PSYC 521 COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT SPRING 2010 SYLLABUS

Instructor: Aylin C. Küntay Email: akunt [email protected] Office: SOS 224 Office hours: Tue 14 to 15 or By appointment (arranged through email)

Meeting time: Mondays and Wednesdays, 11:00-12:15 Meeting location: SOS B35

Overview

The purpose of this graduate-level course on Cognitive Development is to provide students with an overview of the major issues, theories, methods, and empirical data from the field of early cognitive development. We aim to develop critical thinking about the nature of development of conceptual structures and cognitive skills, and the role of theory in empirical work. The basic question is: How do infants and young children develop knowledge about the world? How does this knowledge turn into cognitive skills?

The course has two components. In the first component, we will review the major issues and theoretical problems/approaches in the field. In the second component, we will survey state- of-the-art research in the development of representations, memory, language, executive processes, social cognition including theory of mind, and cognitive developmental disorders.

It is very important that the student completes the reading for the assigned date and participates in class discussions. Most of the time in class will be devoted to discussions of the issues raised in the readings, not in lecture format. Before each meeting, students will receive some “thinking questions/statements” based on that meeting’s readings. He or she will be required to formulate a one page double-spaced “answer/discussion” to that week’s questions every Wednesday of every week.

THIS COURSE ASSUMES THAT THE STUDENT HAS ALREADY TAKEN COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY AT THE UNDERGRADUATE LEVEL.

Grading

Final grades will be based on a combination of four items:

(1) Research and application experience: Each student will select one “measurement topic” from the ones suggested. They will do a literature review of respectable ways of measuring and assessing this area. They will present their literature review in class, and turn in a 3-10 page (double-spaced) paper. Then, they will use one of these methods with at least two children (preferably more) to see how it actually works. At the end, they will present an evaluation of the assessment, both orally and in written format (a 5-10 page report). More information about this will be provided in class at the end of the second week. The report should conform as much as possible to the APA format (see American Psychological Association (2001). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th edition), Washington, DC: APA.) 30% Or this will be replaced by a proposal assignment, pending upon discussion. (2) Two midterms: There will be non-cumulative midterms, the first on April 1 and the second on the scheduled Final date for this class. 20% each. (3) Reading-based participation and assignments. Students are expected to read and comment on both empirical and theoretical papers in class. Reading-based participation to discussions will be half of this grade. Students are also required to complete a set of weekly assignments, which are 1-page replies to one of the questions of that week readings. You need to turn these in on Wednesday of each week (by the end of the class—NO LATE SUBMISSIONS), and will be graded on a scale of 1 to 3. 30%

Administrative details

Attendance. Attendance at all classes is required. If you anticipate missing class due to circumstances beyond your control (e.g., major medical problem, family emergency), you are expected to notify Aylin Küntay in advance via email and get a health report when needed according to Koç University regulations. You are also expected to make arrangements to gather the material you missed during such absences. Academic Honesty. All students are expected to read and follow the Koç University guidelines regarding academic conduct. Any student in violation of these guidelines will, where circumstances merit (e.g., cheating during an weekly assignment or exam, plagiarism), immediately receive a grade of F and be referred to the disciplinary committee for further review. Readings There is a textbook by David F. Bjorklund (Cognitive development and individual differences, fourth edition) and a reader. Schedule of topics The assignment of topics and readings to weeks is tentative and might be reshuffled as we progress. Week Xa stands for Monday of a certain week, and week Xb stands for Wednesday.

Week 1a/b: Introduction of the course/Scope of the field

Bjorklund, David F. (2005). Children’s thinking: Cognitive development and individual differences (Fourth edition). Chapter 1: An introduction to cognitive development, pp. 1-25.

Week 2a: More on Introduction

Gopnik, A. (2009). The Philosophical Baby. Introduction

Week 2b: Project Scope

Hand out on project.

Week 3a, 3b, 4a, 4b: Theory/State-of-the-art Transition: Representations, Intelligence and Executive Control Bjorklund, David F. (2005). Children’s thinking: Cognitive development and individual differences (Fourth edition). Chapter 9: Representation pp. 233-263.

Bjorklund, David F. (2005). Children’s thinking: Cognitive development and individual differences (Fourth edition). Chapter 15: Approaches to the study of intelligence, pp. 429-460.

Garon, N., Bryson, S.E., & Smith, I. M. (2008). Executive function in preschoolers: A review using an integrative framework. Psychological Bulletin, 134, 31-60.

