Introduction to Cognitive Science

W 2-5 PM, SEA 5.106

Fall 2004 Syllabus

homepage: http://love.psy.utexas.edu/cogsci/cogsci.html
Click here for a week by week class schedule.

Who	Office	Office Hours	email
Bradley Love	SEA 5.202	W 12-2 and appointment (PM hours)	love@psy.utexas.edu

Prerequisite: Graduate standing or permission of the instructor.

Enrollment limitations:

General Course Description:

The course will cover the basic issues and contributions in the field, with particular emphasis on current research at UT. There will be frequent lectures by faculty from the relevant disciplines who are engaged in such research. Major topics in the course will include:

• Neuroscience: systems neuroscience, functional brain mapping, relating localized brain damage to spared and damaged abilities, evolutionary biology.
  
• Reasoning, Concepts, and Conceptual Development: categorization, children's theories of mind, nonmonotonic reasoning, qualitative reasoning, problem solving, mental models, schemas.
  
• Computational Approaches: modularity, connectionism, symbol manipulation, knowledge representation, machine learning.
  
• Language: speech perception, sentence parsing, natural language
  understanding, discourse representation, language acquisition, syntax.
• Vision: computational theory, psychology of visual perception, visual imagination, attention, spatial reasoning.
  
• Other Topics: Memory, Philosophy of Mind, Robotics, Implicit Knowledge, Emotion, Learning.
  

Format of Classes:

Class participation is important to this class, as it is to most seminars. Students are expected to do the readings each week and to come prepared to talk about issues related to those readings. While there will be guest speakers each week, it will always be appropriate to ask questions.

Requirements:

Participation will make up 50% of your class grade. While rating participation is somewhat subjective, the grade will be based on the following system: 4 or less strikes is an A, 6 or less is a B, 9 or less is a C. A strike is forgetting to turn in questions before class, or not participating in a class. Missing a class is two strikes. If you are sick or going to be out of town, you can email your questions to me so that you only receive two strikes for missing class. There is some purposeful cushion built into this system, so we aren't going to worry about medical or other excused absences unless you have a serious problem that causes you to miss more than a week of class. Let's hope no one experiences such a situation. It is very important you do not miss the classes at the end of the semester in which we evaluate class projects (described below).

Students will write a grant proposal for a three year research project in cognitive science research. Midway through the semester, students will submit a preproposal. At the end of the semester, students will submit a final copy and the class will convene a grant panel meeting in which we will evaluate all of the proposals. This whole project will account for 50% of your class grade. If you want to collaborate with a student from another graduate program, we can talk about it.

Another requirement of class is to check your email somewhat frequently for course announcements. Email me if your preferred address is not your address listed in the UT directory.

Grant Proposal (more details)

• pre-proposal, 10/6
• final draft, 11/10

You grant proposal should address an important topic in cognitive science research. The proposal should span traditional departmental lines. Here are some examples:

Your proposal should cover relevant research on the topic, motivate a key problem, offer a solution or hypothesis, and describe a series of coherent studies that bear on the problem. The proposal should be between 15 and 25 pages double spaced. Here's an example proposal. We'll also go over a grant proposal one week in class.

Policy on incompletes

Textbook

Links

• An Invitation to Cognitive Science (4 volumes) provides background reading for those desiring it.
• Here is a web site that introduces basic concepts in cognitive science.
• Here is a definition of cognitive science.

Additional Materials