Tu & Th 11:20AM - 12:35PM
Flipse Room 402 or virtually via Zoom
Department of Psychology, University of Miami

Daniel Messinger, Ph.D. (he/his), [email protected]
Office Hours: Thursday 12:45 - 1:45 and at other times by appointment (contact me to schedule Zoom meeting) 

Objective: Review contemporary theory, research, and methods relevant to the scientific study of infant development. Topics include physiological, cortical, motor, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social development in infancy. Human and other animal models will be considered. The course focuses on both normative and atypical (e.g., autism) development because an understanding of one enriches an understanding of the other. Readings and participation will be supplemented by a project involving syntheses of the research literature. 

Required weekly readings: The class is a seminar with students reading and discussing key journal articles and reviews, which are linked to this syllabus. Readings are chosen to provide exposure to the theory, methods, and findings of current developmental research. One reading will be assigned for each class. Reading assignments marked "Extra" are suggested but not required.

Format. The instructor will introduce key concepts, issues, and lines of research. Students are expected to take an active role in discussing and developing topics under consideration. Everyone is expected to complete all assigned readings and actively contribute to discussion. In this class I welcome all students regardless of race, ethnicity, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, or veteran status.

Participation. Participation refers to your level of engagement in class (25 points). Participation includes submission of at least 10 substantive questions/comments /responses to the Blackboard Discussion Board throughout the semester. Participation also includes attendance, having done the required reading, asking pertinent questions, offering informed responses to questions, and constructive debate. Use of electronic devices during class time for anything except class work is prohibited. 

Attendance. Attendance is mandatory. Based on their needs and concerns, students may opt to attend virtually via zoom or in person.

Coronavirus (COVID-19): Everyone—including faculty, staff, and students—is required to wear face coverings on campus. Students are required to do this at all times in the classroom and when physical distancing cannot be guaranteed. Faculty have the right to restrict a student from participating in class if the student does not follow University COVID-19 policies. COVID-19 vaccination reduces your risk and your risk to those around you. This is a manuscript on COVID-19 risk in preschool classrooms that may be relevant.

Office Hours. Office hours (listed above) or a meeting scheduled after class by email are an ideal setting for me to assist you with your final paper, exam(s), discussion facilitation, or class participation.

Main Project. There are two main project choices: textbook and/or handbook scientific communication (65 points). They are designed to teach critical reading, analysis, and scientific communication. We will devote class time and specific class meetings to the project.

This project will be the development of text suitable for a revision of Infant Development: A Topical Approach (2nd Ed), which is on reserve at the library. You will choose sections of one of six chapters (Cognition, Communication, Emotion, Parenting, Family, and Individual Differences). The choice of chapters and the entire assignment will be a collaborative exercise. This will yield an annotated bibliography which I hope will support my revision of the textbook. I intend to acknowledge all individuals who submit an annotated bibliography in the textbook. Here are the steps:

1. Introduction. I will provide you with a section of the chapter and/or the entire chapter as a Word document. That section may contain citations of additional research articles--with hyperlinks to the source articles--and summaries of those articles. I will provide access to the reference section as a google doc.

2. Citations. Develop a list of approximately 30 agreed upon citations of empirical articles that update the citations found in the text and cover roughly the same material as the previous citations and expand upon them. When you submit, I will indicate which articles should be replaced by new articles that I will work with you to identify.

3. Summaries. Write a 5 sentence relatively simple summary of each article that identifies the age of the infants and describes the study methods (what was done) in two sentences, the primary findings of the article in two sentences, and a one sentence take-home message in one sentence. This is an exercise in digesting and disseminating results.

4. Using your summaries rewrite your summaries as a draft of textbook content. This content should be accurate and mesh with surrounding text and the points being made there. It will typically be 2-3 sentences in length. 

5. Rewrite other summaries that I will provide you with as a draft of textbook content. This content should be accurate and mesh with surrounding text and the points being made there. It will typically be 2-3 sentences in length.

6. In all these steps, your work is a part of a collaborative process. Attend to how the part of the document you are working on is formatted and has been edited. Maintain that formatting when you do your work.

