Developmental Studies (Section A - Psychology)    

This year's exam is structured in the same way as the previous four years.  There is a paper for UGs on Psychology made up of 10 questions on material across the course.  For the PG paper these 10 questions form one part of the 3 section paper (section A).  For both groups you can view past exam papers on-line at the University Library website. Keep in mind the difference in size between notes, short answers and essays.

 As in previous years the lecturers that are examined are those from classes taught by GM, MP, PR, TW, SA & RW

 TW will set one question based on information in both his    lectures.

 Time management 

The lectures in Psychology appear in Section A of the exam.  You have one hour to answer three questions (20 mins per question).  These are short answer essays.  

 Revision

The ten questions come from all lectures in this part of the course.  Look at the course overview to see how many lecturers were devoted to which subjects.  Use your revision time wisely by aiming to be able to answer well four areas and have one or two back-up areas.  If you look at past exam papers you will see what types of questions appear. Try to supplement your revision with material from other sources than lecture notes.

 Be tidy

Try at all times to use prose and make your writing legible.  It is very important you number and ANSWER EACH QUESTION IN A SEPARATE EXAM BOOKLET.

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 Developmental Studies Post graduate exam (Section C - Language)       

For revision guidance on Speech development please see Sara Gourlay.  The questions based on lectures in Language development appear in Section C of the exam.  You have one hour to answer 1 question.  This is an essay. This replaces the previous Section B which had 1.5 questions on Speech and 1.5 questions on Language.

 Sample paper (sections B & C)                                 

Section B

B1. Describe the stages of vocal development of the infant and discuss the role and importance of babbling in children’s phonological development.

B2 Write SHORT notes on FOUR of the following topics:

a)                  Natural Phonology

b)                  Infant perception of prosody

c)                  Distinctive feature analysis

d)                  Rhythmic stereotypes

e)                  The first fifty word stage

f)                    Assimilation processes

B3 Outline the progression of the perceptual abilities of infants and the relationship between perception and production in infants.

Section C

C1. What is meant by the ‘critical period' of language acquisition’?

C2.  Write SHORT notes on FOUR of the following:

a)                                          Telegraphic speech

b)                                          Brown's 14 morphemes

c)                                          Mean Length of Utterance

d)                                          Motherese

e)                                          Bootstrapping theory

f)                                          The ‘Wug’ procedure

C3.  Describe the contribution of the semantic based approach to understanding the principles underlying children’s two-word combinations.

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