Instructor: Prof. Michael Vitevitch Office: Fraser Hall 406 Phone:  864-9312

e-mail: mvitevit@ku.edu web page: http://www.people.ku.edu/~mvitevit

Office hours: MW 10am-Noon, or by appointment. You may also call or e-mail me with brief questions, or ask brief questions before and after class.
 
 

Textbook & Readings: Cognitive Sciences: An Introduction to the Study of Mind. Friedenberg & Silverman. Published in 2006 by Sage Publications. This book will be used to provide historical background and context to the material that we will cover in class. Additional readings will be available on the class web site in PDF format.
 
 

Assignments & Grades: Final grades will be based on the grades from 2 exams (80%) and on class attendance and participation (20%). The format of the exams will be essay/short answer type questions that will be completed "at home" (they should be typed, have appropriate references, proper grammar, correct spelling, etc.). Exact due dates will be announced in class at least 1 week in advance. The grade on these papers will be based on the quality of the content, as well as your ability to communicate that content (i.e., use of appropriate references, proper grammar, correct spelling, etc.). Please make yourself VERY familiar with the resources available to you through the KU Writing Center. Final grades will be based on the percentages listed below. Percentages are calculated by dividing the number of points you earn by the total number of possible points, and multiplying by 100.
 

A    90.0%-100%

B    80.0%-89.9%

C    70.0%-79.9%

D    60.0%-69.9%

F    below 60.0%

Academic Misconduct: Students are expected to observe all University guidelines pertaining to academic misconduct. As stated in the University Senate Rules and Regulations: "Section 6. Academic Misconduct. (2.6.1) Academic misconduct by a student shall include, but not be limited to, disruption of classes; threatening an instructor or fellow student in an academic setting; giving or receiving of unauthorized aid on examinations or in the preparation of notebooks, themes, reports or other assignments; knowingly misrepresenting the source of any academic work; unauthorized changing of grades; unauthorized use of University approvals or forging of signatures; falsification of research results; plagiarizing of another's work; violation of regulations or ethical codes for the treatment of human and animal subjects; or otherwise acting dishonestly in research."

Academic misconduct will not be tolerated and will be dealt with severely in accordance with all University rules and regulations.
 
 

Resources for Students with Disabilities: The KU office of Disability Resources coordinates accommodations and services for all students who are eligible. If you have a disability for which you wish to request accommodations and have not contacted DR, please do so as soon as possible. Their office is located in 22 Strong Hall; their phone number is 785-864-2620 (V/TTY). Information about their services can be found at http://disability.ku.edu. Please also contact me privately in regard to your needs in this course.
 

Some topics that we will discuss this semester: The goals of science, what CogSci studies, the disciplines that comprise CogSci, artificial neural networks (ANN; a.k.a. connectionist models), how evolutionary mechanisms influence processing in ANN, other types of network models of cognitive processes, applications of CogSci to the design of everyday objects.
 

Some important dates to keep in mind:

March 20-26, 2006 (SPRING BREAK), May 8, 2006 (LAST DAY OF CLASSES), May 9, 2006 (STOP DAY)

Although we have a day and time scheduled for a final exam, there will be NO final exam for this class.