Psych 240A Winter 2012 syllabus 5 - Courses in Psychology - UCLA

Psychology 240A: Language and Cognitive DevelopmentWinter 2012; Friday 9 – 11:50; 6461 Franz HallInstructors:Scott Johnsonscott.johnson@ucla.edu310-825-55372291B Franz HallOffice Hours: W 11-12Jim Stiglerstigler@psych.ucla.edu310-206-94942279B Franz HallOffice Hours: Th 10-11This graduate-level seminar is designed to be an introduction to the broad field of research onlanguage and cognitive development. The goal of the course is to give students the opportunityto explore some of the theories, methods, and findings that are prominent in the field today.Course RequirementsBecause this is a working graduate seminar, students will be expected to prepare for, andparticipate actively in, all class discussions. Weekly preparation includes reading, writing, andpeer reviews/evaluations of your classmates writing.60% of your grade will be based on class participation, weekly writing assignments,and reviews/evaluations of peer writing. 40% will be based on a final paper.Readings• Students are expected to come to class prepared, all readings complete, and toparticipate actively in discussions.• All readings are posted on our class website, which can be accessed throughhttp://my.ucla.edu. Some are pdf files than can be directly downloaded; most are links tofiles that can only be downloaded on campus.Writing Assignments• Students are expected to complete a short writing assignment in preparation for eachweek’s class. Writing assignments will be assigned during class and are due bymidnight on the Wednesday before the next class. Writing assignments should beno more than one page, single-spaced.• Writing assignments must be submitted through turnitin. To submit your writingassignment, login to my.ucla and click the turnitin link under Psych 240A. Do not godirectly to turnitin.com as it will not recognize your user id. Do not put your name onyour writing assignment as it will be reviewed anonymously by your classmates.Peer Reviews of Writing Assignments• In addition to the weekly writing assignment, all students are expected to complete fourpeer reviews of their classmates writing assignments each week. (These will be assignedto you by the turnitin PeerMark system.) Peer reviews must be completed onThursday (i.e., between midnight on Wednesday and midnight on Thursday)before the Friday class.• To complete your peer reviews, login to my.ucla on Thursday. Click the turnitin linkunder Psych 240A, and you will have a PeerMark assignment ready to complete. ReadPsych 240A 2012 – Page 1

Final Papereach of the four writing assignments, rate their quality, and provide some writtenfeedback to the authors.40% of the grade will be based on a final paper. The final paper will be due one week after thefinal class, and will likely consist of a brief research proposal, including a statement of theproblem, the specific research question, a review of a few relevant studies, and a researchdesign. Paper topics should be discussed with one of the instructors and approved in advance.Our philosophy is that the paper you write should, in some way, move you along your careerpath. Thus, we will be flexible on the type of paper you write. Please talk with one of theinstructors as you develop your paper topic.Schedule of Classes1/13 Introduction to the Course (class starts at 10:15 this day only)1/20 Foundations of Development in Infancy: Methods and Theory• Aslin, R. N. (2007). What’s in a look? Developmental Science, 10, 48-53.• Johnson, S. P. (2010). How infants learn about the visual world. Cognitive Science,34, 1158-1184.• Spelke, E. S. & Kinzler, K. D. (2007). Core knowledge. Developmental Science,10, 89–96.• Spencer, J. P., Blumberg, M. S., McMurray, B., Robinson, S. R., Samuelson, L.K., and Tomblin, J. B. (2009). Short arms and talking eggs: Why we should nolonger abide the nativist–empiricist debate. Child Development Perspectives, 3, 79-87.1/27 Perceptual Development in Infancy• Bhatt, R. S., & Quinn, P. C. (2011). How does learning impact development ininfancy? The case of perceptual organization. Infancy, 16, 2-38.• Saffran, J. R., Aslin, R. N., & Newport, E. L. (1996). Statistical learning by 8-montholdinfants. Science, 274, 1926-1928.• Kirkham, N. Z., Slemmer, J. A., & Johnson, S. P. (2002). Visual statistical learningin infancy: Evidence for a domain general learning mechanism. Cognition, 83, B35-B42.• Werker, J. F., & Tees, R. C. (2002). Cross-language speech perception: Evidencefor perceptual reorganization during the first year of life. Infant Behavior &Development, 25, 121-133.2/3 Social Development in Infancy• Hamlin, J. K., Wynn, K., & Bloom, P. (2007). Social evaluation by preverbal infants.Nature, 450, 557-560.• Farroni, T., Csibra, G., Simion, F., & Johnson, M. H. (2002). Eye contact detectionin humans from birth. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), 99,9602-9605.• Frank, M. C., Vul, E., & Johnson, S. P. (2009). Development of infants’ attention tofaces during the first year. Cognition, 110, 160-170.• Kuhl, P. K. (2004). Early language acquisition: Cracking the speech code. NaturePsych 240A 2012 – Page 2

