Psychology 830:332 -- Laboratory in Infant and Child Development
Schedule of Topics and Assignments
(Subject to Change)
Research Methods and EthicsLab discussion:Compare and contrast different developmental research designs. Strengths and weaknesses of different experimental and correlational research designs will also be evaluated. Examples of different studies using different designs will be included in this discussion.
Assignment: Design two different studies to address one research
question and will evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of each approach
(5 points). Find abstracts of two different published studies on a similar
topic, describe the designs used in each, and evaluate the merits of each
approach (5 points).
Lab discussion. Students will be provided with data from a study examining the relationship between maternal and child behaviors. Students will learn how correlational research is conducted and will identify measures that can be used in a correlational analysis.
Assignment: Perform correlational analyses of data obtained from the study and discuss the implications of the findings (10 points).
Lab discussion: To understand the nature of intermodal perception, students will participate as subjects in an intermodal perception experiment using the same stimuli presented to infants. Alternating as experimenters and subjects, students will collect data on looking times and compute summary statistics.
Assignment: Students will be given looking time results from previously collected data (e.g., Walker, 1982; Gibson & Walker, 1983) and will compute t tests comparing group performance. Students will write a Results section of a research report based on these data (10 points).
Lab discussion.
Assignment: Conduct observations of preschool peer interaction
at the Douglass Child Study Center and will turn in their data sheets (10
points).
Assignment. Discuss the challenges involved in conducting observational research (5 points).
Lab discussion. Students will listen to the artificial language developed by Saffran et al (1997) and perform as subjects in a replication of that study. They will be exposed to a 21-minute audio recording of unsegmented artificial language (produced by a speech synthesizer) in which the only cues to word boundaries are the transitional probabilities between syllables, in an incidental learning paradigm.
Assignment. Analyze the learning data produced by the class and
those produced by children (first-grade and 8-month-old infants). Compare
performance of these three ages on the types of targets recognized as words
and propose a set of mechanisms or processes to account for the learning
(10 points).
Lab discussion. Discuss the development of social, dramatic, and symbolic play in young children and implications for social and cognitive development. View video tapes of pretend play in children from 15 to 21 months and code for level of symbolic play.
Assignment: (10 points). Analyze and discuss pretend play data from a study of the development of symbolic understanding.
Lab discussion. Students will compile observational data on children's peer interactions from observations at the Douglass Child Study Center. Students will use SPSS to analyze data for age and gender effects.
Assignment. Results and Discussion section based on the peer interaction observational study (10 points).
Lab discussion. Learn the methods involved in conducting an experiment with preschool children to investigate either (a) the development of counting and number concepts or (b) children's understanding of germs and contagion. Prior research on the topic will be presented and students will conduct an experiment to replicate or extend previous findings.
Assignment. Write Introduction and Method sections for the experiments
(10 points).
Assignment. Discuss the challenges involved in conducting research with preschool children (5 points).
Lab discussion. Compile data collected at the Douglass Child Study Center (from week 8). Students will decide on methods of data analysis and presentation. Students will learn how to enter data into a format for analysis by SPSS, analyze the data, and discuss the results.
Assignment. Write Results and Discussion sections based on the experiment (10 points).
Final Paper: Complete research report based on this experiment -- due last day of class (30 points).
Lab discussion. Students will be shown examples of various tests used to assess intelligence in infants and young children. Examples of items will be given as well as scoring criteria. Students will view videotapes of the administration of a Bayley test and will score the child's performance.
Assignment. Write an evaluation of an individual child based on their scoring from the taped testing session (10 points).
Lab discussion. Students will be trained to use Izard's coding scheme for emotional expression and will code still photographs and videos of infants from experimental studies of infants' responses to facial/vocal expressions (Montague, 1996).
Assignment. (10 points) Compare different methods of emotional coding and compute inter-coder reliability measures for different coding methods.
updated 1/26/03