Skip to main content

I last taught this course in Spring 2020. It is unknown when I will teach it again.

Prerequisites

185:201 Introduction to Cognitive Science

Course Description

This course examines the central stance of Cognitive Science: that human cognition is best understood in terms of information processing, that is, computation. It will examine some of the requirements that cognition imposes on its physical realization, and examine how such requirements have been approached in traditional computational systems. Topics of focus will include representations, memory, and brain function as a form of computation. Students will get a little “hands on” experience with implementations of a logical reasoning system and of a neural network learning system.

Learning Goals

By the end of this class, students should:

  • Understand some basic concepts of computation.
  • Have some basic experience working with both a logical reasoning system and a neural network learning system.
  • Be familiar with some of the requirements that cognition imposes on its physical realization.
  • Understand some basic concepts of computational learning.

Syllabus from Spring 2020