CIN Graduiertenkolleg Seminar
Instructors: Liz Irvine, Kirsten Volz, and Hong Yu Wong
Wednesday, 12-2 pm, Raum X, Burse
START DATE: OCTOBER 19, 2011
Cross-listed in:
Max Planck Neural and Behavioral Grad School
Tuebingen Philosophy
Tuebingen Cognitive Science
In the study of mental phenomena, accounts of the underlying mechanisms are characterized at different levels. A classical account of the idea of levels can be found in Marr’s Vision, which distinguished between the computational, algorithmic, and implementation levels. Starting with Marr’s distinction, this seminar will examine the very notion of levels, different accounts of levels, and how explanations at different levels can cohere or compete with each other. The seminar will draw on literature from the philosophy of science, psychology, and cognitive neuroscience.
Topics to be covered include:
Modelling psychological phenomena at different levels; notion of levels, and how explanations at different levels relate; as-if vs. process models of mechanisms underlying cognition; explanatory benefits from these; viability of dual process models in cognition; distinction between the personal and sub-personal; Bayesian and other statistical models, and the very idea of optimization and predictive coding; examination of these topics for specific case studies – decision processes, visuomotor control, action, functional role of consciousness. The seminar will also feature guest speakers at some sessions.
DETAILED SYLLABUS WITH WEEKLY SCHEDULE HERE
Assessment:
Students taking the seminar are required to do the following:
Weekly: 200-300 word posting on target reading
1 Presentation (commentary/raising questions for target article, max 10 minutes)
Essay due at the end of semester (3000 words)
Prerequisites:
Students should have taken at least one course on PHILOSOPHY OF MIND/PSYCHOLOGY/NEUROSCIENCE or the FOUNDATIONS OF COGNITIVE SCIENCE. Students who do not meet this requirement should contact the instructors.