Cognitive Psychology

PSYC 210: Introduction to Learning and Behavior
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: None
Enrollment Restrictions: None
Description of course contents: The course will examine historical and current theories that explain how different types of learning provide the foundation for most, if not all forms of an organism's behavior. We will cover these theories by carefully examining the most important research experiments that contributed to our current understanding of the principles and concepts that shape our behavior. The lecture content will focus heavily on experimental findings derived from research of learning processes in human and non-human species. The concept of Learning will be explored from the perspective of theories of Classical Conditioning, Operant Conditioning and more recent theories of the organization of behavior derived from human studies.
Instructor: Cedric Williams

PSYC 215: Introduction to Cognition
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: None
Enrollment Restrictions: None
Description of course contents: Cognition is the activity of knowing: the acquisition, organization, and use of knowledge. Emphasizing fundamental issues, this course introduces such basic content areas in cognitive psychology as perception, attention, memory, and language.   
Instructor:  Vikram Jaswal

PSYC 230: Introduction to Perception
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: None
Enrollment Restrictions: None
Description of course contents: Study of selected topics in perception, particularly visual perception; the role of stimulus variables, learning and motivation of perception.
*If course is full through ISIS: A waiting list will be maintained through the psychology website. Do not contact the professor.
Instructor: Dennis Proffitt

Important Note about PSYC 305 and 306

It is important for you to attend the first PSYC 305 or 306 lecture. You will sign an attendance sheet and be given instructions for completing an online form to confirm your lab registration. If you do not attend class you will be dropped from lecture and the lab. Coming to class late is not an excuse for missing this information. If you are unable to attend, you must contact the Director of Undergraduate Studies before the lecture. The purpose of the online form is to change your lab section if you are not happy in your current lab. The Director of Undergraduate Studies is the only person who can add or change your lab assignment. There are no Course Action forms for lab changes. The order of priority for lab changes are based on the number of alternate labs you select. If your lab is not changed you will be responsible for making the required adjustments to your schedule to accommodate a lab that still has space. Lab changes should be final by the afternoon of the first Friday (if not sooner) of the semester. After that time, you may change to any lab that is open via ISIS, but at the end of the first full week of classes the lab assignments will be locked. Please do not make a special appeal to the instructor, lab T.A., or the Director of Undergraduate Studies if you do not get the lab section you want. You are responsible for checking ISIS to confirm your lab section. All labs begin the first full week of classes. Failure to attend the lab in which you are registered may result in a penalty in your lab grade.

PSYC 305: Research Methods & Data Analysis I
* Prerequisites: Psyc 101 or any 200-level Psyc course
Description of course contents: Introduction to research methods in psychology, integrating statistical analysis. Emphasis on descriptive statistics and non-experimental research methods. Use of computers for data analysis, experimentation, and report writing. This course is required for majors and is the first part of a two-part series (305-306).
*If course is full through ISIS: A waiting list will be maintained through the psychology website. Do not contact the professor.
Instructor: Nancy Weinfield

PSYC 306: Research Methods & Data Analysis II
* Prerequisites: Psyc 305 ( with C- or better)
Description of course contents: Second part of a two-part series required for psychology majors. Emphasis on inferential statistics (t-tests and ANOVA) and issues in experimentation.
*If course is full through ISIS: A waiting list will be maintained through the psychology website. Do not contact the professor.
**Course May Meet Second Writing Requirement**
Instructor: James Freeman

PSYC 401: Memory Distortions
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: PSYC 215
Enrollment Restrictions: 4th year Psychology major/minors, Cog-Sci majors
Description of course contents: Although memory is generally accurate, some illusions and distortions in remembering are unavoidable. The consequences of these memory problems range from relatively benign tip-of-the-tongue experiences to untrustworthy eye-witness testimony. This class will review a variety of different memory distortions with the goal of advancing our understanding of memory.
Instructor: Chad Dodson

PSYC 404: Acquisition of Syntax In Language Development
*Note: Psyc 404 can be used to fulfill either the Cognitive Psychology or the Linguistics area requirement but not both.
Credits: 3
Prerequisites:
Enrollment Restrictions:
Description of course contents: We will investigate the acquisition of syntax in language development from empirical and theoretical perspectives. Questions about what it means to know language and how language is acquired will be explored in depth, along with discussions involving acquisition/development of language, which will include sign language and development of homesigned "language".
Instructor: Sandra Woods

