Cognitive and Brain Science

Classes from disciplines such as biology, computer science, mathematics, philosophy, and psychology comprise the classes available within this cross-disciplinary path.

Cognitive and Brain Science 2023-2024 Courses

Anthropology and Images

Open, Seminar—Fall

Images wavered in the sunlit trim of appliances, something always moving, a brightness flying, so much to know in the world.—Don Delillo, Libra

A few cartoons lead to cataclysmic events in Europe. A photograph printed in a newspaper moves a solitary reader. A snapshot posted on the internet leads to dreams of fanciful places. Memories of a past year haunt us like ghosts. What each of these occurrences has in common is that they all entail the force of images in our lives, whether these images are visual or acoustic in nature, made by hand or machine, circulated by word of mouth, or simply imagined. In this seminar, we will consider the role that images play in the lives of people in various settings throughout the world. In delving into terrains at once actual and virtual, we will develop an understanding of how people throughout the world create, use, circulate, and perceive images and how such efforts tie into ideas and practices of sensory perception, time, memory, affect, imagination, sociality, history, politics, and personal and collective imaginings. Through these engagements, we will reflect on the fundamental human need for images, the complicated politics and ethics of images, aesthetic and cultural sensibilities, dynamics of time and memory, the intricate play between the actual and the imagined, and the circulation of digital images in an age of globalization. Readings will include a number of writings in anthropology, art history, philosophy, psychology, cultural studies, and critical theory. Images will be drawn from photographs, paintings, sculptures, drawings, films, videos, graffiti, religion, rituals, tattoos, inscriptions, novels, poems, road signs, advertisements, dreams, fantasies, phantasms, and any number of fabulations in the worlds in which we live and imagine.

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Ethnographic Writing

Sophomore and Above, Seminar—Fall

Transnational migration, human-animal relations, and American community life are but a few of the cultural realities that anthropologists have effectively studied and written about. This is no easy task, given the substantial difficulties involved in understanding and portraying the concerns, activities, and lifeworlds other than one’s own. Despite these challenges, ethnographic writing is generally considered one of the best ways to convey a nuanced and contextually rich understanding of people’s experiences in life. To gain an informed sense of the methods, challenges, and benefits of ethnographic writing, students in this course will try their hands at a concerted work of ethnographic writing. Along with undertaking a series of ethnographic writing exercises, students will be encouraged to craft a fully-realized piece of ethnographic writing that conveys something of the features and dynamics of a particular world in lively, accurate, and comprehensive terms. Along the way, and with the help of anthropological writings that are either exceptional or experimental in nature, we will collectively think through some of the most important features of the craft of ethnographic writing from the use of field notes and interviews, the interlacing of theory and data, the author’s voice in ethnographic prose, and the ethical and political responsibilities that come with any attempt to understand and portray the lives of others. This seminar will work best for students who already have a rich body of ethnographic research materials to work with, such that they can quickly delve into the intricacies of writing about their chosen subject.

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First-Year Studies: The Brain According to Oliver Sacks

FYS—Year

Dr. Oliver Sacks was a prominent neurologist and prolific writer, who considered the workings of the brain by observing and diagnosing patients—including himself. Sacks communicated the marvels of the nervous system to the public through his engaging and remarkable stories of neurological dysfunction and his musings on intriguing and poorly understood topics in neuroscience. We will study the brain in health and disease through Sacks’s writings, accompanied by other readings and films that complement and expand upon Sacks’s descriptions of brain function. Topics will likely include: vision, blindness, and prosopagnosia (aka face-blindness, which Sacks himself had); speech, reading, audition, music, and deafness; autism spectrum disorder; Tourette’s syndrome; neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, and ALS; learning, memory, and amnesia. We will meet for seminar classes and biweekly individual conferences throughout the year. In the fall semester, we will also have weekly group collaborative meetings, which will include neuroanatomy exploration using a neuroscience coloring book, movie screenings, or writing workshops.

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General Biology: Genes, Cells, and Evolution

Open, Small Lecture—Fall

Biology, the study of life on Earth, encompasses structures and forms ranging from the very minute to the very large. In order to grasp the complexities of life, we begin this study with the cellular and molecular forms and mechanisms that serve as the foundation for all living organisms. The initial part of the semester will introduce the fundamental molecules critical to the biochemistry of life processes. From there, we branch out to investigate the major ideas, structures, and concepts central to the biology of cells, genetics, and the chromosomal basis of inheritance. Finally, we conclude the semester by examining how those principles relate to the mechanisms of evolution. Throughout the semester, we will discuss the individuals responsible for major discoveries, as well as the experimental techniques and process by which such advances in biological understanding are made. Classes will be supplemented with weekly laboratory work. This course serves as the gateway course into the biology department curriculum.

