SPRING 2013 COURSE DESCRIPTIONS (2-7-13) Complete and Up-To-Date Course Information Is Available on Thehub
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SPRING 2013 COURSE DESCRIPTIONS (2-7-13) Complete and up-to-date course information is available on TheHub COGNITIVE SCIENCE (CS) CS-0108-1 DR Distribution Area: MBI Introduction to Philosophy Jonathan Westphal This course is an introduction to philosophy concentrating on the skills necessary to evaluate philosophical claims about minds, brains and information. Topics will be chosen from the following: language, sentences, and logic; meaning, reference and thought; relativism and theories of truth; personal identity, the self and the brain; knowledge and belief; consciousness and the neural correlates of consciousness; dreaming and skepticism; materialism or physicalism, concepts and the mind-body problem; freewill and neurological determinism. Cumulative Skills: IND MW 10:30AM-11:50AM ASH 111 Additional Information: This philosophy course is oriented towards the Mind, Brain and, Information distribution area. CS-0111-1 DR Distribution Area: MBI The Emergence of Literacy Melissa Burch The majority of adults are able to read fluently. However, when children learn to read, the process is dependent on a number of skills and requires a great deal of adult guidance. In this course we will discuss the cultural importance of literacy across societies and throughout childhood. We will focus on the development of the complex skill of reading, including phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, and higher-order processes that contribute to decoding and text comprehension. Because instruction can play a determining factor in children's acquisition of literacy skills, we will study early reading materials and examine strategies that are employed in the classroom to facilitate the acquisition of these skills. Evaluation will be based on class participation, a series of short papers, and a longer final project. Cumulative Skills: WRI, QUA MW 09:00AM-10:20AM ASH 222 CS-0112-1 DR Distribution Area: MBI Introduction to Programming in Python and Pygames Jaime Davila This course is designed to give students a strong introduction to computer programming, with an emphasis on programming computer games. As the title reveals, we will be working in the Python programming language. By the end of the course successful students will be able to write programs of moderate difficulty, and will be able to use the Python pygames library to make use of graphic utilities with which to implement computer games. As a course that can provide a strong foundation for further computer science courses, this class will expose students to input/output operations, if-else structures, loops, functions, objects, and classes. Cumulative Skills: IND, QUA MW 01:00PM-02:20PM ASH 126 Additional Information: No previous programming experience is required. CS-0141-1 DR Distribution Area: MBI The Social Psychology of Stereotyping, Person Perception,, and Intergroup Relations Thomas Cain This course will be an in depth examination, from a social psychological perspective, of how stereotypes are formed, how stereotypes influence our perceptions, and how these perceptions influence our relationship with others. Classic and contemporary research will be examined. Students will be expected to write brief reaction papers to weekly readings, as well as complete a final paper and presentation on a topic of their choosing. Cumulative Skills: WRI MW 01:00PM-02:20PM ASH 111 CS-0166-1 DR Distribution Area: MBI Introduction to Linguistics Walter Sistrunk This course will provide an introduction to theoretical linguistics addressing basic questions about the nature of human language. It will focus on the linguistic knowledge needed to speak a language, and how this knowledge is represented in the brain. Topics we will pursueinclude observing the principles at work that allow speakers to combine CCR = Co-curricular course; DR = Satisfies Division I distribution requirements; FY = First Year Students Only; LS = Language Studies; PR = Prerequisites required; IP= Instructor Permission required; (see Appendix for Division I index) Page 1 of 71 SPRING 2013 COURSE DESCRIPTIONS (2-7-13) Complete and up-to-date course information is available on TheHub words into sentences (syntax), identify the patterns of sound (phonology), form sound patterns into words (morphology), and decipher the meaning of sentences (semantics). Students will engage in linguistic description and analysis. Cumulative Skills: IND, WRI MW 02:30PM-03:50PM ASH 111 Additional Information: Instructor: Walter Sistrunk, Ph.D. CS-0174-1 DR Distribution Area: ADM Computer Animation I Christopher Bishop This course will introduce students to the production of animated short films with the tools and techniques of three-dimensional (3D) computer