Handbook scientific communication. Summarize five chapters in The Cambridge Handbook of Infant Development (Eds. Lockman & Tamis-LeMonda) available through the library and bookstore. The chapters are contained in these Handbook sections: Foundations, Perceptual Development, Cognitive Development, Action, Language, or Emotional and Social Development. Summaries will be 3 single-spaced pages and will follow the headings and subheadings of the target chapter. In other words, include the headings and subheadings of the target chapter—retitling them in your own words if possible—in your summary so that your summary has the same structure as the target chapter.

Observation project. Students will spend at least two hours observing an infant or infants (0-3 years of age) in 1-2 sessions (2 is ideal) and write up their observations. The goal of the write-ups is to be as descriptive as possible. The write-ups will be 1-2 pages. A convenient option for conducting these observations is the Linda Ray Intervention Center https://www.fdlrs-um.miami.edu/, an early intervention, center-based provider. Hours of operation are 8:30a.m to 2:15 p.m. To conduct observations at LRIC, which is a few blocks east of medical campus, you will need to coordinate with the onsite Executive Director, Ms. Isabel Chica. You may also make other arrangements for your observation (a family member or friend who has an infant, for example). In either event, describe your plan for your observation project in 1-2 sentences and I will approve your plan or suggest changes.

Observation project write-up instructions. The first paragraph should explain what you decided to observe. If there is more than one infant in the setting where you’ll be (e.g., a preschool classroom), decide which infants you will be observing. Use an iPhone or similar to make 30 second or 60 second blocks separated by an audible tone. Observe for one block and then write down what you observed for one block of time. (Here is a more formal description of this method, time sampling, https://dictionary.apa.org/time-sampling, for background.) Do at least 30 minutes of observation structured in this way. This will be several pages of observations. These observations could be on different days or could be focused on different infants. You should have 2-4 paragraphs describing the days and times you observed, what you focused on, and what you saw. In addition, include a figure (it could be a little screenshot or a table), showing the actual observations that you made. Finish with a paragraph about what you learned doing the observations. The final project should 1-2 pages.

Project assignments. Written assignments must be single spaced with an additional space between paragraphs (1” margins, 12 point font). Only assignments turned in on time will be graded. Most assignments will be submitted on Blackboard, typically using SafeAssign as an originality check. 

Honor Code. Exams and final papers are governed by the honor code. They will be submitted through BlackBoard SafeAssign. They are governed by the Honor code. Please review the graduate honor code here.

Introduction to Class and Developmental Psychology (ppt1)

Additional reading:

Spencer, J. P., Perone, S., & Buss, A. T. (2011). Twenty years and going strong: A dynamic systems revolution in motor and cognitive development. Child Development Perspectives, 5, 260-266. More recent?

Developmental Design, Measurement, & Analysis (lec5.design.ppt)

Additional reading:

Davis-Kean, P. E., & Ellis, A. (2019). An overview of issues in infant and developmental research for the creation of robust and replicable science. Infant Behavior and Development, 57, 101339. doi: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2019.101339

Frank, M. C. (2019). Towards a more robust and replicable science of infant development. Infant Behavior and Development, 57, 101349. doi: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2019.101349

The genetic basis of behavior and development (ppt8)

Chabris, C. F., Lee, J. J., Cesarini, D., Benjamin, D. J., & Laibson, D. I. (2015). The Fourth Law of Behavior Genetics. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 24(4), 304-312. doi:10.1177/0963721415580430

Additional reading:

Lester, B. M., Conradt, E., LaGasse, L. L., Tronick, E. Z., Padbury, J. F., & Marsit, C. J. (2018). Epigenetic Programming by Maternal Behavior in the Human Infant. Pediatrics. doi:10.1542/peds.2017-1890 see Movie

Conradt, E., Beauchaine, T., Abar, B., Lagasse, L., Shankaran, S., Bada, H., … Lester, B. (2016). Early caregiving stress exposure moderates the relation between respiratory sinus arrhythmia reactivity at 1 month and biobehavioral outcomes at age 3. Psychophysiology, 53(1), 83–96. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.12569 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/psyp.12569

The biological basis of behavior and development (ppt7)

Additional reading:

Brody, G. H., Gray, J. C., Yu, T., Barton, A. W., Beach, S. R., Galván, A., MacKillop, J., Windle, M., Chen, E., Miller, G. E., & Sweet, L. H. (2017). Protective Prevention Effects on the Association of Poverty With Brain Development. JAMA Pediatr, 171(1), 46-52. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2016.2988

