Lecture Time and Location: Tuesdays 10:20 A-12:20 PM, ARC 206
Recitation Time and Location: Thursdays 9-10 AM, Psych Bldg Annex, Room A139

Faculty Organizer: Dr. Rochel Gelman
E-mail: rgelman@ruccs.rutgers.edu
Office hours: TBD
Location: Busch Psychology Annex, Room A137
Phone: (732) 445-6154

Recitation Leader: Marian Chen
E-mail: chenml@ruccs.rutgers.edu
Office hours: By appoinment
Location: Busch Psychology, Room 133A (NOT A133)
Phone: (732) 445-4959

READINGS:

Textbook: E. Lepore & Z. Pylyshyn (1999). What is cognitive science? Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Readings: Required readings are listed in the syllabus

Course Website and bulletin boards: http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/ruccs/academics_ucourse.html

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

1. Two short papers (7-10 pages each)

For each paper, you may choose any topic that has been covered in the lectures and/or readings. The first paper will be due on March 6, and the second one on April 24. If you hand in a paper late, a half a grade will be deducted for each day it is late.

Papers should be 7-10 pages (double spaced), and include a bibliography (references) that cites 4 or 5 articles or chapters. (References are not included in the page limit.). Three criteria will be used in grading your papers: (1) accurateness of your summary of previous work; (2) insightfulness of your original thoughts and critique, and (3) quality of writing.

You may choose from among the following 3 options for each of your 2 short papers:

1. Paper Summary & Critique. Pick one of the assigned readings. Go the References section at the end of that reading, and choose one of the articles/chapters cited in the References. (Begin by selecting a few, look them up in the library, and then make your final pick.) Once you've made your choice, write a summary of that article. It is important that the summary include your original critique and thoughts paper) do the experiments address the issues they were meant to address, etc. Turn in a copy of the article along with your summary.
2. Topic Summary & Critique. This is similar to Choice #1 except that, instead of summarizing a specific article, you are summarizing one of the topics covered in class. Pick one of the lectures given so far, and write a summary of research on a topic that the lecture covered how it relates to Cognitive Science more generally. Again, the summary must include your original critique and thoughts.
3. Research Proposal. For one of the topics covered in class, think of what research project you could perform to address some issues that are still open/have not been adequately addressed. It is important that the paper first motivate the research you are proposing: Why would conducting the proposed research be important? What issues would it address? How does it advance on what is already known?

Professor Stromswold's guide to writing a literature review: http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/~karin/Cogsci_Litreview.pdf

2. LECTURE ATTENDANCE & PARTICIPATION

Attendance and participation in lectures is an integral part of this course. You may miss at most two lectures during the semester. For every unexcused absence beyond that, your course grade will be lowered by a half grade.

3. RECITATION SECTION ATTENDANCE & PARTICIPATION

Attendance and participation in recitation section is an integral part of this course. You may miss at most two recitation sections during the semester. For every unexcused absence beyond that, your course grade will be lowered by a half grade. If you cannot attend the recitation section because of a legitimate scheduling conflict, instead of attending recitation section, you may write a two-page TYPED critique for each lecture. Each critique is due the Friday immediately following the lecture. You may skip at most two lecture critiques. For every critique you skip beyond that, your course grade will be lowered by a half a grade.

4. ONLINE QUESTIONS & COMMENTS ON THE READINGS. To help focus and promote class discussion, prior to each class, you must submit at least one short question or comment about the reading(s) for that class. Questions and comments must be posted at least 24 hours prior the lecture.

To post questions/comments, go the following website:
http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/ruccs/academics_ucourse.html

Follow the instructions on the page to post your questions/comments for that lecturer. You are encouraged to respond to other students' comments.

1/16: Alan Leslie (Psychology/RuCCS)
Topic: Introduction to Cognitive Science
Background reading for the course: 1) Pylyshyn, Z. (1999). What is in your mind? In E. Lepore & Z. Pylyshyn (eds.), What is cognitive science? Malden, MA: Blackwell, pp. 1-25.
http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/ftp/pub/papers/ruccsbook.PDF
2) Friedenberg, J & Silverman, G. (2006). Cognitive Science: An introduction to the study of the mind, pp. 1-26. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications
http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/~chenml/411/Friedenberg_Intro.pdf

1/23: Alan Leslie (Psychology/RuCCS)
Topic: The development of theory of mind
Reading: Leslie, A. M. (2000). "Theory of Mind" as a mechanism of selective attention. In M. S. Gazzaniga (ed.), The new cognitive neurosciences. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 1235-1248
http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/~aleslie/Leslie_2000b_NEW_COGNITIVE_NEUROSCIENCES.pdf

