CGSC 216b and CGSC 2160b / LING 1160b / PSYC 116b / PSYC 1316b, Cognitive Science of Language  Athulya Aravind

The study of language from the perspective of cognitive science. Exploration of mental structures that underlie the human ability to learn and process language, drawing on studies of normal and atypical language development and processing, brain imaging, neuropsychology, and computational modeling. Innate linguistic structure vs. determination by experience and culture; the relation between linguistic and nonlinguistic cognition in the domains of decision making, social cognition, and musical cognition; the degree to which language shapes perceptions of color, number, space, and gender.  SO
TTh 2:35pm-3:50pm

CGSC 1100a / PSYC 1300a, Introduction to Cognitive Science  Brian Scholl

An introduction to the interdisciplinary study of how the mind works. Discussion of tools, theories, and assumptions from psychology, computer science, neuroscience, linguistics, and philosophy.  SO
TTh 2:35pm-3:50pm

CGSC 1390a / PSYC 1390a, Mental Lives of Babies and Animals  Nicolò Cesana-Arlotti

Interdisciplinary exploration of the cognitive, social, and emotional capacities of creatures lacking language and culture. The extent to which our complex psychology is unique to mature humans; the relative richness of a mental life without language or culture. Some attention to particular human populations such as children with autism and adults with language disorders.  SO
TTh 11:35am-12:50pm

CGSC 2430a / CGSC 243 / LING 2430a, Dynamics of Speech  Jason Shaw

Systems that change over time, from particles to climates to stock markets, are often well described as Dynamical Systems. Speech, like many aspects of human behavior, involve action and perception components, which are mediated and related by the central nervous system. Each of these components unfolds over time according to laws, which can be formulated using dynamical systems theory. This class provides an introduction to the types of dynamical systems that have been proposed to describe and explain human speech behavior, including (1) articulatory kinematics, i.e., the movements of speech organs such as the tongue, lips, vocal folds, etc., (2) neural activity governing intention and control, and (3) auditory transduction and perception of speech sound waves.  The course makes use of key concepts from calculus, particularly differential equations. Review of the necessary math will be provided in class. Most homework assignments involve light coding in the Matlab environment. No previous experience with Matlab is required; however, we expect students to have some familiarity with basic coding concepts (functions, loops, variables, matrices). Please feel free to reach out to us if you have questions about preparation.  SO
TTh 1:05pm-2:20pm

CGSC 2750b / LING 2750b / PHIL 2280b, Pragmatics  Simon Charlow

Speakers often mean things they don’t say, but how does a hearer figure out what the speaker meant? Which sentences are designed to change the world rather than just to represent it? How are sentences used to mean different things in different contexts?  Pragmatics explores the relations between what is said and what is meant, focusing on how speech acts and the principles of “street logic”—presuppositions and implicatures—help speakers and hearers shape the landscape of a conversation. No formal prerequisites, but some familiarity with linguistics or philosophy of language will help on some of the readings.   SO  RP
TTh 1:05pm-2:20pm

* CGSC 3130b / CGSC 313 / PHIL 3305b / PSYC 3113b, Philosophy for Psychologists  Joshua Knobe

Introduction to frameworks developed within philosophy that have applications in psychological research. Principal topics include the self, causation, free will, and morality. Recommended preparation: a course in philosophy or psychology.  HU, SO
HTBA

* CGSC 3141a / PHIL 3141a / PSYC 3141a / RLST 3104a, The Good Mind: Buddhist Philosophy for Psychologists  Sonam Kachru and Xihan Zhang

Buddhist practices of attention (meditation) have influenced contemporary therapeutic interventions in clinical psychology, such as Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, Cognitive and Dialectical Behavior Therapy. Even though the clinical evidence for the effectiveness of these therapies is strong, the mechanisms underlying therapeutic success remain largely unknown. Buddhist philosophical models of mental architecture and action relevant to meditation are not sufficiently drawn on in empirical work; at the same time, many of the explanatory models developed by Buddhist philosophy remain empirically untested. This course fills the gap by providing students with the resources to engage Buddhist philosophy and experimental psychology in dialogue. Students develop expertise in the epistemic paradigms of analysis and explanation involved in both traditions, with an emphasis on the prospects for first-personal observation in both theoretical paradigms. Given the multidisciplinary nature of this course and its topical focus on well-being, we imagine this class suitable for a broad range of students from Psychology, Cognitive Science, Humanities, Religious Studies, and Philosophy, among other disciplines.  HU, SO
Th 9:25am-11:20am

