3444G-001
Psychology 3444G-001
Development of the Social Brain
If there is a discrepancy between the outline posted below and the outline posted on the OWL course website, the latter shall prevail.
1.0 CALENDAR DESCRIPTION
An in-depth examination of the social brain and how it develops. Topics include the cognitive and neural development of face processing, social attention, and theory of mind. In addition to typical development, we will examine cases of atypical development, including “faceblindness” in development prosopagnosia and “mindblindness” in autism.
Antirequisite: Psychology 3490G if taken in 2014/15
Antirequisites are courses that overlap sufficiently in content that only one can be taken for credit. So if you take a course that is an antirequisite to a course previously taken, you will lose credit for the earlier course, regardless of the grade achieved in the most recent course.
Prerequisites: Psychology 2820E or both Psychology 2800E and 2810, and one of Psychology 2040A/B, 2220A/B, 2221A/B, 2410A/B
3 lecture/seminar hours, 0.5 course
2.0 COURSE INFORMATION
Instructor: Adam S. Cohen
Office and Phone Number: WH 323 East, ext. 84596
Office Hours: Thursday 12:30 – 1:30 PM (please email ahead)
Email: acohen42 AT uwo DOT ca
Teaching Assistant: Isu Cho
Office: WH 210 East
Office Hours: TBD (please email ahead)
Email: icho6 AT uwo DOT ca
Time and Location of Classes: Wednesday 3:30-6:30 PM, WH 20F
If you or someone you know is experiencing distress, there are several resources here at Western to assist you. Please visit: http://www.uwo.ca/uwocom/mentalhealth/ for more information on these resources and on mental health.
Please contact the course instructor if you require material in an alternate format or if you require any other arrangements to make this course more accessible to you. You may also wish to contact Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) at 519-661-2111 ext 82147 for any specific question regarding an accommodation.
3.0 TEXTBOOK
Readings will be posted on OWL and will consist of peer-reviewed empirical, theoretical, and review articles. The readings present new ideas that will challenge you. To really understand the material and do well in this course, it is critical that you read the articles at least twice.
4.0 COURSE OBJECTIVES
The most intensely debated topics in the brain and cognitive sciences often revolve around development and the social brain. Are mechanisms for processing faces specialized because of evolution or expertise? Is theory of mind – the ability to reason about people’s mental states – early and reliably developing (“innate”)? What causes the social impairments observed in autism? Because social brain research touches on a range of issues important to psychologists and neuroscientists, it has become one of the most intriguing and rapidly developing areas of study.
This course will explore the cognitive and neural development of social abilities from infancy onwards, focusing on the development of face processing (a perceptual system), social attention (an attentional system), and theory of mind (a cognitive system). The course will also examine cases of atypical development, including developmental prosopagnosia (children who are “faceblind”) and autism (children who are “mindblind”). The course will have a heavy interdisciplinary focus, integrating theory and data from evolutionary biology, cognitive science, and cognitive neuroscience to develop a richer picture of how the social brain develops and works.
*This year, the course will focus specifically on theory of mind.*
4.1 STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES
The purpose of this course is to help students
- Explain and critique research on typical and atypical social cognitive development
- Describe and explain development from multiple perspectives (cognitive and neural)
- Describe and explain theories and methods for studying the developing mind and brain
- Articulate a (bio)logically serious understanding of the nature–nurture relationship
- Apply a developmental cognitive neuroscience approach to a research question
- improve critical and original thinking skills; as well as presentation and writing skills
5.0 EVALUATION
Weekly assignment: Due 24 hours before lecture 25%
Leading discussion: Dates assigned in class 15%
Class participation: Weekly 20%
Oral presentation: Last three weeks 15%
Research proposal: Due one week after last day of class 25%
Weekly Assignment (25%)
Part A) Summary: Each week, students will pick one of the required readings marked with an “S” and write a 1 page Summary. The summary includes a) a review of the main points of the paper (2-3 sentences), b) two things that you liked about the article, c) two things that you didn’t like and wish the authors had done better, d) one quiz question that you might pose to your classmates, and e) one research question to pursue in the future.