PSYC 405: Exploring Cognitive Models of Anxiety
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: PSYC 305 and PSYC 341 or instructor permission
Enrollment Restrictions: 4th year Psychology major/minors, CogSci majors
Description of course contents:  The purpose of this course is to investigate one of the fundamental questions currently facing anxiety researchers:  how intelligent, ordinarily rational individuals could perceive their environments in such a way that they are overcome by extreme anxiety and/or avoidance.  How is it possible, for instance, that someone with panic disorder has literally experienced 422 panic attacks, but firmly believes the 423rd will be the one that kills him?  Why might someone with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) furiously wash her hands upwards of 50 times while preparing a meal for friends?  What leads to the cascade of worrisome thoughts associated with generalized anxiety disorder?  In an attempt to answer these puzzling questions, we will turn to leading theories that suggest that biased information processing (i.e., selectively processing threatening information) contributes to the maintenance of pathological anxiety and may be key to successful treatment.
Instructor: Elise Clerkin

PSYC 468: Psychology and Law: Cognitive and Social Issues
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: Psyc 215 or 260; PSYC 305/306 or other course in
empirical research methods
Enrollment Restrictions: 4th year Psychology Majors/Minors, Cog-Sci.
Description of course contents: Examines Issues for which cognitive and social psychology may be able to inform the legal system. Topics include eyewitness testimony, recovered memories, line-ups, expert testimony, jury selection, trial tactics, jury instructions and the use of statistics in the courtroom.
Instructor: Barbara Spellman

PSYC 581: Emotion and Cognition
Credits: 3
Prerequisites:
Enrollment Restrictions: 4th year Psychology Major/Minors, Cog-Sci GSAS
Description of course contents: The cognition-emotion seminar covers the connection between thinking and feeling in two ways. The first part asks about the causes of emotion, and the second asks about the consequences of emotion.  Part 1 concerns the nature and definition of emotion and the role of cognitive appraisals in their elicitation and intensity. Distinctions will be made among concepts such as affect, emotion, mood, and temperament.  Part 2 concerns the consequences of emotion for cognition, experience, and behavior.  Of interest will be such topics as the effects on judgment and decision-making, processing and performance, and memory and attention, and the role of culture.
Instructor: Gerald Clore

PSYC 583: Cognitive Neuroscience
*Note: PSYC 583 Cognitive Neuroscience can be used to fulfill either the Cognitive Psychology or the Neuroscience area requirement but not both.
Credits: 3
Prerequisites:
Enrollment Restrictions: 4th year  PSYC and Cognitive Science majors and GSAS
Description of course contents:  This course will be a survey of the field of cognitive neuroscience, including studies of patients with lesions and modern research on structural and functional neuroimaging.

Philosophy

PHIL 242: Introduction to Symbolic Logic
Credits: 3
Prerequisite: None
Description of course contents: A basic introduction to the concepts and techniques of modern formal logic. The aim of this course is to give the student a working knowledge of both sentential and quantifier logic. The emphasis is on developing an ability to carry out proofs within these systems and on developing an ability to translate sentences of natural language into symbolic notation. The course will acquaint the student with the concepts of formula, proof, interpretation and validity. Students will use logic software that will allow them to develop greater expertise with the material.
Instructor: Paul Humphreys

*PHIL 334  PHILOSOPHY OF MIND
Credits:  3
Prerequisites:  None
Description of course contents:  This course will address philosophical issues about the mind, including those surrounding the following questions.  How is the mind related to the body?  Does the phenomenon of consciousness pose a problem for a larger naturalistic theory of the world?  How can our mental states causally interact with the physical world?  How do thoughts succeed in representing the world?  Are thoughts constituted by states of the brain, or do they depend on external factors as well?  Is the self a unified, persisting entity? 
*NOTE: This course satisfies the College Second Writing requirement
Instructor:  Brie Gertler

PHIL 550:  PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE
Credits:  3
Prerequisites:  A basic understanding of Predicate Logic with Identity is required.
Description of course contents:  In this course we will focus on certain classical problems of meaning and reference, especially in the context of the two basic semantic theories of Frege and Russell.  Most of the theoretical discussion will center around the four semantic puzzles that appear in the two classical texts, namely Frege's “On Sense and Reference" and Russell's “On Denoting".  We will then discuss the influential semantic theory of the past three decades, Theory of Direct Reference, mainly concentrating on Kripke's text “Naming and Necessity”.  In the latter part of the course we will discuss how semantic issues relate to certain ontological, epistemic, and metaphysical problems.
The course does not require any background in philosophy of language; however, a basic understanding of Predicate Logic with Identity is required. Students will be asked to write a term paper that will be due on the last class meeting. The term paper should be perceived as a project that requires research going deeper into the issue than the level at which it is covered in class.
Instructor:  Inan Ilhan  

