Undergraduate Course: Conceptual Development in Children: Thinking, Reasoning and Social-Cognition (PSYL10107)
Course Outline
School | School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
Course type | Standard |
Availability | Available to all students |
Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Credits | 10 |
Home subject area | Psychology |
Other subject area | None |
Course website |
None |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
Course description | This course covers some specific topics from current work in the development of higher cognitive abilities (concept-formation and reasoning) and in the development of socio-cultural thinking. The goals of the course are to:
Introduce prominent theories and models of the development of human mental representations specifically as they apply to conceptual development and the development of relational thinking.
Give an overview of various aspects of social-cognition such as imitation, joint-attention, theory of mind, social attention, face-processing, as well as examples of atypical development.
Provide students with an introduction to some of the methods used within developmental psychology including basic experimentation, formal theory development, and neuroscientific methods.
The aims and content of this course are complementary to those of Development of language, literacy and communication.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites |
Students MUST have passed:
Psychology 2 (PSYL08002)
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Co-requisites | |
Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Additional Costs | None |
Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisites | Visiting students should have at least 3 Psychology courses at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this). We will only consider University/College level courses |
Displayed in Visiting Students Prospectus? | Yes |
Course Delivery Information
Not being delivered |
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
After taking this course students should understand (a) understand how the ability to reason about the world changes with development (specifically, how our inductive inferences transition from object-based to structure-based, and how and when our inductive inferences revert); (b) understand current thinking about the structure of mental representations and how theories of the development of concepts and reasoning invoke these representational types as explanatory mechanisms; (c) understand the theoretical tools used by developmental theorists to explain and unify developmental phenomena; (d) understand how the child¿s position in a social context influences and is influenced by her changing cognitive state. |
Assessment Information
Take-home examination (100%). In class feedback exercises will be used to check understanding and to develop skills (e.g. quizzes, peer feedback on essay plans/drafts).
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Special Arrangements
None |
Additional Information
Academic description |
Not entered |
Syllabus |
Not entered |
Transferable skills |
Not entered |
Reading list |
Ahn, W. K., Gelman, S. A., Amsterlaw, J. A., Hohenstein, J., & Kalish, C. W. (2000). Causal status effect in children's categorization. Cognition, 76(2), B35-B43.
Gelman, S. A. (2003). Theory-theory and DAM theories from The essential child, 239-273. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Halford, G. S. & Andrews, G. (2010). Information-processing models of cognitive development. In U. Gosami (Ed.) The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Childhood Cognitive Development, pp. 697-722.
Halford, G. S., Andrews, G., Wilson, W. H., & Phillips, S. (2012). Computational models of relational processes in cognitive development. Cognitive Development.
Halford, G. S., Wilson, W. H., & Phillips, S. (2010). Relational knowledge: The foundation of higher cognition. Trends in cognitive sciences, 14(11), 497-505.
Holyoak, K. J. (2012). Analogy and relational reasoning. In K. J. Holyoak & R. G. |
Study Abroad |
Not entered |
Study Pattern |
Not entered |
Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
Course organiser | Dr Alex Doumas
Tel: (0131 6)51 1328
Email: Alex.Doumas@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mr Simon Cann
Tel: 0131 650 9870
Email: Simon.Cann@ed.ac.uk |
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