ENROLL

Fernan Jaramillo

We will focus on recent advances in neuroscience. All areas of neuroscience (cellular/molecular, developmental, systems, cognitive, and disease) will be considered. Classical or foundational papers will be used to provide background.

Prerequisite: Biology 125 and 126

Waitlist only

Kathleen Galotti

In this seminar course we will examine how children, adolescents, and adults confront moral dilemmas, reason about ethical issues, and decide on a course of action when challenged by confounding questions. Topics include the development of moral reasoning, gender difference in moral reasoning, socio-cultural influences on moral reasoning, and how moral issues intersect with other realms of decision making. We will examine work by Lawrence Kohlberg, Carol Gilligan, Eliot Turiel, and Jonathan Haidt. As a seminar, the emphasis will be on discussion. Course requirements include regular attendance and participation, preparing and leading class discussions, short reaction/reflection papers, and a final paper. 

Prerequisite: Cognitive Science 130 or Cognitive Science 232, 236 or any 200-level course in Psychology or Instructor Consent

David Musicant

There are many situations where computer systems must make intelligent choices, from selecting actions in a game, to suggesting ways to distribute scarce resources for monitoring endangered species, to a search-and-rescue robot learning to interact with its environment. Artificial intelligence offers multiple frameworks for solving these problems. While popular media attention has often emphasized supervised machine learning, this course instead engages with a variety of other approaches in artificial intelligence, both established and cutting edge. These include intelligent search strategies, game playing approaches, constrained decision making, reinforcement learning from experience, and more. Coursework includes problem solving and programming.

Prerequisite: Computer Science 201. Additionally Computer Science 202 is strongly recommended.

Jonathan Lafky

This course introduces experimental economics and behavioral economics as two complementary approaches to understanding economic decision making. We will study the use of controlled experiments to test and critique economic theories, as well as how these theories can be improved by introducing psychologically plausible assumptions to our models. We will read a broad survey of experimental and behavioral results, including risk and time preferences, prospect theory, other-regarding preferences, the design of laboratory and field experiments, and biases in decision making.

Prerequisite: Economics 110 and 111

Deborah Appleman

Extra Time required.

Jenna Conklin, Daniel K Haataja

Prerequisite: 100-level Linguistics course

Catherine Fortin

Prerequisite: Linguistics 216

Eric Hoopfer

This course is an introduction to basic neural function. Topics include neural transmission, development of the nervous system, anatomy, sensory systems, learning and the corresponding change in the brain, and the role of the nervous system in behavior. Team-based learning will be used to understand the experiments that shape current knowledge.

Eric Hoopfer

This course is an introduction to basic neural function. Topics include neural transmission, development of the nervous system, anatomy, sensory systems, learning and the corresponding change in the brain, and the role of the nervous system in behavior. Team-based learning will be used to understand the experiments that shape current knowledge.

Jason Decker

This seminar will introduce the student to the study of philosophy through a consideration of various epistemic and metaphysical issues surrounding science and religion. What distinguishes scientific inquiry from other areas of inquiry: Its subject matter, its method of inquiry, or perhaps both? How does scientific belief differ from religious belief, in particular? Is the scientist committed to substantive metaphysical assumptions? If so, what role do these assumptions play in scientific investigation and how do they differ from religious dogma (if they do)? Our exploration of these questions will involve the consideration of both classic and contemporary philosophical texts.

Held for new first year students

Mija Van Der Wege

Memory is involved in nearly every human activity: We use our memory not only when we reminisce about the past, but when we study for our exams, talk to our friends, and tie our shoes. This course explores the psychological science of human memory. We will examine different types of memory, how we encode new memories and retrieve old ones, how to ensure a memory is never forgotten, and how to implant a false memory in someone else. In doing so we will look at both old and new research, and discuss how memory research can be applied to some real world environments, such as courtrooms and classrooms. By the end of the course you will be familiar with the major issues in the field of memory research and be able to evaluate the quality of the studies used as evidence in these debates.

Prerequisite: Psychology 110

PSYC 239 not offered, will not complete LS

Kathleen Galotti

Prerequisite: Psychology 110 or instructor permission