Minds, Brains and Machines: The 50 Key Ideas

Minds, Brains and Machines: The 50 Key Ideas is a Cognitive Science class taught by Neil Stillings.

Course Description
All students in the cognitive, neural, and psychological sciences should be familiar with certain key concepts. This course surveys these central ideas to give students the vocabulary needed to approach the research literature without being intimidated by a barrage of technical terms and to hold intelligent conversations with other students and faculty members who are interested in matters of mind, brain, and machine. Readings in the course will be drawn from books and journals in the field. Students will complete a series of essay assignments concerning the concepts covered in the course. There will be no final project. Two lectures and one discussion meeting per week. Prerequisite: At least one prior course in psychology, linguistics, computer science/AI, neuroscience, philosophy, anthropology, or animal behavior. This course satisfies Division I distribution requirements.

Learning Goals

 * Quantitative
 * Reading
 * Writing