Psychology 3443F-001
Development of the Mathematical 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 examination of how children develop numerical abilities from infancy onwards, focusing on the roles of memory, spatial ability and language. The course will also examine well-publicized studies on the poor levels of performance in mathematics among North American students and compare this to student performance in other countries.
Antirequisites: Psychology 2820E or both Psychology 2800E and 2810, and one of Psychology 2040A/B, 2220A/B, 2221A/B, 2410A/B, or Neuroscience 2000
3 lecture/seminar hours, 0.5 course
Unless you have either the requisites for this course or written special permission from your Dean to enroll in it, you may be removed from this course and it will be deleted from your record. This decision may not be appealed. You will receive no adjustment to your fees in the event that you are dropped from a course for failing to have the necessary prerequisites.
2.0 COURSE INFORMATION
Instructor: Daniel Ansari
Office and Phone Number: 5180 Western Interdisciplinary Research Building (WIRB)
Office Hours: Mondays 11.30am-1.30pm (or by appointment – please use e-mail to schedule)
Email: daniel.ansari@uwo.ca
Teaching Assistant: Emily Nielsen
Office: Social Science Centre (SSC) 7305
Office Hours: Wednesdays, 1:00-2:30
Email: enielse6@uwo.ca
Time and Location of Classes: WIRB 1130, Thursdays, 3.30-6.30pm
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
The readings, with a few exceptions, will be recently published, peer-reviewed journal articles or book chapters. For this course to be productive, interesting, and successful it is imperative that you do all the readings. For your convenience I have posted the readings on the OWL website (https://owl.uwo.ca) for this course. If you have difficulties accessing the materials or if you find that materials are missing from the website, please contact the TA.
4.0 COURSE OBJECTIVES
The first aim is to enable students to gain a detailed understanding of how children develop numerical abilities. The emphasis will be on the development of mathematical skills. We will review psychological, educational, evolutionary, and neuroscientific perspectives on number development. The course takes a journey from infant numerical abilities to children’s difficulties with fractions and cross-cultural differences in mathematical abilities. Against the background of research findings, we will be discussing the various developmental changes in children’s numerical understandings. The second aim is to encourage students to think about mathematical education and development from multiple perspectives and to see the relationships between education and basic research in this field. The final objective of the course is to develop reading, presentation, critical thinking, writing, and public communication skills.
4.1 STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES
5.0 EVALUATION
Zeetings: For this course I will be using Zeetings (www.zeetings.com). At the beginning of each class please point your browser to www.zeetings.com/numcog . I will give you a unique password to access the website at the beginning of very class. On Zeetings you will be able to see my slide presentations. Furthermore, Zeetings will allow for interactive, anonymous polls and ungraded quizzes. Zeetings allows for greater interaction between myself and you during the lecture sections of the classes. There is no cost to you associated with Zeetings.
Class attendance & participation: This course depends on your active participation in the class discussions. It is therefore crucial that you make every effort to attend every class and come prepared to participate. Often the instructor will ask for definitions of terms from a previous class and thereby conduct a mini-review of the preceding class at the beginning of each class. Your active participation is required for this part of each class. As detailed above, Zeetings will be used to track your attendance.
