Psychology 312H Course Director: Michelle Martin-Rhee Fridays 1-4  Welcome!!

Outline for today Course outline Intro to cognitive development Some evolution Some biology Questions??

Course content Text / website Articles Outside material 2 exams 2 small assignments, 1 essay I count grammar and spelling is best:

How to pass my course FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS ASK QUESTIONS Do not plagiarize

Example: According to some researchers, cognition can largely be explained by underlying neurological processes (Nelson, 2001; Martin, 2004; Piaget, 1952; Johnson, 1765; Smith, 2003; Brown, 1999). DO NOT DO THIS!!

How to pass my course FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS ASK QUESTIONS Do not plagiarize Do not use internet as primary source

Example Writing essays is easy when you can just take thirty seconds to look up dyslexia ( DO NOT DO THIS!!

How to pass my course FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS ASK QUESTIONS Do not plagiarize Do not use internet as primary source Do the work, hand it in on time, pay attention to green and red underlining in Word

Fields of Psychology Clinical Clinical Developmental Experimental History Theory Developmental Cognitive

Fields of Psychology Clinical Clinical Developmental Experimental History Theory Developmental Cognitive

What we mean by Cognitive Development Infancy (0-3) Childhood (3-11) Adolescence (12-19) Early adulthood (20-35ish) Middle adulthood (35ish-65ish) Late adulthood (65+)

What we mean by Cognitive Development Infancy (0-3) Childhood (3-11) Adolescence (12-19) Early adulthood (20-35ish) Middle adulthood (35ish-65ish) Late adulthood (65+)

Definitions… Cognition –Hidden thought processes (top-down and bottom-up) –Can’t see it directly Development –Systematic continuities in the individual that occur between conception and death –Can be physical, mental, neurological Structures and functions –Structures have a function, but functions affect structures Cognitive development –Changes that occur over time to our thought processes

Influences on Development Development is somewhat regular –Lots of individual variation… Effects of genes –E.g. personality traits –Possible developmental issues (e.g. autism, Down Syndrome) Effects of environment –Culture –Religion –Home environment Interaction of both –Humans as a dynamic system…

Debates in developmental psychology Nature vs. Nurture –Interactions and constraints Stability vs. Plasticity –E.g. personality vs. social competencies Nature of developmental change –Continuous or Discontinuous? –Qualitative or Quantitative? –Homogeneity of cognitive function Modularity vs. domain-generality –Or general processes that control information to smaller sub-areas?

Brief History of Human Evolution 4321 Australopethicus Africanus Homo Erectus Present Homo Sapiens Neanderthal Earliest Homonid Fossils Earliest stone tools Brain expansion Fire Advances in stone tools Art Cities

Evolution R-selected vs. K-selected species –r-selected are smaller, live less time, have more offspring (mice) –K-selected are larger, live longer, have fewer offspring (humans) Through evolution, our brains got bigger –Therefore our heads are bigger –We have to be born earlier –We are born very immature and require much care –Both before and after birth, there is a tremendous, rapid growth in brain size

Neuronal Development 3 stages –Proliferation –Migration –Differentiation

Neuronal Development 3 stages –Proliferation –Migration –Differentiation Synaptogenesis and Synaptic pruning –Excessive synapse production…why? –Experience-expectant vs experience-dependant processes Myelination Critical periods Canalization

Features of the Cortex Asymmetry –Left side typically larger than right in almost all species –Brain is actually torqued Lateralization of function –Left vs. Right functions –Connected by corpus callosum Plasticity of Cortex –Can we recover lost function after damage? –Adaptive value of plasticity and immaturity

Summary for Today… In this course, we will look at changes in children’s thinking over time Lots of debate about genes vs environment, nature of developmental change, and in how we represent information in the brain Evolution has given humans and non-human primates bigger brains, and hence we are born very immature; a lot of development occurs over the first years of life An understanding of how the brain works can help us to understand some of the mechanisms of change in children’s cognition