Part B) Questions: Students will submit three or more questions for each required reading. Acceptable submissions include “clarification” questions (e.g., “What do the authors mean by X?’”) or “discussion” questions (e.g., “Could the results be explained by the alternative hypothesis that X?”).
A pre-formatted template will be posted to OWL. A separate file, also posted to OWL, will include the full instructions for the assignment as well as some useful advice. Assignments should be uploaded to OWL and are due no later than 24 hours before class (3:30 PM on Tuesdays).
Leading discussion (15%)
Each week, two students will lead class discussion. Leaders will first help the class briefly summarize each article, so that we as a group understand the research question, the theories, the hypotheses, the methods, the results, and the conclusions (no more than 10 minutes per paper). Then, leaders will guide an initial discussion revolving around “clarification questions,” which should mainly seek to clarify any points of difficulty or confusion, followed by a substantive discussion focused on “discussion questions,” which should seek to constructively analyze the paper by discussing limitations (conceptual, method-related, statistical, etc.), ways of addressing limitations, strengths, connections to other research (synthesis), and future directions, among other topics.
The leaders should discuss their plans for class with each other beforehand so they are prepared to facilitate discussion. Leaders are encouraged to keep the class interactive with quick activities (e.g., for empirical articles, “demo” a few trials in class so that other students can briefly experience the task). Since Powerpoint often promotes a “lecture” mode and hinders effective discussion, it is not permitted for leading discussions unless given permission ahead of time. A successful class depends on the leaders getting other students to participate and carry a significant portion of the conversation.
In addition to the required articles assigned for the week, discussion leaders are expected to carefully read the supplementary articles (see lecture schedule below).
Class participation (20%)
Everyone in the class will be expected to have done all the readings and participate in weekly discussions. Good contributions are those that:
- Show you have carefully considered the important issues in the readings and previous discussions in class.
- Provide a new insight that is also relevant to the topic at hand (i.e., long off-track comments are not always the most constructive).
- Build on contributions from others in the class in order to move the discussion forward.
- Offer honest but respectful questions and criticisms of the readings.
In addition to the required articles assigned for the week, students not leading discussion are encouraged to carefully read the supplementary articles (see lecture schedule below).
Attendance Policy
Attendance is necessary for class participation. Failure to provide proper documentation for an absence (or lateness) will result in a full (or partial) deduction from that week’s class participation grade. See the course FAQ for more information on attendance and excused absences.
Research proposal - Oral presentation (15%)
During the last two weeks of the semester, students will present a research proposal to the class (10 minutes), followed by a question and answer period (5 minutes). The goal of the oral presentation is to build formal presentation skills while giving students the opportunity to get feedback from the class before writing the final paper. Powerpoint can be used. A set of guidelines will be provided a few weeks before presentations to help students prepare.
Research proposal – Final Paper (25%)
Students will turn in a full research proposal related to the development of the social brain. It should be written as an APA formatted journal article, except that it will have a data analysis plan instead of results section and it will focus on anticipated implications and limitations in the discussion section. The paper should include a title page, abstract, introduction, method, data analysis plan, discussion, and references, all in APA style. It should be 2500 words (+/- 50 words), not including the title page, abstract, and reference section. Papers outside the word limit will not be accepted. An outline worth 5% of the grade will be due around the middle of the semester.
Although the Psychology Department does not require instructors to adjust their course grades to conform to specific targets, the expectation is that course marks will be distributed around the following averages:
70% 1000-level and 2000-level courses
72% 2190-2990 level courses
75% 3000-level courses
80% 4000-level courses
The Psychology Department follows the University of Western Ontario grading guidelines, which are as follows (see http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/academic_policies/general/grades_undergrad.pdf ):
A+ 90-100 One could scarcely expect better from a student at this level
A 80-89 Superior work that is clearly above average
B 70-79 Good work, meeting all requirements, and eminently satisfactory
C 60-69 Competent work, meeting requirements
D 50-59 Fair work, minimally acceptable
F below 50 Fail
6.0 TEST AND EXAMINATION SCHEDULE
There are no tests for this course.