Leong, V., Byrne, E., Clackson, K., Georgieva, S., Lam, S., & Wass, S. (2017). Speaker gaze increases information coupling between infant and adult brains. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(50), 13290-13295. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1702493114

Culture in Development (ppt3)

Bornstein, M. H., Putnick, D. L., Rigo, P., Esposito, G., Swain, J. E., Suwalsky, J. T. D., Su, X., Du, X., Zhang, K., Cote, L. R., De Pisapia, N., & Venuti, P. (2017). Neurobiology of culturally common maternal responses to infant cry. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 114(45), E9465-E9473. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1712022114

Additional reading:

Culture in Development (ppt4).

Cuartas, J., Weissman, D. G., Sheridan, M. A., Lengua, L., & McLaughlin, K. A. (2021). Corporal Punishment and Elevated Neural Response to Threat in Children. Child Development, 92(3), 821-832. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13565

Additional reading:

Causadias, J. M., Vitriol, J. A., & Atkin, A. L. (2018). The cultural (mis) attribution bias in developmental psychology in the United States. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 59, 65-74. doi: 10.1016/j.appdev.2018.01.003

Sep 21.

Perceptual Development (ppt9)

Clerkin, E.M., Hart, E., Rehg, J.M., Yu, C., & Smith, L.B. (2017). Real-world visual statistics and infants' first-learned object names. Philosophical Transactions on The Royal Society B: Biological Science, 372(1711).

Additional reading:

Jakobsen, K., Umstead, L., & Simpson, E. (2015). Efficient human face detection in infancy. Developmental Psychobiology, 58(1), 129-136. 

Perceptual/Attention Development (ppt10).

Additional reading:

Sep 28. Cognitive Development (ppt11)

Substitute this article or a more recent one and put in after smith in tics: Yu, C. & Smith, L.B. (2017) Hand-eye coordination predicts joint attention. Child Development. (or make JA a separate day and find a different study for cognitive

Joint attention Ostensive communication slides from cognitive should go here.

Additional reading:

Cognitive Development (ppt12)

Additional reading:

Boyer, T. W., Harding, S. M., & Bertenthal, B. I. (2020). The temporal dynamics of infants' joint attention: Effects of others' gaze cues and manual actions. Cognition, 197, 104151. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2019.104151

Simpson, E. A., Sclafani, V., Paukner, A., Kaburu, S. S. K., Suomi, S. J., & Ferrari, P. F. (2019). Handling newborn monkeys alters later exploratory, cognitive, and social behaviors. Dev Cogn Neurosci, 35, 12-19. doi:10.1016/j.dcn.2017.07.010

Language Development (ppt13)

Warlaumont, A. S., Richards., J. A., Gilkerson, J., & Oller, D. K. (2014). A social feedback loop for speech development and its reduction in autism. Psychological Science, 25(7), 1314–1324. doi: 10.1177/0956797614531023 [supplemental materials, Akhtar et al., commentary on Warlaumont, Warlaumont et al. response to Akhtar] . NEW OLLER

Additional reading:

Perry, L.K., Perlman, M., Winter, B., Massaro, D.W., & Lupyan, G. (2018). Iconicity in children and adults’ speech. Developmental Science, 21(3), e12572. doi: 10.1111/desc.12572. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/desc.12572

Language Development (ppt14)

Additional reading:

Temperament and Emotion (ppt15)

Mattson, W. I., Cohn, J. F., Mahoor, M. H., Gangi, D. N., & Messinger, D. S. (2013). Darwin’s Duchenne: Eye constriction during infant joy and distress. PLOS ONE, 8(11). doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0080161 

Additional reading:

Mitsven, S. G., Messinger, D. S., Moffitt, J., & Ahn, Y. A. (in press). Infant Emotional Developments, pp. 748-782. In Lockman, J. & Tamis-Lemonda, C. (Eds.), Handbook of Infant Development. Cambridge University Press.