1/30: Randy Gallistel (Psychology/RuCCS)
Topic: Foundations of Cognitive Science [ppt|pdf]
Reading: Gallistel, C.R. (2001). Mental representations, Psychology of. International encyclopaedia of the social and behavioural sciences. N.J. Smelser & P.B. Baltes (Eds.). New York: Elsevier, pp. 9691-9695.
http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/~chenml/411/MentalRepresentations.pdf

2/6: Rochel Gelman (Psychology/RuCCS)
Topic: Innate contributions to early cognitive development
Reading: 1) Cordes, S.J. & Gelman, R. (in press). The young numerical mind: What does it count? In. Campbell, J. (Ed). Handbook of mathematical cognition.
http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/~chenml/411/CordesandGelman.pdf
2) Gelman, R. (1998). Domain specificity in cognitive development: Universals and nonuniversals. In Sabourin, M., Craik, F. and Robert, M. (Eds.) Advances in psychological science: Vol. 2. Biological and cognitive aspects. Hove, Eng: Psychology Press Ltd. Publishers.
http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/~chenml/411/Gelman1998.pdf

2/13: Alvin Goldman (Philosophy/RuCCS)
Topic: Mindreading
Reading: Goldman, A. & Mason, K. (to appear). Simulation. In P. Thagard (Ed.), Handbook of philosophy of psychology and cognitive science.
http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/~chenml/411/GoldmanMason.pdf

2/20: Sarah-Jane Leslie (Princeton U. Philosophy)
Topic: Language and Cognition. [ppt|pdf]
Reading: Leslie, S-J. Generics: Cognition and Acquisition.
(you may skip "The Logical Form of Bare Plurals", "Existing Account of Generics", and "Semantic Truth Conditions and Worldly Truth Makers)
http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/~chenml/411/GenericsCognitionAcquisition3.pdf

2/27: Brian McLaughlin (Philosophy/RuCCS)
Topic: Consciousness and the Mind-Body Problem
Reading: McLaughlin, B.P. (in press). Type materialism for phenomenal consciousness. To appear in Blackwell Companion to Consciousness.
http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/~chenml/411/McLaughlin.pdf

3/6: Ken Shan (Computer Science/RuCCS)
Topic: Computational linguistics
Reading: 1) Charles F. Hockett, 1955, "A Manual of Phonology", pp. 3 (start at "021. A Theory of Speech Communication") through 9 (stop at "the unit returns again to state S0.")
http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/~chenml/411/hockett.pdf
2) Chung-chieh Shan, 2005, "Linguistic Side Effects", Sections 1.1, 1.2, 1.4 and 1.5.
http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~ccshan/dissertation/book.pdf

****FIRST PAPER DUE 3/6****

3/13: SPRING BREAK

3/20: Bruce Tesar (Linguistics/RuCCS)
Topic: Linguistic Theory [pdf]
Reading: Tesar, B. Grimshaw, J. & Prince, A. (1999). Linguistic and cognitive explanation in Optimality Theory. In E. Lepore & Z. Pylsyhyn (eds.), What is cognitive science? Malden, MA: Blackwell, pp. 295-326.
http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/forums/proseminar_fall03/Tesar.pdf

3/27: Jane Grimshaw (Linguistics/RuCCS)
Topic: Linguistic Theory
Reading: Tesar, B. Grimshaw, J. & Prince, A. (1999). Linguistic and cognitive explanation in Optimality Theory. In E. Lepore & Z. Pylsyhyn (eds.), What is cognitive science? Malden, MA: Blackwell, pp. 295-326. (focus on 2nd half)

4/3 Manish Singh (Psychology/RuCCS)
Topic: Object and Depth Perception
Reading: 1) Rock, I. (1985). Perception. Scientific American Library. Chapter 3 ("The many paths to the third dimension"), pp. 71-89.
http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/~chenml/411/Rock_Depth.pdf
2) Palmer, S.E. (1999). Vision Science: From photons to phenomenology. MIT Press. Chapter 6 ("Organizing objects and scenes"), pp. 280-300.
http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/~chenml/411/Palmer_objects.pdf

4/10 Jacob Feldman (Psychology/RuCCS)
Topic: Shape and Perceptual Organization
Reading: 1) Hatfield, G., and Epstein, W. (1985). The status of the minimum principle in the analysis of visual perception. Psychological Bulletin, 97, pp. 155-186.
http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/~chenml/411/hatfield_epstein.pdf
2) Hoffman, D.D. and W.A. Richards. (1984). Parts of Recognition. Cognition, 18, pp. 65-96.
http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/~chenml/411/hoffman_richards.pdf

4/17 Doug DeCarlo (Computer Science/RuCCS)
Topic: Visual interaction
Reading: Zeki. (1999). Inner vision: An exploration of art and the brain.
http://www.cs.rutgers.edu/~decarlo/201

4/24 Rochel Gelman (Psychology/RuCCS)
Topic: TBD

****SECOND PAPER DUE 4/24****