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

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Readings

Many of the assigned readings are from the course text:

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

LEC # TOPICS READINGS
1 Introduction  
2 Theoretical Perspectives in Developmental Psychology I: Piaget Amazon logo Flavell, John H., Patricia H. Miller, and Scott A. Miller. Cognitive Development. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2002, chapter 1, pp. 1-10. ISBN: 0137915756.

Amazon logo Flavell, John H. The Developmental Psychology of Jean Piaget. With a foreword by Jean Piaget. Princeton, NJ: Van Nostrand, 1963, pp. 15-31. ISBN: 0442024134.

Amazon logo Gauvain, Mary, and Michael Cole, eds. "The Stages of the Intellectual Development of the Child." In Readings on the Development of Children. 2nd ed. New York, NY: W.H. Freeman, c1997, pp. 17-21. ISBN: 0716728605.
3 Theoretical Perspectives II: Post-Piaget Amazon logo Flavell, John H., Patricia H. Miller, and Scott A. Miller. Cognitive Development. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2002, chapter 1, pp. 10-28. ISBN: 0137915756.
4 Magic Tricks and Methods Amazon logo Flavell, John H., Patricia H. Miller, and Scott A. Miller. Cognitive Development. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2002, pp. 31-33 and 91. ISBN: 0137915756.

Aslin R. N., and J. Fiser. "Methodological challenges for understanding cognitive development in infants." Trends Cogn Sci 9, no. 3 (March 2005): 92-98.
5 What's it Like to be a Baby? Perceptual Foundations Amazon logo Flavell, John H., Patricia H. Miller, and Scott A. Miller. Cognitive Development. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2002, chapter 2. ISBN: 0137915756.

Meltzoff, A. N., and R. W. Borton. "Intermodal matching by human neonates." Nature 282, no. 5737 (1979): 403-404.
6 Object Concepts Amazon logo Flavell, John H., Patricia H. Miller, and Scott A. Miller. Cognitive Development. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2002, pp. 72-86. ISBN: 0137915756.

Spelke, E. S., K. Breinlinger, J. Macomber, and K. Jacobson. "Origins of knowledge." Psychological Review 99 (October 1992): 605-632.
7 Number and Object Individuation Amazon logo Flavell, John H., Patricia H. Miller, and Scott A. Miller. Cognitive Development. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2002, pp. 124-135. ISBN: 0137915756.

Wynn, K. "Addition and subtraction by human infants." Nature 358, no. 6389 (August 27, 1992): 749-750.

Feigenson, L., S. Dehaene, and E. Spelke. "Core systems of number." Trends Cogn Sci 8, no. 7 (July 2004): 307-314.
8 Object Labels and Object Knowledge Markman, E. M., and G. F. Wachtel. "Children's use of mutual exclusivity to constrain the meanings of words." Cognit Psychol 20, no. 2 (April 1988): 121-157.

Xu, F. "The role of language in acquiring object kind concepts in infancy." Cognition 85, no. 3 (October 2002): 223-250.
9 Concepts, Categories and Induction Amazon logo Flavell, John H., Patricia H. Miller, and Scott A. Miller. Cognitive Development. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2002, pp. 90-93 and 113-115. ISBN: 0137915756.

Baldwin D. A., Markman E. M., and R. L. Melartin. "Infants' ability to draw inferences about nonobvious object properties: evidence from exploratory play." Child Dev 64, no. 3 (June 1993): 711-728.

Gelman, S. A., and E. M. Markman. "Young children's inductions from natural kinds: the role of categories and appearances." Child Dev 58, no. 6 (December 1987): 1532-1541.

Amazon logo Murphy, Gregory Leo. "Conceptual Development." Chapter 10 in The Big Book of Concepts. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, c2004, pp. 317-383. ISBN: 0262632993.
10 Identity, Essences and Transformation Amazon logo Flavell, John H., Patricia H. Miller, and Scott A. Miller. Cognitive Development. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2002, pp. 108-113 and 117-124. ISBN: 0137915756.

Amazon logo Keil, Frank C. Concepts, Kinds, and Cognitive Development. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1992, pp. 159-194. ISBN: 0262610760.

