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 is an introduction to cognitive and brain development from gestation up until age two years. The course focuses on how infants and toddlers perceive, understand, and reason about the world, and investigates the role of intrinsic and exogenous factors in cognitive and brain development. |
| 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 in 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 of objects and agents, statistical learning, language, social cognition).
(d) Provide students with an introduction to some of the methods used within developmental cognitive neuroscience including basic experimentation and neuroscientific methods.
Through this course, students will practice and sharpen the following skills: critical analysis, science communication, structuring presenting arguments, writing skills.
This is a companion course to Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience: Childhood. Students can complete either course as a pre-requisite for advanced Honours courses in Developmental Psychology.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
Students MUST have passed:
Psychology 2A (PSYL08011) AND
Psychology 2B (PSYL08012)
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | Psychology Honours courses are strictly only available to students in Y3 or Y4 of a Single or Joint Honours Degree in Psychology, Cognitive Science students, or medical students who are intercalating at Psychology. Visiting undergraduate students should check with the Visiting Student Office. |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should be studying Psychology as their degree major, and have completed at least 3 Psychology courses at grade B or above. We will only consider University/College level courses. Applicants should note that, as with other popular courses, meeting the minimum does NOT guarantee admission.
**Please note that upper level Psychology courses are high-demand, meaning that they have a very high number of students wishing to enrol in a very limited number of spaces.** These enrolments are managed strictly by the Visiting Student Office, in line with the quotas allocated by the department, and all enquiries to enrol in these courses must be made through the CAHSS Visiting Student Office. It is not appropriate for students to contact the department directly to request additional spaces. |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
|
| Academic year 2025/26, 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 10,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 10,
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 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Midterm (30%): Coursework - Group Presentations
Final (70%): Coursework - Essay |
| Feedback |
1. In class feedback exercises will be used to check understanding and to develop skills (e.g. quizzes, peer feedback on essay plans/presentations).
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. |
| 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 (e.g., maturation, learning, experience-driven change) driving cognitive and neural changes during infancy.
- Demonstrate an understanding of how cognitive development and brain development are intrinsically related.
- Demonstrate an understanding of the questions that motivate developmental research and the methods that can address these questions.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
This course will help students become critical consumers of primary research articles. The course assessments require critical analysis, science communication, structuring and presenting arguments, and writing skills. As such, this course promotes the graduate attribute skills of research and enquiry, personal and intellectual autonomy, and communication, and fosters the "enquiry and lifelong learning" mindset. |
| Keywords | cognitive neuroscience,developmental,infancy,psychology |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Hilary Richardson
Tel:
Email: hilary.richardson@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mr Cameron Findlay
Tel:
Email: cameron.findlay@ed.ac.uk |
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