The Development of Social Cognition
(PSYC798J)
Fall, 2005
Time: Thursdays, 2:00-4:30
Location: BPS 1103
Instructor: Amanda Woodward (awoodward@psyc.umd.edu, BPS 2147B)
Office hours: Thursday 12:00-2:00 or by appointment.

Course Description

This graduate seminar will focus on current work on infants' and children's reasoning about others' actions and minds. We will begin with the now classic literature on children's understanding of beliefs and desires. Then we will consider recent extensions to and reformulation of this work from crosscultural, neuroscientific, cross-species comparative, and infant cognition research paradigms. Our focus will be developments during infancy and early childhood. Throughout the seminar we will consider this domain of development in the broader contexts of conceptual development and social behavior.

Attendance

Because this seminar will rely on the active analysis of course readings during class discussion, attendance and participation are essential both to getting something from the class and for the course grade.

Assignments

Readings. Each week, 3 or 4 primary papers or chapters are assigned. Students are to complete all the readings for the week prior to writing and submitting the weekly essay (see below). Readings will be made available in a bin outside my office (BPS 2147B). Students may borrow them to make a personal copy.

Weekly essays. The workload for this course will be evenly distributed throughout the semester. There is no final paper. Instead, students will write short (2 pages, double spaced, no smaller than 12 pt font) essays each week. In the essays, students should present an analysis of the readings for the week. The essays should NOT summarize the content of the readings. Instead, the goal is to discuss and analyze the readings, for example, by framing the central issues or controversies present, relating the readings to the more general themes of the course or issues raised in other weeks, or taking a critical position with respect to one or more of the arguments presented. Strong essays will consider more than a single reading, and be fully polished pieces of writing (well organized and carefully edited). Essays are to be handed in no later than noon on Wednesday to my office, BPS 2147B. Email submission is permitted, but students are responsible for making sure the essay arrives in readable form.

Leading class discussion. At least four times during the semester, each student will take responsibility for co-leading the discussion. Students will work in small groups. Discussion leaders are expected to meet with me the day before class (or at another time if that day is not possible) in order to prepare for this role.

Grading

Late essays will not be accepted and missed assignments cannot be made up except under exceptional circumstances. Students who anticipate a course conflict due to religious observance should contact me well in advance to make alternative arrangements. The final grade will be based on the weekly essays (60%), discussion leadership (25%) and participation in class discussions (15%).

Academic integrity

It is assumed that students are aware of the University of Maryland's standards for academic integrity and that they understand the consequences of academic dishonesty. If you do not, please consult the university's web pages, the graduate catalog or the course registration booklet to become familiar with these issues.

Students with Disabilities

If you are a student with a documented disability, please contact me by the first week of class so that we can make arrangements for the necessary accommodations.

Course schedule

(This is a working version. Revisions may occur as the semester unfolds.)

September 1: Introduction/organization

September 8: Defining folk psychology and theory of mind

Wellman, H. R. (2002). Understanding the psychological world: Developing a theory of mind. In U.Goswami (Ed.) Blackwell handbook of childhood cognitive development (pp. 167-187). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.

Baron Cohen, S. (1997). Mindblindness: Chapter 4: Developing mindreading: The four steps (pp. 31-58). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Baldwin, D. A., & Baird, J. A. (2001). Discerning intentions in dynamic human action. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 5, 171-178.

September 15: Developmental variability and uniformity across cultures

Lillard, A. (1997). Other folks' theories of mind and behavior. Psychological Science, 8, 268-274.

Callaghan. T. et al. (2005). Synchrony in the onset of mental-state reasoning: evidence from five cultures. Psychological Science. 16, 378-384.

Avis, J. & Harris, P. L. (1991). Belief-desire reasoning among Baka children: Evidence for a universal conception of mind. Child Development, 62,460-467

Tardif , T., So, C.. W. C., & Kaciroti, N. (in press). Language and false belief: Evidence for general, not specific, effects in Cantonese-speaking preschoolers. Developmental Psychology.

September 22: Role of language and social experience in theory of mind development

Dunn, J. (1999). Making sense of the social world: mindreading, emotion and relationships. In P.D. Zelazo, J. W. Astington, & D. R. Olson (Eds.) Developing theories of intention (pp. 229-242). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Meins, E., Fennyhough, C., Wainwrght, R., Das Gupta, M., Fradley, E. & Tuckey, M. (2002). Maternal mind-mindedness and attachment security as predictors of theory of mind understanding. Child Development, 73, 1715-1726.

de Villiers, J. G., & Pyers, J. E. (2002). Complements to cognition: A longitudinal study of the relationship between complex syntax and false-belief-understanding. Cognitive Development, 17, 1037Ð1060.

September 29: Understanding intention I: Early forms

Woodward, A. L. (2005). The infant origins of intentional understanding. In R. V. Kail (Ed.) Advances in Child Development and Behavior.

Gergely, G., & Csibra, G. (2003). Teleological reasoning in infancy: The naive theory of rational action. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7, 287-292.

Behne, T., Carpenter, M., Call, J., & Tomasello, M. (in press). Unwilling versus unable? Infants' understanding of intentional action. Developmental Psychology.

October 6: Understanding intention II: Later forms

Meltzoff, A. N. (1995). Understanding the intentions of others: Re-enactment of intended acts by 18-month-old children. Developmental Psychology, 31, 838-850.

Baird, J.A., & Moses, L. (2001). Do preschoolers appreciate that identical actions may be motivated by different intentions? Journal of Cognition and Development, 2(4), 413Ð448

Schult, C., & Wellman, H. (1997). Explaining human movements and actions: Children's understanding of the limits of psychological explanation. Cognition, 62, 291Ð324

October 13: Understanding attention I: Early forms

Tomasello, M. (1995). Joint attention as social cognition. In C. Moore & P. J. Dunham (Ed.), Joint attention: Its origins and role in development (pp. 103-130). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Woodward, A. L. (2003). Infants' developing understanding of the link between looker and object. Developmental Science, 6:3, 297-311.

Johnson, S. C. (2000). The recognition of mentalisitic agents in infancy. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 4(1), 22-28.

Brooks, R., & Meltzoff, A. M. (2002). The importance of eyes: How infants interpret adult looking behavior. Developmental Psychology, 38, 958-966.

October 20: Understanding attention II: Later forms, varied populations

Flavell, J. (2004). Development of knowledge about vision. In D. Levin (ed.) Thinking and Seeing. (pp. 13-36). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Baron Cohen, S. (1997). Mindblindness: Chapter 7:The language of the eyes: (pp. 97-120). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Povinelli D. J. (1999). Social understanding in chimpanzees: New evidence from a longitudinal approach. In P. D. Zelazo, J. W. Astington & D. R. Olson (Eds.) Developing theories of intention (pp. 195-228). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.

Hare, B., Call, J., Agnetta, B., & Tomasello, M. (2000). Chimpanzees know what conspecifics do and do not see. Animal Behavior, 59, 771Ð785.

October 27: No Class - AW out of town

November 3: Understanding emotion I

Sorce, J. F; Emde, R. N; Campos, J. J; Klinnert, M. D. (1985). Maternal emotional signaling: Its effect on the visual cliff behavior of 1-year-olds. Developmental Psychology. 21(1), 195-200.

Baldwin, D.A; Moses, L. J. (1996). The ontogeny of social information gathering. Child Development. 67(5), 1915-1939.

Moses, L., Baldwin, D. A., Rosicky, J. G., & Tidball, G. (2001). Evidence for referential understanding in the emotions domain at 12 and 18 months. Child Development, 72, 718-735.

November 10: Understanding emotion II

Zahn-Waxler, C., Radke-Yarrow, M., Wagner, E., Chapman, M. (1992). Development of concern for others. Developmental Psychology 28, 126-136.

Repacholi, B. M; Gopnik, A. (1997). Early reasoning about desires: Evidence from 14- and 18-month-olds. Developmental Psychology. Vol 33, 12-21.

Dunn, J., Brown, J., & Beardsall, L. (1991). Family talk about feeling states and children's later understanding of others' emotions. Developmental Psychology, 27, 448Ð455.

November 17: Understanding belief I

Wimmer, H., & Perner, J. (1983). Beliefs about beliefs: Representation and constraining function of wrong beliefs in young children's understanding of deception. Cognition. 13(1), 103-128.

Wellman, H. M; Cross, D. , Watson, J. (2001). Meta-analysis of theory-of-mind development: The truth about false belief. Child Development, 72(3), 655-684.

Birch , S. A. & Bloom, P. (2004). Understanding children's and adults' limitations in mental state reasoning. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8, 255-260.

November 24: No Class - Thanksgiving

December 1: Understanding belief II

Premack. D & Woodruff G (1978). Does the chimpanzee have a Òtheory of mnd'' Behavioral and Brain Sciences, I, 515-526.

Baron Cohen, S. . (1997). Mindblindness: Chapter 5: Autism and mindblindness (pp. 59-84). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Onishi, K. & Baillargeon, R. (2005). Do 15-month-old infants understand false belief? Science, 308, 255-258.

December 8: Mirror representations and theory of mind development

Meltzoff, A. N. (2002). Imitation as a mechanism of social cognition: Origins of empathy, theory of mind, and the representation of action. In U. Goswami (Ed), Blackwell handbook of childhood cognitive development (pp. 6-25). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers.

Sommerville, J. A., Woodward, A. L., & Needham, A. (2005). Action experience alters 3-month-old infants' perception of others' actions. Cognition, 96, B1ÐB11

Decety, J. & Sommerville, J. A. (2003). Shared representations between self and other: a social cognitive neuroscience view. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7, 527-533.

Saxe, R. (2005). Against simulation: The argument from error. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 9(4), 174-179.