Kevin Lande
lande@yorku.ca

We have minds––with which we perceive, think, and use language. How do perceiving, thinking, and language work? More generally: How do minds work? How do you perceive the three-dimensional shape of a mug when all the eye gets is a two-dimensional array of light? How can you think about hypotheticals, such as what you would do if 30-50 feral hogs were to enter your yard? How can you understand lyrics and sentences that are like nothing you’ve heard before? Mental capacities like these are some of the most impressive and puzzling products of nature. The cognitive sciences—including psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, anthropology, evolutionary biology, artificial intelligence, and philosophy—use scientific experimentation and theory to explain how these mental capacities work. This course will serve both as an introduction to the cognitive sciences and as an introduction to philosophical issues in cognitive science. With the help of case studies, we will survey the foundational concepts and principles that make interdisciplinary scientific explanations of the mind possible. We will reflect on why these concepts and principles have proven to be necessary for studying the mind. We will consider the possibility of building machines with mental lives of their own.

Technical requirements for taking the course: Lectures will be conducted synchronously on Zoom. Students are expected to attend lectures at the assigned time. Recordings of each lecture will be posted for review on the course website. To attend lectures and participate in tutorial sections, students should have a device capable of running Zoom. In addition to a stable, higher-speed Internet connection, it is preferred (but not required) that students have a device with a webcam and microphone.

Here are some useful links for student computing information, resources and help:

Student Guide to Moodle

Zoom@YorkU Best Practices 

Zoom@YorkU User Reference Guide

Computing for Students Website

Student Guide to eLearning at York University

To determine Internet connection and speed, there are online tests, such as Speedtest, that can be run.

Times and locations: Lectures will be conducted synchronously on Zoom on Mondays and Wednesdays from 10:30am-11:30am. Recordings will be posted after each live lecture. Please note that this is a course that depends on remote teaching and learning. There will be no in-person interactions or activities on campus.

Virtual office hours: An open office hour dedicated to meeting and discussing with students will be hosted on Zoom once a week after lecture (specific day and time to be announced). All students are encouraged to attend, individually or as a group, and discuss assignments and, more generally, topics related to the course that are of interest to the students. Individual meetings can also be scheduled by appointment.

José Luis Bermúdez. (2019). Cognitive Science: An Introduction to the Science of the Mind (3^rd Edition). ISBN: 9781108440349.

Supplementary readings will be available through the course website.

Papers                                   40%

Homework                             40%

Final Exam                            20%

Biweekly lectures and weekly tutorial sections. Lectures and tutorial sections will be conducted synchronously (“live”) on Zoom at the scheduled times listed by the Registrar (Lectures: Mondays and Wednesdays, 10:30am-11:30am). Recordings of lectures will be made available for review on the course website.

In this course, we will work toward being able to

1. Identify and apply the core concepts, principles, and experimental methods that make a scientific investigation of the mind possible.
2. Understand why these core concepts and principles are necessary for studying the mind scientifically.
3. Learn how to comprehend, critically evaluate, and write about cognitive scientific research—appraising methodology, empirical evidence, and argumentation.

The coursework consists of papers, weekly homework assignments, and a final exam.

Paper assignments will ask you to explain and critically evaluate an experimental paper in your own words. These assignments will follow the “QALMRI” method. You will make explicit, in your own words, the main Question of the study; the Alternative hypotheses that the study considers; the Logic by which experimental results are brought to bear on those alternatives; the Methods employed to carry out the study’s experiments; the Results of those experiments; and the Inferences about the alternative hypotheses that can be drawn from those results, according to the logic of the study.

Homework assignments will be due two or three times a week. Homework assignments will consist of a small number of multiple-choice and short-answer questions, together with an open-ended written “reflection” on the content of the previous lecture or tutorial meeting. For the reflection portion of the homework, students will write one or two paragraphs encapsulating the key points they want to remember from the previous meeting and/or pursuing questions or thoughts that arose during those meetings.

The format for the Final Exam will be announced once the course is underway.

Course policies

Grading:  The grading scheme for the course conforms to the 9-point grading system used in undergraduate programs at York (e.g., A+ = 9, A = 8, B+ - 7, C+ = 5, etc.).  Assignments and tests* will bear either a letter grade designation or a corresponding number grade (e.g.  A+ = 90 to 100, A = 80 to 90, B+ = 75 to 79, etc.). Final course grades may be adjusted to conform to Program or Faculty grades distribution profiles.

For a full description of York grading system see the York University Undergraduate Calendar - http://calendars.registrar.yorku.ca/2010-2011/academic/index.htm

Assignment Submissions: All homework assignments will be completed through Moodle quizzes on the course website. All paper assignments must be submitted to Turnitin, through the course website, by the specified deadline.

Late Submissions Policy: Late homework assignments will not be accepted. For papers, students will have a total of five days of free, no-questions-asked extensions. For example, a student could submit one paper three days late, another two days late, and another one day late. Such extensions will be granted automatically—no questions asked. Late papers will not be accepted once a student has used up all five days of extensions. Exceptions to this lateness policy for valid reasons such as illness, compassionate grounds, etc., may be entertained by the Course Instructor but will require supporting documentation (e.g., a doctor’s letter).

Recordings Policy: Lectures will be recorded and posted on the course website for review. Please note that 1) the recordings are to be used for educational purposes only and as a means for enhancing accessibility; 2) students do not have permission to duplicate, copy and/or distribute the recordings outside of the class (these acts can violate not only copyright laws but also FIPPA); and 3) all recordings will be destroyed after the end of classes.

Special Accommodations: I am committed to fairly accommodating students with disabilities. Please contact the instructors and Student Accessibility Services (https://accessibility.students.yorku.ca/) as soon as possible, and we will all work together to find a fair accommodation. Note that in addition to sending the letter, accommodations for individual assignments must specifically be requested well ahead of the assignment's deadline.

Academic Honesty: All submitted coursework must be an expression of the student’s own understanding and ideas. Academic dishonesty (including, but not limited to, plagiarism), whether intentional or not, embroils students in a long bureaucratic process that normally results in severe penalties. It also breaches student-teacher trust, which is the cornerstone of education: students should be able to trust the teacher to be committed to guiding their education, which requires that the teacher can trust their students to put themselves and their work out there for honest assessment and correction. Familiarize yourself with York's policy regarding academic integrity: http://www.yorku.ca/secretariat/policies/. Before submitting written work, make sure you have reviewed the Academic Integrity Checklist. Academic dishonesty, including plagiarism, will be taken extremely seriously. Potential penalties include, but are not limited to, failure of the assignment and/or failure of the course.