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The Department of Computer Science & Engineering
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CSE/LIN/PHI/PSY 575 & APY 526:
INTRODUCTION TO COGNITIVE SCIENCE Spring 2011 |
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http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/~rapaport/575/S11/syl.html
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Last Update: 14 January 2011
Note: |
Some cognitive scientists limit
their study to human cognition; others consider cognition
independently
of its implementation in humans or computers. Some consider it to
be the computational study of "mind as machine" (see the
Crankshaft cartoon, above).
Some cognitive
scientists study cognition independently of the
cognitive agent's embodiment and environment;
others
study
it
within the context of the embodied agent, the society, the culture.
Cognitive science can also be defined as, roughly,
the (hopefully non-empty) intersection of the disciplines of
cognitive anthropology,
cognitive neuroscience,
artificial intelligence, (certain aspects of) education,
linguistics, philosophy
(especially philosophy of mind and philosophy of language), and psychology
(especially cognitive psychology).
(Cognitive anthropology deals in part with the societal and
cultural context mentioned above. Cognitive neuroscience
is concerned with the "implementation" of mind in human physiology.
AI can be thought of as
concerned with the "implementation" of mind in computers.)
We will review the history, nature, major findings, and philosophical
implications of cognitive
science.
Because one of the goals of this course is to provide graduate students
in the cognitive sciences with the background to appreciate and
participate in cognitive-science research and colloquia at UB, we will
also discuss interdisciplinary cognitive-science research
projects conducted by members of the UB
Center for Cognitive Science.
PREREQUISITES:
Graduate standing, or permission of instructor.
Notes:
"You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink."
— American Proverb
"You can lead a horse to water, but you must convince him it is water
before there is any chance he will drink."
— Albert Goldfain
"Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire"
— William Butler Yeats
"Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body."
— Sir Richard Steele
No matter how far
we stray from the tentative schedule, if you do the readings at the
assigned times, you will be able to finish everything by the end of the
semester. (I recognize, however, that you may not have time to do
anything else :-)
But...
"To read critically is to read skeptically. The reader
asks…not only, 'Do I understand what this means?' but 'Do I buy
it?' " — Kenneth S. Goodman
And you can read Edelman or Gardner either in topical order (following
my lectures) or in their chapter order.
There are 3 levels at which you can keep up with the reading
assignments:
Announcements may also be posted to the course website or the email Listserv.
You will automatically be placed on an email list (a "Listserv") for the
course. If you do not normally read email at the email address that
UB
has as your official address, please either do so for this course, or
else have your mail forwarded. I will use this list as my main
means of
communicating with you out of class.
And you can use it to communicate
with the rest of us.
You may send questions and comments
that are of general interest to the entire class using the Listserv:
Just send them to:
You can also send email just to me, at:
In any case, be sure to fill in the subject line, beginning with
"CSE575"
so that my mailer doesn't think it's spam.
If you send email just to me that I deem to be of general interest, I will
feel
free to remail it to the email list along with my reply
unless you explicitly tell me that you want to remain anonymous,
in which case I may choose to remail it to the email list preserving
your anonymity.
The emails will be
archived at the listserv website,
and
I will also archive them at
http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/~rapaport/575/S11/EMAIL/.
For more information, read the Listserv Information webpage.
GRADING:
Your final course grade will be a function of your attendance, as
follows:
By "missed", I mean an unexcused absence, where an excused
absence is defined as missing a class because, e.g.:
The following are examples of other unexcused absences:
For information on my philosophy of grading, see my web document on "How I Grade"
For more information on Incomplete policies, see the Graduate School web page,
"Incomplete Grades".
It is the policy of the CSE department
that:
Please be sure to read these webpages:
which spell out all the
details of this, and related, policies.
For some hints on how to avoid
plagiarism when writing essays for courses,
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
Cognitive
science is the interdisciplinary study of
cognition.
Its fundamental question is: How is cognition possible?
Cognition
includes mental states and processes such as thinking, reasoning,
remembering, language understanding and generation, (visual and other
forms of) perception,
learning, consciousness, emotions, problem solving, etc.
STAFF:
Professor:
Dr. William J. Rapaport,
214 Bell Hall,
645-4736,
rapaport@buffalo.edu
Office Hours:
to be announced,
and by appointment.
CLASS MEETINGS:
CLASS
INSTR.
REG. #
DAYS
HOURS
LOCN
Lecture
Rapaport
CSE 575: 179297 (3 cr.) LIN 575: 115202 (3 cr.) PHI 575: 339246 (3 cr.) PSY 575: 168170 (3 cr.) APY 526: 461529 (3 cr.) MWF
10:00–10:50 A.M.
O'Brian 112
TEXTS:
IMPORTANT DATES
& TENTATIVE SCHEDULE:
As these are arranged, they will
be added to the schedule below.
These are held on Wednesdays, 2:00–4:00 P.M.,
in
Park 280.
(If you need to leave for a 3:00 or 3:30 class, that's
OK; the lectures usually end around 3:00, and the rest of the time is
used for discussion.)
The CCS colloquium schedule will be announced
over the class Listserv and is posted online at:
CCS Spring 2011 Colloquia.
E.g.:
and so forth.
READING:
"Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself."
— Chinese Proverb
How much do you really have to read?
"The more you read, the more intelligent you are. It's really that
simple."
— Ethan Hawke
Why are there so many readings?
This course and the readings try to tell a story. There is only one
story, but it can be told in several different ways. I will tell it one
way in lecture, Edelman tells it another way (computationally),
Gardner tells it yet another way (historically), and then, of course,
you can read the classic papers yourself.
HOW TO READ and HOW TO STUDY:
After reading each sentence
and before reading the next, ask yourself "Why?".
If you
can't
answer
that question, then ask for help.
"RULES OF THE ROAD":
Grade # Classes Attended # Classes "Missed" A 40–42 0–2 A– 38–39 3–4 B+ 36–37 5–6 B 33–35 7–9 B– 31–32 10–11 C+ 29–30 12–13 C 15–28 14–27 D 8–14 28–34 F 0–7 35–42
(e.g., you are attending a conference)
(by falling asleep, coming late, or leaving early
without my prior permission, except for emergencies)
(for non-weather-related reasons).
Incompletes:
It is University policy that a grade of Incomplete
is to be given only when a small amount of work or a single exam is
missed due to circumstances beyond the student's control, and that
student is otherwise doing passing work. I will follow this policy
strictly! Thus, you should assume that I will not give
incompletes :-)
Any incompletes that I might give, in a lapse of judgment :-),
will have to be made up by the end of
Summer 2011
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY:
Although it is acceptable to discuss general
approaches with your fellow students,
the work you turn in must be
your
own.
see my website
"Plagiarism".
CLASSROOM DISRUPTIONS:
In large classes (but surely not ours :-), students have been known to be
disruptive,
either to the instructor or to fellow students. The university's
policies on this topic, both how the instructor should respond and how
students should behave, may be found in the PDF document
"Obstruction or Disruption in the Classroom".
Text copyright © 2011 by William J. Rapaport
(rapaport@buffalo.edu)
Cartoon links and screen-captures appear here for your enjoyment.
They are not meant to infringe on any copyrights held by the creators.
For more information on any cartoon, click on it, or contact me.
http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/~rapaport/575/S11/syl.html-20110114
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