• Required:
  

  1. Wilson, Robert A., & Keil, Frank C. (eds.) (2001), The MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive Sciences (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press), paper, isbn 0-262-73144-4, $65.00
     • May be available online.
     • On reserve at SEL.

  2. Bechtel, William, & Graham, George (eds.) (1998), A Companion to Cognitive Science (Malden, MA: Blackwell), paper, isbn 0-631-21851-3, $36.95.

• Recommended:
  
  Cummins, Robert, & Cummins, Denise Dellarosa (eds.) (2000), Minds, Brains, and Computers: The Foundations of Cognitive Science (Malden, MA: Blackwell), paper, isbn 1-55786-877-8, $41.95

IMPORTANT DATES & TENTATIVE SCHEDULE:

1. There will be several guest lectures by faculty members of the UB Center for Cognitive Science. As these are arranged, they will be added to the schedule below.

2. As new CCS colloquia are announced, they will also be added to this schedule.

3. 
   For the record, I have adjusted some of the dates below to reflect what we actually did in class, rather than on what I had hoped to do :-)
   

DAYS	DATES	TOPIC	READINGS
	Aug 28-Sep 4	What is cognitive science?	Rapaport, William J. (2000), "Cognitive Science", in Anthony Ralston, Edwin D. Reilly, & David Hemmendinger (eds.), Encyclopedia of Computer Science, 4th edition (New York: Grove's Dictionaries): 227-233. Companion, Part I: 1-104. Cummins, Preface: viii-x.
Wed	Aug 29	CCS Colloquium	Francisco Gil-White, "Cognitively Speaking, What Is an Ethnic Category?"
	Sep 6-20	Philosophy	Wilson, Robert A. (1999), "Philosophy", MITECS: xv-xxxvii. MITECS, various articles on philosophy. Companion, Chs. 9, 11, 39, 43, 47, 50, 52, 55. Cummins, Chs. 2-4, 9-10, 12, 16, 22, 29, 32-33.
Wed	Sep 12	CCS Colloquium	Ezra Zubrow, Anthropology, "The Origin of Music"
Tue	Sep 18	no class: Rosh Hashana
Wed	Sep 19	CCS Colloquium	Len Talmy Linguistics "THE REPRESENTATION OF SPATIAL STRUCTURE IN SPOKEN AND SIGNED LANGUAGES"
	Sep 20- Oct 16	Psychology	Holyoak, Keith J. (1999), "Psychology", MITECS: xxxix-xlix. MITECS, various articles on psychology. Companion, Chs. 1-3, 7-8, 10, 12, 17-21, 23, 27-29, 31, 33, 45-46, 53, 59-60. Cummins, Chs. 1, 5, 8, 11-13, 15, 17, 19-20, 31, 35.
Wed	Sep 26	CCS Colloquium	Kristin Tjaden (CDS), "Acoustic-Perceptual Distinctiveness and Coarticulatory Patterns in Dysarthria"
Thu	Sep 27	no class: Yom Kippur
Tue	Oct 2	Guest Lecture: David Smith Psychology	"Toward a Comparative Psychology of Uncertainty Monitoring and Metacognition"
Wed	Oct 3	CCS Colloquium	Harry Heft (Psychology, Denison U), "From `Thing and Medium' to Ecological Psychology: A Tale of Two Research Programs"
Tue	Oct 9	Guest Lecture: David Mark Geography	"Human Cognition in the Geographic Domain"
Wed	Oct 10	CCS Colloquium	Robert Van Gulick (Philosophy, Syracuse U), "Maps, Gaps and Traps: Metaphors for Understanding Consciousness"
Thu	Oct 11	term-project proposals due
Wed	Oct 17	CCS Colloquium	Tamar Gendler (Philosophy, Syracuse U)
	Oct 18	Neuroscience	Albright, Thomas D., & Neville, Helen J. (1999), "Neurosciences", MITECS: li-lxxii. MITECS, various articles on neuroscience. Companion, Chs. 4, 13, 32, 34, 41, 43. Cummins, Chs. 11, 12, 13, 21, 23-27.
Thu	Oct 18	Guest Lecture: Susan Udin Physiology	"From Spots to Thoughts: Receptive Field Properties in the Visual System" A discussion of changes in receptive field properties of visual system cells from the eye to the premotor cortex.
Fri	Oct 19	*** Last day to withdraw with a grade of R ***
	Oct 16-30	AI	Jordan, Michael I., & Russell, Stuart (1999), "Computational Intelligence", MITECS: lxxiii-xc. MITECS, various articles on AI. Companion, Chs. 16, 26, 38, 42. Cummins, Chs. 2-3, 5-7.
Wed	Oct 24	CCS Colloquium	Suzanne MacDonald (Psychology, York U), "Studying Memory and Cognition in Zoo Primates: Rewards and Challenges"
Wed	Oct 31	CCS Colloquium	K. Nicholas Leibovic, Physiology and Biophysics, UB; "Brain and Vision"
	Nov 1-13	Linguistics	Chierchia, Gennaro (1999), "Linguistics and Language", MITECS: xci-cix. MITECS, various articles on linguistics. Companion, Chs. 6, 13-15, 24-25, 35, 37. Cummins, Chs. 18, 28-30.
Thu	Nov 1	Guest Lecture: Len Talmy Linguistics	"How Language Structures Concepts"
Thu	Nov 8	Guest Lecture: Jeff Higginbotham Communicative Disorders & Sciences	"Performance Issues in Augmented Communication"
	Nov 15	Anthropology	Sperber, Dan, & Hirschfeld, Lawrence (1999), "Culture, Cognition, and Evolution", MITECS: cxi-cxxxii. MITECS, various articles on anthropology, etc. Companion, Chs. 5, 22, 30. Cummins, Chs. 34-35.
Wed	Nov 14	CCS Colloquium	Keith Oatley, Applied Psychology, U/Toronto, "Emotions and the Psychology of Fiction"
Thu	Nov 15	Guest Lecture: Charles O. Frake Anthropology	"Cognition at Sea: How stone-age, non-literate peoples descovered and settled the islands of the Pacific."
	Nov 13-27	Interdisciplinary, cognitive-science research programs	Rapaport, William J.; Segal, Erwin M.; Shapiro, Stuart C.; Zubin, David A.; Bruder, Gail A.; Duchan, Judith F.; Almeida, Michael J.; Daniels, Joyce H.; Galbraith, Mary M.; Wiebe, Janyce M.; & Yuhan, Albert Hanyong (1989), "Deictic Centers and the Cognitive Structure of Narrative Comprehension", Technical Report 89-01 (Buffalo: SUNY Buffalo Department of Computer Science). Rapaport, William J., & Kibby, Michael W. (2000), "Contextual Vocabulary Acquisition: Development of a Computational Theory and Educational Curriculum", NSF grant proposal. Rapaport, William J., & Ehrlich, Karen (2000b), "A Computational Theory of Vocabulary Acquisition", in Lucja M. Iwanska, & Stuart C. Shapiro (eds.), Natural Language Processing and Knowledge Representation: Language for Knowledge and Knowledge for Language (Menlo Park, CA/Cambridge, MA: AAAI Press/MIT Press): 347-375.
Wed-Fri	Nov 21-23	no classes (Thanksgiving)
Wed	Nov 28	CCS Colloquium	Shaun Gallagher (Cog Sci & Philosophy, Canisius College), "Expressive Movement in a Deafferented Subject"
	Nov 29-Dec 4	Turing Test and Chinese-Room Argument	Cummins, Chs. 10, 9 MITECS, "Turing, Alan Mathison" (pp. 847-849) MITECS, "Chinese Room Argument" (pp. 115-116) Companion, Ch. 47
Wed	Dec 5	CCS Colloquium	Allison Sekuler, Psychology, McMaster University, "Visual Completion: A Case Study in Grouping and Perceptual Organization"
Thu	Dec 6	last class
Mon	Dec 10	term-project reports due

