NBU-COGS: Preparatory Program: Course Description

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Course Description

COG400 Foundations of Cognitive Science

Aims:
- to present the information processing paradigm as one possible point of view on the human being;
- to develop an attitude towards interdisciplinary studies;
- to present an overview of Cognitive Science concentrating on concepts, ap-proaches, methods, and exploring and emphasizing the relations between the contributing disciplines;
- to develop critical thinking skills and to stimulate creativity by presenting a young and developing science (with continuously emerging new hypotheses and experimental results) in contrast to old disciplines with well-formed and rigid systems of knowledge.

Objectives:
On completion of the course students should be able to:
- demonstrate familiarity with the central concepts and ideas in Cognitive Science;
- relate and compare different cognitive science methods and build interdiscipli-nary research strategies;
- describe and discuss particular cognitive processes from different perspectives - psychological data, neurological basis, computational models, etc.;
- debate and discuss theoretical and methodological issues as well as evaluate psy-chological or neurological validity of models;
- demonstrate critical understanding of research papers in Cognitive Science;
- present arguments and evidence coherently in verbal and written form.

Learning strategies:
The main strategy is involving students in the real spirit of scientific research and group work: critical thinking, different and contradicting point of view even on obvi-ous issues, hot discussions, experimental design, and evaluation. Panel discussions (with the team members as panelists) and tutor-led group discussions, team work. Demonstration of in-structional films about the brain and neuroscience methods as well as of some ex-periments. Essay writing and presentation.4. Overall duration and format:
A one semester (15 weeks) course with 2 hours lectures and seminar discussions per week.

Overall duration and format:
A one semester (15 weeks) course with 2 hours lectures and seminar discussions per week.

Credit hours: 2.

Lecturers (interdisciplinary team): Boicho Kokinov (BK), Encho Gerganov (EG), Naum Yakimov (NY), Lili Guruva (LG), Elena Andonova (EA).

Literature:
[Invit] Osherson, D. (ed.),
[Intro] Stilling, Feinstein, Garfield, Rissland,
[FOUND] Posner (ed.),
[PCS] Norman, D.,
[CC] Pylyshin, Z.,
[CPQ] Costall, A. & Still, A.,
[PDP1&2] Rumelhart, McClelland, and the PDP Research Group (1986),

Course outline:
The course is divided into the following sections:
- introduction - scientific method, subject and interdisciplinary character of cognitive science;
- contributing disciplines - introduction to psychology, artificial intelligence, neurosciences, linguistics, philosophy, etc.;
- approaches - general information-processing framework, symbolic and con-nectionist approaches;
- methods - discussion of the various methods used in the cognitive science re-search;
- cognitive processes - experimental data and models of particular processes like perception, memory, learning, problem solving, and language;
- conclusion - discussion of history, the state of art and trends in cognitive sci-ence research, limits of the cognitive approach.

Main Topics:
Topic 1: Introduction - History and Interdisciplinary Approach of Cognitive Science. Main Paradigms.

Topic 2: Intelligence and Turing Test.
Main question: What is Intelligence?

Required reading:
- A. Turing - Computing Machinery and Itelligence Mind, vol. 59 (236), 1950. Reprinted in: Hofstadter and Dennett (eds.) The Mind's I, Basic Books, 1981
Topic 3: Memory
Main question: Do humans have one or many kinds of memory?

Required readings:
- Chapters 6 & 7 from [Eysenck & Keene]
- Chapter 6 from [Anderson: CogPsy]
Additional reading:
- Lynn Nadel : Multiple Memory Systems: What and Why"
Topic 4: Ergo Sum - a video film on Cognitive Neurosciences

Topic 5: Neurosciences and Behaviour
Main question: What can neuroscience tell us about behavior?

Required reading:
- Computational Neuroscience: A Window to Understanding how the Brain Works.
Additional reading:
- Damasio & Damasio - Language & Brain from [Philosophy & CogSci]
Topic 6. Perception
Main question: Can we understand perception in terms of action?

Required reading:
- Chapters 2, 3 & 4 from [Eysenck & Keene - Cognitive Psychology].
Topic 7. Thinking
Main question: Are human beings rational?

Required reading:
- Harman, G. - Rationality. Chapter 6 in: [Smith and Osherson (ed.) Thinking. MIT Press, 1995].
Topic 9. Language and Communication
Main question: Are human beings rational?

Required reading:
- Sperber, D. and Wilson, D. Relevance: Communication and Cognition. Harvard Univ. Press, 1986.
Topic 10: Concepts and Categorization
Main question: What preceeds concepts?

Required readings:
- Smith, E. Concept and Categorization. Chapter 1 of : [Smith and Osherson (ed.) Thinking. MIT Press, 1995]
- Chapter of [Eysenck & Keene]
Additional readings:
- E. Rosch (1978) - Principles of Categorization. In: Rosch, Lloyd (eds.) Cognition & Categorization. Erlbaum, Hilsdale
- Tversky (1977) - Features of Similarity. Psychological Review, 84, 327-352
Topic 11: Cognitive Development
Main question: Is knowledge innate or acquired?

Required reading:
- Chapter 1 of [Elman, Bates & others - Rethinking Innateness, MIT Press, 1996].
Additional reading:
- Carey, S. Continuity and Discontinuity in Cognitive Development. Chapter 4 of : [Smith and Osherson (ed.) Thinking. MIT Press, 1995].
Topic 12: Recursivity
Main question: Is cognition recursive and why?

Required reading:
- Chapters 5, 15 & 16 of [Hofstadter, D. (1979). Goedel, Escher, Bach: The Eternal Golden Braid, Basic Books].
Topic 13: Consciousness and Metacognition
Main question: Can science explain consciousness?

Required readings:
- J. Horgan - Can Science Explain Consciousness?
- Th. Nelson - Consciousness and Metacognition.
Additional reading:
- Schacter, D. Neuropsychological Evidence for Consciousness System - Chapter 18 of [Goldman - Readings in Philosophy and Cognitive Science, MIT Press, 1993].
Topic 14: Cognition and Culture
Main question: Cognition and culture: universal or specific?

Required reading:
- Schwarz, N. Social Cognition. Chapter 10 of: [Smith and Osherson (ed.) Thinking. MIT Press, 1995].
Additional reading:
- Chapter 8 of [D'Andrade, R. The Development of Cognitive Anthropology].
Topic 15: Modularity
Main question: Is Mind Modular?

Required reading:
- Fodor, J. - The Modularity of Mind. MIT Press, 1983.
Additional reading:
- Chapter 3 of [Green & others, Cognitive Science: An Introduction. Blackwell, 1996].
Topic 16: Situated and Evolutionary Approaches
Main question: Is cognition situated and embodied?

Required reading:
- D. Norman - Cognition in the Head and in the World, Cognitive Science, vol. 17(1), 1993.
Additional readings:
- Ph. Agre - The Symbolic Worldview. Cognitive Science, vol. 17(1), 1993.
- Greeno & Moore - Situativity & Symbols. Cognitive Science, vol. 17(1), 1993.

Assessment:
Students will be assessed on the basis of their written essays, written long paper, of their participation in the group discussions. Grading procedure:
- 30% on each written essays
- 20% on participation in group discussions
- 50% on each written paper

Prerequisites: none.