PSY-30146 - Module Specification
School of Psychology
Faculty of Natural Sciences

Programme/Approved Electives for 2024/25

Available as a Free Standing Elective

Co-requisites

None

Prerequisites

None

Barred Combinations

None

Description for 2024/25

When do new-born infants recognise their mother? Can chimpanzees take others' perspectives? Are human infants moral creatures? This module will advance your understanding of key areas of cognitive development. You will discuss studies focusing on developmental populations in human and non-human primates, covering key topics in cognitive development such as perception, language, learning, theory of mind, cooperation, and morality. This module will develop not only your understanding of key issues in developmental psychology, but also the constraints of conducting research with humans of different ages and non-human animals. This module may include a field trip to the Trentham monkey forest to conduct an observational study of primate behaviour.

The module aims to explore key areas of cognitive development, focusing on the first few years of life. We will focus on cognitive development, but we will incorporate insights from comparative psychology, neuroscience, and cross-cultural psychology to fully characterize the foundations of these cognitive processes. The module¿s secondary aim is to broaden and deepen students¿ thinking about the origins of various cognitive domains and to engage students with the methods used to study cognitive development in both human and non-human species.

Intended Learning Outcomes

Discuss similarities and differences in the cognitive development of human and non-human animals: 1,2
Evaluate key features of methodologies used in research on human cognitive development and with non-human animals.: 1,2
Develop a research proposal and effectively communicate this in an appropriate format: 2
Generate predictions about behaviour across different species or age groups: 2

Study hours

- 24 hours of scheduled synchronous teaching (12 x 2hours p/week)
- 4 hours participating in the observational study
Total synchronous content = 28 hours
- 12 hours of guided asynchronous learning
- 30 hours of Assessment 1 independent work
- 30 hours of Assessment 2 independent work
- 48 hours of independent study (reading around each lecture, etc)

School Rules

None

Description of Module Assessment