See "How to Read (a Computer Science Text)".

ATTENDANCE, PROJECT, NEWSGROUP, C.C.S. COLLOQUIA, ETC.:

1. You will be expected to attend all lectures, and to complete all readings and assignments on time. There will be a term project.

2. You should make every effort to attend the colloquia sponsored by the Center for Cognitive Science. These meet Wednesdays, 2:00-4:00 p.m., 280 Park Hall.

3. You should subscribe to, and regularly monitor, the newsgroup sunyab.cse.575. You may post questions and comments there that are of general interest to the entire class. From time to time, announcements and information will be posted to the newsgroup. This newsgroup will be archived in the 575 Newsgroup Archive.

4. Students should notify Prof. Rapaport within the first two weeks of class if they have a disability which would make it difficult to carry out course work as outlined (requiring note-takers, readers, extended test time).

• Possible research report topics include:

  • a discussion of some problem in cognition that at least 2 different cognitive sciences have investigated (possibly including suggestions for other routes of investigation)

  • a "grant proposal" for a cognitive-science research project that would investigate some problem in cognition from the perspectives of at least 2 of the cognitive sciences

  • a discussion of a cognitive-science issue or area that was not covered in class

  • a discussion of a philosophical or foundational isssue in the field of cognitive science

  • an "encyclopedia of cognitive science" article on a major cognitive-science book or anthology, etc.

• Possible programming projects include:

  • an implementation of an existing cognitive-science computer program

  • a computational implementation of a cognitive-science theory

  • a computational implementation of a feature of human cognition

  The final report for a programming project must include:

  1. a technical report (in the style of a paper in a conference proceedings) describing the theory and its implementation, and

  2. one or more appendices containing annotated sample runs and annotated code (as appropriate).

• The reports should be about 10-15 pages (typed or printed, double-spaced; i.e., approximately 2500-4000 words). All programming and research reports must follow my on-line writing guidelines.

A proposal for your term project, consisting of an extended abstract and bibliography, is due no later than Thursday, October 11; no late proposals will be accepted, and no term projects will be accepted without an approved proposal. The final term project is due no later than Monday, December 10.

HOW TO STUDY: