PSYC 521
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
SPRING 2009 SYLLABUS
Instructor: Aylin C. Küntay
Email:
akuntay@ku.edu.tr
TA:
Ayşe Candan
TA email:
aycandan@ku.edu.tr
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: CAS B42
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 stateof-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. Every Monday, students will turn in
some “thinking questions/statements” based on that week’s readings (and any supplementary
material that she encounters about the topic at hand).
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 topic from the ones
covered. 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 paper in class. They are also required to
complete a set of weekly assignments, which are 1-page reflections on that week’s
readings. You need to turn these in on Monday of each week, 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 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 for lectures
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.
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.
Unit 1: Theories and issues
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: Theory: Piaget/constructivist theory and neo-Piagetians
Bjorklund, David F. (2005). Children’s thinking: Cognitive development and individual differences
(Fourth edition). Chapter 4: Piaget and the neo-Piagetians, pp. 78-116.
Week 3b: Theory: Information processing theory
Bjorklund, David F. (2005). Children’s thinking: Cognitive development and individual differences
(Fourth edition). Chapter 5: Information-processing approaches, pp. 118-149.
Week 4a: Theory: Sociocultural theory
Bjorklund, David F. (2005). Children’s thinking: Cognitive development and individual differences
(Fourth edition). Chapter 3: The Social Construction of mind: Sociocultural perspectives on cognitive
development, pp. 60-76.
Week 5a, 5b, 6a: 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.
Week 6b, March 18: Project Workshop 1 (Students present their work orally and in writing)
Unit 2: State-of-the-art
Week 7a/b-Week8a/b, 9a: 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.
Cowan, N., & Alloway, T.P. (in press). The development of working memory. In N. Cowan
(Ed). Development of Memory in Childhood, 2nd edition. Hove, England: Psychology Press
P. J. Bauer (2002). Early memory development. In U. Goswami (Ed.) Blackwell Handbook of
Childhood Cognitive Development, pp. 127-146.
Optional: Bauer, P. J., Wenner, J. A., Dropik, P. L. & Wewerka, S. S. (2000). Parameters of
remembering and forgetting in the transition from infancy to early childhood. Monographs of the
Society for Research in Child Development, 65, 1-204. (In the library, NOT IN READER)
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: Socialcommunicative 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.
Küntay, A.C. & Ahtam, B. (2004). Türk Psikoloji Dergisi, 19, 19-31.
Week 12a/12b Social cognition: Theory of mind, etc.
Flavell, John 1999. Cognitive Development: Children's knowledge about the mind. Annual Review of
Psychology, 50, 21-45.
Gopnik, Alison & Astington, J. W. (2000). Theory of mind: Children’s understanding of
representational change and its relation to the understanding of false belief and the appearance-reality
distinction. In K. Lee (Ed.) Childhood Cognitive Development: The Essential Readings, pp. 175-199.
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, 14421459.
Week 9b-10a/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 11a/11b: 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 13a/13b: Wrap-up and midterms and stuff
Week 14a/14b: Wrap-up and project presentations