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

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Lecture Notes

LEC # TOPICS ACTIVITIES
1 Introduction (PDF)  
2 Theoretical Perspectives in Developmental Psychology I: Piaget (PDF)  
3 Theoretical Perspectives II: Post-Piaget (PDF)  
4 Magic Tricks and Methods (PDF - 1.6 MB) Magic Tricks and Methods
5 What's it Like to be a Baby? Perceptual Foundations (PDF)  
6 Object Concepts (PDF)  
7 Number and Object Individuation (PDF)  
8 Object Labels and Object Knowledge (PDF) Objects and Words Discussion
9 Concepts, Categories and Induction (PDF)  
10 Identity, Essences and Transformation (PDF - 1.4 MB)  
11 Recognizing Agents (PDF) Agents vs. Objects Discussion
12 Understanding Goals and Intentions

Hooppell Guest Lecture: Spatial Reasoning (PDF - 1.0 MB) (Courtesy of Catherine Hooppell. Used with permission.)		  
13 Appearance and Reality  
14 Imagination and Pretend Play (PDF) Language and Thought Debate
15 Representational Theory of Mind (PDF) Statistical Learning Simulation
16 Theory of Mind and Word Learning

Baby Talk		  
17 Baraff-Bonowitz Guest Lecture: Language, Culture, and Thought (PDF) (Courtesy of Liz Baraff-Bonawitz. Used with permission.)  
18 Autism (PDF)  
19 Recognizing Causal Transformations

Intervening - Tools Use, Means-end Reasoning (PDF)

Causation, Categorization, and Counterfactuals		  
20 Statistical Learning in Infancy (This resource may not render correctly in a screen reader.PDF - 2.4 MB)  
21 Means-ends Reasoning

Tool Use		  
22 Causal Reasoning 1: Explanation, Prediction, Intervention and Counterfactuals (This resource may not render correctly in a screen reader.PDF)  
23 Causal Reasoning 2: Assumptions, Theories, and Evidence  
24 Conceptual Change (PDF - 1.5 MB)  
25 Children and Social Policy (This resource may not render correctly in a screen reader.PDF)