Texts

M. Gazzaniga et al. Cognitive Neuroscience: The Biology of the Mind. NY: Norton, 1998. (GAZ)

L. Gleitman and M. Liberman, eds. An Invitation to Cognitive Science, Vol. 1: Language. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1995. (GL)

D. Scarborough and S. Sternberg, eds. An Invitation to Cognitive Science, Vol. 4: Methods, Models, and Conceptual Issues. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1998. (SS)

K. Sterelny. The Representational Theory of Mind. Reprint at Copy Maven. (ST)

Reserve readings in the library

Requirements

all students must use email and the web

• four take-home examinations (80%)
• problem search (20%)
• Honors Students: tutorial

Examinations

All examinations are take-home and must be submitted on the stated due date. Late examinations will not be accepted. Examinations must be submitted in word-processed form. Since these are take-home examinations, you can use your notes and books, but the answers are to be your own work (no group answers, no copying, etc.) and thoroughly edited and proofed.

Problem Search

Each student will have to find and report on one problem from a non-technical source that exemplifes material covered thus far in the course. Reports will describe the problem and its relevance to cognitive science. (A model will be given.) The report must be in electronic form for posting on the class website.

Honors Tutorial

Honors students will meet periodically outside of class to discuss issues in more depth with faculty from the Cognitive Science Program.

Course Outline

A. Fundamentals

1. Science and Cognitive Science

The convergence of linguistics, psychology, neuroscience, computer science, philosophy, and biology on a unified account of the representation- machine. Cognitive science and scientific metatheory.

READING: GAZ,1

2. Six Principles of Cognitive Science

Levels of explanation. Relations across levels. Inside/outside. Representation. Computation. Architecture.

READING: ST, all

B. Details of the Device

3. Computation

Physical devices and virtual machines. Learnability and computability.

READING: von Eckhardt, The Computational Assumption (reserve); Optional: Lehman et al. A Gentle Introduction to Soar (SS, 6), Anderson, Learning Arithmetic with a Neural Network (SS, 7).

4. Brain as Wetware

Brain and neuron structure and function. How we crash at our joints. Loss of representation vs. loss of access to representations.

READING: GAZ, 2 & 3; optional: GAZ, 9

5. Cognition

Limits of the information processor. Input devices. Kinds of memory. Kinds of mental content. Activities of the processor.

READING: GAZ, pp. 93-99; GAZ, 7;

6. Genes, Subwetware, and Evolution

How come we turned out like this? The nature and pitfalls of accounts via inheritance. What children already know. What animals already know.

READING: GAZ, 13; Lewontin The Evolution of Cognition (SS, 3); Gallistel, Symbolic Processes in the Brain (SS, 1); Spelke: Initial Knowledge (reserve).

EXAMINATION #2

C. Domains of Representation

7. Objects and Space

Low-level vs. high-level. Edges, surfaces, color, motion, generalized cones, etc. What and where. A priori spatial knowledge? Kinds of loss of spatial knowledge

READING: GAZ, 4 & pp. 163-97.

8. Language

The abstract modular structure of mental grammar. Phonology, syntax, and semantics. Universal grammar, learnability, and acquisition. Aphasias.

READING: GAZ, 8; Liberman, The Sound Structure of Mawu Words (GL, 3); Lasnik, The Forms of Sentences (GL, 10); Gleitman and Newport, The Invention of Language by Children (GL, 1); Pinker, Language Acquisition (GL, 6)

9. Faces

Faces vs. objects. Complexes. Verticality, preferred orientations, and the ideal face.Prosopagnosia.

READING: GAZ, pp. 198-205.

EXAMINATION #3

10. Music

Formal structure of music. Grouping, meter, reduction. Similarities to and differences from language. Innate musical knowledge? Amusia.

READING: Gelman and Brenneman, First Principles... (reserve); Jackendoff, Musical Parsing and Musical Affect (reserve)

11. Mathematics

Counting and cardinality. Incrementation and decrementation. Sets and grouping. Acalculia.

READING Wynn, Evidence Against Empiricist Accounts... (reserve)

12. Other Minds

Responses to minds, not behavior. Metarepresentation. A social knowledge module? Autism and TOM loss.

READING: Gopnik and Wellman, The Theory Theory (reserve); Baron-Cohen et al., Does the Autistic Child Have a Theory of Mind?(reserve)

E. Applications and Frontiers

13. Applied Cognitive Science

Learning and teaching: mathematics, reading, and second languages. A visit to ASEL

READING: Massaro, Models for Reading Letters and Words (SS, 8); Nesher, Learning Mathematics (reserve); White, The Logical Problem of Second Language Acquisition (reserve); Bley-Vroman, What is the Logical Problem of Foreign Language Learning? (reserve)

14. Fuzzy, Weird, and Way Out Stuff

Consciousness. Emotions. Self. Executive control.

READING: GAZ, 14; Flanagan and Dryden, Consciousness and the Mind... (SS, 4); Optional: GAZ, 11.

15. Challenges

Other theories: no computation, no representation.

READING: van Gelder and Port, It's About Time (reserve)

EXAMINATION #4

Rough Chronology