Professor Kevin Lande
lande@yorku.ca
Office Location:  S443 Ross Building
Phone Number:  (416) 736-2100 Ext. 77594
Office Hours:  Wednesday 2:30 – 3:30 in person or online by appointment

This capstone seminar for students in their final year of the COGS Honours BA program aims to deepen students’ understanding of important issues in cognitive science and the interdisciplinary methods that are used to address them. We will approach this end in two ways. First, as a class we will discuss a range of readings that address important and controversial issues in contemporary cognitive science. These discussions will be integrated with this year's Cognitive Science Speaker Series, which features prominent cognitive scientists from around the world. In the week prior to each talk, we will read and discuss relevant background for the upcoming talk. In the hour before a talk, the visiting speakers will meet with our seminar to discuss their research and answer your questions, giving the class a unique opportunity to interact with leading experts in the cognitive sciences.

Second, over the course of the year each student will pursue an original research project, focusing on a specific question or controversy of his or her own choosing. This project will culminate in a substantial, original, interdisciplinary research paper that attempts to make progress on the controversy. The projects are expected to engage with relevant literature and make empirically informed arguments (though students are not expected to conduct original experimental research). At the end of each semester, our classroom will transform into a mini-conference, where students present their work to the rest of the class.

Technical requirements for taking the course: This course will be in-person except where otherwise noted on specific occasions. Students are expected to attend all talks in the Cognitive Science Speaker Series, which will be in-person. Students should be prepared for the possibility that the some or all meetings in the course become fully remote, with meetings being hosted on Zoom, as circumstances require. In order to fully participate in Zoom meetings, students should ensure that they have access to a stable, higher-speed internet connection, as well as a computer with a webcam and microphone, and/or a smart device with these features.

All assignments, the schedule of readings and seminar meetings, course announcements, and course policies will be posted to the eClass site for this course. All assignments will either be submitted via eClass or completed within the eClass interface (e.g. posting on discussion forums). The instructors will also use eClass as their primary way of communicating with students.

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:

Except where otherwise noted, meetings will be held in-person and on-campus on Wednesdays 11:30am–2:30pm EST at Ross S421.

Around four meetings per semester will overlap with talks in the Cognitive Science Speaker Series. The first hour will be spent in a classroom conversation with the speaker, while the second and third hours will be dedicated to the talk and q&a (both open to the public). Students are expected to attend and participate in these sessions.

Virtual office hours: The instructor will be available to meet with students for scheduled office hours both in-person and virtually through Zoom (W 2:30-3:30pm). All students are encouraged to attend office hours, 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.

Readings will be made available online through the eClass website.

1. Participation and weekly short writing assignments                                     20%
2. Research preparation assignments                                                             10%
3. Initial submission of research paper 20%
4. Revised Research Paper (including revision plan)                                     40%
5. Presentations 10%

(Specific breakdown and weighting of assignments is tentative and subject to change.)

Weekly seminar meetings (3 hours, with breaks). Class meetings will be conducted in-person and on-campus at the designated classroom. Any exceptions will be explicitly noted. Materials, assignments, and assessments will all be delivered through the eClass website.

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

1. Understand and evaluate some of the major contemporary controversies within cognitive science and critically analyze them.
2. Understand the main methodologies and approaches adopted by the disciplines of cognitive science, and be able to relate them to one another and compare their results.
3. Conduct a literature review concerning some topic in current cognitive science research involving two or more disciplines within cognitive science.
4. Conduct their own original research in cognitive science and present the results of their research.