Inquiry in the Cognitive Sciences

PHILOSOPHY-NEUROSCIENCE-PSYCHOLOGY 201

What is cognitive science, and how does it happen? This course will investigate the methods used to probe human and non-human animal minds across the cognitive sciences. We will take a close look at specific experimental methods, such as looking times, fMRI, 4-cup tasks, and the Implicit Association Test. These methods are used to inquire into the nature of the mind, including how children develop capacities for social cognition and logical inference, how cognition influences perception, how we categorize other people and attribute mental states, how we process language, and other fascinating topics. Over the course of the term we will try to keep larger theoretical questions in mind and consider how we might use different tools to converge on cognitive phenomena. Prerequisites: completion of at least one of the following courses: Psych 100B, Phil 120F, Phil 125C, Biol 296A, MBB 120 or Ling 170D
Course Attributes: FA NSM; AR NSM; AS NSM; AS AN; BU SCI