DEVELOPMENTAL COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE

COGNITIVE SCIENCE 050.332/632

SPRING 2002

WED 10-12 AM

Professor Barbara Landau

241A Krieger Hall

E-mail:  landau@cogsci.jhu.edu

Office:  516-5255         Lab: 516-4078

Overview of the course:

            In this course, we will conduct an overview of the current literature on cognitive development in the context of developmental cognitive neuroscience.  We will consider several domains of inquiry, including visual perception and attention, knowledge of objects, faces, number, space, and language. For each of these, we will consider questions such as:  How is knowledge represented in the developing brain?  What kinds of developmental changes occur?  What are the effects of different kinds of experience, including those presented by genetic deficits, environmental deprivation, and brain damage?  What is the developmental time course within which such damage or difference can affect cognitive development, and does this differ for different domains?

Students are responsible for reading all materials and participating actively in class discussions.  In addition, each graduate student will be responsible for leading 1-2 classes, and each undergraduate will be responsible for leading 1-2 classes in conjunction with me or the TA.  Leading a class means providing a handout that includes the main points of the readings, points for discussion, critical questions, etc.  Students may meet with me and/or the class T.A. the week prior to their assignment to develop their handout.

            Two papers will be required, one due at mid-term time, and one due during finals.  Each paper will require a coherent, well -reasoned answer to a set of questions based on the readings.  Use of sources beyond the required reading list is strongly encouraged.

            Books and Readings:

            Johnson, M. (1997)  Developmental cognitive neuroscience.  Cambridge, Mass:  Blackwell. (available at the bookstore, recommended for purchase)

            Posner, M.I., Rothbart, M.K., Farah, M., & Bruer, J.., (Eds.) (2001)  Special Issue:  The developing human brain.  Developmental Science, 4(3).

Gazzaniga, M.S., Ivry, R.B., & Mangun, G.R. (1998) Cognitive Neuroscience.  New York:  Norton.

Gazzaniga, M.S. (2000)  The new cognitive neurosciences.  Cambridge, Mass:  MIT Press.

            The remainder of the readings will be from materials that will be xeroxed and placed in the Cognitive Science reading room.  A single complete set will also be available in my lab.  A list of additional key references and journals is provided at the end of the syllabus.

Calendar of  topics and assignments:

1/30   Introduction to the course and overview

2/6   Approaches:  Innate constraints

            Gallistel, C.R., Brown, A., Carey, S., Gelman, R., & Keil, F. (1991)  Lessons from animal learning for the study of cognitive development.  In S. Carey & R. Gelman (Eds.), The epigenesis of mind:  Essays on biology and cognition, pp.3-36.  Hillsdale:  Erlbaum.

            Spelke, E.S. & Newport, E.L. (1998)  Nativism, empiricism, and the development of knowledge.  In R. M. Lerner (Ed.), Theoretical models of human development, Vol. 1.  W. Damon (Editor), Handbook of child psychology (5^th edition).  New York:  Wiley.  Pps. 275-285 only.           

2/13     Approaches:  Activity--dependent processes, developmental epigenesis

            Johnson, M.  Chapter 1

Smith, L.B. & Katz, D. (1996)  Activity-dependent processes in perceptual and cognitive development.  In R. Gelman & T. Au (Eds.), Perceptual and cognitive development, 414-446.  San Diego:  Academic Press.

Posner et al., Section 3, Perception and attention, pps 270-276. (early experience and visual development)

Additional readings:

Gazzaniga, M., Ivry, R.B. & Mangun, G.R. (2000)  The new cognitive neurosciences.  New York:  Norton.  Chapter 12 on plasticity , p. 484-492.

Thelen, E. & Smith, LB. (1998)  Dynamic systems theories.  In Handbook of child psychology, Vol. 1).