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Drugs and the Brain

Open, Lecture—Spring

The nervous system is the ultimate target of many drugs: those taken to alleviate pain, to increase pleasure, or to transform perceptions. We will focus on the neuronal targets and mechanisms of psychoactive drugs, including which neurotransmitter systems they modulate. We will consider stimulants, depressants, narcotics, analgesics, hallucinogens, and psychotherapeutics. In order to gain a more comprehensive understanding of drug use and abuse, we will also explore the social, political, economic, and genetic factors that influence drug consumption—both legal and illegal—and drug epidemics, including the ongoing and devastating opioid epidemic. We will learn about drug sources, forms, and methods of use while also exploring what is known about the biological basis of tolerance, cravings, withdrawal, and addiction. Lectures will be complemented by seminar-style group conferences in which we will discuss the narrative nonfiction books Dreamland, by Sam Quinones, and How to Change Your Mind, by Michael Pollan.

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Hormones, Food, and Sex

Open, Seminar—Fall

Hormones are released from diverse tissues, including the brain, ovaries, testes, stomach, intestines, and fat. These small molecules travel around the body via the circulatory system to influence the activity of distant cells involved in key biological processes. In this introduction to endocrinology, we will study the principles of hormone signaling by focusing on two overarching topics: 1) hormones that modulate food intake and utilization, and 2) hormones that control reproduction. The key molecules, cells, and tissues that play a role in endocrine-signaling pathways will be examined. We will study hormones that control appetite, satiation, fat deposition, and weight, as well as those that control many aspects of reproduction—including puberty, arousal, sex, gender identity, ovulation, pregnancy, and lactation. Readings will include textbook chapters, scientific articles, and popular science pieces.

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Genetics

Sophomore and Above, Seminar—Fall

At the biological core of all life on Earth is the gene. The unique combination of genes in each individual ultimately forms the basis for that person's physical appearance, metabolic capacity, thought processes, and behavior. Therefore, in order to understand how life develops and functions, it is critical to understand what genes are, how they work, and how they are passed on from parents to offspring. In this course, we will begin by investigating the theories of inheritance first put forth by Mendel and then progress to our current concepts of how genes are transmitted through individuals, families, and whole populations. We will also examine chromosome structure and the mechanisms and molecular functions of genes and DNA within cells and how mutations in DNA can lead to physical abnormalities and diseases such as Trisomy 21, hemophilia, or others. Finally, we will discuss the role of genetics in influencing such complex phenotypes as behavior or traits such as intelligence. Classes will be supplemented with weekly laboratory work.

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Cell Biology

Intermediate, Seminar—Spring

Cells are the most basic unit of life on the planet. All life forms are simply conglomerations of cells, ranging from the individual bacterial cells to higher-order plants and animals. Humans, themselves, are made up of trillions of cells. So what exactly is a cell? What is it made of? How does it function? In a complex organism, how do cells communicate with one another and coordinate their activities? How do they regulate their growth? What role do genes play in controlling cellular function? This course will address these questions and introduce the basic biology of cells while keeping in mind their larger role in tissues and organs. If we can understand the structures and functions of the individual cells that serve as the subunits of larger organisms, we can begin to understand the biological nature of humans and other complex life forms. Classes will be supplemented with laboratory work.

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Early-Intervention Approaches for Young Children and Their Families

Intermediate/Advanced, Small seminar—Spring

This course will explore several early-intervention approaches for young children and their families, with a particular emphasis on the theory and technique of play therapy. While this course will focus most on child-centered play therapy (CCPT), we will also look at the methodology of other types of approaches and how those approaches address treatment issues. In addition, course material will highlight cultural considerations, therapeutic work with parents/caregivers, challenges in treatment, self-reflection, self-regulation, sensory processing, interoception, and analysis of case studies. Readings, class discussions, group play-based activities, and video illustrations will provide students with both a theoretical and anintroductory clinical basis for play-based therapeutic work with young children in early-intervention approaches.

