Cogs 111: Introduction to Cognitive Science Fall 2010 Syllabus Instructor: Dr. Anthony Beavers Office/Lab: Olmstead Hall 301 Email: [email protected] Hours: MWF 1:00-1:50 & 3:00-3:50 Office Phone: 488-2682 / Cell: 455-0186 (1:00 Office Hours in SOBA, 2nd floor) Website: http://faculty.evansville.edu/tb2 Course Info: MWF 2:00pm, SB 271 TI: Shane Reuter ([email protected]) TI: Brent Sigler ([email protected]) Course Description This course will introduce basic concepts, issues and methodologies associated with the interdisciplinary study of human cognition. Specific topics will include (among others) mind, memory, perception, intelli-gence, 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 appro-priately drawn from several fields, including anthropology, artificial intelligence, biology, linguistics, neuro-science, philosophy, psychology and robotics. Students should note from the start that this is not a sci-ence course in the conventional sense, but a preliminary preparation for the scientific study of cognition. This course is offered for general education credit as a three-hour non-lab science option. However, it also serves as a requirement for majors and minors in cognitive science and majors in psychology and will be taught accordingly. Required Texts Clark, A. (2001). Mindware: An introduction to the philosophy of cognitive science. Oxford. Minsky, M. (2006). The emotion machine: Commonsense thinking, artificial intelligence, and the future of the human mind. New York: Simon and Schuster. Assignments Each student will be required to read all of the assignments, write two thought papers, take a midterm exam, and post eight questions to the class discussion board. The final exam is optional. Details follow. Grading 20% - Papers – 10% Each 20% - Mid-Term Exam 30% - Final Exam 15% - Discussion Board Questions – 1.875% each 15% - Class Participation Paper Guidelines, Recommendations and Evaluation Both papers must be 900 to 1100 words in length. References are not required, but should you use them, consistently format them (along with a bibliography) using either MLA or APA style. An abstract is not re-quired. Submit electronic copies to Turnitin.com before the start of the class in which they are due, and bring three print copies, stapled in the top, left corner to class. Late papers will not be accepted.2!Your papers will be evaluated according to the following qualities, though they will not be graded according to an average based on an individual assessment of each area. (In other words, we will consider the paper as a whole looking at the following for guidance.) • Focus – Does the paper stick to its topic, addressing necessary details while avoiding extraneous 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? Are important ideas explicitly stated? • Factuality – Are the factual assertions advanced in the paper true? Are they adequately sup-ported by documentation as needed? • Documentation – Is the selection and use of sources appropriate for the topic? Is the paper prop-erly documented with citations to your sources? • Format – Does the paper adhere to the formatting guidelines of the MLA and APA style if refer-ences are used. • Grammar – Is language used according to the rules of grammar? Is it properly academic? • Presentation – Is the paper presented professionally? Is the ink and font readable? Is it properly stapled? (This should be obvious, but apparently it is not.) Midterm and Final Exams The midterm examination will consist of a single question on broad themes raised in Minsky. The exam will cover the whole book which will be discussed in class the week of 10/4. To facilitate conversation and close examination of the text, the class will be divided into two discussion groups for the week. Each will meet separately with a TI. The meeting times will still be MWF at 2:00pm. The midterm will then follow Fall Break on 10/13. The final examination will consist of two questions chosen randomly from a set of eight, one on each chapter of Clark. The questions are given in advance on the course calendar below. At the beginning of the final exam session (2:45pm on 12/14), each student will be presented with the two questions and his/her grade going into the exam, along with calculations showing how the exam can affect the final grade. Students will then decide whether they want to take the exam understanding that if they take it, the score will count toward the final grade. Preparation for the final exam will begin early in the semester with the first discussion board assignment on 9/10. Discussion Board Questions Discussion board questions are due by 10pm the night before we begin each chapter in Clark as indi-cated on the calendar below. During this exercise, each student will be required to post one question on the reading assignment that has not already been posted by someone else. Questions will be evaluated before the start of class, and ranked as good, passing or bad. Those ranked good will be used in class to structure discussion on that chapter of Clark and on cognitive science more generally. Questions should focus on understanding the exam question for the reading assignment, its answer and its context. Asking the exam question itself is prohibited. However, students should know that while their own interest might be to get easy answers to the exam questions, our goal (the professor and the TI’s) is3!to introduce some of the preliminaries helpful for engaging in the scientific study of cognition more gener-ally. Policies and “Rules” It would be a wonderful world, if classrooms could run without rules, but experience has repeatedly taught me that they are necessary. The following stem primarily, but not exclusively, from two sources. The first is a matter of maintaining respect for honest students with a genuine desire to know. Being fair makes it imperative that they have every opportunity to learn and that they are not lost among the students who take a class only to meet a