2/20     Building a brain

Johnson, Chapter 2

            Gazzaniga, M. et al. Chapter 12 on brain development, p. 474-484 and plasticity, p. 484-492

2/27     Visual orienting and attention

            Johnson, Chapter 3

            Posner et al., Section 3, Perception and attention, p. 283-286 (attention and eye movements)

3/6       Faces

            Johnson, Chapter 4

Posner et al., Section 3, Perception and attention, p. 281-283 (face processing)

Moscovitch, M.,. Winocur, G., & Behrmann, M. (1997)  What is special about face recognition?  Nineteen experiments on a person with visual object agnosia and dyslexia but normal face recognition.   Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 9(5), 555-604.

            Farah, M.J., Rabinowitz, C., Quinn, G.E., Lui, G.T. (2000)  Early commitment of neural substrates for face recognition.  Journal of Cognitive Neuropsychology, 17, 117-123.

            DeSchonen, S., Mancini, J., Leigeois, F. (1998) About functional cortical specialization:  The development of face recognition.  In F. Simion, G. Butterworth, & G. Hove (Eds.), The development of sensory, motor, and cognitive capacities in early infancy:  From perception to cognition.  Psychology Press, pp. 103-120.

            LeGrand, R., Mondioch, C.J., Maurer, D., Brent, H.P. (2001)  Early visual experience is necessary for the later development of expert face processing.  Nature.

3/13     Objects:  Is there knowledge, and if so, what is its nature?

            Johnson, Chapter 7.

            Baillargeon, R. (1999)  Young infants' expectations about hidden objects:  a reply to three challenges.  Developmental Science, 2 (2), 115-163.  (Article with peer commentaries  by Smith, Spelke, Bates, Fisher & Stewart, Haselager, and response by Baillargeon).

Smith, L.B., Thelen, E., Titzer, R., & McLin, D. (1999)  Knowing in the context of acting:  The task dynamics of the A-not-B error.  Psychological Review.

3/20     Spring break, no class

3/27     Objects, Identity, and Number 

            Posner et al., Section 3, Perception and attention, pps. 278-281 (number processing)

Xu, F., & Carey, S. (1996)  Infants’ metaphysics:  The case of numerical identity.  Cognitive Psychology, 30, 111-153. 

            Leslie, A.M., Xu, F., Tremoulet, P.D., Scholl, B.J. (1997) Indexing and the object concept:  Developing “what” and “where” systems.  Trends in Cognitive Science, 2, 10-18.

            Mareschal, D., Plunkett, K., Harris, P. (1999)  A computational and neuropsychological account of object-oriented behaviors in infancy.  Developmental Science, 2, 306-317.

4/3       Representations of number, modularity, and language

            Wynn, K. (1992)  Addition and subtraction by human infants. Nature, 358, 749-750.

Wynn, K. (1998)  Psychological foundations of number:  numerical competence in human infants.  Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 2, 296-303.

Dehaene, S., Spelke, E., Pinel, P., Stanescu, R., & Tsivkin, S. (1999)  Sources of mathematical thinking:  Behavioral and brain-imaging evidence.  Science, 284, 970-974.

            Whalen, J., Gallistel, C.R., & Gelman, R. (1999)  Nonverbal counting in humans:  the psychophysics of number representation.  Psychological Science, 10, 130-137.

Xu, F., & Spelke, E.S. (2000)  Large number discrimination in 6 month-old infants.  Cognition, 74, B1-B11.

4/10     Spatial representation and modularity

            Spelke, E.S. & Newport, E. (1998)  Chapter in Handbook, pp. 311-321.

            Hermer, L. & Spelke, E.S. (1996)  Modularity and development:  The case of spatial reorientation.  Cognition, 61, 195-232.

            Hermer-Vasquez, L., Moffet, A., & Munkholm, P. (2001)  Language, space, and the development of cognitive flexibility in humans:  the case of two spatial memory tasks.  Cognition, 79 (3),p.  263-299

            Hermer-Vasquez, L. , Spelke, E.S. & Katsnelson, A.S. (1999)  Sources of flexibility in human cognition:  dual-task studies of space and language.  Cognitive Psychology, 39, 3-36.

