Cognitive Neurosciences and Psychological Rehabilitation

Knowledge Development

Course objectives

The course aims at analyzing how individuals develop abilities to mentally represent the knowledge starting from sensory and perceptive skills. The expected learning outcomes are: to identify behavioral parameters for cognitive development at different stages, to identify the transitions that characterize the development of several cognitive skills (emergency vs. mastery), to recognize individual differences, to evaluate the di-screpancy between competence and performance of children at different stages of development; to reco-gnize the role social factors in cognitive development. Knowledge and understanding. Passing the exam would imply being capable to understand the mechanisms that underlie the development of the different components of cognition (representation, reasoning, language, action planning, theory of mind) in relation to the intrinsic and extrinsic factors that can determine the individual differences Applying knowledge and understanding. Passing the exam would imply mastering the ability to identify the qualitative and quantitative changes that characterize the cognitive functioning of the child in the first years of life, and the factors can affect these changes.

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EMIDDIA LONGOBARDI Lecturers' profile

Program - Frequency - Exams

Course program

The course will focus on following topics: main issues in the field of cognitive development related to theore-tical approaches; the nature of the early representations; evolution of thought and reasoning; the role of language in mental development; the development of the theory of the mind; cognitive and social cor-relates of the theory of mind; the role of socio-affective factors in cognitive development; evaluation methods of cognitive development. More specifically the course can be divided into three parts that correspond to the program teaching: (a) how children know the reality around them in the first years of life; relationship between social factors and cognitive development; development of verbal and nonverbal mentalization skills.

Prerequisites

The requirements (useful) for a better understanding of teaching content and more effective learning are the key knowledge related to (a) the main theoretical approaches to the study of development and (b) to methods of investigation in developmental psychology.

Books

The examination includes three textbooks: 1. Taylor L. (2007), Lo sviluppo cognitivo, Il Mulino, BO A book to be chosen from the following: 2a. Ornaghi V., Grazzani I. (2020), Lo sviluppo della comprensione sociale nei bambini. Junior Edizioni. 2b. Agliati A., Grazzani I., Ornaghi V. (2015) La socializzazione emotiva nei contesti educativi per l’infanzia. Conversare sulle emozioni al nido. Junior Edizioni 2c. Meins E. (1999) Sicurezza e sviluppo sociale della conoscenza, Cortina, MI (as an alternative to the book, the articles by E. Meins can be downloaded from the moodle page of the course) A book to be chosen from the following: 3a. Lecce S., Pagnin A. (2007) Il lessico psicologico, Il Mulino, BO 3b. Belacchi C., Benelli B. (2007) Il significato delle parole. La competenza definitoria nello sviluppo tipico e atipico, Il Mulino, BO

Frequency

Attendance recommended.

Exam mode

The method of assessment involve a written exam scheduled at the end of the course. The written exam consists of 3 open questions, and must be completed in one and a half hours. Each questions concerns a part of the examination program corresponding to the three texts indicated respectively. To pass the exam, a score of at least 18 out of 30 needs to be achieved. This score corresponds to a suf-ficient acquisition of the topics covered by the course. The evaluation of 30/30 (cum laude) indicates an excellent knowledge of the course topics.

Lesson mode

The course includes lectures that will alternate theoretical presentations of course topics and presentations/discussions of particularly significant researches in the topics covered. Furthermore, videos will be shown regarding the detection and evaluation of verbal and non-verbal skills that may characterize cogniti-ve development in the first years of life.