Cognitive Psychology

PSYC 2150:  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, memory, language, cognitive development, and philosophy of science.
Instructor:  Willingham

PSYC 3005-1:  Research Methods & Data Analysis I
Credits:  4  (Required lab)
Prerequisite:  PSYC 1010 or any 2000-level PSYC course
Enrollment restrictions:  To be officially enrolled in PSYC 3005, registration is required for BOTH the lecture and a lab section. Otherwise, you will be dropped from the class.  Instructions on how to add the lecture or lab section or how to change lab sections will be given during the first lecture.
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 the first part of a two-part series (PSYC 3005 and PSYC 3006).
*If course is full in SIS:  An online waitlist may be started. Please do not contact the professor.
Instructor: Morris

PSYC 3006:  Research Methods & Data Analysis II
Credits:  4  (Required lab)
Prerequisite:  PSYC 3005 (with C- or better or C beginning with Class of 2010)
Enrollment Restrictions:  Psychology Majors and Minors; CogSci Majors
To be officially enrolled in PSYC 3005, registration is required for BOTH the lecture and a lab section. Otherwise, you will be dropped from the class.  Instructions on how to add the lecture or lab section or how to change lab sections will be given during the first lecture.
Description of course contents:  Second part of a two-part series. Emphasis on inferential statistics (t-tests and ANOVA) and issues in experimentation.
*If course is full in SIS:  An online waitlist may be started. Please do not contact the professor.
**Course May Meet Second Writing Requirement**
Instructor:  Freeman

PSYC 3006:  Research Methods & Data Analysis II
Credits:  4  (Required lab)
Prerequisite:  PSYC 3005 (with C- or better or C beginning with Class of 2010)
Enrollment Restrictions:  Psychology Majors and Minors; CogSci Majors
To be officially enrolled in PSYC 3005, registration is required for BOTH the lecture and a lab section. Otherwise, you will be dropped from the class.  Instructions on how to add the lecture or lab section or how to change lab sections will be given during the first lecture.
Description of course contents:  Second part of a two-part series. Emphasis on inferential statistics (t-tests and ANOVA) and issues in experimentation.
*If course is full in SIS:  An online waitlist may be started. Please do not contact the professor.
**Course May Meet Second Writing Requirement**
Instructor:  Schmidt

PSYC 4110:  Psycholinguistics
*Note:  PSYC 4110 may be used to fulfill either the Cognitive Psychology or the Linguistics area requirement, but not both.
Credits:  3
Prerequisites:  None
Enrollment Restrictions:  4th year Psychology Majors/Minors; Cognitive Science, Linguistics, and Communication Disorders Majors.
Description of course contents:  This course will discuss how linguistic models help us to understand the psychology of language. We will focus on the emergence of language in children, acquisition and development of language, language disorders and neurolinguistics, sociolinguistics, and bilingualism.
Instructor:  Loncke

PSYC 4120: Psychology of Reading
*Note:  PSYC 4120 may be used to fulfill either the Cognitive Psychology or the Linguistics area requirement, but not both.  
Credits:  3
Prerequisite:  PSYC 3005 or Instructor Permission
Enrollment Restrictions:  4th year Psychology Majors/Minors; Cognitive Science and Linguistics Majors.
Description of course contents:  For psychologists who study the psychology of reading, it sometimes amazes us that most literate people do not think much about the reading process. If you ask the typical person about how reading works, a typical response is that …it just does. I look at words on a page and then the sounds come out of my mouth. You might also hear… I do not know how I do it, but for as long as I can remember I could do it. Under certain circumstances, however, a deeper level of evaluation is forthcoming and people report that it is a very complicated process. Listening to someone who has some type of reading impairment, observing young children as they are learning to read, wondering about the meaning of a passage (Did the main character insult a minor character or was it the other way around?), debating the pronunciation of a word (greasy, Roanoke, Staunton, theater, insurance), or reading a passage in a second language, readers make evaluations/decisions during the reading process. The focus of this class, Psychology of Reading, is the study of the reading process; what happens when we process the squiggles on the page to meaningful information that we can use. This includes word processing, sentence processing, speed-reading, text comprehension, etc. All of this is related to how the brain works and how we think. We will read basic/historical information from texts, review recent psychological research articles, and consider some hands-on experiences related to the reading process. The Psychology of Reading course is an interesting mix of experimental & cognitive psychology and structural linguistics, as well as psychoneurology, phonetics, anthropology, sociology, education, and so on.
Instructor:  Adams

PSYC 4300:  Theories of Perception
Credits:  3
Prerequisites:  PSYC 2300 or Instructor Permission       
Enrollment Restrictions:  4th year Psychology Majors/Minors and Cognitive Science Majors
Description of course contents:  Perception is the means by which we become aware of the world and of ourselves. This seminar presents an overview of theories about perception including the following perspectives: philosophy, physiology, Gestalt psychology, cognitive psychology, ecology, and artificial intelligence. 
Instructor:  Kubovy

