Catalogue 2017-2018 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
Cognitive Science Department
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Chair: John H. Long, Jr.;
Professors: Gwen J. Broude, Kenneth R. Livingston, John H. Long, Jr.;
Associate Professor: Janet K. Andrews;
Assisant Professor: Joshua de Leeuw.
We human beings take it for granted that we are possessed of minds. You know that you have a mind and you assume that other people do too. But what, exactly, are we referring to when we talk about the mind? Is a mind just a brain? What endows your mind with the property of being conscious? How does your mind allow you to extract music from sound waves, or relish the taste of chocolate, or daydream, or feel happy and sad, or reach for your cup when you want a sip of coffee? Are minds directly aware of the world out there? Or, when you think that you are perceiving reality, are you just consulting some representation of the world that your mind has built? How similar is your mind to the minds of other people? Do you have to be a human being to have a mind? Could other entities have minds so long as they were built the right way? Does your computer have a mind?
These are the kinds of questions that cognitive scientists want to address. Cognitive Science is a broadly multidisciplinary field in which philosophers, psychologists, anthropologists, linguists, neuroscientists, biologists, mathematicians, and computer scientists, among others, combine their respective theories, technologies, and methodologies in the service of a unified exploration of mind. The hallmark of the field is a genuinely multidisciplinary outlook in which the perspectives and methods of all of the component disciplines are simultaneously brought to bear upon a particular question. In 1982, Vassar College became the first institution in the world to grant an undergraduate degree in Cognitive Science.
Other Programs
Cognitive Science: I. Introductory
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COGS 100 - Introduction to Cognitive Science Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
Cognitive science is a multidisciplinary exploration of the nature of mind and intelligence in whatever forms they may take, from animal (including especially humans) to machine. This course explores the modern history of our efforts to understand the nature of mind, asking such questions as how a purely physical entity could have a mind, whether a computer or robot could have genuine mental states, and what it really means to be intelligent or to have a mind. In the process of seeking answers to these questions, the course explores such phenomena as perception, memory, prediction, decision-making, action, language, and consciousness by integrating methods and concepts from a number of disciplines, including philosophy, psychology, computer science, neuroscience, biology, linguistics, and anthropology. Material from economics, education, mathematics, engineering, and the arts is increasingly integrated into the field as well. No background in any of these disciplines is assumed, and this course is intended to serve as an introduction, for both majors and non-majors, to the unique multidisciplinary approach to studying problems of mind that Cognitive Science represents. Janet Andrews, Josh de Leeuw, John Long.
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COGS 110 - The Science and Fiction of Mind Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Our understanding of what minds are and of how they work has exploded dramatically in the last half century. As in other areas of science, the more we know the harder it becomes to convey the richness and complexity of that knowledge to non-specialists. This Freshman Course will explore two different styles of writing for explaining new findings about the nature of mind to a general audience. The most direct of these styles is journalistic and explanatory and is well represented by the work of people like Steven Pinker, Bruce Bower, Stephen J. Gould, and Ray Kurzweil. The second style is fictional. At its best, science fiction not only entertains, it also stretches the reader’s mind to a view of implications and possibilities beyond what is currently known. Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Greg Bear, and Richard Powers all provide excellent models of this kind of writing. In this course students practice both ways of writing about technical and scientific discoveries. By working simultaneously in both styles it should become clear that when done well even a strictly explanatory piece of science writing tells a story. By the same token even a purely fictional narrative can explain and elucidate how the real world works. The focus of our work is material from the sciences of mind, but topics from other scientific areas may also be explored. This course does not serve as a prerequisite for upper-level courses in Cognitive Science. Ken Livingston.
Open only to freshmen; satisfies the college requirement for a Freshman Writing Seminar.
Two 2-hour periods.
Cognitive Science: II. Intermediate
Cognitive Science: III. Advanced
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COGS 300 - Senior Thesis Semester Offered: Fall
0.5 unit(s)
A thesis written in two semesters for 1 unit.
Yearlong course 300-COGS 301 .
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COGS 301 - Senior Thesis Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)
A thesis written in two semesters for 1 unit.
Yearlong course COGS 300 -301.
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COGS 302 - Senior Thesis Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
A thesis written in one semester for one unit.
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COGS 311 - Seminar in Cognitive Science Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
The topic of the seminar varies regularly, but is always focused on some aspect of thought, language, perception, or action considered from the unique, synthetic perspective of cognitive science. The seminar is taught by faculty members in the program. May be repeated for credit if the topic has changed.
Topic for 2017/18a: Qualitative Methods: Theory and Practice. This course focuses on methods for studying the subjective experience, thinking, and behavior of organisms, including in their real world contexts. Students are introduced to methods such as: structured and open-ended interview, journaling , experiential sampling, non-intrusive and participant observation, case studies, and longitudinal data gathering and how they are used in research and have hands-on experience with some of these methods. We also explore a set of basic philosophical issues regarding ways of knowing, whether it is ever possible to attain objective knowledge, the reliability of subjective data, the role of context in organism functioning, and the related problem of ecological validity. We consider the advantages and limitations of the methods that we study. The focus is on qualitative research methods. Gwen Broude.
Prerequisite(s): one of the following: COGS 100 and one 200-level course, or permission of the instructor.
Topic for 2017/18b: Information. Few concepts are as central historically to cognitive science as the concept of information. It was one of the core ideas around which the multidiscipline coalesced in the 1960s and 70s, with threads that help to stitch together fields as disparate as computer science, the behavioral sciences, philosophy, and neuroscience. But like many ideas that are first transformative but then become routine, the real history and significance of the concept of information has become vague and its detailed meanings and implications lost or glossed over among many in the field. Our goal in this seminar is to revisit the history of this idea and to explore its power, its limitations, and its future role in the field. When and how did the idea of information stop being an ordinary term of explanation about sharing knowledge and become a technical scientific term? How did the idea that we think or learn by processing information come into being? What is the relationship between formal theories of information and meaning? Is there a difference between information and meaningful information? Is there a deeper relationship between the concept of information and the phenomenon of consciousness. Does this relationship link the idea of information, and thus the phenomenon of consciousness, to some of the most fundamental laws of the universe itself? Josh de Leeuw and Ken Livingston.
Prerequisite(s): one 200-level Cognitive Science course and permission of the instructor.
One 3-hour period. -
COGS 312 - Mind Reading: The Cognitive Science Book Club Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
The goal of this course is to explore interests and issues from the field of Cognitive Science that go beyond the Cognitive Science curriculum. These include methodological and theoretical issues as well as empirical work, narrative, and more. The course is book-driven and discussion-intense. Think of it as a Cognitive Science book club. We read books, lots of them, and talk about them. Past topics have included: free will, consciousness, embodiment, first person subjective experience, neuroscientific methods, the anthropological stance, artificial intelligence, origins of morality, story, and theory of mind. Books and topics change each year. Gwen Broude.
Prerequisite: any 200-level course in Cognitive Science and permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period. -
COGS 399 - Senior Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
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