Psychology Question
It's time to tie together the material from the text, lecture reading and videos you've been studying. For this assignment you'll be using the concepts presented in the material to answer the following question:
Which scientific methods are used to study people as they develop? In particular, what methods can be used to tap into the cognitive abilities of infants and small children? There are two parts, make sure you address both of them.
Part I
Use examples from each segment of the Scientific American Frontiers video to explain the progression of cognitive growth among infants and young children. How does the video illustrate the concepts from the text and lecture reading regarding their capacities? Make sure you cover all of the various research studies described in the video. Citing just three or four won't earn full credit. I've included the link here again.
Scientific American Frontiers (S05E05) It’s a Kid’s WorldLinks to an external site.
Part II
Provide a few examples from at least two of the other videos that demonstrate how different scientific methods are used to study development. Here again are links to the videos.
Laura Schulz - The Surprisingly Logical Minds of BabiesLinks to an external site.
Alison Gopnik - How do we know what babies are thinking?Links to an external site.
Patricia Kuhl - The Linguistic Genius of BabiesLinks to an external site.
Baby Brains: Unlocking Our Humanity | Rebecca Saxe | TEDxCambridgeLinks to an external site.
This is a rather complicated assignment so let me summarize what is required. To begin, what this assignment is really about is how the science is done. For all of the videos you discuss there should be enough detail that someone who hadn't seen them would understand the methods employed and the conclusions drawn. That tells me you watched them. The real point is to get a feel for all the ingenious methods that researchers have developed to tap into what's going on behind the scenes as infants and children learn about the world around them. What that research tells us is that they are actively exploring and learning right from the beginning. Personally, I find it fascinating.
One last point. Not that any of you would be using it, but artificial intelligence does not do well on this assignment. It will summarize all the findings fairly well. However, what I'm really interested in is you gaining an appreciation for the methodology, which AI treats as superficial.