Undergraduate Course: Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience: Infancy (PSYL10136)
Course Outline
| School | School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | The course covers how cognition and the brain change from gestation up to the age of around 2 years. It focuses on the reciprocal relationship between cognitive and brain development, and how these developmental pathways are affected by the infant's physical and social environment. |
| Course description |
This course covers some specific topics in developmental cognitive neuroscience, focusing on infancy. The goals of the course are to:
(a) Introduce important phenomena and mechanisms supporting neurocognitive development.
(b) Understand the mutual influence among the brain, cognition, and the environment in the dynamic context of development.
(c) Illustrate these mechanisms in various domains (e.g., perception, learning, information processing, social cognition) in the first part of the course, and study in more depth how they contribute to changes in one specific domain (language acquisition) in the second part of the course.
(d) Provide students with an introduction to some of the methods used within developmental cognitive neuroscience including basic experimentation, formal theory development, and neuroscientific methods.
The course will develop students' skills at critical analysis, writing and presenting. It will also allow them to apply their statistical analysis skills to data on infant development.
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Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students who are Psychology majors and in their third or final year at their home university are welcome to take this course. |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2021/22, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 20,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
176 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Mid-course (30%): 1000 word research proposal
Final (70%): 2000 word Essay (coursework)
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| Feedback |
1. In class feedback exercises will be used to check understanding and to develop skills (e.g. quizzes, peer feedback on essay plans/drafts).
2. The mid-course assessment will also provide feedback as to whether students have mastered the foundational theories and empirical results in the study of infant cognitive neuroscience. Thus, students can use their results to determine whether to allocate additional effort to this class.
3. Structured optional programming assignments (using the R language) will allow students to gain experience analyzing real-world data from infants, applying their research methods and statistics knowledge in context.
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| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate an understanding of recent scientific advances, debates, and challenges regarding brain and cognitive development in infancy.
- Analyze the developmental mechanisms driving cognitive and neural changes during infancy.
- Demonstrate an understanding of how cognitive development and brain development are mutually supportive
- Analyze the role of experience and the environment in brain and cognitive development
- Gain experience analyzing developmental data using the R language.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | cognitive neuroscience,developmental,infancy,psychology |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Hugh Rabagliati
Tel: (0131 6)50 3454
Email: Hugh.Rabagliati@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Susan Scobie
Tel: (0131 6)51 5505
Email: sscobie@ed.ac.uk |
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