21/1 – Cognitive Science

The course aims to give an introduction to the fundamentals of cognitive science. Students will gain an understanding of basic research topics, including but not limited to perception, attention, memory, learning, language acquisition, theory of mind, and decision-making. Special focus will be put on universal aspects of the human mind, but the course will also touch on individual cognitive differences. In addition to theoretical discussions, the students will also be introduced to different research methods used in the field, such as psychophysical experimentation, computational modeling, and brain imaging. The module also intends to instill an appreciation of the major unifying concepts and frameworks in the field, like Marr’s different levels of explanations, the computational theory of mind, while also highlighting novel conceptual challenges, such as the embodied cognition movement. This module is open to all students who are curious about the study of human cognition and is particularly suitable for students who are interested in pursuing further education in related fields such as psychology, linguistics, anthropology, neuroscience, artificial intelligence research, and philosophy.