COGS 127: Modern Everyday Cognition, Fall 2015
Day / time / location: Mondays and Wednesdays, 4:30 - 5:45pm, KOLLIG 217
First class: August 26th, 2015
Instructor:
Dr. Rick Dale, Associate Professor of Cognitive Science. My lab in SSM.
Office hours in SSM 261A: Tuesdays, 11am-12pm; Wednesdays, 3pm-4pm
Come on by, or set up an appointment!Read about my research here. Here’s a specific example. And another, and another.
TA:
Maryam Tabatabaeian
Ph.D. Student in Cognitive Science.
Office hours: Wednesdays, 2-4pm, SSM cubicle 18B.
Course description: The past two decades have seen an enormous shift in the way that individuals in industrialized societies seek out, share, and evaluate information. This advanced undergraduate course will provide in-depth examination of core findings from the cognitive sciences, and apply them to everyday modern life. Topics will include the integration of technologies with our cognitive processes, the changes in real and virtual social structures, the influence of technologies on those social structures and institutions, the use of virtual crowds to solve real-world problems, and more. These topics relate to many areas of the social sciences, so the course will be interdisciplinary, and will integrate information from several fields (cognitive science, economics, management, political science, anthropology, psychology, etc.). Although the classes will mostly be lecture-based, discussion will be included each week, and questions are always encouraged. Students are expected to attend each class and do all readings (before or after each class).
Click here for the official syllabus.
Schedule and Activities
August 26th
Topic: Introduction to the Course
Activities: attend the class
August 31st, September 2nd
Topic: Theoretical Foundations: The Adaptive Threshold and Information
Activities: (i) Do the readings, (ii) attend the class, (iii) take online quiz (CatCourses)
Labor Day September 7th
September 9th, 14th
Topic: Your Nearly Fully Attached Cognitive Prosthetics
Activities: (i) Do the readings, (ii) attend the class, (iii) take online quiz (CatCourses)
September 16th: Guest Lecture (Rick traveling)
September 21st, 23rd
Topic: Virtual Friends, Flash Mobs: Modern Social Systems
Activities: (i) Do the readings, (ii) attend the class, (iii) take online quiz (CatCourses)
September 28th, 30th
Topic: The Great Promise of the Learning Sciences [our chat bot]
Activities: (i) Do the readings, (ii) attend the class, (iii) take online quiz (CatCourses)
October 5th, 7th
Note: TA Maryam will help you with a hands-on laboratory task; Rick en Chile
Topic: Introduction to Mode Analytics; Activity 1 for in class (self-guided activity content)
Activities: (i) attend the class, (ii) submit Activity 1 on CatCourses
October 12th, 14th
Topic: Data Mirrors Everywhere
Activities: (i) Do the readings, (ii) attend the class, (iii) take online quiz (posted on or near 10/14)
October 19th
Topic: Information-Rich Modern Thinking
Activities: (i) Do the readings, (ii) attend the class
October 21st
Topic: Turning the class into a computer lab: Let's do Activity 2 (click here)
October 26th, 28th
Topic: The Disappearing Art of Face-to-Face Interaction
Activities: (i) Do the readings, (ii) attend the class, (iii) take online quiz (posted on or near 10/28)
November 2nd
Topic: Cognitive Science and Art, Film, and... Neurocinematics?
Activities: (i) Do the readings, (ii) attend the class, (iii) take the online quiz (posted on or near Nov. 2nd)
November 4th
No Class: Campus closed due to tragic events today. I hope you all are safe. Please don't hesitate to email me or Maryam if you have questions about the class.
Important Deadline: Paper 1 Due on Nov. 17th (extended) [guidelines]
November 9th
Topic: Discussion of final project, hands-on demonstrations with SQL
November 11th
No Class: Veterans Day
November 16th
No Class: Class canceled for last-minute personal reasons (see email from Rick)
November 18th
Topic: Hands-On, Final Activity, #3: Simulating Grad School with Mode! (led by Ph.D. student Maryam)
November 23rd
Topic: Data Visualization: Introduction and Key Issues
Activities: (i) Do the readings, (ii) attend the class
November 25th
No Class: Thanksgiving
November 30th
Topic: Modern Cognitive Science, and Law
Activities: (i) Do the readings, (ii) attend the class
December 2nd
Topic: Hands-on introduction to setting up an Amazon Mechanical Turk task [demo slides]
December 7th
Class Conclusion: Becoming the "modern everyday cognitive scientist" (lecture / discussion only). ("Leveraging new tools," as discussed in class; choose one, and submit by email to Rick by Dec. 15th. It must be good -- I will only count it for extra credit if it's careful and earnest.)
December 9th
Topic: Final project day: Bring your data and work on your project with Rick and Maryam there to help and give demonstrations
Important Deadline: Final Paper Due on Dec. 19th [guidelines]