Cognitive Science 0338 - Current Issues in CS

This course is an advanced reading seminar exploring a broad range of topics of interest to the collaborating disciplines of cognitive science. Each week, in a three-hour session, participants will choose to read and discuss a paper (or set of papers) from the professional literature in various fields, including animal behavior & cognition, artificial intelligence, cognitive and developmental psychology, linguistics, philosophy, neuropsychology and neuroscience. In previous seminars our free-ranging discussions addressed issues including the possibility of machine intelligence and sentience; language-like capabilities in primates and canids; the nature and psychology of morality; evolution of the mind; autism; complexity theory; and consciousness. Students are expected to submit written responses to each of the readings (and to each other's comments) in an online discussion forum, and to write a final paper on a topic of their choosing. This course is only open to advanced Division II and Division III students

Writing and Research In this course, students are expected to spend at least six to eight hours a week of preparation and work outside of class time. This time includes reading, writing, research.