Linguistics

ANTH 240: Language and Culture
Credits: 3
Prerequisite: None
Description of Course Contents:  This course will be a survey of topics having to do with the relationship between language, culture, and society. We will consider both how language is described and analyzed by linguists, and how data from languages are used in related fields as evidence of cultural, social, and cognitive phenomena. Topics include: nature of language, origins of language, how languages change, use of linguistic evidence to make inferences about prehistory, the effects of linguistic categories on thought and behavior, regional and social variation in language, and cultural rules for communication.
Satisfies the non-Western perspectives requirement.  
Instructor: Tara Sanchez

ANTH 348: Language and Prehistory
Credits: 3
Prerequisites:
Description of course contents: This course covers the basic principles of diachronic linguistics and discusses the uses of linguistic data in the reconstruction of prehistory.
Instructor: Eve Danziger

ANTH 504: Linguistics Field Methods
Credits: 3
Prerequisite: None
Description of Course Contents: In this course we will work with a native speaker of an "exotic" language (i.e., a language that is not commonly taught in the U.S., hence likely not to be familiar to any of the students in the class). We try to figure out the phonological and grammatical structure of the language based on data collected from the native speaker consultant in class. Attendance is therefore mandatory. Assignments include one paper on phonology, one on morphology, and one on syntax.  The nature of the assignments may vary depending on the particular language being studied.
Instructor: Tara Sanchez

ANTH 542: Theories of Language
Credits: 3
Prerequisite: A course in Linguistics preferably LNGS 325
Description of course contents: We will survey a number of modern schools of linguistics, both American and European, trying to understand each approach in terms of its historical context, the goals it sets itself, the assumptions it makes about the nature of language, and the relation between theory and methodology. Grades will depend on: four or five written homework assignments that ask you to look at some data from a particular theoretical perspective; an oral presentation on a scholar or school of linguistics, a take-home, open-book final exam; and evidence (from class discussion) that you have been doing the readings, which are an essential part of the course.
Instructor: Ellen Contini-Morava

ANTH 549A: Multilingualism and Language Contact
Credits: 3
Prerequisite: None
Description of course contents: In the generative tradition within linguistics, the model of an ideal monolingual speaker is often assumed. However, most of the world's citizens experience language as bi- or multilingual individuals, and many of these live in multilingual communities. This course considers what happens to language at both the individual and community levels in circumstances of multilingualism and language contact. We will examine different types of contact, and their specific structural effects on each level of language, from phonetics to discourse-pragmatics. General topics will include pidiginization, creolization, language transfer, borrowing (lexical and structural), diglossia, codeswitching, and the speech community (e.g. How does one define a “multilingual speech community,” if such a thing is even possible?). 
Instructor: Tara Sanchez

ANTH 549B: Mind in Language ****CANCELLED****
Credits: 3
Prerequisites:
Enrollment Restrictions:
Description of course contents: Anthropologists report that across societies, different cultural attitudes exist as to the acceptability of speculating on what is taking place in another person's mind. In certain cultural settings, speculation of this kind is considered completely inappropriate: something to be politely avoided. Meanwhile however, linguistic theories about how conversation works rely heavily on the premise that in order to function successfully, conversational interactants must constantly seek out and interpret the unstated intentions of their conversation partners. How can we reconcile the linguistic account with the anthropological observations? This seminar course covers the relevant literature from ethno-psychology and linguistic pragmatics, and considers the relationship of cultural philosophies of language, including our own, to the actual conduct of interaction. Because figurative language forms (e.g., metaphor, irony) seem especially to require intention-guessing for their interpretation, the course includes significant consideration of the role and range of such forms in different cultural contexts.
Instructor: Eve Danziger

LNGS 325: Introduction to Linguistic Theory and Methodology
Credits: 3
Prerequisites:
Enrollment Restrictions:
Description of course contents: Introduces sign systems, language as a sign system, and approaches to linguistics. Emphasizes the application of descriptive techniques to data.
Instructor: Mark Elson

PSYC 404: Acquisition of Syntax
*Note: Psyc 404 can be used to fulfill either the Cognitive Psychology or the Linguistics area requirements but not both.
Credits: 3
Prerequisites:
Enrollment Restrictions:
Description of course contents: We will investigate the acquisition of syntax in language development from empirical and theoretical perspectives. Questions about what it means to know language and how language is acquired will be explored in depth, along with discussions involving acquisition/development of language, which will include sign language and development of homesigned "language".
Instructor: Sandra Woods

