Professor Johannes Mahr
jmahr@yorku.ca
Office Location:  N824 Ross Building
Office Hours:  Thursdays 4:00 – 5:00 p.m. (online via Zoom)

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.

As a seminar class, students are expected to attend and participate regularly in class discussions. Students may be required to lead 1-2 class discussions on the readings.

Technical requirements for taking the course: This course will be in-person. Students are expected to attend all talks in the Cognitive Science Speaker Series. 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 S432.

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 (Thursday 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 short writing assignments                                     20%
2. Research preparation assignments                         15%
3. Initial submission of research paper 25%
4. Revised Research Paper (including revision plan)                                     30%
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.

Major coursework will consist of short weekly writing responses to papers and talks, a written research project that is to be developed in stages over the course of the year, and presentations. The research project will be broken down into an iterative series of assignments, including (but not limited to): proposing and planning the project, drafting a paper, proposing revisions to the paper in response to instructor feedback, and implementing these revisions in a final draft. At the end of each semester, students will present their work in its latest stage of development.

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.

Assignment Submissions

Assignments will be submitted via eClass. As the short written responses will help form the content of the seminar meetings, no late responses are accepted for any reason. Students are permitted to drop the lowest mark on short responses for each term. If you need an extension on a paper or paper planning assignment, please make the request before the due date. Reasonable extensions will be granted.

Contacting instructors

You should contact the instructor via email. Please note that we will be responding to messages within during working days (i.e. not on weekends or holidays).

Course recordings:

Any recordings for this course should be used for educational purposes only and as a means for enhancing accessibility. 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).

Academic honesty and integrity

In this course, we strive to maintain academic integrity to the highest extent possible. All submitted coursework must be an expression of the student’s own understanding and ideas. Please familiarize yourself with the meaning of academic integrity by completing SPARK’s Academic Integrity module at the beginning of the course. Breaches of academic integrity range from cheating to plagiarism (i.e., the improper crediting of another’s work, the representation of another’s ideas as your own, etc.). All instances of academic dishonesty in this course will be reported to the appropriate university authorities, and can be punishable according to the Senate Policy on Academic Honesty.

Student Accommodations

We are 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.