SAGE Journal Articles

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Article 1: Keen, R. (2003). Representation of objects and events: Why do infants look so smart and toddlers look so dumb? Current Directions in Psychological Science, 12(3), 79-83.

Learning Objective: 7.2
How does the asset support this Learning Objective? The article discusses the findings regarding infants’ knowledge of physical laws concerning solidity and continuity consistent with the core knowledge perspective.

Summary: Research has demonstrated that very young infants can discriminate between visual events that are physically impossible versus possible. These findings suggest that infants have knowledge of physical laws concerning solidity and continuity. However, research with 2-year- olds has shown that they cannot solve simple problems involving search for a hidden object, even though these problems require the same knowledge. These apparently inconsistent findings raise questions about the interpretation of both data sets. This discrepancy may be resolved by examining differences in task demands.

Questions to Consider:

  1. What is the difference between infant and toddler’s understanding of the physical world? How do infants’ and toddlers’ demonstrate their understanding?
  2. What is the reason for the discrepancies between infant and toddler data sets?
  3. What implications does the research have on infant and toddler cognition?
     

Article 2: Mundy, P., & Newell, L. (2007). Attention, joint attention, and social cognition. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16(5), 269-274.

Learning Objective: 7.4
How does the asset support this Learning Objective? The article discusses the importance of joint processing in infancy for the development of social cognition.

Summary: Before social cognition there is joint processing of information about the attention of self and others. This joint attention requires the integrated activation of a distributed cortical network involving the anterior and posterior attention systems. In infancy, practice with the integrated activation of this distributed attention network is a major contributor to the development of social cognition. Thus, the functional neuroanatomies of social cognition and the anterior–posterior attention systems have much in common. These propositions have implications for understanding joint attention, social cognition, and autism.

Questions to Consider:

  1. What is joint attention and why is it important?
  2. How is joint attention related to the development of social cognition?
  3. What is the process in the brain related to joint attention?