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Introduction to Computer Science: The Way of the Program

Open, Small Lecture—Fall

This lecture course is a rigorous introduction to computer science and the art of computer programming using the elegant, eminently practical, yet easy-to-learn programming language Python. We will learn the principles of problem-solving with a computer while also gaining the programming skills necessary for further study in the discipline. We will emphasize the power of abstraction and the benefits of clearly written, well-structured programs, beginning with imperative programming and working our way up to object-oriented concepts such as classes, methods, and inheritance. Along the way, we will explore the fundamental idea of an algorithm; how computers represent and manipulate numbers, text, and other data (such as images and sound) in binary; Boolean logic; conditional, iterative, and recursive programming; functional abstraction; file processing; and basic data structures such as lists and dictionaries. We will also learn introductory computer graphics, how to process simple user interactions via mouse and keyboard, and some principles of game design and implementation. All students will complete a final programming project of their own design. Weekly hands-on laboratory sessions will reinforce the concepts covered in class through extensive practice at the computer.

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Digital Disruptions

Open, Seminar—Fall

From autonomous vehicles to ChatGPT and Stable Diffusion, from the rise to the fall of cryptocurrency and NFTs, from YouTube to TikTok, from Instagram and Snapchat to BeReal, from Twitter to Mastodon, from Mr. Robot to M3gan, from Wordle to Elden Ring, from Apple to Zoom...digital technology plays an ever-more “disruptive” role in society. In this seminar, we ponder where this phenomenon may be taking us in the immediate and not-so-immediate future and whether there is (or will be) anything we can (or should) do about it. The miniaturization of electronic computers and the resulting increase in computing power, decrease in short-term cost to harness that power, and ubiquity of computer networks all bring people and places together and make distances formerly thought of as insurmountable ever more trivial. With the advent of gigabit fiber-optic networks, smart phones, and wearable computers, information of all kinds can flow around the world, between people and objects and back again, in an instant. In many ways, the plethora of smaller, cheaper, faster networked devices improves our quality of life. But there is also a dark side of a highly connected society: the more smart phones, the more workaholics; the more text messages exchanged and the easier the access to drones, the less privacy; the greater reach of the internet, the faster the spread of misinformation and the more piracy, spam, and pornography; the more remote-controlled thermostats, the greater the risk of cyberterrorism. This seminar will focus on the relationship between digital networks (the web, social networks, and beyond) to current events, including the economy, politics, and the law. The second half of the course will focus on the cultural impact of digital technology, ranging from video games to science fiction and the rise of artificial intelligence. This is not a technical course, though at times we will discuss some details that lie behind certain crucial technologies—in particular, the internet and the web.

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Intermediate Programming in Python

Intermediate, Seminar—Fall

This course is for students with prior programming experience in Python and who want to take their programming skills to the next level. We will explore a variety of advanced programming features of Python, including iterators and generators, list comprehensions, operator overloading, exception handling, context management, first-class functions, introspection and meta-programming, and other topics as time permits. We will also make extensive use of the object-oriented programming paradigm through the development of larger-scale programs organized as collections of classes, with an emphasis on clean, modular design.

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Artificial Intelligence and Society

Open, Seminar—Spring

In recent years, the field of artificial intelligence (AI) has made astonishing technical progress and has begun to assume an increasingly widespread and important role in society. AI systems can now (at least to some extent) drive cars; recognize human faces, speech, and gestures; diagnose diseases; control autonomous robots; converse fluently in English; instantly translate text from one language to another; beat world-champion human players at chess, Go, and other games; and perform many other amazing feats that just a few decades ago were only possible within the realm of science fiction. This progress has led to extravagant expectations, claims, hopes, and fears about the future of AI technology and its potential impact on society. In this course, we will attempt to peer beyond the hype and come to grips with both the promise and the peril of AI. We will consider AI from many angles, including historical, philosophical, ethical, and public-policy perspectives. We will also examine in detail many of the technical concepts and achievements of the field, as well as its many failures and setbacks. Throughout the course, students will be asked to read texts, write responses, do follow-up research, and participate in classroom discussions. This is not a programming course, and no background in computer programming is either expected or required.

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An Introduction to Statistical Methods and Analysis

Open, Lecture—Spring

Variance, correlation coefficient, regression analysis, statistical significance, margin of error...you’ve heard these terms and other statistical phrases bantered about before, and you’ve seen them interspersed in news reports and research articles. But what do they mean? How are they used? And why are they so important? Serving as an introduction to the concepts, techniques, and reasoning central to the understanding of data, this lecture course focuses on the fundamental methods of statistical analysis used to gain insight into diverse areas of human interest. The use, misuse, and abuse of statistics will be the central focus of the course; specific topics of exploration will be drawn from experimental design theory, sampling theory, data analysis, and statistical inference. Applications will be considered in current events, business, psychology, politics, medicine, and many other areas of the natural and social sciences. Statistical (spreadsheet) software will be introduced and used extensively in this course, but no prior experience with the technology is assumed. Group conferences, conducted in workshop mode, will serve to reinforce student understanding of the course material. This lecture is recommended for anybody wishing to be a better-informed consumer of data and strongly recommended for those planning to pursue advanced undergraduate or graduate research in the natural sciences or social sciences. Enrolled students are expected to have an understanding of basic high-school algebra and plane coordinate geometry.