Temperament and Emotion (ppt16)

Watts, T. W., Duncan, G. J., & Quan, H. (2018, January). Revisiting the marshmallow test: A conceptual replication investigating links between early delay of gratification and later Outcomes. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0956797618761661. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6050075/pdf/10.1177_0956797618761661.pdf

Additional reading:

Coffey, J. (2019). Cascades of infant happiness: Infant positive affect predicts childhood IQ and adult educational attainment. Emotion, 20. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000640

Additional reading:

Face-to-face interaction (ppt17) 

Feldman, R., Rosenthal, Z., & Eidelman, A. I. (2014). Maternal-Preterm Skin-to-Skin Contact Enhances Child Physiologic Organization and Cognitive Control Across the First 10 Years of Life. Biological Psychiatry, 75(1), 56-64. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2013.08.012

Additional reading:

Ilyka, D., Johnson, M. H., & Lloyd-Fox, S. (2021). Infant social interactions and brain development: A systematic review. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 130, 448-469. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.09.001

Additional reading:

Murray, L., De Pascalis, L., Bozicevic, L., Hawkins, L., Sclafani, V., & Ferrari, P. F. (2016). The functional architecture of mother-infant communication, and the development of infant social expressiveness in the first two months. Scientific Reports, 6(1), 39019. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep39019.

Expand ppt17 & 18 to 3 ppts ?

Beebe, B., D. Messinger, L. E. Bahrick, A. Margolis, K. A. Buck, & H. Chen (2016). A Systems View of Mother-Infant Face-to-Face Communication. Developmental Psychology, 52(4), 556-571.

Still-face (ppt17) 

Sheinkopf SJ, Tenenbaum EJ, Messinger DS, Miller-Loncar CL, Tronick EZ, LaGasse LL, Shankaran S, Bada H, Bauer CR, Whitaker TM, Hammond JA, & Lester BM. (2016). Maternal and infant affect at 4 months predicts performance and verbal IQ at 4 and 7 years in a diverse population. Developmental Science. doi: 10.1111/desc.12479. PMID: 27774733

Additional reading:

Sheridan, M. A., N. A. Fox, et al. (2012). "Variation in neural development as a result of exposure to institutionalization early in childhood." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Predicting attachment (ppt18) 

Additional reading:

Fraley RC, Roisman GI, Booth-LaForce C, Owen MT, Holland AS. Interpersonal and genetic origins of adult attachment styles: a longitudinal study from infancy to early adulthood. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2013;104(5):817-838. doi:10.1037/a0031435 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4624037/pdf/nihms716035.pdf

Raby, K. L., Roisman, G. I., & Booth-LaForce, C. (2015). Genetic moderation of stability in attachment security from early childhood to age 18 years: A replication study. Dev Psychol, 51(11), 1645-1649. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000053

Socialization Experiences I. Parent-child relationships (ppt19)

Groh, A. M., Fearon, R. M. P., van Ijzendoorn, M. H., Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J., & Roisman, G. I. (2017). Attachment in the Early Life Course: Meta-Analytic Evidence for Its Role in Socioemotional Development. Child Development Perspectives, 11(1), 70-76. doi: 10.1111/cdep.12213.

Additional reading:

Raby, K. L., Roisman, G. I., Fraley, R. C., & Simpson, J. A. (2014). The Enduring Predictive Significance of Early Maternal Sensitivity: Social and Academic Competence through Age 32 Years. Child Development, n/a-n/a. doi: 10.1111/cdev.12325 

Nov 4. (ppt23)

Fasano, R. M., Perry, L. K., Zhang, Y., Vitale, L., Wang, J., Song, C., & Messinger, D. S. (2021). A granular perspective on inclusion: Objectively measured interactions of preschoolers with and without autism.  Autism Research.

Additional reading:

Chen, J., Justice, L. M., Rhoad-Drogalis, A., Lin, T.-J., & Sawyer, B. (2020). Social Networks of Children with Developmental Language Disorder in Inclusive Preschool Programs. Child Development, 91(2), 471-487. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13183

Gonzalez Villasanti, H., Justice, L. M., Chaparro-Moreno, L. J., Lin, T. J., & Purtell, K. (2020). Automatized analysis of children's exposure to child-directed speech in reschool settings: Validation and application. PloS one, 15(11), e0242511. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0242511 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0242511

Preschool predicts (ppt24)

Mitsven, S. G., Perry, L. K., Tao, Y., Elbaum, B. E., Johnson, N. F., & Messinger, D. S. (2021).  Objectively measured teacher and preschooler vocalizations: Phonemic diversity is associated with language abilities.  Developmental Science, n/a(n/a), https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13177

Additional reading:

Hoch, J., *Ossmy, O., W.G. Cole, S. Hasan, & Adolph, K. (in press). “Dancing” together: Infant-mother locomotor synchrony. Child Development. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13513

Additional reading:

Ossmy, O., Adolph, K.E. (2020). Real-time assembly of coordination patterns in human infants. Current Biology, 30, 1-10.

