Courses by semester
Courses for
Complete Cornell University course descriptions are in the Courses of Study .
| Course ID | Title | Offered |
|---|---|---|
| COGST1101 |
Introduction to Cognitive Science
This course provides an introduction to the science of the mind. Everyone knows what it's like to think and perceive, but this subjective experience provides little insight into how minds emerge from physical intities like brains. To address this issue, cognitive science integrates work from at least five disciplines: Psychology, Neuroscience, Computer Science, Linguistics, and Philosophy. This course introduces students to the insights these disciplines offer into the workings of the mind by exploring visual perception, attention, memory, learning, problem solving, language, and consciousness.
Full details for COGST 1101 - Introduction to Cognitive Science |
Spring, Summer (six-week session). |
| COGST1104 |
WIM: Introduction to Cognitive Science
This section is highly recommended for students who are interested in learning about the topics covered in the main course through writing and discussion.
Full details for COGST 1104 - WIM: Introduction to Cognitive Science |
Spring. |
| COGST1212 |
Music on the Brain
This course is for anyone who listens to music or plays music and wonders what's happening in your brain that makes you feel the way you do. Starting with the music each of you knows and loves—the soundtrack to your life—we'll tackle questions like: What is the relationship between speech and music? Do animals have music, too? How does the brain process aspects of music, including rhythm, melody, harmony, and form? Why does some music trigger an emotional response? What does it mean to say that music is an embodied behavioral act? What is the relationship between music and memory? Through lectures, discussions, experiments, compositions, recording technologies, student presentations/performances and writing assignments we'll explore how/why you've chosen the particular tunes on the soundtrack of your life, and how your brain processes musical thoughts and experiences.
|
Spring. |
| COGST2150 |
Psychology of Language
Provides an introduction to the psychology of language. The purpose of the course is to introduce students to the scientific study of psycholinguistic phenomena. Covers a broad range of topics from psycholinguistics, including the origin of language, the different components of language (phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics), processes involved in reading, computational modeling of language processes, the acquisition of language (both under normal and special circumstances), and the brain bases of language.
|
Spring. |
| COGST2310 |
Introduction to Deductive Logic
Covers sentential languages, the truth-functional connectives, and their logic; first-order languages, the quantifiers "every" and "some," and their logic.
Full details for COGST 2310 - Introduction to Deductive Logic |
Fall, Spring. |
| COGST2621 |
Minds and Machines
Throughout history, metaphors drawn from technology of the time have been proposed to understand how the mind works. While Locke likened the newborn's mind to a blank slate, Freud compared the mind to hydraulic and electro-magnetic systems. More recently, many have endorsed Turing's proposal that the mind is a computer. Why is this idea attractive and what exactly is a computer? Is it at all plausible that the cells of your brain are computing? Could a computer ever really have a mind, beliefs, emotions and conscious experiences? What are these mysterious things anyway? Could a machine ever count as a person and make choices based on its own free will? Is it really so clear that we have this kind of free will?
|
Spring. |
| COGST3140 |
Computational Psychology
This course states and motivates the observation that cognition is fundamentally a computational process and explores the implications of this idea. Students are introduced to a variety of conceptual tools for thinking about cognitive information processing, including statistical learning from experience and the use of patterns distilled from past experience in guiding future actions. They learn to apply these tools to gain understanding of perception, memory, motor control, language, action planning, problem solving, decision making, reasoning, intelligence, and creativity.
|
Spring. |
| COGST3250 |
Neurochemistry of Human Behavior
This course will focus on the complex interactions between neurochemicals and their receptors (pharmacodynamics) that drive human behavior. It will provide an overview of the principles of neurotransmission of chemicals as well as how alterations in their normal function can manifest in pathological behavior/mind processes.
Full details for COGST 3250 - Neurochemistry of Human Behavior |
Spring. |
| COGST3310 |
Deductive Logic
A mathematical study of the formal languages of standard first-order propositional and predicate logic, including their syntax, semantics, and deductive systems. The basic apparatus of model theory will be presented. Various formal results will be established, most importantly soundness and completeness.
|
|
| COGST3420 |
Human Perception: Application to Computer Graphics, Art, and Visual Display
Our present technology allows us to transmit and display information through a variety of media. To make the most of these media channels, it is important to consider the limitations and abilities of the human observer. The course considers a number of applied aspects of human perception with an emphasis on the display of visual information. Topics include "three-dimensional" display systems, color theory, spatial and temporal limitations of the visual systems, attempts at subliminal communication, and "visual" effects in film and television.
|
Spring. |
| COGST4240 |
Computational Linguistics
Computational models of natural languages. Topics include tree syntax and treebank databases; broad-coverage probabilistic grammars; finite state generative phonology; computational semantics; computational minimalist grammar; finite state optimality-theoretic phonology; Hidden Markov models of acoustic realization; text and speech corpora; lab methods in Unix/Linux environment.
|
Spring. |
| COGST4310 |
Topics in Cognitive Science
A seminar series examining current and classical ideas in human sciences and the humanities. Themes vary from semester to semester
|
Fall, Spring. |
| COGST4340 |
Current Topics in Cognitive Development
Discussion of current research in the area of cognitive development.
