- To obtain a reasonably detailed understanding of how the brain develops before birth, and on into childhood.
- To learn about the experimental methods and techniques used by developmental cognitive neuroscientists.
- To understand some of the mechanisms by which brain development contributes to -- and is influenced by -- various psychological developments in infancy and childhood.
- To develop considered opinions about how findings in developmental cognitive neuroscience bear on theoretical concepts like critical periods in development, the modularity of mind, and the sources of development (i.e., nature and nurture).
- To cultivate a detailed understanding of at least one specific domain of neurocognitive development (e.g., memory, language, spatial cognition, attention, or object, face, or number perception).
- To become familiar on at least a basic level with concepts related to connectionist modeling of brain-behavior processes.
- To nurture an awareness of the value of maintaining a developmental perspective when endeavoring to understand brains and the cognitions and behaviors associated with them.