This is an archived course. A more recent version may be available at ocw.mit.edu.

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Calendar

Students are required to submit three critical response papers, each based on an assigned course reading of their choosing. Critical response papers may be submitted at any point during the course of the term.

LEC # TOPICS KEY DATES
1 Introduction  
2 Theoretical Perspectives in Developmental Psychology I: Piaget  
3 Theoretical Perspectives II: Post-Piaget  
4 Magic Tricks and Methods  
5 What's it Like to be a Baby? Perceptual Foundations  
6 Object Concepts  
7 Number and Object Individuation  
8 Object Labels and Object Knowledge  
9 Concepts, Categories and Induction Research proposal due
10 Identity, Essences and Transformation  
11 Recognizing Agents  
12 Understanding Goals and Intentions

Hooppell Guest Lecture: Spatial Reasoning		  
13 Appearance and Reality  
14 Imagination and Pretend Play  
15 Representational Theory of Mind Literature review draft due
16 Theory of Mind and Word Learning

Baby Talk		  
17 Baraff-Bonowitz Guess Lecture: Language, Culture, and Thought  
18 Autism  
19 Recognizing Causal Transformations

Intervening - Tools Use, Means-end Reasoning

Causation, Categorization, and Counterfactuals		  
20 Statistical Learning in Infancy  
21 Means-ends Reasoning

Tool Use		  
22 Causal Reasoning 1: Explanation, Prediction, Intervention and Counterfactuals  
23 Causal Reasoning 2: Assumptions, Theories, and Evidence  
24 Conceptual Change  
25 Children and Social Policy Final paper due