1 Cogs 111: Introduction to Cognitive Science Spring 2010 Syllabus Instructor: Dr. Anthony Beavers Office: Olmstead Hall 304 Email: [email protected] Hours: MWF 1:00-1:50 & 3:00-3:50 Office Phone: 488-2682 / Cell: 455-0186 Website: http://faculty.evansville.edu/tb2 Peer Tutor: Kyle Kinsey ([email protected]) Course Info: MWF 2:00-2:50 SB 273 (Office hours will not be held on days that class does not meet; to ease wait time, students may make an appointment to see me in advance. This is highly recommended.) Course Description This course will introduce basic concepts, issues and methodologies associated with the interdis-ciplinary study of human cognition. Specific topics will include (among others) the nature and defi-nition of mind, memory, perception, intelligence, and consciousness. We will also examine some elementary neuroscience, agent-environment relations, robotics and other efforts to model human intelligence using machines. Insights will be appropriately drawn from several fields, including anthropology, artificial intelligence, biology, linguistics, neuroscience, philosophy, psychology and robotics. Students should note from the start that this is not a science course in any conventional sense. Rather it is a study of the philosophical and psychological foundations of cognitive science as a preliminary to the study of cognition. N.B. This course is offered for general education credit as a three-hour non-lab science option, but it also serves as a requirement for majors and minors in cognitive science and majors in psy-chology. So, please do not expect an easy course. Cognitive science is difficult, exceedingly diffi-cult in places, but I will do my best to make things clear. Your carefully articulated questions will go a long way in helping in this regard. Methodology Individual class sessions will take a variety of forms. Sometimes they will involve further elucida-tion of key material in the reading assignment for the day. In these cases, I will pick one or two topics and add detail that is not covered in the book. On other occasions, I will present material that is not covered in the book at all. The main lesson for students to draw from this is that the textbooks and my lectures supplement each other; you will not be getting a repeat of the text in class. As a consequence, doing well in the course requires your own initiative in reading and studying the text as well as striving for a reasonable comprehension of my lectures. Required Texts Texts will be read consecutively in the order they are listed here. Kukla, A. & Walmsley. J. (2006). Mind: A historical & philosophical introduction to the major theo-ries. Hackett. 978-0-87220-832-2. Clark, A. (2001). Mind: An introduction to the philosophy of cognitive science. Oxford. 978-0-19-513857-3.2 Assignments Each student will be required to take two exams during the semester, a mid-term exam and a comprehensive, final exam. In addition, each student will submit a five-page research paper as specified in the guidelines below and participate in weekly interaction in an online discussion fo-rum as stipulated below. Grading 15% - Discussion Forum Participation 15% - Mid-Term Exam 25% - Final Exam 25% - Paper 20% - Class Participation Paper Requirements, Recommendations and Evaluation The topic for your paper must be directly pertinent to cognitive science and must involve the use of empirical research published in an appropriate scholarly journal. A minimum of four journal articles (or books) is required. Do not use encyclopedia entries or resources found online, unless they are articles published in a peer-reviewed, academic journal. Avoid news stories from the popular press, since these often exaggerate the more modest claims made in scientific research. For this paper, think in terms of reporting on a particular research experiment. Address particulars such as how the experiment was designed and what it managed to show. You are not expected to do your own experiments. Do not attempt broad topics like the current state of robotics in cognitive science or how the brain allows us to think. Rather, think small. In fact, the more narrow your topic, the better your paper will be. The safest course of action for this paper is to start with a single journal article. A quick study of it should point you toward other articles that you will need. However, if you are going to take this ap-proach, and I highly recommend that you do, you must start early, since you may be making use of interlibrary loan, and this will delay your research. Your paper must be longer than four pages and no longer than five, not including the cover page. It must be in Times New Roman, 12 point font and formatted in the APA style, 6th edition. (Copies of the style manual are available in the library, bookstore and at Barnes & Noble.) Be sure to include a title. Staple the paper in the top, left corner. Submit it to Turnitin.com and provide me with two print copies on or before March 31st. Late papers will not be accepted. Your papers will be evaluated according to the following qualities, though they will not be graded ac-cording to an average based on an individual assessment of each area. (In other words, I will con-sider the paper as a whole looking at the following for guidance.) • Focus – Does the paper stick to its topic, addressing necessary details while avoiding ex-traneous ones? • Organization – Is the paper well-organized with respect to the order and presentation of ideas? Are ideas properly subordinated throughout the paper? • Clarity – Is the paper generally clear and the prose readable? Is the thesis and argument explicit? • Factuality – Are the factual assertions advanced in the paper true? Are they adequately supported by documentation as needed?3 • Documentation – Is the selection and use of sources appropriate for the topic? Is the pa-per properly documented with citations to your sources? • Format – Does the paper adhere to the formatting guidelines of the 6th edition of the APA style manual? Papers that do not adhere to these formatting guidelines will auto-matically be penalized a full letter grade, regardless of content. • Grammar – Is language used according to the rules of grammar? Is it properly academic? When it comes to help with academic style in writing, I have found no book better than