Hoch, J. E., Rachwani, J., & Adolph, K. E. (in press). Where infants go: Real-time dynamics of locomotor exploration in crawling and walking infants . Child Development.

Prematurity.

Risnes, K., Bilsteen, J. F., Brown, P., Pulakka, A., Andersen, A.-M. N., Opdahl, S., Kajantie, E., & Sandin, S. (2021). Mortality Among Young Adults Born Preterm and Early Term in 4 Nordic Nations. JAMA Network Open, 4(1), e2032779-e2032779. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.32779

Additional reading:

Nov 18  

Substance Exposure.

Additional reading:

Eze N, Smith LM, LaGasse LL, Derauf C, Newman E, Arria A, Huestis MA, DellaGrotta SA, Dansereau LM, Neal C, Lester BM. (2016) School-Aged outcomes following prenatal methamphetamine exposure: 7.5-year follow-up from the Infant Development, Environment, and Lifestyle Study. The Journal of Pediatrics. EPub ahead of print: doi:10.1016/j.peds.2015.11.070.

Beyond Infancy: Transition to parenthood (ppt26)

Hoekzema, E., E. Barba-Müller, C. Pozzobon, M. Picado, F. Lucco, D. García-García, J. C. Soliva, A. Tobeña, M. Desco, E. A. Crone, A. Ballesteros, S. Carmona and O. Vilarroya (2016). Pregnancy leads to long-lasting changes in human brain structure. Nature Neuroscience 20: 287. (https://www.nature.com/articles/nn.4458.pdf)

Additional reading.

Atzil, S., Touroutoglou, A., Rudy, T., Salcedo, S., Feldman, R., Hooker, J. M., Dickerson, B. C., Catana, C., & Barrett, L. F. (2017). Dopamine in the medial amygdala network mediates human bonding. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1612233114 http://www.pnas.org/content/114/9/2361.full.pdf

ASD. Developmental psychopathology: Autism spectrum disorder. 

Martin, K. B., Haltigan, J. D., Ekas, N., Prince, E. B., & Messinger, D. S.   Attachment security differs by later autism spectrum disorder: A prospective study. Developmental Science, n/a(n/a), e12953. doi:10.1111/desc.12953

Extra:

Constantino, J. N., Kennon-McGill, S., Weichselbaum, C., Marrus, N., Haider, A., Glowinski, A. L., Gillespie, S., Klaiman, C., Klin, A., & Jones, W. (2017). Infant viewing of social scenes is under genetic control and is atypical in autism. Nature, 547(7663), 340-344. doi: 10.1038/nature22999 http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v547/n7663/abs/nature22999.html#supplementary-information

(hamilin. abuse should go with peers? Or parenting? But not here)

Additional reading:

Campus Closure: In the event that the UM’s campus closes unexpectedly for an extended period of time due to a hurricane, pandemic, or other emergency situation that prevents this course from meeting in person, students should be prepared to continue their learning through other means as determined by the instructor. In the most likely scenario, instruction would be delivered remotely through BlackBoard and other platforms. Students are expected, to the extent feasible, to check their UM email and course BlackBoard regularly for communications from their instructors. If instructed by the faculty, students are expected, to the extent feasible, to continue their participation in their courses from their off-campus location.

Class Recordings Policy: Students are expressly prohibited from recording any part of this course. Meetings of this course might be recorded by the University. Any recordings will be available to students registered for this class as they are intended to supplement the classroom experience. Students are expected to follow appropriate University policies and maintain the security of passwords used to access recorded lectures. Recordings may not be reproduced, shared with those not in the class, or uploaded to other online environments. If the instructor of a University of Miami office plans any other uses for the recordings, beyond this class, students identifiable in the recordings will be notified to request consent prior to such use. See the separate FERPA consent.