COGS 111: Introduction to Cognitive Science Fall 2006 Syllabus Instructor: Dr. Anthony Beavers Office: Olmstead Hall 342 Email: [email protected] Hours: 11:00-11:50/1:00-1:50 MWF Phone: 488-2682 Class Time: MWF 2:00-2:50 Room: KC 125 Course Description This course will introduce basic concepts, issues and methodologies associated with the interdisciplinary study of human cognition. Its primary goal is to pare down important concepts, such as “cognition,” “intelligence,” and “consciousness,” to render them appro-priate as topics for empirical science. Insights will be appropriately drawn from several fields including biology, computer science, philosophy and psychology. This course is offered for general education credit as a three-hour non-lab science option and serves as a requirement for majors and minors in cognitive science. Required Texts Churchland, P. M. (1995). The engine of reason, the seat of the soul: A philosophical journey into the brain. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Churchland, P. M. (1998). Matter and consciousness: A contemporary introduction to the philosophy of mind. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Clark, A. (2001). Mindware: An introduction to the philosophy of cognitive science. Ox-ford: Oxford University Press. Copeland, J. (1993). Artificial intelligence: A philosophical introduction. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. Assignments Students are required to come to class prepared, having read and attempted to understand the reading assignment for the day. In addition, each student will be required to take two exams, a midterm and a comprehensive final exam, and write an eight to ten page paper on any topic related to the course. The due dates for all assignments are listed on the cal-endar below. Grading 20% – Midterm Exam (10/6) 30% – Final Exam (12/12) 30% – Paper (11/10) 20% – Course ParticipationCourse Participation Course participation grades are not automatic. They are based on oral contributions to the collective learning experience of the class as a whole in terms of asking pertinent ques-tions, answering questions correctly or, at least, provocatively, making insightful obser-vations, and offering other meaningful expressions of interest in the material that help encourage learning. I begin by assuming a C for each student’s course participation grade and move from there. Students should realize that it is possible to talk a lot in class and receive a low grade for course participation. Frequent absences are also grounds for a low participation grade. Exam Format Both the midterm and final exams will involve a mixture of objective and written essay components. The objective part may consist of true/false and multiple choice questions with some additional items for matching. The written components will require short, paragraph-length answers. Students will be allotted fifty minutes for the midterm and two hours for the final exam. Paper Guidelines All papers should be typed, double-spaced in Times New Roman 12-point font with one inch margins on all sides. Each paper should include a title. They should be longer than eight pages and no longer than ten. Use at least four sources other than course books. In-ternet resources are not allowed, though you can use resources you find through online indices. The paper must be formatted in the APA style, 5th edition. Style manuals are available in the bookstore and library. Staple papers in the top, left corner. The paper can be on any topic related to the course, but make sure you are specific. Top-ics like “artificial intelligence” or “neurophysiology” are too broad. Topics such as “Arti-ficial Vision in Computer-Animated Robots” and “Recent Attempts to Explain How the Brain Makes Memories” may not be, depending on how you focus your paper. If you are concerned about your topic, please feel free to stop by my office during office hours to discuss it. The paper is due in class on November 10th. If you would like to submit a preview copy for my comments prior to submitting the actual paper, you may do so, but only on or be-fore October 27th. The final copy of your paper must be submitted to me in print and electronically by way of Turnitin.com. Attendance Because being present and attentive in class is part of (and perhaps the most important part of) the learning experience and because a serious comportment toward learning new ideas is necessary for understanding cognitive science, I have a serious attendance policy: final grades will be dropped a part letter grade for each unexcused absence after thefirst. In order for an absence to be excused, students must submit an official university excuse in writing. I will NOT accept email for this purpose. Special consideration will be given to seniors who miss class for job and graduate school interviews that must be scheduled during class time. Incompletes Incompletes will be given only in rare circumstances and only when a previous arrange-ment has been made. Academic Honesty All work submitted in this course must be prepared by the student expressly for this course. A student who submits work that is plagiarized, bought, borrowed from the ar-chives of a fraternity, copied from another student, etc., will fail the course. I fully sup-port the University's Academic Honor Code. To avoid confusion, students should keep in mind that plagiarism occurs not only when someone copies an author word for word, but also when someone uses another's ideas without giving credit, even if the ideas are para-phrased (that is, put in your own words). Always document your sources! Optional Crick Lectures The University of Evansville’s Programs in Cognitive Science and Psychobiology jointly sponsor an annual lecture series on topics of mutual interest to the two programs. This semester’s “Crick Lectures in the Cognitive and Neural Sciences” are scheduled for Sep-tember 13th and November 15th, 4:00-:500 p.m. in KC 101. Specific topics will be an-nounced in class. Attendance is not required, but you might want to attend to enrich your own understanding of cognitive science. Supplemental Bibliography The following texts address some of the topics covered by the course. They range in dif-ficulty from the easily-comprehensible to the