CGSC 3240a / NSCI 3230a / PSYC 3240a, Human Neuropsychology  Randolph Helfrich

Neuropsychology is the fascinating study of how brain functions give rise to behavior and cognition. This course offers an in-depth exploration of how brain lesions provide crucial insights into the workings of the human mind. Through case studies of individuals with various brain injuries and disorders, students learn how specific brain areas contribute to attention, memory, language or/and motor control. By examining the consequences of various pathologies, students learn about the connections between brain structure and function, offering a unique window into the complex processes that govern human behavior. The course covers state-of-the-art neuroimaging and neurophysiology techniques and clinical assessment methods to understand how disruptions to the brain’s architecture lead to cognitive and behavioral changes. We discuss a range of neuropsychiatric conditions, including stroke, epilepsy, dementia, movement disorders, or traumatic brain injury to understand the challenges presented by these disorders. Whether it’s unraveling the mysteries visual agnosia, attention and memory disorders, or studying the profound shifts in personality after frontal lobe injury, this course provides an exciting journey into the brain’s function from the perspective of individual patients. Prerequisite: PSYC 160/NSCI 160.
TTh 9am-10:15am

CGSC 3380a / NSCI 3380a / PSYC 3380a, Minds, Brains, and Machines  Julian Jara-Ettinger

Leibniz compared the brain to a mill, Freud to a hydraulic system, and now we think of it as a computer. Have we gotten it right? If so, what kind of computer is the brain? And what kind of software is the mind? This course explores these questions by integrating classical and cutting-edge findings from artificial intelligence, cognitive science, neuroscience, philosophy, and psychology. In this course you learn how modern artificial intelligence works—including deep neural networks, program synthesis, and neuro-symbolic approaches. You learn how to think about artificial intelligence from the perspectives of cognitive science and neuroscience. And you learn how current advances in AI are helping us understand how the mind and brain works. Conversely, you also learn how advances in psychology and neuroscience have played a key role in the biggest ideas in AI. This course is ideal for a variety of students: Psychology and cognitive science majors that want to learn about AI. CS students that want to know how to think about AI from a cognitive perspective. And anyone who wants to know how to think critically about all the advances in the study of minds, brains, and machines. Students are strongly encouraged to have taken either Introduction to Psychology (PSYC 110), or Introduction to Cognitive Science (CGSC 110). Introduction to Computer Science (CPSC 201) is also ideal.  SO
TTh 4pm-5:15pm

* CGSC 3475b / LING 3475b / PSYC 3475b, Development of Human Communication  Gabor Brody

This course explores what human communication is, and how infants, children and adults take part in it. To understand this, we explore communication across the human lifespan but also across evolutionary time, looking at non-human animals or machines. Our focus is on human conversation, the development of communicative abilities that precede language, and various social dimensions of sharing information. Drawing on linguistic, philosophical, developmental and comparative research, we examine what is shared across various forms of communication, what functions it serves and where it might leave humans and human groups vulnerable. Prerequisites: Cognitive Science of Language or Developmental Psychology  SO
TTh 2:35pm-3:50pm

CGSC 3550a / PSYC 3550a, Inside the Hive Mind: The Psychology of Group Life  Yarrow Dunham

Human life is life in groups. Our lives depend on a complex web of others who furnish us with food, shelter, clothing, protection. Even our sense of self is largely defined in terms of who we are similar to and different from. And groups are by no means unique to our species, providing social organization in species as insects or even bacteria. But to place groups in a biological and evolutionary framework is to confront a central mystery, the mystery of cooperation: Why help others who may or may not help you back? And why don’t cheaters invade the population of cooperators, taking advantage of their niceness without reciprocation? This course begins with the evolutionary and biological origins of group life. When and why does group behavior evolve? What problems does it solve, and what forms does it take in other species? We then turn to the unique ways in which group behavior plays out in humans. Here we cover classic psychological work on topics like social identity, stereotyping and prejudice, and conformity, seeking to understand the ways in which group-mindedness enables both what is best and worst in our species. PSYC 1100 or PSYC 1300 (Introduction to Psychology or Introduction to Cognitive Science)  SO
TTh 2:35pm-3:50pm

