Module PSYS2131: DEVELOPMENT AND COGNITION

Department: Psychology (Applied Psychology) [Queen's Campus, Stockton]

PSYS2131: DEVELOPMENT AND COGNITION

Pre-requisites

Corequisites

Excluded Combinations

Aims

• To build upon the material covered in the introductory module and to focus on how more recent empirical research has affected our understanding of child development
• To introduce students to key areas of intellectual development and to factors that may affect the normal course of development
• To develop the students' understanding in key areas of cognitive psychology

Content

• Developmental Psychology: Introduction
• Recent advances in developmental psychology such as intellectual development, abnormal development and life course development
• Key areas in Cognition such as reasoning, thinking and language
• The module will also cover related conceptual and historical issues in psychology

Learning Outcomes

• Students should acquire a broad range of knowledge in developmental psychology and see, in depth, that development in the cognitive, social and linguistic domains is an integrated process that continues throughout the life course
• Students should acquire a broad range of knowledge in cognitive psychology and in-depth knowledge of the key areas covered in the module

• Understanding the relationship between theory and data, including the ability to evaluate theories and concepts
• Ability to formulate research questions and hypotheses

• Competent in written communication skills
• Competent IT skills in word processing and data presentation
• Effective retrieval and organisation of material
• Locate, read and review a body of research evidence
• Critical evaluation of the quality of evidence and arguments
• Ability to adopt difference theoretical positions and see relationships between them

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Student acquisition of knowledge relating to the recent work in developmental psychology and key areas of cognitive psychology is guided by lectures and supplemented by reading
• This knowledge will be assessed in the formative and summative assessments, and the written examination. The summative assessments will be essay-based, providing students with the opportunities to demonstrate their abilities to organise, review and evaluate evidence and theory, to provide critical appraisal, and to contrast theoretical positions. Feedback on progress in acquiring knowledge in the module is provided in the formative assessment
• Understanding of the relationship between theory and evidence is supported directly by the lecture content and seminar activities that encourage students to interpret evidence theoretically, and to compare competing theoretical accounts. The development of students' skills in this domain is assessed in the formative and summative assessments, and in the examination
• Abilities to reason scientifically and to effectively retrieve, locate, organise and use information is facilitated by the preparation for seminars and assessment activities, and by the feedback from the formative assessment. Scientific reasoning and organisation of written material is assessed in the summative essay, and in the examination
• A key component in the preparation of formative presentations is the acquisition of adequate word processing skills. Feedback is providing regarding the adequacy of these skills

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment

Two assignments