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Multivariable Mathematics: Linear Algebra, Vector Calculus, and Differential Equations

Intermediate, Seminar—Year

Rarely is a quantity of interest—tomorrow’s temperature, unemployment rates across Europe, the cost of a spring-break flight to Fort Lauderdale—a simple function of just one primary variable. Reality, for better or worse, is mathematically multivariable. This course introduces an array of topics and tools used in the mathematical analysis of multivariable functions. The intertwined theories of vectors, matrices, and differential equations and their applications will be the central themes of exploration in this yearlong course. Specific topics to be covered include the algebra and geometry of vectors in two, three, and higher dimensions; dot and cross products and their applications; equations of lines and planes in higher dimensions; solutions to systems of linear equations, using Gaussian elimination; theory and applications of determinants, inverses, and eigenvectors; volumes of three-dimensional solids via integration; spherical and cylindrical coordinate systems; and methods of visualizing and constructing solutions to differential equations of various types. Conference work will involve an investigation of some mathematically-themed subject of the student’s choosing.

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Calculus I

Open, Seminar—Fall

Our existence lies in a perpetual state of change. An apple falls from a tree; clouds move across expansive farmland, blocking out the sun for days; meanwhile, satellites zip around the Earth, transmitting and receiving signals to our cell phones. The calculus was invented to develop a language to accurately describe and study the changes that we see. Ancient Greeks began a detailed study of change but were scared to wrestle with the infinite; so, it was not until the 17th century that Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz, among others, tamed the infinite and gave birth to this extremely successful branch of mathematics. Though just a few hundred years old, the calculus has become an indispensable research tool in both the natural and social sciences. Our study begins with the central concept of the limit and proceeds to explore the dual topics of differentiation and integration. Numerous applications of the theory will be examined. For conference work, students may choose to undertake a deeper investigation of a single topic or application of the calculus or conduct a study in some other branch of mathematics. This seminar is intended for students interested in advanced study in mathematics or science, students preparing for careers in the health sciences or engineering, and any student wishing to broaden and enrich the life of the mind.

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Calculus II

Open, Seminar—Spring

This course continues the thread of mathematical inquiry, following an initial study of the dual topics of differentiation and integration (see Calculus I course description). Topics to be explored in this course include the calculus of exponential and logarithmic functions, applications of integration theory to geometry, alternative coordinate systems, infinite series, and power series representations of functions. For conference work, students may choose to undertake a deeper investigation of a single topic or application of the calculus or conduct a study of some other mathematically-related topic, including artistic projects. This seminar is intended for students interested in advanced study in mathematics or science, preparing for careers in the health sciences or engineering, or simply wishing to broaden and enrich the life of the mind.

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Calculus II

Open, Seminar—Fall

This course continues the thread of mathematical inquiry, following an initial study of the dual topics of differentiation and integration (see Calculus I course description). Topics to be explored in this course include the calculus of exponential and logarithmic functions, applications of integration theory to geometry, alternative coordinate systems, infinite series, and power series representations of functions. For conference work, students may choose to undertake a deeper investigation of a single topic or application of the calculus or conduct a study of some other mathematically-related topic, including artistic projects. This seminar is intended for students interested in advanced study in mathematics or science, preparing for careers in the health sciences or engineering, or simply wishing to broaden and enrich the life of the mind.

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First-Year Studies: The Senses: Art and Science