7.0 CLASS SCHEDULE
Week 1: 01/11 - Introduction to the development of the social brain
No reading
Part 1: EVOLUTION (week 2 to week 3)
Week 2: 01/18 - Evolution of the social brain I
Required:
Baron-Cohen, S. (1995). Chapters 1-3. Mindblindness: An essay on autism and theory of mind. MIT Press.
Humphrey, N. K. (1976). The social function of intellect. Growing points in ethology, 303-317.
(S) Dunbar, R. I. (1992). Neocortex size as a constraint on group size in primates. Journal of Human Evolution, 22(6), 469-493.
Supplementary:
Krebs, J. R., & Dawkins, R. (1984). Animal signals: mind-reading and manipulation. Behavioural Ecology: an evolutionary approach, 2, 380-402.
Whiten, A., & Erdal, D. (2012). The human socio-cognitive niche and its evolutionary origins. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences, 367(1599), 2119-2129.
Week 3: 01/25 - Evolution of the social brain II
Required:
(S) Byrne, R. W., & Corp, N. (2004). Neocortex size predicts deception rate in primates. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 271(1549), 1693.
(S) Dunbar, R. I. M. (2012). Social cognition on the Internet: testing constraints on social network size. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 367(1599), 2192-2201.
Supplementary:
Whiten, A., & Byrne, R. W. (1988). Tactical deception in primates. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 11(02), 233-244.
Byrne, R.W. (1996). Machiavellian intelligence. Evolutionary Anthropology, 5, 172–180.
Dunbar, R. I. (2003). The social brain: mind, language, and society in evolutionary perspective. Annual Review of Anthropology, 163-181.
Part 2: DEVELOPMENT (week 4 to week 8)
Week 4: 02/01 – Developmental cognitive science I (ToM in infancy)
Required:
(S) Onishi, K. H., & Baillargeon, R. (2005). Do 15-month-old infants understand false beliefs? Science, 308(5719), 255-258.
Perner, J., & Ruffman, T. (2005). Infants’ insight into the mind: How deep? Science, 308(5719), 214-216.
(S) Southgate, V., Senju, A., & Csibra, G. (2007). Action anticipation through attribution of false belief by 2-year-olds. Psychological Science, 18(7), 587-592.
(S) Scott, R. M., He, Z., Baillargeon, R., & Cummins, D. (2012). False‐belief understanding in 2.5‐year‐olds: Evidence from two novel verbal spontaneous‐response tasks. Developmental science, 15(2), 181-193.
Supplementary:
Apperly, I. A., & Butterfill, S. A. (2009). Do humans have two systems to track beliefs and belief-like states?. Psychological review, 116(4), 953.
Baillargeon, R., Scott, R. M., & He, Z. (2010). False-belief understanding in infants. Trends in cognitive sciences, 14(3), 110-118.
Carruthers, P. (2013). Mindreading in infancy. Mind & Language, 28(2), 141-172.
Helming, K. A., Strickland, B., & Jacob, P. (2014). Making sense of early false-belief understanding. Trends in cognitive sciences, 18(4), 167-170.
Week 5: 02/08 – Developmental cognitive science II (ToM and developmental change)
Required:
(S) Baker, S. T., Leslie, A. M., Gallistel, C. R., & Hood, B. M. (2016). Bayesian change-point analysis reveals developmental change in a classic theory of mind task. Cognitive Psych, 91, 124-149.
(S) Wellman, H. M., & Liu, D. (2004). Scaling of theory‐of‐mind tasks. Child development, 75(2), 523-541.
Supplementary:
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.
Week 6: 02/15 – Developmental cognitive science III (ToM and socio-moral development)
Required:
(S) Mascaro, O., & Sperber, D. (2009). The moral, epistemic, and mindreading components of children’s vigilance towards deception. Cognition, 112(3), 367-380.
