Proseminar in Cognitive Science 2011

Course number 16:185:500 

Instructors: Zenon Pylyshyn and Guest Lecturers

Classroom: Psychology Building Room A139, Busch Campus

Time: Tuesdays, 9:30am to 12:00pm

E-mail:  zenon@ruccs.rutgers.edu               

Date                         Lecturer & Readings

Sept 6        Zenon Pylyshyn    Foundations: What is Cognitive Science?:
Reading 1
: Pylyshyn: "What is Cognitive Science?"  
Reading 2: Pylyshyn: "The Role of Cognitive Architecture in Theories of Cognition
PowerPoint: What is Special about Cognitive Science?

                                         

Sept 13      Zenon PylyshynCognitive Architecture (with visual focal  attention as an example)
Reading 1: Miller: "Magic Number 7 plus-or-minus 2"

Reading 2: Scholl: "Objects and Attention - the state of the art"

Reading 3:  Things and Places (Chapter 3): Why do we need selection?

                     PowerPoint:  Architecture, Capacity and Attention

Sept 20      Randy Gallistel:  Memory and the Computational Brain 
Reading:
Learning and Representation

Sept 27      Brian McLaughlin:  The systematicity of thought
 
Fodor, J. & Pylyshyn, Z. (1988) Connectionism and Cognitive Architecture: A Critical  Analysis.  Cognition,  28, 3-71.  
 Evans, G. (1982) The Varieties of Reference. Oxford: Clarendon, pages 100-105.  
 Johnson, K. (2004) On the Systematicity of Language and Thought. The Journal of Philosophy, 3,  111-139.

                      McLaughlin: Powerpoint presentation

Oct 4         Brandon Fitelson: Foundations of Subjective Probability
Here are the background readings for the lecture. The first two are crucial -- the other three provide some deeper background.
1* Keynes, J.M., Treatise on Probability, Chapter 3, "The Measurement of Probabilities".
2* de Finetti, B., Foresight: Its Logical Laws, Its Subjective Sources, chapter 1 (excerpt), "The Logic of the Probable".
3. Suppes, Representation and Invariance of Scientific Structures, Chapter 5 (excerpts), "Representations of Probability".
4. Fine, T., Theories of Probability, excerpts from Chapters 2 and 3.
5. Joyce, J., "A Nonpragmatic Vindication of Probabilism" (especially, section 6).

Oct 11          Gretchen Chapman: The Psychology of Decision Making

                     ReadingWeber & Johnson: Annual Review ofPsych (2009) -- Mindful Judgment &  Decision Making

Oct 18         Mark Baker: Universals of Language -- the example of case and agreement
 Case and agreement: notes on universal grammar

Oct 25        Karin  Stromswold:  Language Acquisition and Learnability

                     Readings TBA

Nov 1         Matthew Stone:  Language use by and for computers
 Reading:Intention, Interpretation and the Computational Structure of  Language

Nov 8         Deena Skolnick Weisberg: Cognitive Development
 Readings:  Baillargeon:_False-belief understanding in infants
                   Flavel: Review of Cog Development


Nov 15       Thomas Papathomas: Cross-modal perception 
 Reading:  “Influences of attention on auditory aftereffects w/ visual adaptation” 

                                       “Hearing visual motion in depth

Nov 22        No Class

Nov 29        Elizabeth Torres:  Control of Motor Actions
    
Reading: 

 (1) Two classes of movements in motor control

                      (2)   Sensory-Spatial Transformations …and Reach Timing 
                      (3)  Supporting material for (2)

Dec 6          Jacob Feldman:  Bayesian Computing in Vision
Reading: “Bayesian models of object perception

Dec 13         No Class