Psychology 22: Cognitive Development

 

Prof. Laraine McDonough

Office: James Hall Room 4613

Phone: 951-4787

Office Hours: Tuesday 3:00-4:00

Email: LaraineM@brooklyn.cuny.edu

Required text: Cognition in Children by Usha Goswami.  Psychology Press, 1998.

This course is designed to give students an understanding of the cognitive achievements from an infant’s first year of life until adolescence (with some discussion relevant to adult cognitive development).  The emphasis will be on recent research and it how it has influenced our traditional views of cognitive development.  Topics covered will include memory, perception, attention, representation, reasoning and problem solving.  The goal of this class is to encourage students the think critically about the research presented which in turn will aid their understanding of the various factors that influence cognitive development.

Three quizzes, a collaborative  research demonstration which includes a 2-page summary of a research article and a final exam will be given.  The lowest score on one of the three quizzes will be dropped from the calculation of the final grade.  No make-up quizzes will be offered; instead, a quiz that is missed will be counted as the one to be dropped.  Calculation of the final grade will be as follows:

Quizzes = 30% (multiple choice)

Demonstration = 20%

Final = 50% (multiple choice and essay)

Final exam: This is a comprehensive exam and 3/4 of the questions will be topics taken from the quizzes; the remaining questions will be general integration questions (essay).

NOTE THE DATE OF THE FINAL EXAM: MARK YOUR CALENDAR NOW!!!!