(S) Choi, Y. J., & Luo, Y. (2015). 13-Month-Olds’ Understanding of Social Interactions. Psychological science, 26, 274-283.
Supplementary:
Scott, R. M., Richman, J. C., & Baillargeon, R. (2015). Infants understand deceptive intentions to implant false beliefs about identity: New evidence for early mentalistic reasoning. Cognitive psychology, 82, 32-56.
Sperber, D., Clément, F., Heintz, C., Mascaro, O., Mercier, H., Origgi, G., & Wilson, D. (2010). Epistemic vigilance. Mind & Language, 25(4), 359-393.
Reading Week: 02/22
No class
Week 7: 03/01 – Developmental cognitive neuroscience I
Required:
(S) Sabbagh, M. A., Bowman, L. C., Evraire, L. E., & Ito, J. (2009). Neurodevelopmental correlates of theory of mind in preschool children. Child development, 80(4), 1147-1162.
(S) Gweon, H., Dodell‐Feder, D., Bedny, M., & Saxe, R. (2012). Theory of mind performance in children correlates with functional specialization of a brain region for thinking about thoughts. Child development, 83(6), 1853-1868.
Supplementary:
Gweon, H., Saxe, R. (2013). Developmental cognitive neuroscience of Theory of Mind. Neural Circuit Development and Function in the Brain: Comprehensive Developmental Neuroscience. Elsevier. Ed: J. Rubenstein & P. Rakic
Week 8: 03/08 – Developmental cognitive neuroscience II
Required:
(S) Southgate, V., & Vernetti, A. (2014). Belief-based action prediction in preverbal infants. Cognition, 130(1), 1-10.
(S) Kovács, Á. M., Kühn, S., Gergely, G., Csibra, G., & Brass, M. (2014). Are all beliefs equal? Implicit belief attributions recruiting core brain regions of theory of mind. PloS one, 9(9), e106558.
Supplementary:
Blakemore, S. J. (2008). The social brain in adolescence. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 9(4), 267-277.
Part 3: AUTISM (week 9 to week 11)
Week 9: 03/15 – Cognitive science of autism
Required:
(S) Senju, A., Southgate, V., White, S., & Frith, U. (2009). Mindblind eyes: an absence of spontaneous theory of mind in Asperger syndrome. Science, 325(5942), 883-885.
(S) Schneider, D., Slaughter, V. P., Bayliss, A. P., & Dux, P. E. (2013). A temporally sustained implicit theory of mind deficit in autism spectrum disorders. Cognition, 129(2), 410-417.
(S) Moran, J. M., Young, L. L., Saxe, R., Lee, S. M., O'Young, D., Mavros, P. L., & Gabrieli, J. D. (2011). Impaired theory of mind for moral judgment in high-functioning autism. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(7), 2688-2692.
Supplementary:
Baker, J. P. (2013). Autism at 70--redrawing the boundaries. The New England journal of medicine, 369(12), 1089.
Rajendran, G., & Mitchell, P. (2007). Cognitive theories of autism. Developmental Review, 27(2), 224-260.
Week 10: 03/22 – Functional and structural neuroimaging of autism
Required (functional):
(S) Lombardo, M. V., Chakrabarti, B., Bullmore, E. T., & Baron-Cohen, S. (2011). Specialization of right temporo-parietal junction for mentalizing and its relation to social impairments in autism. Neuroimage, 56(3), 1832-1838.
(S) Dufour, N., Redcay, E., Young, L., Mavros, P. L., Moran, J. M., Triantafyllou, C., ... & Saxe, R. (2013). Similar brain activation during False Belief Tasks in a large sample of adults with and without autism. PloS one, 8(9), e75468.
Required (structural):
(S) Koldewyn, K., Yendiki, A., Weigelt, S., Gweon, H., Julian, J., Richardson, H., ... & Kanwisher, N. (2014). Differences in the right inferior longitudinal fasciculus but no general disruption of white matter tracts in children with autism spectrum disorder. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(5), 1981-1986.