Gelman, S. A., and H. M. Wellman. "Insides and essences: early understandings of the non-obvious." Cognition 38, no. 3 (March 1991): 213-244.
11 Recognizing Agents Amazon logo Flavell, John H., Patricia H. Miller, and Scott A. Miller. Cognitive Development. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2002, pp. 177-187. ISBN: 0137915756.

Meltzoff, A. N., and M. K. Moore. "Imitation of facial and manual gestures by human neonates." Science 198, no. 4312 (October 7, 1977): 74-78.

Johnson, Susan, Virginia Slaughter, and Susan Carey. "Whose gaze will infants follow? The elicitation of gaze following in 12-month-olds." Developmental Science 1, no. 2 (October 1998): 233-238.
12 Understanding Goals and Intentions

Hooppell Guest Lecture: Spatial Reasoning		 Understanding Goals and Intentions

Woodward, A. L. "Infants selectively encode the goal object of an actor's reach." Cognition 69, no. 1 (November 1998): 1-34.

Amazon logo Povinelli, D. J. "On the possibilities of detecting intentions prior to understanding them." In Intentions and Intentionality Foundations of Social Cognition. Edited by Bertram F. Malle, Louis J. Moses, and Dare A. Baldwin. Foreword by Jerome S. Bruner. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001, pp. 225-248. ISBN: 0262133865.

Meltzoff, Andrew N. "Understanding the intentions of others: Re-enactment of intended acts by 18-month-old children." Developmental Psychology 31, no. 5 (1995): 838-850.

Gergely G., Z. Nadasdy, G. Csibra, and S. Biro. "Taking the intentional stance at 12 months of age." Cognition 56, no. 2 (1995): 165-93.

Hooppell Guest Lecture: Spatial Reasoning

Wang, R. F., L. Hermer, and E. S. Spelke. "Mechanisms of reorientation and object localization by children: a comparison with rats. " Behav Neurosci 113, no. 3 (June 1999): 475-85.

Learmonth, A. E., L. Nadel, and N. S. Newcombe. "Children's use of landmarks: implications for modularity theory." Psychol Sci 13, no. 4 (July 2002): 337-41.

Hermer-Vazquez, L., E. S. Spelke, and A. S. Katsnelson. "Sources of flexibility in human cognition: dual-task studies of space and language." Cognit Psychol 39, no. 1 (August 1999): 3-36.
13 Appearance and Reality Flavell, J. H., F. L. Green, and E. R. Flavell. "Development of knowledge about the appearance-reality distinction." Monogr Soc Res Child Dev 51, no. 1 (1986): 1-87.
14 Imagination and Pretend Play Amazon logo Flavell, John H., Patricia H. Miller, and Scott A. Miller. Cognitive Development. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2002, pp. 203-209. ISBN: 0137915756.

Taylor, M., B. S. Cartwright, and S. M. Carlson. "A Developmental Investigation of Children's Imaginary Companions." Developmental Psychology 29, no. 2 (March 1993): 276-285.

Sharon, T., and J. D. Woolley. "Do monsters dream? Young children's understanding of the fantasy/reality distinction." British Journal of Developmental Psychology 22, no. 2 (June 2004): 293-310(18).

Amazon logo Harris, Paul L., Robert D. Kavanaugh, Henry M. Wellman, and Anne K. Hickling. Young Children's Understanding of Pretense. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1993. ISBN: 0226317366.
15 Representational Theory of Mind Amazon logo Flavell, John H., Patricia H. Miller, and Scott A. Miller. Cognitive Development. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2002, pp. 198-215. ISBN: 0137915756.

Flavell, John H. "Theory of mind development: retrospect and prospect." Merrill-Palmer Quarterly 50, no. 3 (July 2004): 274-290.

Gopnik, A., and H. Wellman. "Why the child's theory of mind really is a theory." Mind and Language 7 (1992): 145-171.
16 Theory of Mind and Word Learning

Baby Talk		 Theory of Mind and Word Learning

Baldwin, D. "Early referential understanding: Infants' ability to recognize referential acts for what they are." Developmental Psychology 29, no. 5 (1993): 832-843.

Tomasello, M., R. Strosberg, and N. Akhtar. "Eighteen-month-old children learn words in non-ostensive contexts." J Child Lang 23, no. 1 (February 1996): 157-76.

