Courses:

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Welcome to 9.85. This is an introductory course on cognitive development. We will treat developmental psychology as "applied philosophy"—a way to answer fundamental questions about the origins and nature of knowledge. You should expect to gain an understanding of the questions that motivate developmental research and the methods that can answer these questions.

The content will focus on three areas of contemporary research: children's understanding of objects (things like shoes, ships and sealing wax), agents (you, me, and sometimes fuzzy green blobs) and causality (the relations that bind these together).

Lectures include two guest lectures by graduate students. On several occasions there will also be "guest lectures" by infants and children.

You will read original empirical studies. A book is available (Flavell, Miller, and Miller. Cognitive Development, 4th Edition) to provide an overview and supplemental material.

Flavell, John H., Patricia H. Miller, and Scott A. Miller. Cognitive Development. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2002. ISBN: 0137915756.

However, we will not read everything in the book and the course is structured around primary sources, not the book.

The major assignment for this class is a 10-page research proposal, due at the end of the term. You will have substantial freedom to choose a topic of your interest—it does not have to be one covered in the calendar. A description of the assignment is given in the assignments section. The proposals will be treated as mock grant proposals. At the end of the term I will select a winning grant proposal and it will be given to students the following year as a model for the project.

In addition to the research proposal you will be expected to write four 2-page papers. One paper will be a "proposal for the proposal." The other three papers will be critical responses to class readings. There are readings for each of the lectures—you may choose any three readings for your responses and they may be submitted at any point during the course of the term.

I do not use e-mail as part of my teaching. E-mail tends to discourage direct communication and one of the major points of a high-quality undergraduate education should be for students to get to talk one-on-one with professors. Stop me after class or at office hours any time with questions.

I expect to meet briefly (15 minutes)—either in person or over the phone—with you at least once over the course of the term to discuss your progress on the research project. If you are unable to meet with me during my office hours, stop me after class and we'll set a time to meet. I will have a sign-up sheet available in class by mid-October and all proposal meetings must be completed by the end of November. I will schedule proposal meetings with no more than six students in a week so please do not wait until the last minute. In addition, I strongly encourage you to meet with the graduate student teaching assistant with any questions.

You will be graded on your own work—there is no curve or pre-set grade distribution for this class. Except in the case of medical emergency or the death of a family member, late assignments will not be accepted.

The critical responses and the research proposal will be graded by the teaching assistant. If you want to appeal a grade from the teaching assistant, I will re-grade the paper on request but I reserve the right to lower the grade as well as raise it.

1. Submitting a proposal for your proposal
2. Submitting a draft of the literature review
3. Discussing your proposal with me, is a credit (10 points) or no credit (0 points) assignment

If you fail to fulfill any of 1, 2, or 3, you will get no points. The proposal for the proposal and the draft will not otherwise be graded. Either the teaching assistant or I will read the draft and give you feedback but no grade. You are encouraged to revise your initial draft before submitting it as part of the final paper. I will grade the final papers and they will be available for you to pick up at the end of the grading period or the beginning of the following term.

Many classes will include a discussion of the research articles. I do "call on" students. Full credit for class participation means that you are prepared to discuss the articles. Half credit means you were unprepared at least once. No credit means you were unprepared more than once.

Please let me know on an individual basis if you have a learning disability or other special concern you would like me to be aware of.