Introduction to Cognitive Science

Cognitive Science explores one of sciences final frontiers; the scientific study of the human mind. It is a broad interdisciplinary field that encompasses research from areas in neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, linguistics, and computer science and covers topics such as the nature of knowledge, thinking, remembering, vision, imagery, language, and consciousness. All of which we will touch upon in this survey course and is intended to give students a sampler of each discipline. This introductory class will expose students to some of the major methodologies, experimental design, neuroscientific fundamentals, and different cognitive disorders. More importantly, it will help students refine their interest to a specific field within cognitive science for future studies at their respective institutions. This 6-week summer course will require a sizable amount of required reading, not all of the readings is covered in the lectures. To extend and complement topics in this field, there is material presented in the lectures that is not in the readings.