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Spring 2014
Introduction to Cognitive Science (Graduate Level CS 6795)
Course Description

Ashok'Goel

CS 6795 Tuesdays'and'Thursdays,'9:35'– 10:55
Van Leer'C341

3 Credits

Course description for Introduction to Cognitive Science (from the course catalog):

Multidisciplinary perspectives on cognitive science. Interdisciplinary
approaches to issues in cognition, including memory, language, problem solving
learning perception, and action.

Description (from course syllabus):

CS 6795 is a 3-credit graduate introductory course on cognitive
science. Cognitive science is an interdisciplinary study of mind and
intelligence. It lies at the intersection of computer science (specially artificial
intelligence), psychology, biology (specially neurobiology), education,
linguistics, anthropology, and philosophy.

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Objectives and Scope:

The objectives of the course are to introduce the basic concepts
hypotheses, models, methods, issues, and debates in cognitive science.
The course will cover the main information-processing paradigms in
cognitive science as well as the main critiques of the paradigms.

By the end of the course, a student should know enough about cognitive
science that the student can take advanced courses in cognitive science
as well as the cognitive science specialization in the Georgia Tech Ph.D.
qualifying exam in intelligent systems. Further, the knowledge and
understanding acquired through this course should inform student's
subsequent work on any application related to cognitive science, including
human-centered computing, information system design, digital media,
educational technology, design computing, human-robot interaction, etc.

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Readings:

The primary textbook is:

MIND, An Introduction to Cognitive Science, Paul Thagard, MIT Press,2nd edition, 2005.

Another useful (but not required) book is:

Cambridge Handbook of Intelligence, R. Sternberg & S. Kauffman (editors), Cambridge university Press, 2011.

Other readings include research papers on selected topics.

The class schedule page specifies a series of reading assignments (cited
on the resources page. We will provide digital copies of all the readings
the students in the class. We expect that each student will have read the
relevant paper prior to the class. In addition, the class schedule specifies
a presenter and a note taker for each class. If a student is unable or
unwilling to do these tasks - reading, presenting, note taking - posting
- then this probably is not the right course for him/her.

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Attendance and Participation:

Class attendance and active participation in class and online discussions
mandataory. All excused absences from the class will need to be approved by
the Georgia Tech Office of the Dean of Students. If a student is unable or
unwilling to attend the classes and actively participate in the class and
online discussions, then this is not the right course for him/her.

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Student Presentations:

Students will take turns in making short presentations (~20 mins) to the
class. Each student should prepare a set of slides for his/her presentation
and later post it to the T-square site (Georgia Tech site for class information)
within a week of the presentation. You can volunteer for a presentation on
the wiki accessible through the T-square site.

Here is a nice tutorial on how to make an effective presentation - please
read it before preparing your presentation:

http://www.slideshare.net/satyajeet_02/how-to-make-effective-presentation

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Class Notes:

Students will also take turns in taking class notes and posting them to
the T-square site. Class notes must be posted within a week of the relevant
class. you can volunteer for a presentation on the wiki accessible through
the T-square site. However a student may not volunteer for both presenting
and note taking in the same month.

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Quizzes:

There will be four quizzes. Please see the day-by-day schedule for the
exact dates for the quizzes.

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Term Paper:

Each student will write a term paper on a topic of his or her choice.
Please see the class schedule for details.

Here are two tutorials on how to write a term paper:

http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Term-Paper http://www.collegeonline.org/library/online-assignments/termpaper-writing.html

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Examinations:

The course will entail two take-home examinations. The midterm
examination will come roughly in the middle of the semester. The final
examination will be comprehensive (i.e., it will cover the entire course).

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Honor Code:

On one hand, we strongly encourage reading, discussion, and
collaboration in this class. On the other hand, we will respect Georgia
Tech's honor code of academic conduct. This means that any work submitted
by a student must be his or her own. With the advent of the internet, it has
become easy to take materials from various resources available on the web.
But remember that it has also become easy to check for it: the TA can enter
an arbitrary sentence from a paper into a search engine and find out a sentence
has been taken from elsewhere. Students are encouraged to consult resources
available on the web and elsewhere. However, any material taken from any resource
must be properly attributed. The paper must reflect the student's own analysis,
synthesis, and writing.

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Grading:

Mid-Term Examination: 15% of grade
Final Examination: 30% of grade
Term Paper: 15% of grade
Quizzes: 4 quizzes, each 5% for a total of 20% of grade
Class attendance/participation/notes: 15%
Class Presentation: 5% of grade

We will assign extra credit to the best presentations, quizzes, term papers,
and take-home examinations, and post them to the T-square site. Thus, it is
possible to get a score higher than 100% in this class.

The final grades will be decided as follows: >=90%:A
80%-89%:B
70%-79%:C
60%-69%:D
=<59%:F

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Instructor: Ashok K. Goel
Office: TSRB 219
Email: goel@cc.gatech.edu (best way to contact me)
Office Hours: TTR, 2-3 pm at my office

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GTA: Rochelle Lobo
Email: rlobo3@gatech.edu
Office Hours: Mondays 2-3pm and Wednesday 11:30am-12:30pm in the COC Commons

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Ashok Goel

January 3, 2014