University of the West of England
MODULE SPECIFICATION
Code: USPJL8-30-1 Title: Cognitive and Developmental Psychology 1 Version: 1
Level: 1 UWE credit rating: 30 ECTS credit rating: 15
Module type: Standard
Owning Faculty: Health & Life Sciences Field: Psychology
Valid from: September 2008 Discontinued from: USPJCM-20-1 Social & Developmental Psychology 1; USPJCP-20-1 Introduction to Experimental Psychology
Pre-requisites: None
Co-requisites: Research Design and Analysis 1 (unless this module has already been passed)
Excluded combinations: None
LEARNING OUTCOMES:
Upon completing this module, students will be able to:
Describe and discuss research on early infancy, cognitive, social and emotional development in the child, and early language development.
Demonstrate an appropriate level of understanding in the areas of perception, memory, attention, reasoning and learning.
Demonstrate a critical understanding of the methods psychologists use to study cognitive and developmental psychology
Be able to identify appropriate research methods in cognitive and developmental psychology.
Debate the ethical issues involved in research with children.
SYLLABUS OUTLINE:
Cognitive Psychology
Introduction; the background to cognitive psychology: its historical development, its conceptual basis, its relationship to other areas of psychology and the research methods it uses.
Perception: processing of visual and auditory information. Perception of form and depth. Bottom-up and top-down processes. Speech recognition. Research approaches to perception including psychophysical methods of measurement.
Learning: classical and operant conditioning. Reinforcement. Skill acquisition. Expertise. Cognitive learning styles and strategies.
Memory: encoding, storage & retrieval. Models of memory – sensory, LTM, STM, working, levels of processing. Systems of memory – implicit, explicit, procedural, declarative, semantic, episodic.
Thinking and reasoning: Inductive and deductive reasoning. Logical and ‘natural’ problem solving. Biases in the reasoning process. Critical thinking and decision making.
Attention: orienting and filtering. Searching, vigilance and arousal. Bottleneck, attenuator and late selection models of attention.
Developmental Psychology
Introduction: What do psychologists mean by development? What exactly develops? How do psychologists find out about development? What research methods are used?
The newborn and very young infant: What can the newborn do, and what abilities do they bring into the world? The early development of perception, vision and hearing in the newborn. Social abilities, the infant’s predisposition for human interaction. Theories of nature and nurture.
Infancy: social, emotional and cognitive development; prelinguistic development and communication; attachment; early social interaction and socialisation. Understanding the physical world; sensorimotor thinking; development of object permanence. Constructivist and social constructivist approaches to cognitive development .
Early and later childhood: developing social skills, the development of a concept of self; learning social roles (including gender roles); parenting, family and peer group influences on development. An introduction to language development. Children’s understanding of number. Children’s drawings.
TEACHING AND LEARNING METHODS:
A variety of pedagogical approaches will be used with the aim of maximising the active engagement of students.
The course will be presented in fortnightly sessions of 2 hours. This format will facilitate an interactive and multi-media teaching and learning experience.
As with other content modules, students will also enjoy small group sessions based on their facilitated learning groups. These will enable further exploration of issues raised by lectures and guided study activities. These groups will simultaneously use the academic materials of cognitive and developmental psychology, as the medium through which students' personal development and the acquisition of study skills will be fostered.
Assessments have been planned so as to include, incorporate and directly test academic and generic skills first presented to students in the related Study Skills seminar and further developed in the facilitated learning groups. For this particular module students will be assessed on portfolios of Cognitive and of Developmental Psychology work and on 1 hour examinations in each of these areas.
READING STRATEGY
The reading strategy will be based upon key texts which the student is expected to purchase. These will be backed up with guided study using the library resources, UWEOnline, other web based resources, and study packs.
Indicative sources:
Current editions of:
Developmental Psychology
Harris, M. & Butterworth, G. (2002) Developmental Psychology: A student’s handbook. Hove: Psychology Press.
Slater, A. & Bremner, G. (2003) An Introduction to Developmental Psychology. Blackwell: Oxford.
Smith, K. P., Cowie, H. & Blades, M. (2003) Understanding Children's Development. Blackwell: Oxford.
Cognitive Psychology
Fulcher, E. (2003) Cognitive Psychology. Glasgow: Crucial Pubs.
Groome, D. (2006). An Introduction to Cognitive Psychology: Processes and disorders. Hove and New York: Psychology Press.
Solso, R. L., MacLin, M. K. & MacLin, O. (2005). Cognitive Psychology. Boston: Pearson Education Inc.
ASSESSMENT STRATEGY
Weighting between components A and B (standard modules only) A: 50% B: 50%
ATTEMPT 1
First Assessment Opportunity
Component A Element weighting
EX1 |
Examination Cognitive Psychology (1 Hour) |
1 |
EX2 |
Examination Developmental Psychology (1 Hour) |
1 |
Component B
Description of each element Element weighting
CW1 |
Portfolio of Developmental coursework |
1 |
CW2 |
Portfolio of Cognitive coursework |
1 |
Second Assessment Opportunity (further attendance at taught classes) No
Component A
Description of each element Element weighting
EX1 |
Examination Cognitive Psychology (1 Hour) |
1 |
EX2 |
Examination Developmental Psychology (1 Hour) |
1 |
Component B
Description of each element Element weighting
CW1 |
Developmental Psychology essay (1,500 words) |
1 |
CW2 |
Cognitive Psychology essay (1,500 words) |
1 |
| ||
|
|
SECOND (OR SUBSEQUENT) ATTEMPT Attendance at taught classes. Yes
Specification confirmed by …………………………………………………Date ……………………………
(Associate Dean/Programme Director)