NOTE: THIS IS A DRAFT. A FINAL FORM WILL BE COMPLETED AFTER CONSULTATION WITH THE CLASS
PSY 620 Cognitive Development: Language, Play and Theory of Mind
Spring 2004
Cecilia Shore
126D Benton
course website on http://blackboard.muohio.edu
Texts:
P. D. Zelazo, J.W. Astington, D.R. Olson (1999) Developing Theories of Intention. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
P. L. Harris (2000) The Work of the Imagination.
Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers.
Course description
The course will begin with an overview of traditional cognitive
developmental theories, focusing on Piaget and Vygotsky, as well as an introduction to neo-nativist and modularity
approaches. These
will serve as a background for understanding current controversies in the burgeoning field of research relevant
to children’s understanding of the mind.
The course will touch on areas such as:
· How
do young children come to understand the difference between what people think/perceive, and what is real?
· What
is the developmental course of that understanding?
Is this a pre-wired discovery, or is it part of more general cognitive
developments?
· Does
the discovery of the mind relate to children’s use of language to communicate with other minds, and acquisition
of mental state terms, such a “think” and “plan” and “deceive”?
· Do
young children learn about others’ minds by extrapolating their own experience?
· How
do young children understand mental states such as dreams, fiction and pretense?
· Is
pretending/play an important avenue or context for developing theories of mind?
· What
individual differences exist in children’s ideas about the mind, and do these relate to social factors such as
family and culture?
Your goals
as participants should include: familiarizing yourself with this body of research, critically examining the issues,
practicing skills in oral and written communication.
My role as instructor will be to provide resources and background, to propose avenues of thought, to help you evaluate your development in the above areas, and to make myself available on an individual basis for whatever concerns you may have about course content or structure.
Class requirements
1. Preparation (5-10% of grade). Do the weekly reading assignments. Think about the material. Come to seminar meetings prepared to share your views. Each student should post questions/issues for discussion on the on-line discussion board by Monday noon, to help whoever is facilitating discussion.
2. Participation (10-15% of grade). You are expected to attend all seminar sessions and to participate actively in discussions. Our learning is facilitated by a group attitude of cooperation and mutual respect. Each of us will benefit from the active involvement of others. This involvement will require considerable preparation and willingness to engage ourselves thoughtfully with ideas presented both in the readings and by other class members. Everyone must share in the leadership of the group and work to create an atmosphere that encourages critical thought while maintaining an openness and respect for the differing views of others. The class will decide how to evaluate this.
3. Facilitation (10-15% of grade). Each of you will take one or more turns leading a class period. The class will decide how to evaluate this.
4. Exams/Papers/Projects (60-70% of grade). You are expected to complete 5 written assignments. Five relatively short (about 3 pages) take-home essay tests will be offered. The purpose of these will be to show comprehension of the readings and class discussion. Test 5 will include some comprehensive questions. Students may complete a self-chosen final project. This could take several forms, including but not limited to: literature review papers, position papers, research proposals, a bibliography for a comps section accompanied by sample questions and answers.
YOU MAY COMPLETE EITHER 5 EXAMS OR 4 EXAMS AND A PROJECT; HOWEVER, the purpose of offering a project is to allow students the opportunity to go beyond simply comprehending the material in the course, and to do some higher order cognitive skills and to make their own original contributions to the literature. THUS, IN ORDER TO EXCEL IN THE COURSE (I.E., GET AN A) YOU MUST TAKE THE PROJECT OPTION. IF YOU DO 5 EXAMS, THE HIGHEST GRADE YOU CAN ATTAIN IS A B+.
Each student may choose to weight these 5 assignments equally, or assign a heavier weight to the Test 5 or project. This choice must be made at the time you hand in Test 5 or the project.
The class will decide whether progress over the course may be factored into the grade.
Grades will be rounded to the nearest whole number and assigned letters according to the following scale:
|
A+ 98-100 A 92-97 A- 90-91 B+ 88-89 B 82-87 B- 80-81 C+ 78-79 |
C 72-78 C- 70-71 D+ 68-69 D 62-67 D- 60-61 F 0-59 |
Class preparation/participation cannot be made up. Agenda postings that are made after noon on Monday will not count toward your total. There are 13 possible of these; you are allowed to miss up to 2 of them without penalty to your grade. You are allowed to miss one class period without penalty to your grade. If there are extraordinary circumstances, such as personal or family illness, or professional obligations that require more absences, please talk with me.
