Required Courses

Animals are and always have been part of human life. To name just a few ways: We treat animals as companions, as food, as objects of wonder in the wild, as resources to be harvested, as testing grounds for science, and as religious sacrifice. The abstract philosophical question before us is, what are animals such that they can be all these things? In this course we aim to engage that abstract question through two more focused projects. Firstly, we will try to understand the mental lives of non-human animals. Secondly, we will try to make sense of the moral dimensions of our relationship to animals. Throughout we will aim to fuse a rigorous scientific perspective with more humanistic themes and philosophical inquiry. Topics include sentience, animal cognition, language in non-human animals, empathy and evolution, the history of domestication, animal rights, cross-cultural views on animals, arguments against and for vegetarianism and veganism, the morality of zoos, hunting and fishing, and pets and happiness. [ more ]

This course will emphasize interdisciplinary approaches to the study of intelligent systems, both natural and artificial. Cognitive science synthesizes research from cognitive psychology, computer science, linguistics, neuroscience, and contemporary philosophy. Special attention will be given to the philosophical foundations of cognitive science, representation and computation in symbolic and neural network architectures, concept acquisition, problem solving, perception, language, semantics, reasoning, and artificial intelligence. [ more ]

This course offers an in-depth exploration of the sound systems of human languages. Topics include the mechanics of sound transcription, production, and perception; sound symbolism--how and why different sounds evoke concepts such as strength and size; sound change rules (e.g., the "t" can sometimes sound like "l" as in "latter" but not always as in "attend"); and sound markedness--what types of sounds are common in human languages, acquired by children earlier, and lost earlier by people with language disorders. Throughout these topics, we will quantitatively measure sound features like frequency and duration, analyze sound data, and/or create formal rules based on data. We will use English and Japanese--two very distinct languages--as primary examples, exploring how languages with vastly different structures nonetheless conform to universal linguistic principles. No prior knowledge of Japanese is required, and JAPN/ASIA 131 is not a prerequisite. However, students who have taken JAPN/ASIA 131 are welcome and will find this course an excellent continuation of their linguistic studies. [ more ]

How does the brain process information? Despite the continuous scientific pursuits to understand the brain, many questions about brain function remain unanswered. In this course, we take an interdisciplinary, hands-on approach to understanding the brain, focusing on how neural systems encode, transmit, and decode information. Students will learn foundational techniques in computational neuroscience as it pertains to simulating neuronal dynamics with canonical models such as the integrate-and-fire, Hodgkin-Huxley, and Wilson-Cowan equations, performing statistical analysis of neurological data, and examining biological neural networks and their parallels to artificial intelligence. [ more ]

Many of our mental processes operate so seamlessly that we rarely notice them -- until they fail. This course uncovers the hidden complexity behind everyday actions, breaking down the fundamental cognitive systems that make them possible. Take, for example, even the simple act of reaching for a cup. First, perception must transform a chaotic flood of light, color, and edges into coherent objects with meaning. Then, attention filters out other visual clutter to focus on the cup. Depth perception and affordance judgments determine whether the cup is within reach, visual and motor system must work together to plan then move the hand toward the cup, and even more following cognitive processes (e.g., grip adjustments, force calibration, and memory formation) critical to successfully completing the interaction -- all without conscious thought. This course explores how these systems function, how they fail, and how they interact. We will cover topics such as attention, spatial and temporal visual perception, object and face recognition, visuomotor coordination, auditory and speech processing, and memory encoding and retrieval. In the lab component, students will design experiments to determine whether and how processes occur automatically, learning to apply both behavioral experiments and technology such as eye tracking. By the end of the course, students will apply what they've learned to analyze a real-world process of their choosing, breaking it down into its component cognitive processes and presenting their findings. [ more ]

In the last decade the science of the mind has continued to draw on its 20th century history as well as expand its methodological repertoire. In this seminar we will investigate some of the current trends in mind and cognition. We will attend both to the specific empirical details as well as the conceptual foundations of cognitive science. In particular, we will focus on the concept of mental representation, which is the core and defining theoretical posit in the field of cognitive sciences. We will discuss both the philosophical foundations of this concept, as well as how it is utilized in the current empirical literature in this field. [ more ]

The senior concentrator, having completed the senior seminar and with approval from the advisory committee, may devote winter study and the spring semester to a senior thesis based on the fall research project. [ more ]

Cognitive Science independent study. [ more ]

Cognitive Science independent study. [ more ]