Cognitive Development

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This course covers fundamental principles and processes of cognitive development. The focus this semester will be on early cognitive development. Students will learn about cognitive development with special attention paid to the development of memory, attention, language, problem-solving and executive functioning skills more broadly. Material covered will address both normative and atypical development. Additionally, the roles that both biology and environmental context play will be featured. It is designed for graduate students in psychology, cognitive science, and related fields. Readings will comprise empirical articles, review and opinion/perspective papers that will introduce students to methodology and research questions currently under investigation in development science. Students are encouraged to consider the role of research findings in policy issues. Each of the topics we cover is complex and could be the source of semester-long study in and of itself. For that reason, the intent is to give you an overview of the constructs and some sense of the theoretical, empirical, and application issues. The examples and topics within each week are meant to be illustrative, not exhaustive. Prerequisites: PSYC 001