PHIL 550:  PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE
Credits:  3
Prerequisites:  A basic understanding of Predicate Logic with Identity is required.
Description of course contents:  In this course we will focus on certain classical problems of meaning and reference, especially in the context of the two basic semantic theories of Frege and Russell.  Most of the theoretical discussion will center around the four semantic puzzles that appear in the two classical texts, namely Frege's “On Sense and Reference" and Russell's “On Denoting".  We will then discuss the influential semantic theory of the past three decades, Theory of Direct Reference, mainly concentrating on Kripke's text “Naming and Necessity”.  In the latter part of the course we will discuss how semantic issues relate to certain ontological, epistemic, and metaphysical problems.
The course does not require any background in philosophy of language; however, a basic understanding of Predicate Logic with Identity is required. Students will be asked to write a term paper that will be due on the last class meeting. The term paper should be perceived as a project that requires research going deeper into the issue than the level at which it is covered in class.
Instructor:  Inan Ilhan  

Computer Science

All CS courses are acceptable except CS 110, CS 120, and CS 182.
ECE 200 will count for credit, but does not fill CS area requirement.

The most common intro-level CS courses for Cognitive Science majors are:

CS 150: From Ada and Euclid to Quantum Computing and the World Wide Web
(Previously CS 200: Foundations of Computer Science, http://www.cs.virginia.edu/cs150/ )

CS 101: Introduction to Computer Science (Please note: It is strongly advised that students begin with CS 150.)

CS 202: Discrete Mathematics

Neuroscience

* Students may count PSYC 220 OR BIOL 317 towards the major, but NOT both.

** Students may count PSYC 420 OR BIOL 408 towards the major, but NOT both.

*BIOL 317 : Introduction to Neurobiology
(* Students may count PSYC 220 OR BIOL 317 towards the major, but NOT both)
Credits: 3
Description of course contents: Analyzes the concepts of general neurobiology, including basic electrophysiology and electrochemistry, origin of bioelectric potentials, sensory, motor, integrative and developmental neurobiology, and conceptual models of simple learning.

*BIOL 417:  Neurophysiology
*Students may count PSYC 420 and BIOL 417 towards the major.
Credits: 3
Prerequisite: BIOL 317 or equivalent; BIOL 300.
Description of course contents: Explores a cellular approach to the study of the nervous system. Topics include the structure and function of ionic channels in cell membranes; the electrochemical basis of the cell resting potential; the generation and conduction of nerve impulses; and synaptic transmissions. Three lecture and demonstration/discussion hours. Class meetings include lectures, discussion, student presentations, and computer simulations of neurophysiology with NeuroDynamix.

BIOL 427:  Animal Behavior Laboratory
Credits: 3
Prerequisite: BIOL 325 recommended.
Description of course contents: Provides direct experience in approaches used to study animal behavior. Each lab concentrates on a particular aspect of behavior. Student experiments relate to central nervous systems; sensory perception; sign stimuli, feeding behavior; social behavior; reproductive behavior; biological timing; and animal observation in the laboratory and field.

BIOL 433: Wiring the Brain
Credits: 3
*Prerequisites: BIOL 317 or Psych 220 or instructors permission
This course will cover the current state of knowledge for how neurons form connections in the brain. The course will initially focus on how relatively simple model systems have provided the critical clues as to how specific synaptic connections form. This will be followed by a discussion of how this knowledge can be applied to the understanding and treatment of human neural disorders. About a quarter of the course will be standard lectures and the remainder student-led discussion of primary literature.

*PSYC 220: A Survey of the Neural Basis of Behavior
Description of course contents: After an overview of brain structure and organization, the course examines what we know about the biological bases of perception, learning and memory, emotion and psychopathology, as well as the regulatory behaviors: sleep, thirst, eating, sex, and those associated with psychoneuroimmunology.
*Includes Optional Review Session
Instructor: Peter Brunjes

PSYC 420: Neural Mechanisms of Behavior
Credits: 4 required lab Section
Prerequisites: PSYC 220 or PSYC 222 or permission of instructor; prior or concurrent enrollment in PSYC 321 is recommended.
Enrollment Restrictions:4th year Psychology, Cognitive Science, Biology and Neuroscience majors/minors, or Instructor Permission.
Description of course contents:  Lectures and discussion on molecular and cellular aspects of neural mechanisms as they relate to behavior. Topics will include neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, neurotransmitters and receptors, neuropharmacology, cortical organization and function, plasticity and neurodegenerative diseases.
Instructor: Alev Erisir

PSYC 583: Cognitive Neuroscience
*Note: PSYC 583 Cognitive Neuroscience can be used to fulfill either the Cognitive Psychology or the Neuroscience area requirement but not both.
Credits: 3
Prerequisites:
Enrollment Restrictions: 4th year  PSYC and Cognitive Science majors and GSAS
Description of course contents:  This course will be a survey of the field of cognitive neuroscience, including studies of patients with lesions and modern research on structural and functional neuroimaging.
Instructor: Salthouse