Schedule
Introduction to Cognitive Science
Fall term, 2006

This schedule may be modified but the dates of midterms will not change.  

Please Note: Some documents are only readable with a current version of adobe acrobat reader. If you see blank pages in documents (or such) please get the new version of Acrobat Reader

ALL homework is to be submitted using Blackboard only.

Date
Subject
Instructor
Homework

Required
Readings

Supplemental Readings
Th 9/7 Introduction to the course (pdf) (ppt Richards, 
Ungar
    Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science. "What is Cognitive Science"
Tu 9/12 What is intelligence?
(pdf) (ppt
Ungar pre-quiz Turing "Computing machinery & intelligence" Mind 59:433-460 Clark Mindware Chapter 1, 2006 Loebner (Turing) competition
Th 9/14 Kinds of minds
(pdf) (ppt)
Ungar  
Clark Mindware Appendix 1
Dennett, Kinds of Minds Chapter 2
Nagel "What is it like to be a bat?"  Chalmers "The Puzzle of Conscious Experience"
Tu 9/19 Universal Computing
(pdf) (ppt)
Ungar   Davis The Universal Computer Chapter 7 Turing Machines and the Church-Turing Thesis
Th 9/21 How do brains work?
(pdf) (ppt
)
Ungar Due at 1:30 Blackboard Solutions: doc

Kandel et al. Essentials of Neural Science Chapter 2: Nerve Cells
Dawson: Chapter 3
Connectionist models

Rumelhardt. Chapter 1: "The Appeal of Parallel Distributed Processing."
Invariant visual representation by single neurons in the human brain, R. Quian Quiroga et. al.
Tu 9/26 Probabilistic models of mind Bayes Rule
(pdf) (ppt)
Ungar   Mitchell. Machine  Learning. pp 154-159, 177-184 & additional pages Conditional Probability pgs 57-71 Bayes' Theorem tutorial
E. Yudkowsky's An Intuitive Explanation of Bayesian Reasoning
Wed 9/27 Optional Probability Review  

5:00 pm.
3401 Walnut St., room 470A (in IRCS)

   
Th 9/28 Probabilistic models of mind II: Concept Learning (pdf) (ppt) Ungar   example and some advice Tennenbaum and Griffiths"Bayesian modeling of human concept learning"
Tu 10/3 Probabilistic models of mind III: Social cognition  (pdf) (ppt)
wason test

Richards,
Ungar

  Tversky et al, Judgement under uncertainty: heuristics and biases Chapter 10 Gigerenzer, "Ecological Intelligence in the evolution of the mind," by Cummins and Allen Chapter 1
Th 10/5 Perception I: Intro to visual system (ppt) (pdf) Richards
Homework 2 doc pdf
Due at 1:30 Blackboard Solutions: doc
Reisenberg, Cognition, Chapter 2
(pgs 35-49)
David Marr, Vision
Reisenberg, Cognition, Chapter 2 (pg 1-34)
Tu 10/10 Perception II: Approaches to the study of perception
(ppt) (pdf) and illusions
Richards   Kandel et al. Principles of Neural Science Chapter 21: "Construction of the Visual Image" Moore, Introduction to Hearing. TDS Appendix and elephant digression
Th 10/12 Perception III: What and where pathways (ppt) (pdf) Richards   Branich, Cognitive Neuro-science and Neuropsychology, Ch 6 (part 1 and part 2) & 7 (part 1 and part 2)  
Tu 10/17 Attention (ppt) (pdf) Richards Homework 3
Due at 1:30
Blackboard Solutions: doc
Kandel et al. Principles of Neural Science. Chapter 1: "Brain" Chapter 19: "Cognition and the cortex" Crick. Chapter 20: "Certain aspects of the cerebral cortex".  Sejnowski. Chapter 21:
"Open questions"
Wed 10/18 Review Session Ungar, Richards

5:00 pm
Annenberg 110

   
Thrs 10/19 MIDTERM 1     review materials  
Tu 10/24 FALL BREAK        
Th 10/26 Development and Plasticity (ppt) (pdf) Richards   vonMelchner et al., "visual behavior auditory pathway," Nature, 2000 (pdf) Sharma et al, "induction of auditoyr cortex," Nature (pdf)
Tu 10/31 Learning and memory: Reinforcement Learning (pdf) (ppt) Ungar Report Proposal Lieberman. Chapter 4: "Theories of conditioning and the missing two pages" Sutton and Barto. Reinforcement Learning. Chapter 1 Kalat. Chapter 13: "The biology of learning and memory".  Tesauro's TDGammon.
Th 11/2 Learning and memory: 
Kinds of memory (pdf) (ppt)
Ungar Homework 4
Due at 1:30
Blackboard
Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science articles: "Neural basis of Memory"; "Memory consolidation"; "Memory distortions"
Bower. A brief History of Memory Research. Encyclopedia:  Learning and memory; Working memory
Tu 11/7 Executive Function
(ppt)
Richards
 Branich, Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuropsychology, Chapter 11  
Th 11/9 Emotion (ppt) Richards   Ch 13; Emotion. In Cog. Neuroscience, Gazzaniga et al.Cornelius. Chapter 13 I & II

Emotion and the Human Brain MITECS. Rolls. 'Précis of "The Brain and Emotion"' Behavioral and Brain Science.

Tu 11/14 Voles in Love (ppt) Ungar   Zoogoer: Addicted to Love Monkey Love
Th 11/16 Why computers are autistic (ppt) Ungar report outline bibliography    
Tu 11/21 Mind, language and computation I:
Computation
(pdf) (ppt)
Ungar Homework 5
due at 1:30
Blackboard
Speech Recognition pgs 568-577 Ullman. Neurocognitive Perspective on Language. Nature Neuroscience. Fosler-Lussier. Markov models and hidden markov models: a brief tutorial.
Th 11/23 THANKSGIVING        
Tu 11/28 Mind, language and computation 
II: Language (ppt)
Richards   Pinker. Words and Rules. Chapter 1
McClelland & Seidenberg "Why do kids say goed and brang"
Bloom. Precis of 'How Children Learn the Meanings of Words'. BBS.
Th 11/30 Metaphor (ppt) Ungar     Gallese, Vittorio. A Neuro-scientific Grasp of Concepts (2003) & The Inner Sense of Action. (2000), Mirror Neurons
Tu 12/5 Course summary (ppt) Richards,
Ungar
Homework 6
due at 1:30
Blackboard

   
Wed 12/6 Review Session Richards,
Ungar
Annenberg 110    
Th 12/7 MIDTERM II        
Th 12/13

Report drop off
Report due
4:00 pm (or earlier)