BCS 502: Syllabus

Fall 2012

Personnel

Jessica Cantlon (Instructor)
585-276-5099

Brad Mahon (Instructor)
585-276-5234

Course Overview

In each session, we will discuss two classic cognition topics. The goal of each class is to understand the theory underlying the topic, past and present, and to evaluate the supporting evidence.

Reading & Research

You will become familiar with central ideas in cognitive science by reading and discussing classic articles. The expectation is that you will understand major theories in cognitive science by reading the original articles that catalyzed the theory and a couple of more recent articles that expanded on the theory. You will gain special familiarity with two assigned classic ideas by reading assigned articles, conducting your own independent literature review of that topic, and presenting that topic in seminar. Presentation: You will lead two 1-hour seminars on classic topics in cognition. Your goal will be to lead the students to consider a theory and the evidence that supports the theory as well as any points of debate over the theory. Your presentation will be formal, using projector slides.

Participation

When you are not presenting a seminar, you will be expected to participate in discussion. You will read the assigned classic articles and read or skim the supplementary readings. Importantly, you are required to bring discussion notes to class so that you have a defined discussion agenda. You must speak.

Examination

There are two take-home essay exams: a midterm and final. The specific essay question(s) will be given at the time of the exam. The questions will cover only the Primary Readings. The exams are non- cumulative.

Materials

Classic Readings (listed below) will be provided on Blackboard

Secondary Readings must be copied, downloaded, or requested from the library on your own (plan ahead)

Required Text: Reynolds, G. (2008). Presentation Zen. Berkeley: New Riders Press.

Specific Requirements

Reading & Research Period

The first two weeks of the semester is your time to research and read about your assigned topics, prepare your first presentation, and to get feedback from your instructor consultant about your first presentation. You must set up a meeting with your instructor consultant during those two weeks. Your instructor consultant will give you feedback on your presentation plan.

Your first assignment will be to complete the presentation worksheet for your first presentation (attached). The presentation worksheet is meant to serve as a storyboard to help plan the content of your presentation. You will learn about storyboards by reading Presentation Zen. Bring your presentation worksheet to your instructor meeting.

Two Presentations, 1-hour (25% each)

Your presentation topics will be assigned on the first day of class. You will also be assigned an instructor as your one-on-one consultant for each presentation. You will be assigned a set of articles (the Primary and Secondary articles on the syllabus) for each presentation. Those readings will serve as a launch pad for your research into that topic. To prepare your presentation, you will research your topic and put together a coherent narrative of the theory and evidence: past and present.

You are required to present the Primary articles, Supplementary articles, and independently discovered research articles. Any independently discovered primary research that you include in your presentation must have been cited at least 30 times according to the ISI Web of Science (do not use Google Scholar for this metric). The purpose of this rule is to ensure that we cover material that stands the test of time and that is embraced by the scientific community. To find ISI Web of Science, go to the River Campus Library homepage and click the tab "Databases" then type in "ISI". ISI Web of Science will be an option. Further advice about using ISI Web of Science is included at the end of this syllabus.

The presentation will be 1 hour (usually about 40 slides); you are responsible for sustaining the discussion for 1 hour. The presentation is formal: digital slides created in Powerpoint or Keynote (etc.) must be used. The content of your presentation is of primary importance but, you will also be evaluated on the style and clarity of your slides. Style and clarity will be assessed following the guidelines of Presentation Zen. Submit your slides to the instructor in pdf format for posting on BlackBoard.

Address the following types of questions in your presentations:

Background: where did the central question/idea of the article come from?
Method: what method(s) are considered valid/invalid, ground-breaking/standard?
Observations: what did they claim to measure, what was the actual dependent measure? What did they find?
Conclusion: what was the main conclusion, what logic and/or assumptions were used to reach that conclusion, and was the conclusion convincing?
News: what was new or important about the findings?
Implications: what were/are the broader implications of this article?
Advances: what has changed in terms of theory or methods from the classic to the more recent articles?

Note that you will complete all of the same steps for your second presentation but you will complete the worksheet and set up a meeting with your instructor consultant later in the semester. It is your responsibility to stay on top of your deadlines. You should plan to meet with your instructor consultant at least two weeks before your second presentation.

Participation (25%)

Participate actively in class discussions when you are not the presenter. You are required to read the classic articles and read or skim the supplementary readings. You are expected to come to class with a discussion agenda that you developed while reading the assigned articles. You must have written discussion notes for each class – they can be brief but, they should represent ideas and questions for discussion. We might collect your notes in class. Attendance is required. You might be called on to speak during the discussion so be sure to plan a question or comment. Note that your contributions should be substantive (i.e., not clarification questions). The quality of your participation will also be evaluated.

If you feel that you will not have enough to say in class after reading the Primary readings, you must read the Secondary readings. If you feel that you do not have an adequate background in cognition to understand the readings, you must do your own additional research on the topic to achieve an understanding. We recommend the textbook Cognition: The Thinking Animal by Daniel T. Willingham (Prentice Hall).

Exams (25%)

There will be a take-home midterm and final essay exam. You will have 48 hours to complete each exam. The exams will ask you to answer essay questions about the Primary Readings. The exams will require that you have access to the internet, library databases, and journal articles. The required length of the essay will be exactly 4 pages (within 200 words) excluding a references page, double-spaced, 1- inch margins, 11pt font, APA format for references.

How to do a cited reference search

Cited reference searching enables you to find journal articles that have cited another article. Through a cited reference search, you can discover how a known idea or innovation has been confirmed, rejected, applied, improved, or extended.

Access ISI Web of Science from the UR Library page, under the Databases tab (enter ISI Web of Science in search), Select Web of Science.

To perform a cited reference search on your CLASSIC ARTICLE in ISI Web of Science:

Click Cited Reference Search from the top of the page.
Enter values in the search fields on the Cited Reference Search page (author, journal, year) from your classic article. You have to find the abbreviate journal name in the "journal abbreviation list" below the Cited Work field.
Click Search to display the Cited Reference Selection page, which lists the articles that seem to match your search criteria.
On the Cited Reference Selection page, select references that seem to match the article you entered by clicking the checkboxes.
Click Finish Search to retrieve the articles that cite that article.
On the panel to the left, you can Refine your search under Source Titles by selecting recognized journals. This will result in a list of articles in "good" journals that have cited your classic article. Choose one of them to be your second, more recent article.

Search Example

To search for articles that have cited the following article: Nash, J. F. (1950). Equilibrium in n-person games. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 36(1), 48-49.

Click Cited Reference Search.
On the Cited Reference Search page, enter Nash J* in the Cited Author field. It is advisable to truncate after the first initial using the asterisk wildcard character in case the author uses a second given name or initial.
Enter P NATL ACAD SCI USA in the Cited Work field (which was retrieved from the journal abbreviation list). Enter 1950 in the Cited Year field.
Click Search. The Cited Reference Selection page, which lists the references found by the lookup, is displayed.
Click checkboxes to select all the references that match the article by J Nash that you are searching.
Click Search.
The Cited Reference Search Results -- Summary page is displayed. These are the articles that cite the article by J Nash listed above.

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