Baby Talk

Amazon logo Flavell, John H., Patricia H. Miller, and Scott A. Miller. Cognitive Development. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2002, chapter 8. ISBN: 0137915756.
17 Baraff-Bonowitz Guess Lecture: Language, Culture, and Thought Amazon logo Clark, Eve V. "Languages and Representations." In Language in Mind: Advances in the Study of Language and Thought. Edited by Dedre Gentner and Susan Goldin-Meadow. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, c2003. ISBN: 0262571633.

Sera, M. D., D. Bales, and J. Castillo. "Ser Helps Spanish Speakers Identify "Real" Properties." Child Development 68, no. 6 (October 1997): 820-831.

Amazon logo Levinson, Steve. "Language and Mind: Let's Get the Issues Straight." In Language in Mind: Advances in the Study of Language and Thought. Edited by Dedre Gentner and Susan Goldin-Meadow. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, c2003. ISBN: 0262571633.

Walker, Sheila J. "Culture, domain specificity and conceptual change: Natural kind and artifact concepts." British Journal of Developmental Psychology 17 (1999): 203-219.

Amazon logo Tomasello, Michael. "The Key is Social Cognition." In Language in mind: advances in the study of language and thought. Edited by Dedre Gentner and Susan Goldin-Meadow. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, c2003. ISBN: 0262571633.

Choi, Soonja, Laraine McDonough, Melissa Bowerman, and Jean M. Mandler. "Early Sensitivity to Language-Specific Spatial Categories in English and Korean." Cognitive Development 14 (1999): 241-268.
18 Autism Amazon logo Baron-Cohen, Simon. "Theory of mind and autism: a fifteen year review." In Understanding Other Minds Perspectives from Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. Edited by S. Baron-Cohen, H. Tager-Flusberg, and D. J. Cohen. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2000. ISBN: 0198524463.
19 Recognizing Causal Transformations

Intervening - Tools Use, Means-end Reasoning

Causation, Categorization, and Counterfactuals		 Recognizing Causal Transformations

Leslie, A. M. "Spatiotemporal continuity and the perception of causality in infants." Perception 13 (1985): 287-305.

Wang, S., R. Baillargeon, and S. Paterson. "Detecting continuity violations in infancy: A new account and new evidence from covering and tube events." Cognition 95 (2005): 129-173.

Intervening - Tools Use, Means-end Reasoning

Sommerville, J. A., and A. L. Woodward. "Pulling out the intentional structure of action: the relation between action processing and action production in infancy." Cognition 95, no. 1 (February 2005): 1-30.
20 Statistical Learning in Infancy Saffran, J. R., R. N. Aslin, and E. L. Newport. "Statistical learning by 8-month-old infants." Science 274, no. 5294 (December 13, 1996): 1926-8.
21 Means-ends Reasoning

Tool Use		 Sommerville, J. A., and A. L. Woodward. "Pulling out the intentional structure of action: the relation between action processing and action production in infancy." Cognition 95, no. 1 (February 2005): 1-30.
22 Causal Reasoning 1: Explanation, Prediction, Intervention and Counterfactuals Harris, P. L., T. German, and P. Mills."Children's use of counterfactual thinking in causal reasoning." Cognition 61, no. 3 (December 1996): 233-259.

Wellman, H. M., A. K. Hickling, and C. A. Schult. "Young children's psychological, physical, and biological explanations." New Dir Child Dev 75 (Spring 1997): 7-25.
23 Causal Reasoning 2: Assumptions, Theories, and Evidence Gopnik, A., D. M. Sobel, L. E. Schulz, and C. Glymour. "Causal learning mechanisms in very young children: two-, three-, and four-year-olds infer causal relations from patterns of variation and covariation." Dev Psychol 37, no. 5 (September 2001): 620-629.

Schulz, L., J. Sommerville, and A. Gopnik. "God does not play dice: Causal determinism and preschoolers' causal inferences." Submitted to Child Development. Manuscript (2005).
24 Conceptual Change Vosniadou, S., and W. F. Brewer. "Mental models of the earth: A study of conceptual change in childhood." Cognitive Psychology 24 (1992): 535-585.

Schulz, L., and A. Gopnik. "Casual learning across domains." Developmental Psychology 40, no. 2 (2004): 162-176.
25 Children and Social Policy