Philosophy/Psychology 256: Introduction to Cognitive Science

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Course information

Description Cognitive Science is the interdisciplinary study of mind and intelligence. This course will draw upon philosophy, psychology, artificial intelligence, linguistics, neuroscience, and anthropology to address central questions about the nature of thinking. Topics discussed will include mental representation, computational models of mind, and consciousness.
Instructor Cameron Shelley
Email: cpshelle@watarts.uwaterloo.ca
Office hours: PAS 3289, Wed. 2-4pm
Phone: x2555
Class EL 105, 2:30-4pm Tuesdays and Thursdays
Newsgroup uw.phil.phil256. Students are encouraged to make use of the course newsgroup to ask questions, discuss course material, and keep up with any course-related news. I will try to monitor the newsgroup regularly.
Textbook The course text book will be Mind: Introduction to Cognitive Science by Paul Thagard (available in the main book store). Mind Readings, a spiral-bound collection of supplementary material, will also be available for purchase in the main book store. Any further material will be placed on reserve in the library if necessary.

Warning: Misbehaviour such as plagiarism, cheating, etc. will be dealt with according to the penalties described in UW Policy 71; but you knew that, right?

Course evaluation

CourseworkPercentDescription
Essay 1 15% Due Feb. 28, 4:00pm, PAS 3289
See some students' solutions
Midterm 20% March 6, 2:30-4pm, EL 105
Essay 2 25% Outline due March 6, in class
Final version due April 4, 4:00pm, PAS 3289
Final 40% April 24, 7-10pm, EL 105

Here are the current course grades.

Lectures

I will post my lecture notes here after each class. Note that they probably won't be much help unless you attend class in person! An ideal lecture (IMHO) involves lots of class discussion, so if you do the readings before each class, you'll get a lot out of the course. Your ideas count, so make sure you speak up!

Dates TopicsReadings
Jan. 7 & 9 Introduction, Representation and computation none
Jan. 14 & 16 Logic Rips (1994), 63-99
Jan. 21 & 23 Rules Anderson (1993), 1-44
Jan. 28 & 30 Concepts Minsky (1981), 95-128
Feb. 4 & 6 Analogies Gentner (1989), 199-241
Feb. 11 & 13 Images Kosslyn & Koenig (1992), 128-66
Feb. 18 & 20 Reading week none, ironically
Feb. 25 & 27 Connectionism Rumelhart (1989), 133-59
Mar. 4 & 6 Review, Midterm none
Mar. 11 & 13 Emotions, Consciousness Oatley (1992), 14-68
Mar. 18 & 20 Physical and social issues Mackworth (1993), Durfee (1992)
Mar. 25 & 27 Dynamic systems, Mathematics van Gelder (1995)
Apr. 1 & 3 Review none
Apr. 24 Final exam everything

Of course, if you'd prefer to discuss non course-related material, please do so somewhere other than class.

Further resources

Rules: Concepts:
Analogy: Imagery:
Connectionism: Emotions & Consciousness
Physical & Social environments: Dynamic systems and mathematics:
General indices:

Last updated April 3, 1997 / cpshelle@watarts.uwaterloo.ca

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