The class will discuss how to handle make-ups for facilitation sessions.
Late exams/projects: You will lose 10% of your grade for every 24-hour period that the paper is late. You may send your paper by email (please NOT by attachment).
DTI= Developing Theories of Intention
WI= Work of the Imagination
|
Date Facilitator |
Topic |
Readings |
Assignments Due |
|
Jan 12 Cecilia |
Orientation, organization |
|
|
|
Jan 19 |
NO CLASS |
Martin Luther King Jr. Day |
|
|
Jan 26 |
Piagetian theory Vygotskian theory |
Miller: Piaget’s cognitive-stage theory Miller: Vygotsky’s theory and the contexualists Vygotsky: The role of play in development |
Agenda posting |
|
Feb 2 |
Modularity theory |
Hirschfeld & Gelman: Toward a topography of mind: an introduction to domain specificity Bates: Modularity, domain specificity and the development of language |
Agenda posting |
|
Feb 9 |
TOM classics |
Flavell: The development of children’s knowledge about the appearance-reality distinction Wimmer & Perner: Beliefs about beliefs Astington & Gopnik: Knowing you’ve changed your mind |
Agenda posting Test 1 due |
|
Feb 17 SWITCH DAY |
The gold standard: False beliefs |
Wellman, Cross & Watson: Meta-analysis of theory-of-mind development: the truth about false belief Carlson & Moses: Individual differences in inhibitory control and children’s theory of mind. |
Agenda posting Project proposal due |
|
Feb 23 |
Theories of TOM |
Gopnik & Wellman: The theory theory Harris: The work of the imagination Scholl & Leslie: Minds, modules & meta-analysis Frye: Development of intention (Ch 7 in DTI) |
Agenda posting |
|
Mar 1 |
Infancy & Intention |
Meltzoff, Gopnik & Repacholi: Toddlers’ understanding of intentions, desires and emotions (Ch 2 in DTI) Tomasello: Having intentions, understanding intentions and understanding communicative intentions (Ch 4 in DTI) Lewis & Ramsay: Intentions, consciousness & pretend play (Ch 5 in DTI) |
Agenda posting Test 2 due |
|
Mar 8 |
Language and TOM |
Astington: Language and metalanguage in children's understanding of mind. Perner et al.: Want that is understood before say that… Watson, Painter & Bornstein: Longitudinal relations between 2-year-olds’ language and 4-year-olds’ ToM Astington: The language of intention (Ch 15 in DTI) |
Agenda posting |
|
Mar 15 |
BREAK |
|
|
|
Mar 22 |
Social context and TOM |
Dunn: Making sense of the social world (Ch 12 DTI) Reznick: Influences on maternal attribution of intentionality (Ch 13 DTI) Jenkins & Astington: TOM and social behavior |
Agenda posting Progress report on project due |
|
Mar 29 |
Play & simulation |
Harris: Bleuler in Weimar, Pretend Play, Role Play (Ch 1-3 WI) |
Agenda posting Test 3 due |
|
Apr 5 |
Other classic accounts of play |
Lillard: Pretend play skills as twin earth Leslie: Some implications of pretense for mechanisms underlying the child’s TOM |
Agenda posting |
|
Apr 12 |
Reasoning & counterfactuals |
Harris: Reasoning, makebelieve & dialogue; Counterfactual thinking (Ch 5-6 of WI) Amsel & Smalley: Beyond really & truly |
Agenda posting |
|
Apr 19 |
Causal explanations |
Harris: Beyond possibility (Ch 8 of WI) Woolley: The development of beliefs about direct mental-physical causality in imagination, magic & religion |
Agenda posting Test 4 due |
|
Apr 26 |
Emotional/clinical implications |
Harris: Imagination & emotion (Ch 4 of WI) Jenkins & Greenbaum: Intention and emotion in child psychopathology (Ch 14 in DTI) |
Agenda posting |
|
May 3 |
Finals week |
BY MIDNIGHT MONDAY MAY 3 |
Test 5 due OR Project due |