CGSC 3610a / LING 3610a / PSYC 163 / PSYC 3470a, Language Acquisition  Athulya Aravind

An introduction to language acquisition, a subfield of linguistics whose goal is to understand how humans acquire the ability to speak and understand a language, a highly complex task that is routinely and seemingly effortlessly accomplished by competent (native) speakers of the language in the first few years of life and without explicit instruction. Focusing on first, or native, language acquisition, this course covers selected topics in core areas of linguistic knowledge, including the lexicon (words), sentence structure, meaning composition, and pragmatics, from a developmental perspective. One of (i) Introduction to Linguistics (ii) Cognitive Science of Language  SO
Th 9:25am-11:20am

CGSC 3630a / CGSC 363 / LING 3630a, Computational Models of Syntax  Robert Frank

Computational and mathematical approaches to natural language syntax. The course explores formal expressiveness and fit with linguistic properties. Grammatical systems studied will include categorial, tree-adjoining, dependency, minimalist and multiple context-free grammars. Topics may also include parsing complexity, algorithms for grammar learning, and applications to natural-language processing systems.  Prerequisite: LING 224 or CPSC 460, or permission of instructor.  SO
MW 11:35am-12:50pm

* CGSC 3750a / CGSC 375 / LING 2759a / PSYC 3375a, Linguistic Meaning and Conceptual Structure  Maria Pinango

The meaning of a word or sentence is something in the human mind that has specific properties: it can be expressed (written/signed/spoken forms); it can be combined with other meanings; its expression is not language dependent; it connects with the world; it serves as a vehicle for inference; and it is hidden from awareness. The course explores these properties in some detail and, in the process, provides the students with technical vocabulary and analytical tools to further investigate them. The course is thus intended for those students interested in undertaking a research project on the structure of meaning. the nature of lexico-conceptual structure, that is, the structure of concepts which we refer to as “word meanings”, and how they may be combined through linguistic and non-linguistic means. Its ultimate objective is to bridge models of conceptual structure and models of linguistic semantic composition,  identify their respective strengths and weaknesses and explore some of the fundamental questions that any theory of linguistic meaning composition must answer. Evidence discussed will emerge from naturalistic, introspectional, and experimental methodologies.  Prerequisites: LING 110, CGSC 110, LING 217, or LING 263.  SO
MW 2:35pm-3:50pm

* CGSC 3950a / PHIL 3395a, Junior Colloquium in Cognitive Science  Isaac Davis

Survey of contemporary issues and current research in cognitive science. By the end of the term, students select a research topic for the senior essay. Enrollment limited to Cognitive Science majors.  ½ Course cr
HTBA

* CGSC 4130a / CGSC 413 / PSYC 4130a, Mind, Brain, and Society  Marvin Chun

Human cognitive and motor performance fluctuates over time and varies across situations.  What explains peak performance and how can it be sustained?  The variation can be explained by neural mechanisms of attention and executive control; psychological factors like emotion/stress management and positive mindset; and physiological factors such as sleep and exercise.  Drugs can enhance cognition and emotion regulation.  What are the ethical and societal considerations for such enhancement in neurotypical individuals?  Functional brain imaging is improving our ability to decode the mind and predict performance.  What are its implications for screening and privacy?   SO
Th 9:25am-11:20am

* CGSC 4260b / EP&E 4490b / PHIL 4426b / PSYC 4220b, The Cognitive Science of Morality  Joshua Knobe

Introduction to the emerging field of moral cognition. Focus on questions about the philosophical significance of psychological findings. Topics include the role of emotion in moral judgment; the significance of character traits in virtue ethics and personality psychology; the reliability of intuitions and the psychological processes that underlie them.  HU
HTBA