Blair & Razza (2007). Relating effortful control, executive control and false belief understanding to emerging math and literacy ability in kindergarten. Child Development, 78, 647-663ç

Week 5a, March 15: Project Presentation 1 (Students present their work orally and in writing)

Week 5b-6a/b: Imitation and Pretend Play

Gopnik, A. (2009). The Philosophical Baby. Chapter 1 & 2.

Reading to be arranged.

Week 7a, March 29: Midterm 1, in class. Includes readings up to this point.

7b-Week8a/b, 9a/b: Memory development; Narrative Development

Bjorklund, David F. (2005). Children’s thinking: Cognitive development and individual differences (Fourth edition). Chapter 10: Memory development, pp. 265-298.

Gopnik, A. (2009). The Philosophical Baby. Chapter 5.

P. J. Bauer (2002). Early memory development. In U. Goswami (Ed.) Blackwell Handbook of Childhood Cognitive Development, pp. 127-146.

Simcock, Gabrielle & Hayne, Harlene (2003). Age-related changes in verbal and nonverbal memory during early childhood. Developmental Psychology, 39, 805-814.

Reese, Elaine (2002). Social factors in the development of autobiographical memory: The state of the art: Social Development, 11, 124-142. Howe, M. L., Courage, M.L. & Edison, S.C. (2003). When autobiographical memory begins. Developmental Review.

Ornstein, Peter A.; Haden, Catherine A.; Hedrick, Amy M. (2004). Learning to remember: Social- communicative exchanges and the development of children's memory skills. Developmental Review, Vol 24(4), Dec 2004. Special issue: Memory Development in the New Millennium. pp. 374-395.

Küntay, A.C., & Şenay, İ. (2003). Narratives beget narratives: Rounds of stories in Turkish preschool conversations. Journal of Pragmatics, 35, pp. 559-587.

Week 10a/b, 11a Social cognition: Theory of mind, etc.

Flavell, John 1999. Cognitive Development: Children's knowledge about the mind. Annual Review of Psychology, 50, 21-45.

Reading TBA Astington, J. W. (2003). Sometimes necessary, sometimes sufficient: False belief understanding and social competence. In B. Repacholi & V. Slaughter (Eds.), Individual differences in theory of mind: Implications for typical and atypical development, pp. 13-38.

Peterson, C. C. (2002). Drawing insight from pictures: The development of concepts of false drawing and false belief in children with deafness, normal hearing, and autism. Child Development, 73, 1442- 1459.

Week 12b-12a/b, Language development: Vocabulary and grammar Bjorklund, David F. (2005). Children’s thinking: Cognitive development and individual differences (Fourth edition). Chapter 11: Language development, pp. 299-337. Baldwin, D. (2000). Interpersonal understanding fuels knowledge acquisition. Current Directions in Psychological Science, pp. 40-45. Hoff, E. & Naigles, L. (2002). How children use input to acquire a lexicon. Child Development, 73, 418-433.

Tomasello, Michael. (2001). Perceiving intentions and learning words in the second year of life. In Melissa Bowerman and Stephen C. Levinson (Eds.) Language acquisition and conceptual development, pp. 132-158. Hurtado, N., Marchman, V. A. & Fernald, A. (2008). Does input influence uptake? Links between maternal talk, processing speed, and vocabulary size of Spanish learning children. Developmental Science, 11, 31-39.

Küntay, A., & Slobin, D.I. (1996). Listening to a Turkish mother: Some puzzles for acquisition. In D.I. Slobin, J. Gerhardt, A. Kyratzis, & J. Guo (Eds.) Social interactions, social context, and language (pp. 265-286). Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Week 13a/b, 14 a/b: Language development: Social context and pragmatics Hoff, E. (2006). How social contexts support and shape language development. Developmental Review 26 (1): 55-88.

Matthews, D. Lieven, E. & Tomasello, M. (2007). How toddlers and preschoolers learn to uniquely identify referents for others: A training study. Child Development, 78, 1744-1759.

Küntay, A. C. & Özyürek, A. (2006). Learning to use demonstratives in conversation: what do language specific strategies in Turkish reveal? Journal of Child Language 33, 303-320. Bahtiyar, S. & Küntay, A.C. (in press). Integration of Communicative Partner’s Visual Perspective in Patterns of Referential Requests. Journal of Child Language. Arnold, J. E., Benetto, L. & Diehl, J. J. (2009). Reference production in young speakers with and without autism: Effects of discourse status and processing constraints. Cognition 110, 131-146.

Week 15: Project presentations