Midterm paper: The purpose of this assignment is to give you the opportunity to write a short paper on one of the topics of the first 6 week and thereby consolidate your knowledge on this topic. You are required to write a paper of no more than 5 pages (1.5 spaced, 12 pt. font). Longer papers will be penalized. During the second week the instructor will circulate a list of 5 possible essay topics/questions. You are required to pick one of these topics for your midterm paper. In your paper you should not merely rely on the class readings, but go beyond them and do your own independent literature searches. The Midterm paper is due at 5pm via OWL on Tuesday October 16th 2018. Please make sure that you save your midterm in Microsoft Word Format. Please title your paper in the following way: Your Name_Midterm_Paper_3443
Presentation and Discussion Leader: During the first week of term you are required to choose a class during you wish to present. There are 2 presentation slots for 10 weeks of the course. Choose the week in which you want to present via the poll circulated by e-mail after the first class. This will give you the opportunity to review a topic in substantial depth and go beyond the assigned readings. Please e-mail the course instructor for guidance on which research paper(s) to present on. You will be required to give a 10-minute visual presentation (using either PowerPoint or equivalent). In your presentation you should state the major questions and problems addressed in the literature you have reviewed. You should review BOTH the literature assigned AND other relevant literature that you have found through independent literature searches. Following your presentation you are required to lead the discussion of the papers you have reviewed. Group presentations with up to 2 members are possible (15 minutes will be allowed for these). Group presentations are strongly encouraged. If you decide to present in a pair, make sure you discuss the presentation with your partner a long time before the presentation is scheduled.
Final Paper: To give you the opportunity to review literature in depth and to provide a cohesive summary of conceptual and empirical advances in the study of the Mathematical Brain, you are required to write a final paper of no more than 7 pages (1.5 spaced,12pt font). You should choose the topic for your final paper from the topics within the syllabus and generate a question. You are strongly encouraged to discuss the topic of your final paper with the instructor or teaching assistant. You may also give the instructor a short plan of your final paper for review at least 3 weeks before the deadline. Your paper should be a critical review of the literature. Your paper should also contain a section on ‘Future Directions’ in which you discuss outstanding questions and ideas for future studies. The Final paper is due at 5pm via OWL on Friday, December 7th. Please make sure that you save your midterm in Microsoft Word Format. Please title your paper in the following way: Your Name_Final_Paper_3443
In class quizzes: At the beginning of 5 classes during the term you will be asked to complete a very short quiz. These quizzes will contain 5 brief questions that relate directly to the readings assigned for that day. The precise date of these quizzes will not be announced. The Quizzes will be done online via the course website on OWL.
Assignment summary
Class attendance and participation (10%)
Quizzes (10%)
Midterm Paper (25%)
In-class Presentation (25%)
Final Paper (30%)
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 Western's 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
7.0 CLASS SCHEDULE
September 6th 2018: Introduction to the Course: Review of Topics and Assignments
No readings assigned for this week
September 13th 2018: Origins of number representation: evidence from infants & animals
(Cantlon, 2012)
(Libertus & Brannon, 2009)
September 20th 2018: Children’s development of verbal number skills
(Sarnecka, Goldman & Slusser, 2015)
September 27th 2018: Basic number processing and its role in higher-level math learning
(De Smedt, Noël, Gilmore, & Ansari, 2013)
(Odic & Starr, 2018)
October 4th 2018: Mental Arithmetic & Fractions
(R S Siegler, 2000)
(Lortie-Forgues, Tian, & Siegler, 2015)
October 11th: No class – Fall Reading Week
October 18th: Developmental Dyscalculia – Guest Lecture by Dr. Lien Peters
(Fias, Menon, & Szucs, 2013)
(Price & Ansari, 2013)
October 25th: Mathematics Anxiety
(Maloney & Beilock, 2012)
(Maloney, Sattizahn, & Beilock, 2014)
https://thelearningexchange.ca/math-anxiety/
November 1st: No class – Instructor Away!
November 8th: The mathematical brain
(Peters & De Smedt, 2018)
(Ansari, 2008)
(Piazza & Eger, 2015)
November 15thth: Gender Differences
(Kersey, Braham, Csumitta, Libertus, & Cantlon, 2018)
(Spelke, 2005)
November 22nd: The effect of genetics on the mathematical brain
(Wang et al., 2014)
(Rimfeld, Kovas, Dale, & Plomin, 2015)
November 29th: Cross-cultural studies and international comparison studies
(Siegler & Mu, 2008)
(Rodic et al., 2015)
December 6th: Final Class: Course Summary & Discussion
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://westerncalendar.uwo.ca/PolicyPages.cfm?Command=showCategory&PolicyCategoryID=1&SelectedCalendar=Live&ArchiveID=#Page_12
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
- 2018 Calendar References
No electronic devices, including cell phones and smart watches, will be allowed during exams.
