CS319 - Cognitive Modeling

Randolph M. Jones

Colby College, Fall Semester, 2004

Course Overview

Instructor: Randolph M. Jones

Time

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Textbook

Course web pages

Course prerequisites

At least one of the following: The intent of the prerequisites is to ensure that you have some exposure to some formal aspect of the study of human thinking. You need to have interest and experience in studying the underlying processes of reasoning with at least some amount of rigor.

Course description

Cognitive science is a multi-disciplinary approach to the study of intelligence and the mind, bringing together the fields of psychology, computer science, philosophy, education, linguistics, anthropology, neuroscience, and logic, among others. The science derives its strength from a view of the mind as an information system, including processes that implement perception, memory, reasoning, language, learning, and consciousness. Cognitive modeling takes this view to an extreme, using computer programs to simulate these cognitive processes. In this course, you will read book chapters and research papers covering a variety of aspects of cognition, and you will engage in critical discussion of frameworks and algorithms for understanding these processes. Additionally, you will learn about model-based methods for studying the mind by exploring some computer systems that emulate (in an attempt to explain) various aspects of human behavior and learning.

Course content

Most of the course will be in a lecture and discussion format, centered around the course readings. Additionally, there will be a few small projects allowing you to get hands-on experience with some simple cognitive models. Here is a rough list of the topics I hope to cover during the course of the semester:

Class discussion

Most class sessions will involve presentation and discussion of one or more readings from the textbook or other sources. Every student will have responsibilities associated with each reading. For some readings, students will be assigned to lead and/or manage the discussion.

For each class session, every student must bring a list of questions pertaining to the day's reading. The student should also be familiar enough with each reading to answer the following questions:

The list of questions should include 3-4 (or more) questions the student has about the reading. The questions should be used by the student during class discussion, and may be turned in at the end of class. The quality of the questions, as well as productive participation in class discussions, will count as part of each student's final grade in the course.

For selected readings, student discussion leaders will present a summary and analysis of the reading, and will lead a discussion involving lessons and questions from the reading. Discussion leaders are encouraged to do extra work to find topics or answers to questions related to the reading, and may use whatever presentation materials they feel are most effective.

Other homework and small projects

I will assign occasional additional homework, usually asking questions to compare and analyze some of the variety of concepts and methods we will explore in class. In addition, there will be a few small projects where you use (and sometimes extend) existing computational models, in order to understand them better. Finally, there will be four take-home quizzes during the semester, to evaluate your understanding of some of the concepts we cover.

Semester project

Each student will also complete a medium-sized semester project. The specifics of the project depend on your tastes, knowledge, and interest. The project should explore (in more detail than we do in class) some specific aspect of cognition or cognitive science. The nature of your exploration can be philosophical, psychological, computational, or some combination of those or other approaches. The result of your project will be a report of at least a few pages in length (well written and complete with references and bibliography). You may also include data from a small experiment you have done, or perhaps a running computer program you have built. There are a wide variety of options, but you must clear your project with me. I encourage you to meet with me rather soon to discuss project possibilities. Group projects (involving 2 or 3 people) are a possibility.

Examination

There will be a take-home final examination that you will receive on the last day of class and will turn in at the end of the scheduled final examination period for this class.

Grading

I will compute final grades for the course using the following proportions: I generally do my grading on a 100 point scale. Points do not map directly to letter grades until everything is tallied at the end of the semester. However, as a rough guide, I consider 90 points or more to be ``A'' work, 80 points or more to be ``B'' work, 70 points or more to be ``C'' work, and 60 points or more to be ``D'' work.

I also hold the philosophy that A's are reserved for those who demonstrate a real mastery of the subject matter, in addition to performing superior work on all of the assignments and in the discussions. Doing an "adequate but minimal" job in all of your participation will likely earn you an A-minus. To receive an exceptional grade, you should do exceptional work, finding ways to go beyond my expectations for the basic course requirements. In all aspects of this course, I will be inclined to reward extra effort, innovation, industriousness, insightful discussions, etc.

Late assignments

It is very inconvenient for me to accept work past the deadline, because it complicates my grading. Late assignments will receive a penalty of 25% of the total points for each calendar day late (so you will receive 0 for anything more than 3 days late).

Absences

Because we only meet twice a week, and because discussion is an important part of this class, it is very important not to miss any class sessions. Absences will jeopardize your grade if they are not somehow made up. You should arrange with me how to make up a missed class. This will generally involve you giving me a written report (approximately five pages) on the topic covered that day. However, this is not an excuse for you to miss class. More than a couple of missed classes will affect your grade, regardless of whether you make them up, unless you make special arrangements with me.

Working together

Some of the work you turn in will be individual assignments, meaning the final work you turn in must be substantially your own. Some of the work you turn in will be group assignments, meaning the final work you turn in must contain substantial contributions from each group member.

In either event, I encourage you to use outside sources, papers, fellow class members, and others to help you complete your assignments. Relying on other people's help does not consititute cheating. However, presenting the results of other people's efforts as your own does constitue cheating. Thus, you must credit the contributions of other sources in the presentation of your work. The best way to do that is through a standard reference style. For this course I strongly recommend the APA reference style, because that is what is overwhelmingly used in cognitive science research presentations. If you have questions about using and citing references, please ask me and/or look at examples in the readings for this class.

Randolph M. Jones (rjones@colby.edu)
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