Schedule for Cognitive Science, Fall 2009



Date

Topic

Reading and/or Assignment

Inst.

Sep01

Some context: Mind-body problem

Clark, Introduction

SA

Sep03

What is cognitive science?

Clark, Chpt 1

Bisson, T. (1991). They're made out of meat. Omni, April 1991.   (also on youtube)

Pinker (1997), How the Mind Works, 3-36

SA

Sep04

No lab





Sep08

Searle's Chinese Room

Representational theories of mind

Bloom (2004), "The Duel Between Body and Soul"

Clark, Chpt 2

Nilsson & Pelger (1994), "A Pessimistic Estimate of the Time Required for an Eye to Evolve"


SA

Sep10

Neurons and neural signaling

Garrett (2009) Brain & Behavior, 2nd edition, 23-46

SA

Sep11

Lab #1: Action potentials


SA



Sep15

Neurons and neural signaling

CSAI, Chapter 7, Neuroscience: Brain and Cognition

SA

Sep17

Neurons and neural signaling


SA

Sep18

Lab #2: Channels


SA



Sep22

CNS and Cortical Structures

Purves et al. (2004), Intro to Neuroscience, The Auditory System

SA

Sep24

Hearing: peripheral sound processing

Clark, Chpt 5

SA

Sep25

Lab #2: Channels (cont.)





Sep29

Hearing and Speech

Clark, Chpt 3

SA

Oct01

Speech Production

Hudson (2000), Essential Introductory Linguistics, Chpt2: Phonetics

SA

Oct02

Lab #3: Hearing speech


SA





Oct06

Categories and categorical perception

Raizada and Poldrack (2007), “Selective Amplification of Stimulus Differences during Categorical Processing of Speech”

SA

Oct08

Review



SA

Oct09

First Exam





Oct13

Fall Break – No class



Oct15

Memory

Ward, J. (2007) Chpt 9, Student's Guide to Cognitive Neuroscience

Quiroga et al. (2005), "Invariant Visual Representation by Single Neurons in the Human Brain", Nature

SA

Oct16

Memory Scanning Lab





Oct20


Pecher et al. (2003) “Verifying Different-Modality Properties...”


BL

Oct22

Memory (Amnesia and Forgetting)

The Abyss: Music and Amnesia”, The New Yorker

SA

Oct23

No Lab



SA





Oct27

A theory of cortex

Hawkins (2004), Chpt 5, On Intelligence

SA

Oct29

Lab #4: Hierchical Temporal Memory

Hawkins (2004), Chpt 6, On Intelligence

SA

Oct30

HTM Lab


SA







Nov03

Linguistics

Pinker (1994), chapter 4 of The Language Instinct

SA

Nov05

Linguistic representation: Syntax

Hudson, Chpt. 6

SA

Nov06

Linguistic Typology







Nov10

Syntax and Recursion

Chomsky, Hauser & Fitch, 2002


SA

Nov12

Animal language and recursion

Genter et al., Recursive syntactic pattern learning by songbirds, 2006

Dr. Doolittle's Delusion: Animals and the Uniqueness of Human Language, 2004

SA

Nov13

Lab: Robotics


SA





Nov17

Language and Social Cognition

Language, Meaning, and Social Cognition, Holtgraves and Kashima, 2007

KL

Nov19

Computation


BT

Nov20

Lab: Robotics and Programming







Nov24

Computation


BT


Thanksgiving break




Thanksgiving break







Dec01

Robotics and Direct Representation

Mindware, Chapter 6

SA

Dec03

Robotics

Brooks (1991) Intelligence without Representation

KO, SA

Dec04

Lab: Robots







Dec08

Perceptrons

Pfeifer and Scheier (2001), Understanding Intelligence, Chpt 5

SA

Dec10

Neural Network Learning


SA

Dec11

Lab: Neural Networks






Dec15

Language learning: Are rules necessary?

Marcus et al. (1999), "Rule Learning by 7-Month-Old Infants"
Lewis & Elman, (2001), “Learnability and the statistical structure of language”

SA

Dec17

Review


SA

Dec18

Second Exam