Syllabus jul-nov 2014

introduction to cognitive science se367

instructor: amitabha mukerjee
hours: TuTh 1200-1330
venue: cs 102

overview

cognitive Science is the study of mind. it differs from Psychology in that it focuses on the computations that enable to brain to work. this computational view is a hallmark of cognitive science. it also means that unlike neuroscience, Cog Sci is less concerned about the brain structures - its genetics and its evolutionary history.

in order to do its work, the brain also creates some internal representations for structures in the world and inside us; the nature of these representations are some of the key aspects that one attempts to study in cognitive science. a large part of our actions, especially for things we are good at, are based on representations that are subconscious, so we can't describe what it is that we are doing. this is what makes cognitive science challenging.

in this course, we shall be looking at a broad range of psychological data and performing some experiments (on ourselves as well) to try to study the operations of the mind. we shall be looking at some of the neural mechanisms that may be underlying our performance. also, we shall be seeking to simulate some of these capabilities on computational systems to understand the internal mechanics of these systems. we shall also consider questions of how an infant learns, and particularly, issues of modeling meaning in language. finally, we shall consider some philosophical issues about what it means to represent something.

though there is no textbook, a set of readings is suggested below. also, it may help you to read one of these two exciting books that have become bestsellers in recent years:

structure

there are no special pre-requisites. there will be some computational homeworks, but these should be possible for anyone in IIT.

unlike previous years, where we looked at one sub-discipline at a time (psychology, philosophy, neuroscience, linguistics, etc.), this year we will be looking across functionalities. in particular, we will be taking a developmental viewpoint - i.e. how does a baby learn to do something. so the topics we will be looking at are:

project

there will be a project which may involve any of the above areas. i expect some people to conduct experiments on actual users, or you may work on computational simulations, or propose theoretical models. merely a survey of literature will not comprise a project.

you may find it interesting to look at some of the older projects at from last year.

grading:

readings:

  1. Wilson, Robert A., & Keil, Frank C. (eds.), The MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive Sciences (MITECS), MIT Press, 2001

    An excellent text, with lots of top notch essays covering the many of the topics you may wish to explore in the latter parts of the course. Great for browsing as well...

  2. Bowerman, Melissa and Stephen C. Levinson, Language Acquisition and Conceptual Development, Cambridge University Press 2001

    A pathbreaking research compilation, starting with infants in the first year (they learn abstract concepts like number of animacy); focusing on developmental debates such as effect of language on general cognition (ch. 2: whorf without wincing), role of intentionality (ch 5); gender effects (ch 8), etc.

  3. Evans, Vyvyan and Melanie Green; Cognitive linguistics: an introduction, Routledge, 2006.
In addition, we may refer to some of the following works. And of course, there is the wide big world of articles from relevant journals and other research publications. In particular, we will be looking at papers from CogSci 2011 for projects / topics etc.

list of students:

1   11023        CHE            ABHISHEK BANSAL
2   11042        PHY            ADITYA TANDON
3   11131        CSE            ANUBHAV BIMBISARIYE
4   11190        MSE            BANOTH RAKESH NAIK
5   11208        BSBE           BRIJESH CHANDRAKAR
6   11212        EE             CHAITANYA AHUJA
7   11216        BSBE           CHEPURWAR SHASHANK SHARAD
8   11244        CSE            DEVENDRA MANDAN
9   11253        CSE            DHRUV KUMAR YADAV
10  11350        CSE            KANISHK VARSHNEY
11  11354        CSE            KARAN SINGH
12  11373        ECO            KRISHNA CHANDAK
13  11377        BSBE           KULDEEP KUMAR
14  11418        CE             MD MANZAR HUSSAIN ANJUM
15  11456        BSBE           NEHA ASHOK WAGHMARE
16  11466        CSE            NIMAVAT RACHIT ANIL
17  11514        CE             PRANJAL GUPTA
18  11640        BSBE           SANDESH DNYANDEO CHOPADE
19  11672        BSBE           SHALIN MANDOWARA
20  11720        EE             SMITH GUPTA
21  11784        BSBE           VAISHNAV EESHIT DHAVAL
22  11790        EE             VARUN KUMAR
23  11799        CSE            VIJAY KESWANI
24  12013        EE             ABHIJEET SINHA
25  12051        MTH            ADITYA RAMAMOHAN DEGALA
26  12077        EE             ALANKRITA BHATT
27  12103        BSBE           AMRITA SINGH
28  12129        CSE            ANKITA PASRICHA
29  12156        BSBE           ARNAB BISWAS
30  12157        CSE            ARNAB GHOSH
31  12158        EE             ARPIT AGARWAL (S/O AG)
32  12177        EE             AVI SINGH
33  12212        ECO            SACHET CHAVAN
34  12218        CSE            CHIRAG GUPTA
35  12233        BSBE           DEEPIKA SACHAN
36  12256        EE             GAGANDEEP SINGH JOSSAN
37  12326        ECO            JITENDRA SINGH
38  12349        CSE            KAVITI SAI SAURAB
39  12407        MTH            MD ENAYAT ULLAH
40  12460        EE             P NANDHA KUMAR
41  12495        EE             PRANAV KUMAR
42  12533        EE             RAHUL JADAM
43  12563        CSE            RAVI KIRAN S
44  12581        EE             RITVIK SRIVASTAVA
45  12611        BSBE           SANDARSH PANDEY
46  12656        EE             SHANTANU TEWARI
47  12658        CSE            SHARBATANU CHATTERJEE
48  12660        PHY            SHASHANK BHANDARI
49  12689        EE             SHUBHAM ATREJA
50  12703        EE             SHUBHAM SINGH (S/O DKS)
51  12707        BSBE           SHUBHAM TRIPATHI
52  12710        CSE            SHUBHANGEE VERMA
53  12831        CSE            VIVEKA KULHARIA