Course listings | Case Western Reserve University

Term: Spring 2011

COGS 102: Introduction to Cognitive Neuroscience (100/3389)

TR 02:45-04:00 PM Jan 10-Apr 25

Jack, A

A survey of the fundamental methods, findings, and theories that attempt to understand the human mind from a neuroscientific standpoint. The course provides the student with background knowledge of brain processes underlying such psychological phenomena as consciousness, sensation, perception, thought, language, and voluntary action. Since many fields of neuroscience have contributed to cognitive neuroscience, the approach of this course is cross-disciplinary. It introduces theories and data from clinical and experimental neuropsychology, brain imaging, neuroelectric and neuromagnetic brain activity, the neuroscience of language, and behavioral neuroscience, among other fields.

COGS 202: Human Cognition Viewed from a Cultural Perspective (100/1433)

TR 10:00-11:15 AM Jan 10-Apr 25

Popova, Y

This course studies the human mind in its natural environment: culture. It covers the fundamental methods, findings, and theories that attempt to understand the growth and evolution of cognition from either a social science or humanistic standpoint. It provides the student with background knowledge of theories of human cultural evolution and change, of the relationship between the cognizing individual and larger social-cognitive structures, and of such phenomena as distributed networks, cooperative mental work, and the phenomenology of human experience. Many disciplines have contributed to this knowledge; hence the approach of this course is cross-disciplinary, including ideas from cultural anthropology, literary studies, art and art history, musicology, philosophy, and the history of technology, among others.

COGS 301: Cognitive Social Science (100/15125)

MW 12:30-01:45 PM Jan 10-Apr 25

Turner, M

This course offers instructors the opportunity to cover a more advanced and specialized topic in the field of cognitive science for third and fourth year students. Topics will vary from year to year.

COGS 305: Departmental Seminar: Moral Boundaries and Limits of Science (100/16280)

W 03:00-05:30 PM Jan 10-Apr 25

Jack, A; Youngner, S

Cognitive Science is essentially interdisciplinary, and this seminar will focus on deep issues that lie at the intersection between science and philosophy. The class will explore how, and to what extent, science might both shape our ethical judgments and help us to understand them. We will also consider what, if anything, our deep moral intuitions, as evidenced by strong sentiments such as disgust or repugnance, tell us about the nature of morality. Current scholarship in moral psychology, moral neuroscience, and moral philosophy are shedding new light on these issues. We will focus on moral boundaries: distinctions between things that have powerful ethical and emotional significance, at least for some people. We will consider the following boundaries: -Male/female and moral responses to homosexuality; -Human/animal and moral responses to bestiality and stem cell research that inserts human stem cells into animals; -Life/death and moral responses to euthanasia; -Human/machine and the moral responses to artificial intelligence, robots, and the use of steroids to enhance athletes and warfighters. In addition to learning and writing about relevant psychological and neuroscientific research, the course contains two other essential aspects. First, students will engage with relevant philosophical issues and arguments. Are there moral facts? If so, what is their basis? Second, the course will include experiential aspects--students will be asked to examine their own ethical responses, and to reexamine them in light of what they are learning. Recommended Preparation: (any two of following pre-requisites) COGS 101, COGS 102, COGS 201, COGS 202.

COGS 325: Cognitive Approaches to Literature (1/4487)

TR 02:45-04:00 PM Jan 10-Apr 25

Brandt, P

This course approaches literature as a window into language, in which cognition is characterized by the same imaging and imaginary properties as artistic literature. It is an attempt to identify and analyze procedures as aesthetically interesting and generally relevant forms of human thinking, feeling, imagining, fantasizing, and conceptualizing. The course introduces current theories of literature in relation to language and mind, and it presents and discusses practical applications in critical reading and text analysis, using examples from modern literature in the main genres. A student may earn credit for either COGS 325 or COGS 425 but not both. Recommended preparation: COGS 101, COGS 202. Offered as COGS 325 and COGS 425.

COGS 327: Gesture in Cognition and Communication (100/15126)

TR 01:15-02:30 PM Jan 10-Apr 25

Parrill, F

Most people never notice that when they are talking, they're also gesturing. Why do we produce these gestures? What can studying them tell us about the human mind? This course surveys scientific research on gesture, exploring topics such as the role of gesture in communication, cross-cultural differences in gesture, and the relationship between gesture and signed languages. The course will focus on gestures produced with speech, but will cover symbolic and ritualized gesture in the visual arts and in dance. Offered as COGS 327 and COGS 427 and MLIT 327.

COGS 340: Seminar in Enlightenment Art and Literature: Piranesi and Vico (100/15875)

T 04:00-06:30 PM Jan 10-Apr 25

Berindeanu, F; Burroughs, C

Course will meet in 612C.

COGS 349: Biocultural Approaches to Religion (100/16244)

TR 02:45-04:00 PM Jan 10-Apr 25

Deal, W

This course studies religious beliefs and rituals from a biocultural perspective. A biocultural approach to religion is based on the idea that human religiosity is informed by both our evolutionary biological makeup and by our ability to construct culture to adapt to variable social worlds and environments. According to a biocultural view, humans are biologically constrained but have the cultural capacity to adapt to the world in a variety of ways. Thus, a biocultural approach to religion asserts that biology and culture operate in tandem and that both biological and cultural insights are required in order to understand and explain religious beliefs and practices. This course explores these assumptions and examines them against specific religious data. This course introduces students to major ideas, concepts, and questions that motivate biocultural approaches to religion. The course requires students to apply course material to a final research project that explores particular religious beliefs and/or practices in terms of the intersection of cultural choices and biological constraints. Students will present their research findings to the class. Students who take this course under the COGS designation are expected to engage substantively with the contemporary scientific study of the human mind in their research project and other course work. Offered as RLGN 349, RLGN 449 and COGS 349.

COGS 391: Introduction to Text Semiotics (100/4579)

MW 09:00-10:15 AM Jan 10-Apr 25

Berindeanu, F

This introduction to Text Semiotics has a counterpart in the Introduction to General Semiotics (COGS 390).

COGS 397: SAGES Capstone in Cognitive Science (100/1437)

Oakley, T

Consult with Todd Oakley, chair of the department.

COGS 397: SAGES Capstone in Cognitive Science (200/4131)

Brandt, P

Supervised original research on a topic in cognitive science, culminating in a public presentation. The research may be in the form of an independent research project, a literature review, or some other form approved by the department.

COGS 397: SAGES Capstone in Cognitive Science (300/4133)

Jack, A

COGS 397: SAGES Capstone in Cognitive Science (400/4499)

Popova, Y

COGS 397: SAGES Capstone in Cognitive Science (500/4517)

Parrill, F

COGS 397: SAGES Capstone in Cognitive Science (600/15618)

Turner, M

COGS 399: Independent Studies in Cognitive Science (100/1439)

Oakley, T