User:Sp5838/Evaluate an Article

Evaluate an article
This is where you will complete your article evaluation. Please use the template below to evaluate your selected article.


 * Name of article: (link) Cognitive development
 * Briefly describe why you have chosen this article to evaluate. I decided to evaluate this article because I am in the DeSales Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) program and cognitive development interests me. I thought it would relate to pathophysiology of the brain development.

Lead

 * Guiding questions

Cognitive development is a field of study in neuroscience and psychology focusing on a child's development in terms of information processing, conceptual resources, perceptual skill, language learning, and other aspects of the developed adult brain and cognitive psychology. Qualitative differences between how a child processes their waking experience and how an adult processes their waking experience are acknowledged (Such as object permanence, the understanding of logical relations, and cause-effect reasoning in school age children). Cognitive development is defined in adult terms as the emergence of ability to consciously cognize and consciously understand and articulate their understanding. From an adult point of view, cognitive development can also be called intellectual development.


 * Does the Lead include an introductory sentence that concisely and clearly describes the article's topic? Yes.
 * Does the Lead include a brief description of the article's major sections? Somewhat.
 * Does the Lead include information that is not present in the article? No.
 * Is the Lead concise or is it overly detailed? Yes.

Lead evaluation
I think this the lead's first sentence is good. It starts with children's cognitive development and compares it to that of adults. Stating the differences that occur across the lifespan is important to note; however, I feel there is so much information missing from this first paragraph.

Content

 * Guiding questions


 * Is the article's content relevant to the topic? Yes.
 * Is the content up-to-date? Yes.
 * Is there content that is missing or content that does not belong? No.

Content evaluation
I think there is a lot of educational content in this article. It uses resources from 1948 to 2018. The history of cognitive development with many theorists ideas is a large portion of the article that I would maybe shorten. The links to these specific theorists can be kept so readers can reference their contributions in further detail.

Tone and Balance

 * Guiding questions


 * Is the article neutral? Yes.
 * Are there any claims that appear heavily biased toward a particular position? No.
 * Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented? No.
 * Does the article attempt to persuade the reader in favor of one position or away from another? No.

Tone and balance evaluation
I think the tone and balance are appropriate for this article.

Sources and References

 * Guiding questions

Bilingualism[edit]
It wasn’t until recently[when?] that bilingualism had been accepted as a contributing factor to cognitive development. There have been a number of studies showing how bilingualism contributes to the executive function of the brain, which is the main center at which cognitive development happens. According to Bialystok in “Bilingualism and the Development of Executive Function: The Role of Attention”, children who are bilingual, have to actively filter through the two different languages to select the one they need to use, which in turn makes the development stronger in that center.


 * Are all facts in the article backed up by a reliable secondary source of information? Yes.
 * Are the sources thorough - i.e. Do they reflect the available literature on the topic? Yes.
 * Are the sources current? Yes, most.
 * Check a few links. Do they work? Yes.

Sources and references evaluation
I think the sources and references are appropriate for this article. Bilingualism reference is vague and should have date/ time frame of accepting contribution to cognitive development.

Organization

 * Guiding questions

Transcultural neuroimaging studies (Han s. and Northoff G., 2008)[edit]
New studies in transcultural neuroimaging studies have demonstrated that one’s cultural background can influence the neural activity that underlies both high (for example, social cognition) and low (for example, perception) level cognitive functions. Studies demonstrated that groups that come from different cultures or that have been exposed to culturally different stimuli have differences in neural activity. For example, differences were found in that of the pre motor cortex during mental calculation and that of the VMPFC during trait judgements of one’s mother from people with different cultural backgrounds. In conclusion, since differences were found in both high-level and low-level cognition one can assume that our brain’s activity is strongly and, at least in part, constitutionally shaped by its sociocultural context (Han s. and Northoff G., 2008).


 * Is the article well-written - i.e. Is it concise, clear, and easy to read? Yes.
 * Does the article have any grammatical or spelling errors? No.
 * Is the article well-organized - i.e. broken down into sections that reflect the major points of the topic? Yes.

Organization evaluation
The last sentence in the paragraph above is confusing and seems like a run-on sentence. Suggest to edit to ''' Since difference were found in both high-level and low-level cognition, one can assume our brain's activity is strong and shaped by its sociocultural context"'.

Images and Media

 * Guiding questions


 * Does the article include images that enhance understanding of the topic? No.
 * Are images well-captioned? N/A
 * Do all images adhere to Wikipedia's copyright regulations? N/a
 * Are the images laid out in a visually appealing way? N/a

Images and media evaluation
N/a

Checking the talk page

 * Guiding questions


 * What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic? Yes, it appears an image was removed from the article.
 * How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects? For the most part, people agree this article is missing or must expand on certain points. Some people noted the talk conversation was old (2005).
 * How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class? This specific topic does not compare to a part of my class like I had origonally thought it would.

Overall impressions

 * Guiding questions


 * What is the article's overall status? Fair. Needs some additions.
 * What are the article's strengths? History of cognitive development.
 * How can the article be improved? Adding more information.
 * How would you assess the article's completeness - i.e. Is the article well-developed? Is it underdeveloped or poorly developed? Underdeveloped.

Optional activity

 * Choose at least 1 question relevant to the article you're evaluating and leave your evaluation on the article's Talk page. Be sure to sign your feedback

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