Reviews Neuroscience, 5, 831-843.2/10 No Class Today!2/17 Cognitive Development in Infancy• Marcus, G. F., Vijayan, S., Bandi Rao, S., & Vishton, P. M. (1999). Rule learning in7-month-old infants. Science, 283, 77-80.• Marcus, G. F., Fernandes, K. J., & Johnson, S. P. (2007). Infant rule learningfacilitated by speech. Psychological Science, 18, 387-391.• Baillargeon, R. (1987). Object permanence in 3.5- and 4.5-month-old infants.Developmental Psychology, 23, 655-664.• Johnson, S. P., Amso, D., & Slemmer, J. A. (2003). Development of objectconcepts in infancy: Evidence for early learning in an eye tracking paradigm.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), 100, 10568-10573.2/24 Language, Thinking, and LearningGUEST: Prof. Susan Goldin-Meadow, University of Chicago• Goldin-Meadow, S. & Beilock, S. (2010). Action’s influence on thought: The case ofgesture. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5, 664-674.• Goldin-Meadow, S. & Wagner, S. M. (2005). How our hands help us learn. Trends inCognitive Sciences, 9, 234-241.• Goldin-Meadow, S., Cook, S.W. & Mitchell, Z.A. (2009). Gesturing gives childrennew ideas about math. Psychological Science, 20, 267-272.• Rowe, M.L. & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2009). Differences in early gesture explain SESdisparities in child vocabulary size at school entry. Science, 323, 951–953.3/2 Development of Language and ConceptsGUEST: Prof. Catherine Sandhofer, UCLA• Bloom, P. (2001). Precis of "How children learn the meanings of words". Behavioraland Brain Sciences, 24, 1095-1131 (including the commentaries)• Kowalski, K., & Zimiles, H. (2006). The relation between children’s conceptualfunctioning with color and color term acquisition. Journal of Experimental ChildPsychology, 94, 301–321.• Mix, K. S., & Sandhofer, C. M. & Baroody, A. (2005). Number words and numberconcepts: The interplay of verbal and nonverbal processes in early quantitativedevelopment. In R.V. Kail (Ed.) Advances in Child Development and Behavior, 33,(pp 305-346). New York: Academic Press.• Hespos, S. J., & Spelke, E. S. (2004). Conceptual precursors to language. Nature,430, 453-4563/9 Perceptual Learning and the Development of ExpertiseGUEST: Prof. Phil Kellman, UCLA• Kellman, P. J. & Garrigan, P. (2009). Perceptual learning and human expertise.Physics of Life Reviews, 6, 53-84. (OK to skim sections 4 and 5.)• Kellman, P. J., Massey, C., & Son, J. Y. (2009). Perceptual learning modules inmathematics: Enhancing students’ pattern recognition, structure abstraction, andfluency. Topics in Cognitive Science, 1-21.Psych 240A 2012 – Page 3

3/16 Mathematics Teaching and Learning• Erlwanger, S. H. (1973). Benny's conception of rules and answers in IPImathematics. Journal of Children's Mathematical Behavior, Autumn, 7-26.• Kamii, C. & Clark, F.B. (1995). Equivalent fractions: Their difficulty and educationalimplications. Journal of Mathematical Behavior, 14, 365-378.• Hiebert, J. (1984). Children's mathematics learning: The struggle to link form andunderstanding. Elementary School Journal, Vol. 84, No. 5, 496-513.• Sophian, C. (2007). Rethinking the starting point for mathematics learning. In O. N.Saracho & B. Spodek (Eds.), Contemporary perspectives on mathematics in earlychildhood education. Information Age Publishing.• Stigler, J. W., Fernandez, C., and Yoshida, M. (1996). Cultures of mathematicsinstruction in Japanese and American elementary classrooms. In T. Rohlen and G.Le Tendre (Eds.), Teaching and learning in Japan. New York: Cambridge UniversityPress. Pp. 213-247.Psych 240A 2012 – Page 4