PSYC 4499:  Psychology and Law:  Cognitive and Social Issues
Credits:  3
Prerequisites: PSYC 2150 or 2600 and PSYC 3005 and 3006 or other course in empirical research methods
Enrollment Restrictions:  4th year Psychology Majors/Minors and Cognitive Science Majors
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:  Spellman

PSYC 4500-3:  Memory:  Forgotten, False and True
Credits:  3
Prerequisites:  None
Enrollment Restrictions:  4th year Psychology Majors/Minors and Cognitive Science 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. We will look at different kinds of memory errors as a tool for investigating how memory works.
Instructor:  Dodson

PSYC 4500-5:  Perceptual Motor Developments in Infants
Credits:  3
Prerequisites:  None  
Enrollment Restrictions:  4th year Psychology Majors/Minors and Cognitive Science Majors
Description of course contents:  We will cover the development of the major
perceptual systems (vision and audition) in infancy and their coordination with major action systems (locomotor systems like walking and fine motor control like reaching/grasping). To understand infant development, we must consider how these systems interact with one another and with the child's developing intellect.
Instructor:  Keen

PSYC 4500-6:  Pretense and Imagination in Children
Credits:  3
Prerequisites:  PSYC 3005 or instructor permission 
Enrollment Restrictions:  4th year Psychology Majors/Minors and Cognitive Science Majors
Description of course contents:  This course will read original source articles and texts to explore how children participate in fictional worlds (pretend, videos, books) and the impact of this participation on their learning and development. Some of the questions we will explore are: If pretending helps development, how, and are there good substitutes? What is the likely impact on development when preschool programs become more academic and less play-focused?  How do children keep pretend and real separate-or don't they?  Are imaginary friends healthy for development?  A centerpiece will be a Page-Barbour Workshop with outside speakers March 26-7.
Instructor:  Lillard

PSYC 4500-10:  Biological Models of Cognition
*Note:  PSYC 4500-10 may be used to fulfill either the Cognitive Psychology or the Neuroscience area requirement, but not both.
Credits:  3
Prerequisites: PSYC 2200 or 4200 and PSYC 2100
Enrollment Restrictions:  4th year Psychology Majors/Minors and Cognitive Science Majors
Description of course contents:  This seminar examines animal models that have been developed to study neurobiological mechanisms of cognition. Topics to be covered include goal-directed learning, decision-making, navigation, action selection, motivation, working memory and addiction. Each section will cover a specific cognitive process, the development and validation of animal models to study this process, and a discussion of identified neurobiological mechanisms. Students will learn how to read and interpret scientific articles, present their ideas in a group setting, and critically analyze current theories in psychology and neuroscience.
Instructor:  Wiltgen

PSYC 4500-11:  The Evolution of Language  
*Note:  PSYC 4500-11 may be used to fulfill either the Cognitive Psychology or the Linguistics area requirement, but not both.
Credits:  3
Prerequisites: Any Linguistics course or PSYC 5310 or PSYC 4110 or Instructor Permission
Enrollment Restrictions:  4th year Psychology Majors/Minors; Cognitive Science and Linguistics Majors; Speech and Hearing/Communication Disorders Majors 
Description of course contents:   We will examine the emergence of language in humans from linguistic and cognitive perspectives. Gesture, newly-developed sign languages, home sign systems, and creolization will be studied to understand the evolutionary path of language. We will also discuss the literature in research regarding the origin and emergence/evolution of language in humans.
Instructor:  Wood

Neuroscience

PSYC 2200:  Introduction to Psychobiology
* Note:  PSYC 2200 or BIOL 3170 credits may count for the major, but not both.
Credits:  3
Prerequisites:  None
Enrollment Restrictions:  None
Description of course contents:  One approach to understanding human behavior is to consider ourselves from a biological perspective. This course attempts to do so by examining how the brain guides behavior. The first portion is an overview of the structure and function of the central nervous system. With this knowledge, we then examine how the brain controls a variety of higher behaviors, including learning and memory, sex, emotions and sleeping.
Instructor:  Hill

PSYC 4200:  Neural Mechanisms of Behavior
Credits:  4 (required lab section)
Prerequisites: PSYC 2200 or PSYC 2220 or Instructor Permission
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:  Erisir

PSYC 4500-1:  The Greatest Ideas and Experiments in the History of Neuroscience and Behavior
Credits:  3
Prerequisites:  None
Enrollment Restrictions:  4th year Psychology Majors /Minors and Cognitive Science Majors
Description of course contents:  Most scientific endeavors advance our knowledge and understanding by very small steps. However, on rare occasion, a new idea or an experimental outcome causes a monumental advance in a field of science. They were called "Paradigm shifts" by the philosopher, Thomas Kuhn, because they cause a change in the way we think about a phenomenon.