(S) Just, M. A., Cherkassky, V. L., Keller, T. A., Kana, R. K., & Minshew, N. J. (2007). Functional and anatomical cortical underconnectivity in autism: evidence from an FMRI study of an executive function task and corpus callosum morphometry. Cerebral cortex, 17(4), 951-961.
Supplementary (functional):
Baron-Cohen, S., & Belmonte, M. K. (2005). Autism: a window onto the development of the social and the analytic brain. Annu. Rev. Neurosci., 28, 109-126.
Kennedy, D. P., & Adolphs, R. (2012). The social brain in psychiatric and neurological disorders. Trends in cognitive sciences, 16(11), 559-572.
Pelphrey, K. A., Shultz, S., Hudac, C. M., & Vander Wyk, B. C. (2011). Research review: constraining heterogeneity: the social brain and its development in autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 52(6), 631-644.
Supplementary (structural):
Amaral, D. G., Schumann, C. M., & Nordahl, C. W. (2008). Neuroanatomy of autism. Trends in neurosciences, 31(3), 137-145.
Geschwind, D. H., & Levitt, P. (2007). Autism spectrum disorders: developmental disconnection syndromes. Current opinion in neurobiology, 17(1), 103-111.
Part 4: ORAL PRESENTATIONS (week 12 to week 13)
Week 12: 03/29
Oral presentations
Week 13: 04/05
Oral presentations
7.1 FAQ AND ADVICE
Have a question? Before spending all that time writing a long email to the instructor or TAs, check out the FAQ and Advice link on OWL.
7.2 LAPTOP POLICY
It is strongly recommended that you not bring a laptop to class. The reasons for this will be discussed during the first class.
8.0 STATEMENT ON ACADEMIC OFFENCES
Students are responsible for understanding the nature and avoiding the occurrence of plagiarism and other scholastic offenses. Plagiarism and cheating are considered very serious offenses because they undermine the integrity of research and education. Actions constituting a scholastic offense are described at the following link: http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/academic_policies/appeals/scholastic_discipline_undergrad.pdf
As of Sept. 1, 2009, the Department of Psychology will take the following steps to detect scholastic offenses. All multiple-choice tests and exams will be checked for similarities in the pattern of responses using reliable software, and records will be made of student seating locations in all tests and exams. All written assignments will be submitted to TurnItIn, a service designed to detect and deter plagiarism by comparing written material to over 5 billion pages of content located on the Internet or in TurnItIn’s databases. All papers submitted for such checking will be included as source documents in the reference database for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of papers subsequently submitted to the system. Use of the service is subject to the licensing agreement, currently between Western and Turnitin.com http://www.turnitin.com
Possible penalties for a scholastic offense include failure of the assignment, failure of the course, suspension from the University, and expulsion from the University.
9.0 POLICY ON ACCOMMODATION FOR MEDICAL ILLNESS
Western’s policy on Accommodation for Medical Illness can be found at:
http://www.westerncalendar.uwo.ca/2016/pg117.html
Students must see the Academic Counsellor and submit all required documentation in order to be approved for certain accommodation:
http://counselling.ssc.uwo.ca/procedures/medical_accommodation.html
10.0 OTHER INFORMATION
Office of the Registrar web site: http://registrar.uwo.ca
Student Development Services web site: http://www.sdc.uwo.ca
Please see the Psychology Undergraduate web site for information on the following:
http://psychology.uwo.ca/undergraduate/student_responsibilities/index.html
- Policy on Cheating and Academic Misconduct
- Procedures for Appealing Academic Evaluations
- Policy on Attendance
- Policy Regarding Makeup Exams and Extensions of Deadlines
- Policy for Assignments
- Short Absences
- Extended Absences
- Documentation
- Academic Concerns
- 2016 Calendar References
No electronic devices, including cell phones, will be allowed during exams.
