CogSci 050.245
Monday, Wednesday 2:00- 3:15 pm.

Professor Barbara Landau
Landau@cogsci.jhu.edu
241 Krieger Hall
410-516-5255
Office Hours: TBA
Teaching Assistant:  TBA

 This is an introductory survey course in cognitive development, from a cognitive science perspective.  It is designed for individuals with some background in psychology or cognitive science, but little or none in development.  The course focuses on theoretical issues in cognitive development as well as relevant experimental research.  The principal focus is early cognitive development, i.e. .from conception through middle childhood.  The course is organized topically, covering biological and prenatal development, perceptual and cognitive development, the nature and development of intelligence, and language learning.

TEXTBOOKS
 Cole, M. and Cole, S.R. (2001)  The development of children (4th edition).  New York:  Worth Publishing.
 Slater, A. and Muir, D. (Eds.) (2000)  The Blackwell reader in developmental psychology.  Oxford, U.K.:  Blackwell Publishers.
Readings from other sources listed in the syllabus will be available in the Cognitive Science Department, and on reserve at the MSE Library.

EXAMS
 There will be three hourly exams, each containing a combination of multiple choice and short essay questions.  The essay questions will be drawn from study questions distributed in class throughout the semester.  Students are required to prepare all essays prior to the exam.  Of these questions, a subset will appear on the exams.

ETHICS
 Please see attached statement on University ethics.
 
 

September 9  Introduction  and Overview of the Course
 Cole and Cole:  Chapter 1
 Blackwell Reader:
Reading 2 (Darwin), 3 (Skinner), 4 (Karmiloff-Smith)
Readings from other sources:
Spelke, E.S. (2000)  Nativism, empiricism, and the origins of knowledge.  In D. Muir and A. Slater (Eds.), Infant development:  The essential readings..  Oxford, U.K. :  Blackwell., pp. 36-52.

September  Biological and Prenatal Development
11, 18, 23
 Cole and Cole:  Chapter 2, 3
 Blackwell Reader:  Reading 35 (Werner), 9 (DeCasper &  Fifer)
 Readings from other sources:
 Streissguth, A., Barr, H., Bookstein, F., Sampson, P. & Olson, H. (1999)  The long-term neurocognitive consequences of prenatal alcohol exposure:  A 14-year study.  Psychological Science, 10 (3), 186-190.

September 25, 30, Oct. 2 Sexual Differentiation: Biology and Cognition
 Cole and Cole:  Box 3.1
 Readings from other sources:
 Levine, S. (1966)  Sex differences in the brain. Scientific-American, 214 (4): 84-90.
 Halpern, D.F. (2000)  Sex differences in cognitive abilities (Third
edition).  Hillsdale, NJ.:  Erlbaum.
Chapter 3:  pp. 81-87, 93-106
Chapter 4: pp. 133-148, 154-163

DISCUSSION:  Baron-Cohen, S. (2002)  The extreme male theory of autism.  Trends in Cognitive Science, 6 (6), 248-254.

October 7  First exam

October   Perception and Action in Infancy
9, 16, 21, 23
 Cole and Cole:  Chapter 4 through p. 147, Box 4.4,  Chapter 5 through 186, Boxes 5.1, 5.2, 5.3; Chapter 6 through 222
 Blackwell Reader:  Reading 12 and 12a (Meltzoff & Moore)
 Readings from other sources:
 Slater, A., Mattock, A., & Brown, E. (1990)  Size constancy at birth:   Newborh infantsí responses to retinal and real size.  Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 49, 314-32
 Campos, J.J., Bertenthal, B.I., and Kermoian, R. (1992) Early experience and emotional development: The emergence of wariness of heights. Psychological-Science, 3(1): 61-64.
 Adolph, K. (2000)  Specificity of learning: Why infants fall over a veritable cliff.
Psychological-Science,11(4): 290-295.
 Thelen, E  (1995) Motor development: A new synthesis. American-Psychologist. 50(2): 79-95.

DISCUSSION:  Jones, S. (1996)  Imitation or exploration?  Young infants' matching of adult oral gestures.  Child Development, 67 (5), 1952-69.

October 28, 30 Cognition:  Objects, Number, Minds
Nov. 4, 6
 Cole and Cole: Chapter 5, pps. 187-206 ("Cognitive changes"), Chapter 9, pps. 335-357
 Blackwell Reader:  13 (Wynn), 37 (Frith)
 Readings from other sources:
 Baillargeon, R. (1987) Object permanence in 3 1/2- and 4 1/2-month old infants.  Developmental Psychology, 23 (5), 655-664.

DISCUSSION:
Smith, L. (critique of A  not B pattern)
 Sirois, S. & Mareschal, D. (2002)  Models of habituation in infancy.  Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 6 (7), 293-298.

November 11   Second exam

November 13, 18 Intelligence:  Genetics and the Environment
 Cole and Cole:  Chapter 2, pp. 58-66, Chapter 13, pp. 526-536
 Blackwell Reader:  Reading 6 (Slater et al.)
 Readings from other sources:
 Gould, S.J. (1994)  Curveball.  The New Yorker.  Reprinted as  Chapter 1 in Fraser, S. (Ed.) (1995), The Bell Curve Wars.  New York:  Basic Books.
 (Also highly recommended:  The Introduction to the Fraser volume)

November 20  Learning a First Language
25, 27, Dec. 2
 Cole and Cole:  Chapter 8
 Blackwell Reader:  24 (Pinker), Reading 10 (Werker & Desjardins), 21 (Petitto & Marentette)
 Readings from other sources:
 Stager, C.L. & Werker, J. F. (1997) Infants listen for more phonetic detail in speech perception than in word-learning tasks.  Nature, 388(6640): 381-382.
 Juscyzk, P. & Hohne, E.A.  (1997) Infants' memory for spoken words..  Science, 277(5334), 1984-1986.
 Senghas, A. & Coppola, M. (2001)  Children creating language: How Nicaraguan sign language acquired a spatial grammar.  Psychological Science, 12(4), 323-8.

December 4 Learning a Second Language: Maturation and Experience
 Reading from other sources:
 Newport, E. (1990)  Maturational constraints on language learning.  Cognitive Science, 14, 11-28.

December 9 TBA

Third exam will take place during the exam period.