Full details for COGST 4340 - Current Topics in Cognitive Development |
Spring. |
| COGST4425 |
Pragmatics
What is the relationship between what words mean and how they are used? What is part of the grammar and what is a result of general reasoning? Pragmatics is often thought of as the study of how meaning depends on the context of utterance. However, it can be difficult to draw a line between pragmatics and semantics. In this course, we will investigate various topics that walk this line, including varieties of linguistic inference (including entailment, presupposition, and implicature), anaphora, indexicals, and speech acts.
|
Spring. |
| COGST4625 |
Topics in Philosophy of Mind
Advanced discussion of a topic in Philosophy of Mind.
|
Spring. |
| COGST4700 |
Undergraduate Research in Cognitive Science
Experience in planning, conducting, and reporting independent laboratory, field, and/or library research in an interdisciplinary area relevant to Cognitive Science.
Full details for COGST 4700 - Undergraduate Research in Cognitive Science |
Fall, Spring. |
| COGST4710 |
Cognitive Science Research Workshop
Provides a research workshop in which undergraduate students who are engaged in research in a particular area relevant to cognitive science can meet across disciplines to learn and practice the essentials of research using interdisciplinary approaches. In this workshop, students critique and discuss the existing literature in a field of inquiry, individual students present their research designs, methods, and results from their independent research studies, debate the interpretation of their research results, and participate in the generation of new research hypotheses and designs, in a peer group of other undergraduate students involved in related research.
Full details for COGST 4710 - Cognitive Science Research Workshop |
Fall, Spring. |
| COGST4910 |
Research Methods in Psychology
Research methods are the tools that allow psychologists to test the validity of hypotheses. This course provides a survey of the methods used by scientists in personality and social psychology as well as related behavioral sciences to empirically test hypotheses. Specifically, this course will discuss the following topics: (1) philosophy of science; (2) research designs and methods; (3) data collection, analysis, and validity; (4) report writing; and (5) recurrent and emerging trends and issues in the field of research methods and quantitative analysis. The final project consists of writing a research proposal and giving a short oral presentation.
Full details for COGST 4910 - Research Methods in Psychology |
Spring. |
| COGST6101 |
Cognitive Science Proseminar
This course surveys the study of how the mind/brain works, drawing primarily from six disciplines: philosophy, psychology, developmental science, neuroscience, linguistics, and computer science.
|
Spring. |
| COGST6420 |
Human Perception: Applications to Computer Graphics, Art, and Visual Display
Our present technology allows us to transmit and display information through a variety of media. To make the most of these media channels, it is important to consider the limitations and abilities of the human observer. The course considers a number of applied aspects of human perception with an emphasis on the display of visual information. Topics include "three-dimensional" display systems, color theory, spatial and temporal limitations of the visual systems, attempts at subliminal communication, and "visual" effects in film and television.
|
Fall. |
| COGST6425 |
Pragmatics
What is the relationship between what words mean and how they are used? What is part of the grammar and what is a result of general reasoning? Pragmatics is often thought of as the study of how meaning depends on the context of utterance. However, it can be difficult to draw a line between pragmatics and semantics. In this course, we will investigate various topics that walk this line, including varieties of linguistic inference including entailment, presupposition, and implicature), anaphora, indexicals, and speech acts.
|
Spring. |
| COGST6620 |
Topics in Philosophy of Mind
Advanced discussion of a topic in Philosophy of Mind.
|
Spring. |
| COGST6910 |
Research Methods in Psychology
Research methods are the tools that allow psychologists to test the validity of hypotheses. This course provides a survey of the methods used by scientists in personality and social psychology as well as related behavioral sciences to empirically test hypotheses. Specifically, this course will discuss the following topics: (1) philosophy of science; (2) research designs and methods; (3) data collection, analysis, and validity; (4) report writing; and (5) recurrent and emerging trends and issues in the field of research methods and quantitative analysis. The final project consists of writing a research proposal and giving a short oral presentation.
Full details for COGST 6910 - Research Methods in Psychology |
Spring. |
| COGST7090 |
Developmental Psychology
One of four introductory courses in cognition and perception. A comprehensive introduction to current thinking and research in developmental psychology that approaches problems from both psychobiological and cognitive perspectives. We will use a comparative approach to assess principles of development change. The course focuses on the development of perception, action, cognition, language, and social understanding in infancy and early childhood.
|
Spring. |
| COGST7710 |
Computational Seminar
Addresses current theoretical and empirical issues in computational linguistics.
|
Fall. |