (1991). Constraining concepts of the critical period for language. In S.
Carey & R. Gelman (Eds.), The epigenesis of mind: Essays on biology and cognition,
(pp. 111-130), Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum.

April 23, 2006 Thought and language in development

Spelke, E. S. (2003). What makes us so smart? Core knowledge and natural language.
In D. Gentner & S. Goldin-Meadow (Eds.). Language in the mind: Advances in the study
of language and thought (pp. 277-311). Cambrindge, MA: MIT Press.

Gordon, P. (2004). Numerical Cognition Without Words: Evidence from Amazonia,

Science, 306,

Smith, L. B., Colonga, E., & Yoshia, H. (2003). Making an ontology: Crosslinguistic
evidence. In D. Rakison & L. Oakes (eds.) Early category and concept development
(pp. 275-302).

De Villiers, J. & De Villiers, P. (2003). Language for thought: Coming to understand

false beliefs. In D. Gentner & S. Goldin-Meadow (eds.) Language in mind (pp. 335-384).
Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum/
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April 30, 2007 Memory Development

Siegler & Alibali, Chapter 7: Memory Development

Bauer, P. (2002). Long-term recall memory: Behavioral and neuro-developmental

changes in the first two years of life. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11,
137-141.

Wang, Q. (2003). Infantile amnesia reconsidered: A cross-cultural analysis

Memory,11(1), 65-80.

Principe, G. F., Kanaya, T., Ceci, S. J. (2006). Believing is Seeing: How Rumors Can
Engender False Memories in Preschoolers. Psychological Science, 17(3), 243-248.

Brainerd, C. J., Reyna, V. F., & Forrrest, T. J. (2002). Are young children susceptible to
the false-memory illusion? Child Development, 73, 1363-1377.

May 7, 2007 Problem Solving and strategy selection

Siegler & Alibali, Chapter 10: Problem Solving (see also Chapter 11 on Mathematics)

Diamond, A. (2002). A model system for studying the role of dopamine in prefrontal
corext during early development in humans. In M. H.Johnson, . Y. Munakata and R. O.
Gilmore (eds.) Brain development and cognition: A reader (pp.441-493). London:
Blackwell.

Bunge, S. & Zelazo, P. D. (2006). A brain-based account of the development of rule use
in childhood. Curent Directions in Psychological Science, 15, 118-121.

Gauvain, M. (2001). The social context of cognitive development: Chapter 6. Solving

and learning to solve problems in social context (pp. 102-136). New York: Guilford.