The aim of this seminar is to examine the ideas and experiments that have had a major impact on our understanding of brain function, in general, and of the ways the nervous system supports behavior and experience. The questions they addressed are very simple:  Are nerves independent? Why and how are they charged electrically? How do they get excited or inhibited? How do they communicate? Are chemicals involved? If so, how so? How do sensory systems convey the physical world to the brain? Are they accurate or do they distort the world? If so, is that good or bad? How does brain function impact movement, perception, learning, memory, thinking, motivation, arousal, etcetera, etcetera?
Instructor:  Best

PSYC 4500-10:  Biological Models of Cognition
*Note:  PSYC 4500-10 may be used to fulfill either the Neuroscience or the Cognitive Psychology area requirement, but not both.
Credits:  3
Prerequisites: PSYC 2200 or 4200 and PSYC 2100
Enrollment Restrictions:  4th year Psychology Majors/Minors and Cognitive Science Majors
Description of course contents:  This seminar examines animal models that have been developed to study neurobiological mechanisms of cognition. Topics to be covered include goal-directed learning, decision-making, navigation, action selection, motivation, working memory and addiction. Each section will cover a specific cognitive process, the development and validation of animal models to study this process, and a discussion of identified neurobiological mechanisms. Students will learn how to read and interpret scientific articles, present their ideas in a group setting, and critically analyze current theories in psychology and neuroscience.
Instructor:  Wiltgen

BIOL 3250:  Introduction to Animal Behavior
Credits: 3
Prerequisites:  BIOL 2010 and BIOL 2020
Description of course contents:  An introduction to comparative studies of animal behavior from neuroethological and evolutionary perspectives. The first deals with proximate causes of behavior, with emphases on motor, sensory and central aspects of the nervous system. The second deals with ultimate causes, with emphases on natural selection, natural history, and adaptive aspects of behavior.
Instructors:  Friesen

BME 3636:  Neural Network Models of Cognition and Brain Computation
Credits:  3
Prerequisites:  CS 1110 and BME 2101 or Instructor Permission
Description of course contents:  This is an introductory course to neural networks research, specifically biologically-based networks that reproduce cognitive phenomena. The goal of this course is to teach the basic thinking and methodologies used in constructing and understanding neural-like networks.
Instructor:  Levy

Linguistics

ANTH 2400:  Language and Culture
Credits:  3
Prerequisites:  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 evidence from language can shed light on a variety of social, cultural, and cognitive phenomena. Topics include: nature of language, origins of language, how languages change, writing systems, 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.
Instructor:  Contini-Morava

ANTH 2430:  Languages of the World
Credits:  3
Prerequisites:  One year of foreign language or Instructor Permission
Description of course contents:  This course introduces students to the diversity of human language and the principles of linguistic classification. How many languages are spoken in the world, and how are they related? What features do all languages share, and in what ways may they differ? In surveying the world's languages, we will focus on the structure and social situation of a set of representative languages for each geographic region covered. We will also discuss the global trend of shift from the use of minority languages to large languages of wider communication, and what this means for the future of human diversity.
Instructor:  Dobrin

ANTH 3490:  Language and Thought
Credits:  3
Prerequisites:  None
Description of course contents:  There is almost always more than one way to think about any problem. But could speaking a particular language make some strategies and solutions seem more natural than others to individuals? The classic proposal of linguistic relativity as enunciated by Benjamin Lee Whorf is examined in the light of more recent cross-cultural and psycholinguistic research. We highlight the interplay between social intelligence, linguistic structure and general cognition. In the course of the discussion, we consider topics such as the significance of literacy for cognition and the development of language-specific cognitive preferences during childhood. Finally, we ask how our own culturally-particular ways of talking about language might reflect and reinforce some of the unexamined common-sense ideas about the nature of language which underlie most linguistic research.
Instructor:  Danziger

ANTH 5040:  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:  Dobrin

ANTH 5430:  African Language Structures
Credits:  3
Prerequisites:  One Linguistics course (preferred) or Instructor Permission
Description of course contents:  This course is an introduction to the linguistic diversity of the African continent, with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa. For about three-fourths of the course we will discuss linguistic structures (sound systems, word-formation, and syntax) among a wide variety of languages; the classification of African languages; and the use of linguistic data to reconstruct prehistory. For the last fourth of the course we will address a range of sociolinguistic topics, including language and social identity, social functions of language, verbal art, the politics of language planning, and the rise of "mixed" languages among urban youth. While lectures address general and comparative topics, each student will choose one language to focus on, using published materials available in the library. This language will be the basis for the major assignments.
Instructor:  Contini-Morava