* CGSC 4330a / LING 4330a / PSYC 4330a, Belief Change  Gabor Brody

We say things in an attempt to change other people’s minds. In ordinary conversation, speakers and listeners begin with a set of beliefs they take to be shared. The things we say are designed to update that shared understanding by introducing new information, challenging existing beliefs, or guiding others toward certain conclusions. How this happens is surprisingly complex. Speakers rarely state everything they mean outright, and listeners routinely infer meanings that go beyond what is explicitly said. Successful belief-change depends on context, background knowledge, and the kinds of reasoning speakers and listeners perform about each other’s minds. In this seminar, we bring together work from psychology, philosophy of language, and linguistics to explore how speakers use language and other means to influence others’ beliefs and how listeners infer meaning from what is said and from what is left unsaid.  SO
Th 1:30pm-3:25pm

* CGSC 4710a and CGSC 4720a, Directed Research in Cognitive Science  Tyler Brooke-Wilson

Research projects for qualified students. The student must be supervised by a member of the Cognitive Science faculty, who sets the requirements and directs the research. To register, a student must submit a written plan of study to the director of undergraduate studies and the faculty supervisor. The normal minimum requirement is a written report of the completed research, but individual faculty members may set alternative equivalent requirements. Only one term may be offered toward the major, with permission of the director of undergraduate studies; two terms may be offered toward the bachelor's degree.
HTBA

* CGSC 4730a and CGSC 4740a, Directed Reading in Cognitive Science  Tyler Brooke-Wilson

Individual study for qualified students who wish to investigate an area of cognitive science not covered in regular courses. The student must be supervised by a member of the Cognitive Science faculty, who sets the requirements and meets regularly with the student. To register, a student must submit a written plan of study to the director of undergraduate studies and the faculty supervisor. The normal minimum requirement is a term paper, but individual faculty members may set alternative equivalent requirements. Only one term may be offered toward the major, with permission of the director of undergraduate studies; two terms may be offered toward the bachelor's degree.
HTBA

CGSC 4800a, Senior Non-Empirical Project I  Isaac Davis

A research colloquium leading to the selection of a topic for the senior essay. This course is followed by CGSC 4810 to complete the senior requirement. Enrollment is limited to Cognitive Science majors earning the B.A. Degree.  ½ Course cr
HTBA

CGSC 4810a, Senior Non-Empirical Project II  Isaac Davis

Completion of the senior essay. Prerequisites: CGSC 4800. Enrollment limited to Cognitive Science majors earning the B.A. Degree.  ½ Course cr
M 9:25am-11:20am

* CGSC 4852a / HUMS 3852a / PHIL 4852a / PSYC 4852a, Intelligence: Human, Animal, Artificial  Tamar Gendler

What does it mean to be intelligent? This seminar traces the idea of intelligence across species, centuries, and systems — from Plato’s vision of the rational soul, through Aristotle’s reflections on perception and movement, to contemporary discussions of emotional, embodied, collective, and artificial minds. We read philosophers, psychologists, and novelists who have asked how minds know, feel, coordinate, and create. Classical accounts of reason and virtue are paired with modern research on habit, gesture, and social learning, and with current debates about neural networks and generative AI. Our project, in the end, is less to define intelligence than to watch it refract — through reason and emotion, habit and invention, solitude and community — and to ask what those refractions reveal about how we come to know, and what it might mean to understand. The point is not to settle what intelligence is, but to examine what our attempts to define it disclose — about the world, and about ourselves. This course is appropriate for juniors and seniors who are completing majors in Philosophy, Cognitive Science, or Humanities. Open to students have taken at least 4 previous philosophy classes, with preference to students who are completing capstone requirements.  HU
W 7pm-8:55pm

CGSC 4900a, Senior Empirical Project I  Isaac Davis

A research colloquium leading to the selection of a topic for the senior essay. This course is followed by CGSC 4910 to complete the senior requirement. Enrollment is limited to Cognitive Science majors earning the B.S. Degree.  ½ Course cr
HTBA

* CGSC 4910a, Senior Empirical Project II  Isaac Davis

Completion of the senior essay. Prerequisite: CGSC 4900. Enrollment is limited to Cognitive Science majors earning the B.S. Degree.  ½ Course cr
M 9:25am-11:20am