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Psychology 236 - Cognition and Memory
Overview
This course entertains the question of how a physical system has the ability to have knowledge, and hence, be intelligent. The intuitive answer entertained initially is that it somehow stores knowledge in its complex interior and uses this knowledge to guide its actions. In the ensuing weeks, the course offers first traditional and then contemporary interpretations of this intuition.
The first quarter of the course is a historical survey of epistemology and early psychological theory that is geared to provide the student with the foundational concepts needed for understanding contemporary theories. Of paramount importance is demonstrating the significance of the notion of representation and how both mind and body theories have been provided for understanding having knowledge as having ‘copies’ of the world. In the second quarter of the course, the contemporary information processing approach introduces computer memory and computer processes as a way of understanding having knowledge and thinking. Next, the cognitive neuroscience approach is proposed as an extension of the information processing approach which asks the question: If the brain is a computer, what kind of computer is it? Neural network theory and neurocognitive deficits are used to "biologize" information processing. Finally, if there is sufficient time, the ecological approach to perceiving and acting is introduced as a further counterpoint to a traditional information processing approach: In order to have a full theory of information processing, one must not only know how the nervous system is involved in knowing but also what in the environment is meaningful and information about these environmental properties exist about these meaningful properties.
Assignments and Grading
The four exams are each worth 20% of the final grade. The exams are a combination of short answer and essay. Makeup exams will only be given if permission is obtained prior to the exam or an emergency is documented. Short position papers on the course’s Special Topics are worth 15% and performing the CogLab experiments is worth 5% of the final grade. |