11.0 REFERENCES FOR ASSIGNED READINGS
Ansari, D. (2008). Effects of development and enculturation on number representation in the brain. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 9(4). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn2334
Cantlon, J. F. (2012). Math, monkeys, and the developing brain. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 109 Suppl, 10725–10732. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1201893109
De Smedt, B., Noël, M.-P., Gilmore, C., & Ansari, D. (2013). How do symbolic and non-symbolic numerical magnitude processing skills relate to individual differences in children’s mathematical skills? A review of evidence from brain and behavior. Trends in Neuroscience and Education, 2(2), 55–48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tine.2013.06.001
Fias, W., Menon, V., & Szucs, D. (2013). Multiple components of developmental dyscalculia. Trends in Neuroscience and Education, 2(2), 43–47.
Kersey, A. J., Braham, E. J., Csumitta, K. D., Libertus, M. E., & Cantlon, J. F. (2018). No intrinsic gender differences in children’s earliest numerical abilities. Npj Science of Learning, 3(1), 12. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-018-0028-7
Libertus, M. E., & Brannon, E. M. (2009). Behavioral and Neural Basis of Number Sense in Infancy. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 18(6), 346–351. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8721.2009.01665.x
Lortie-Forgues, H., Tian, J., & Siegler, R. S. (2015). Why is learning fraction and decimal arithmetic so difficult? Developmental Review, 38, 201–221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2015.07.008
Maloney, E. A., & Beilock, S. L. (2012). Math anxiety: who has it, why it develops, and how to guard against it. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 16(8), 404–406. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2012.06.008
Maloney, E. A., Sattizahn, J. R., & Beilock, S. L. (2014). Anxiety and cognition. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews. Cognitive Science, 5(4), 403–411. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcs.1299
Odic, D., & Starr, A. (2018). An Introduction to the Approximate Number System. Child Development Perspectives. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12288
Peters, L., & De Smedt, B. (2018). Arithmetic in the developing brain: A review of brain imaging studies. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 30, 265–279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2017.05.002
Piazza, M., & Eger, E. (2015). Neural foundations and functional specificity of number representations. Neuropsychologia. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.09.025
Price, G., & Ansari, D. (2013). Dyscalculia: Characteristics, Causes, and Treatments. Numeracy, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.5038/1936-4660.6.1.2
Rimfeld, K., Kovas, Y., Dale, P. S., & Plomin, R. (2015). Pleiotropy across academic subjects at the end of compulsory education. Scientific Reports, 5(1), 11713. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep11713
Rodic, M., Zhou, X., Tikhomirova, T., Wei, W., Malykh, S., Ismatulina, V., … Kovas, Y. (2015). Cross-cultural investigation into cognitive underpinnings of individual differences in early arithmetic. Developmental Science, 18(1), 165–174. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12204
Sarnecka, Barbara W, Goldman, M.C, Slusser, E. B. (2015). How counting leads to children’s first representations of exact, large numbers. In A. Cohen Kadosh, R., Dowker (Ed.), Oxford Handbook of Numerical Cognition. Oxford Univ Press.
Siegler, R. S. (2000). The rebirth of children’s learning. Child Development, 71(1), 26–35.
Siegler, R. S., & Mu, Y. (2008). Chinese Children Excel on Novel Mathematics Problems Even Before Elementary School. Psychological Science, 19(8), 759–763. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02153.x
Spelke, E. S. (2005). Sex differences in intrinsic aptitude for mathematics and science?: a critical review. The American Psychologist, 60(9), 950–958. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.60.9.950
Wang, Z., Hart, S. A., Kovas, Y., Lukowski, S., Soden, B., Thompson, L. A., … Petrill, S. A. (2014). Who is afraid of math? Two sources of genetic variance for mathematical anxiety. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 55(9), 1056–1064. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.12224