graphics. Readings and lectures will cover the theoretical foundations of the field, and the homework assignments will provide hands-on, project-based experience with production. The topics covered will include modeling (the building of 3D objects), shading (assignment of surface reflectance properties), animation (moving the objects over time), and lighting (placing and setting the properties of virtual light sources). Due to the large amount of material being covered, additional workshops outside of class may be scheduled. Cumulative Skills: IND MW 10:30AM-11:50AM ASH 126 CS/NS-0177-1 DR Distribution Area: MBI, PBS Aliens: Close Encounters of a Multidisciplinary Kind Salman Hameed This course can be summed up as: everything you wanted to know about aliens but were afraid to ask (a scientist). The course will explore the topic of extraterrestrial intelligence from the perspective of several different fields. We will look at the history of UFO sighting claims and analyze the reliability of eye-witness testimonies, explore psychological and sociological reasons behind claims of alien abductions, and analyze the current state of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) from the perspective of astronomy and planetary research. We will also examine how film and television have shaped our view of aliens in popular culture. We will conclude the course by looking at religions that have been inspired by UFOs and extraterrestrials. Cumulative Skills: WRI M 06:30PM-09:20PM FPH WLH CS-0184-1 DR Distribution Area: MBI Creative Game Design: from Analysis to Implementation Joshua Newman This class will explore, through a series of projects, the fundamental questions of game design. What are the common features of hopscotch, Skyrim, boxing, Farmville, poker, and Tic-Tac-Toe? How do you create an engrossing, challenging, vivid, or surprising environment of play? How do you determine the value of skill, chance, cooperation, and competition in play? What effect does the social, sexual, gender, political, and economic environment of the game's creation have on the game play? This course will start students with theoretical structures and immediately move to their implementation through the development of small games, which will be either physical (card games, board games, etc.) or computer games, at the student's discretion. Students will be evaluated based on class participation, online discussions, and the creation of their own games. No previous computer programming experience is required, but students who want to implement games in computer platforms will be able to. Cumulative Skills: IND TTH 10:30AM-11:50AM FPH 103 Additional Information: Each student will purchase supplies for the course costing about, $75 per student. CS-0218-1 DR Distribution Area: MBI Music, Mind, & Brain Neil Stillings This course is an introduction to the psychology and neuroscience of music. We will study the psychological and brain processes that underlie the perception and production of music, current theories about why and how music evokes emotion, and the evolutionary and developmental roots of the variation and commonalities of music across cultures and traditions. Students will be required to complete a series of short assignments and a final paper or project. Cumulative Skills: IND, QUA, WRI MW 10:30AM-11:50AM FPH ELH CCR = Co-curricular course; DR = Satisfies Division I distribution requirements; FY = First Year Students Only; LS = Language Studies; PR = Prerequisites required; IP= Instructor Permission required; (see Appendix for Division I index) Page 2 of 71 SPRING 2013 COURSE DESCRIPTIONS (2-7-13) Complete and up-to-date course information is available on TheHub Additional Information: Formal musical training is not required for the course. This is, a course in the Program in Culture, Brain, and Development (CBD). CS-0219-1 DR Distribution Area: MBI Time, History, and Memory Karen Danna This course offers a critical appraisal of the concepts of time, history, and memory in the social and cognitive sciences. We will start by defining our field of research at the intersection of sociology, psychology, history, anthropology, and cognitive neuroscience. We will examine the emergence of memory as an object of study within these disciplines, and focus on the interplay of individual and collected/collective memory. We will discuss the social marking of time and temporal ordering, as well as the individual and collective processes of attention and dis-attention in conjunction with historical narrative. We will analyze the processes by which individual memories are shared by larger collectivities, and the ways in which practices, spaces, and objects become means to articulate, legitimate, and construct personal biographies and collective identities. Additionally, we will explore issues of cultural transmission and cultural