PSYC 4110:  Psycholinguistics
*Note:  PSYC 4110 may be used to fulfill either the Linguistics or the Cognitive Psychology area requirement, but not both.
Credits:  3
Prerequisites:  None
Enrollment Restrictions:  4th year Psychology Majors/Minors; Cognitive Science, Linguistics, and Communication Disorders Majors.
Description of course contents:  This course will discuss how linguistic models help us to understand the psychology of language. We will focus on the emergence of language in children, acquisition and development of language, language disorders and neurolinguistics, sociolinguistics, and bilingualism.
Instructor:  Loncke

PSYC 4120: Psychology of Reading
*Note:  PSYC 4120 may be used to fulfill either the Linguistics or the Cognitive Psychology area requirement, but not both.
Credits:  3
Prerequisite:  PSYC 3005 or Instructor Permission
Enrollment Restrictions:  4th year Psychology Majors/Minors; Cognitive Science and Linguistics Majors.
Description of course contents:  For psychologists who study the psychology of reading, it sometimes amazes us that most literate people do not think much about the reading process. If you ask the typical person about how reading works, a typical response is that …it just does. I look at words on a page and then the sounds come out of my mouth. You might also hear… I do not know how I do it, but for as long as I can remember I could do it. Under certain circumstances, however, a deeper level of evaluation is forthcoming and people report that it is a very complicated process. Listening to someone who has some type of reading impairment, observing young children as they are learning to read, wondering about the meaning of a passage (Did the main character insult a minor character or was it the other way around?), debating the pronunciation of a word (greasy, Roanoke, Staunton, theater, insurance), or reading a passage in a second language, readers make evaluations/decisions during the reading process. The focus of this class, Psychology of Reading, is the study of the reading process; what happens when we process the squiggles on the page to meaningful information that we can use. This includes word processing, sentence processing, speed-reading, text comprehension, etc. All of this is related to how the brain works and how we think. We will read basic/historical information from texts, review recent psychological research articles, and consider some hands-on experiences related to the reading process. The Psychology of Reading course is an interesting mix of experimental & cognitive psychology and structural linguistics, as well as psychoneurology, phonetics, anthropology, sociology, education, and so on.
Instructor:  Adams

PSYC 4500-11:  The Evolution of Language  
*Note:  PSYC 4500-11 may be used to fulfill either the Linguistics or the Cognitive Psychology area requirement, but not both.
Credits:  3
Prerequisites: Any Linguistics course or PSYC 5310 or PSYC 4110 or Instructor Permission
Enrollment Restrictions:  4th year Psychology Majors/Minors; Cognitive Science and Linguistics Majors; Speech and Hearing/Communication Disorders Majors 
Description of course contents:   We will examine the emergence of language in humans from linguistic and cognitive perspectives. Gesture, newly-developed sign languages, home sign systems, and creolization will be studied to understand the evolutionary path of language. We will also discuss the literature in research regarding the origin and emergence/evolution of language in humans.
Instructor:  Wood

SPAN 3200:  Introduction to Hispanic Linguistics
Credits:  3  
Description of course contents:  This course offers a rigorous introduction to the formal study of the Spanish language. Topics include: articulatory phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, historical linguistics and dialectology. Taught in Spanish.
Instructor: Tejedo-Herrero

Philosophy

PHIL 2330:  Computers, Minds and Brains
Credits:  3
Prerequisites:  None
Description of course contents:  Can computers think or have experiences roughly like ours? Over the last three decades different approaches to answering this question have been developed, including classical Al, neural nets, varieties of non-reductive physicalism, and neurophysiological eliminativism. All have something to say about what does and does not make humans special. The possibility also arises of transcending human nature and abilities using artificial intelligence and artificial life, rendering humans obsolete. These and other issues will be addressed through readings in philosophy, cognitive science, and computer science. No previous knowledge of philosophy is required.
Instructor:  Humphreys

PHIL 2420:  Introduction to Symbolic Logic
Credits:  3
Prerequisites:  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: Cargile

PHIL 3320:  Epistemology
Credits:  3
Prerequisite:  None
Description of course contents: Studies problems concerned with the foundations of knowledge, perception, and rational belief.
Instructor:  Langsam

Computer Science

All Computer Science courses are acceptable except CS 1010 and CS 1020.  ECE 2066: Science of Information will count for credit but does not fill the CS area requirement.

The most common introductory-level Computer Science courses for Cognitive Science majors are:

CS 1110:  Introduction to Programming  (Previously CS 101)

CS 1120:  From Ada and Euclid to Quantum Computing and the World Wide Web     (Previously CS 150)

CS 2102:  Discrete Mathematics I  (Previously CS 202)

*Note:  CS 1120 is strongly recommended as the first CS course for Cognitive Science majors.