4/17     Language development:  Plasticity and speech perception

Kuhl, P.K.  (2000)  Language, mind, and brain:  Experience alters perception.  In M. Gazzaniga (Ed.), The new cognitive neurosciences, 2^nd ed.  Cambridge, Mass:  MIT.

            Werker, J. (1995) Exploring developmental changes in cross-language speech perception.  In L.R. Gleitman & M. Liberman (Eds.), Language, Vol 1.  D.N. Osherson (Ed.), An invitation to cognitive science, 2^nd edition.  Cambridge, Mass:  MIT Press., pp. 87-106.

Stager, C.L. & Werker, J.F. (1997)  Infants listen for more phonetic detail in speech perception than in word-learning tasks.  Nature, 388, 381-382.

Posner et al., Section 4, Language, pp. 293-312

            Spelke, E.S. & Newport, E.L. (1998) Chapter in Handbook, pp. 300-311

4/24 Plasticity and morphology, syntax

            Johnson, J.S. and Newport, E.L. (1989)  Critical period effects in second language learning:  the influence of maturational state on the acquisition of English as a second language. Cognitive Psychology, 21, 60-99.

            Johnson, J.S. and Newport, E.L. (1991)  Critical period effects in second language learning:  the influence of maturational state on the acquisition of a second language.  Cognition, 39, 215-258.

            Senghas, A. and Coppola, M. (2000?)  Children's creation of Nicaraguan sign Language:  language genesis via acquisition.  Psychological Science,

            Singleton, J. and Newport, E.L.  (2000?) when learners surpass their models:  the acquisition of American Sign Language from impoverished input.  Cognitive Psychology.

5/1       Brain plasticity and language

Mills, D..L., Coffey-Corina, S.A. & Neville, H.J. (1997) Language comprehension and cerebral specialization from 13 to 20 months.  Developmental Neuropsychology, 13, 397-445.

            Neville, H.J., Coffey, S.A., Lawson, D.S., Fischer, A., Emmorey, K., & Bellugi, U. (1997)  Neural systems mediating American Sign Language:  effects of sensory experience and age of acquisition.  Brain and Language, 57, 285-308.

            Neville, H.J. and Bavelier, D. (2000)  Specificity and plasticity in neurocognitive development in humans.  In M. Gazzaniga (Ed.), The new cognitive neurosciences.  Cambridge, Mass:  MIT Press.

Additional references:

Major references:

            Damon, W. (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology, 5^th edition.  (1998) New York:  Wiley.  (There are six volumes.  We will be reading from Volume 1, Theoretical models of human development, and Volume 2, Perception,, cognition, and language.)

Collected essays:

            Carey, S. & Gelman, R. (Eds.) (1991)  The epigenesis of mind:  Essays on biology and cognition.  Hillsdale, NJ:  Erlbaum.

            Gelman, R. & Au, T. (1996)  Perceptual and cognitive development.  Volume in E. Carterette and M. Friedman, Handbook of perception and cognition, 2^nd edition.  San Diego:  Academic Press.

            Advances in Infancy Research (series)

            Advances in Child Development (series)

            Annual Review of Psychology (series)

            Psychology of Learning and Motivation (series)

Journals to check regularly ( a partial list):

            Cognition

            Cognitive Psychology

            Cognitive Science

Current Directions in Psychological Science

            Current Opinion (series… in Neurobiology, in Neuroscience, etc.)

Child Development (major archival journal for developmental)

            Developmental Neuropsychology

Developmental Psychology (Major archival journal for developmental)

            Developmental Science

Infant Behavior and Development

            Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

            Psychological Science (very good brief experimental reports)

            Science

Trends in Cognitive Science

            Trends in Neuroscience