There are two major objectives of the course:

First, in terms of theoretical knowledge, students will receive an overview over functional and neuroscientific theories of infant and child development as well as major topics in cognitive development. Topical areas comprise face perception; language development; emotional and affective development; understanding of human action; theory of mind; conceptual development; understanding the physical world; development of reasoning; understanding numerosity; development of attention, executive control and memory; time perception; understanding of normativity; development of tool use.

Second, in terms of methodological skill, students will be guided to conduct an empirical research project with children, namely a hands-on small-scale study on any aspect related to cognitive development. This project work includes formulating a research question, operationalizing it, collecting and analyzing data (in the METU kindergarten (yuva ve anaokulu)), and writing it up as a project report.