HCCK03101U COG, Introduction to Cognitive Science

The aim of the course is to familiarize the student with different paradigms and discussions in the cognitive sciences. The course aims at introducing students to the science of the mind from the perspective of philosophy and the humanities (e.g. communication studies). In the course of the module, students will be introduced to the following aspects of cognitive science:

• The interdisciplinary nature of cognitive science and its different frameworks - from the classical computational models to connectionism
• How key concepts are introduced and used by different frameworks
• How cognitive processes and human behaviour can be described and explained at various levels of explanation (ranging from descriptions of cognitive tasks to neurobiological implementation)
• Standard theories of core cognitive operations like perception, memory, problem-solving, and speech processing, and for how various operations are involved in communication.
• How applications of cognitive science may have relevance for communication (in particular linguistics and pragmatics)
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  Accounting for basic issues in philosophy of mind and theory of psychology such as differences within theories of mind (functionalism, eliminativism, etc.), the status of common sense psychology and the nativism debate.