FYS—Year

The perceiving mind is an incarnated mind. —Maurice Merleau-Ponty, 1964

Sensory perception is a vital component of the creation and experience of artistic works of all types. In psychology and neuroscience, the investigation of sensory systems has been foundational for our developing understanding of brains, minds, and bodies. Recent work in brain science has moved us beyond the Aristotelian notion of five discrete senses to a view of the senses as more various and interconnected—with each other and with the fundamental psychological processes of perception, attention, emotion, memory, imagination, and judgment. What we call “taste” is a multisensory construction of “flavor” that relies heavily on smell, vision, and touch (mouth feel); “vision” refers to a set of semi-independent streams that specialize in the processing of color, object identity, or spatial layout and movement; “touch” encompasses a complex system of responses to different types of contact with the largest sensory organ—the skin; and “hearing” includes aspects of perception that are thought to be quintessentially human—music and language. Many other sensations are not covered by the standard five: the sense of balance, of body position (proprioception), feelings of pain arising from within the body, and feelings of heat or cold. Perceptual psychologists have suggested that the total count is closer to 17 than five. We will investigate all of these senses, their interactions with each other and their intimate relationships with human emotion, memory, and imagination. Some of the questions that we will address are: Why are smells such potent memory triggers? What can visual art tell us about how the brain works, and vice versa? Why is a caregiver’s touch so vital for psychological development? Why do foods that taste sublime to some people evoke feelings of disgust in others? Do humans have a poor sense of smell? Why does the word “feeling” refer to both bodily sensations and emotions? What makes a song “catchy” or “sticky”? Can humans learn to echolocate like bats? What is the role of body perception in mindfulness meditation? This is a good course for artists who like to think about science and for scientists with a feeling for art. This is a collaborative course, with small-group meetings held weekly in addition to the individual conference meetings held every other week. The main small-group collaborative activity is a sensory lab in which students will have the opportunity to explore their own sensory perceptions in a systematic way, investigating how they relate to language, memory, and emotion. Other group activities include mindful movement and other meditation practices for stress relief and emotional regulation, as well as occasional museum visits if these can be done safely.

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The Origins of Language: What Babies, Other Animals, and Machines Can Tell Us

Open, Lecture—Fall

Why is communication so important to us? We appear to understand messages from one another despite uncertainty, distraction, and ever-changing environments. Within milliseconds, we are often able to formulate a relevant response. In this course, we will consider central questions about communication: Are we the only ones who do it? When did we learn it? What does artificial intelligence (AI) like ChatGPT actually learn? And, what exactly is the point of so-called “small talk”? In this cognitive psychology course, we will start with an introduction to comparative research with animals, allowing us to consider other forms of communication. Next, we’ll turn to our own species, examining what findings from studies with babies and children can tell us about the nature and goals of communication. Finally, we’ll confront the “artificial elephant” in the room: neural networks. What kind of language have they learned, and how can we study it? In class, we will discuss the benefits and consequences of AI. Students should come prepared to engage with the topic of communication from multiple perspectives, including psychological, quantitative, and humanistic. Through small-group conferences each week, students will develop projects that relate the course to their collective interests, such as learning and communicating in Toki Pona (a philosophical artistic-constructed language), hosting a campus debate on the ethical consequences of artificial-language models, observing and analyzing children’s communication at the Early Childhood Center, or designing a behavioral intervention study that implements nonviolent communication practices.

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Psychology of Children’s Television

Open, Lecture—Fall

This course analyzes children’s media, specifically preschool media through middle school, using cognitive and developmental psychology theory and methods. We will examine specific educational television programs with regard to cognitive and social developmental issues related to family life, peer relationships, and education issues. Because media has an enormous impact on children’s behavior, this has increasingly become a subject of interest among researchers and the public. This course addresses that interest by applying cognitive and developmental psychological research and theories for the development and production of educational media. In addition, the course helps identify essential elements that determine the positive and negative qualities of media for children. Finally, the course examines and evaluates how psychological theories and frameworks can guide the successful production of children’s media (e.g., social cognitive theory). Projects and assignments will include weekly class discussions on peer-reviewed journal articles, watching television programs, group preschool television pitchbook preparation, child observations interacting with screens, and media artifact critiques as assigned.

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Finding Happiness and Keeping It: Insights From Psychology and Neuroscience

Open, Lecture—Fall

We must make automatic and habitual, as early as possible, as many useful actions as we can and guard against the growing into ways that are likely to be disadvantageous to us, as we should guard against the plague. —William James, 1887, Habit

We all want happy lives filled with meaning and satisfaction. Yet, for many of us, happiness can be difficult to obtain with regularity or to sustain over a long period of time. Happiness is more than a feeling; rather, it is a state of well-being that should last a lifetime. Like exercising to improve physical health, it takes sustained cognitive effort to improve our mental health and engage in practices to promote well-being. We can look to evidence from the fields of psychology and neuroscience that tells us that we are mentally unprepared to: (1) predict what will make us happy, and (2) engage in behaviors that are known to make us happier. In this course, we will cover the psychological and brain-based factors for why happiness feels so fleeting and what we can do to build better and more effective habits that have been shown to lead to longer-term maintenance of a positive mood and well-being. Students will read foundational work in the field of positive psychology by Martin Seligman, Sonja Lyubomirsky, Edward Diener, Daniel Kahneman, and others. We will also discuss studies in neuroscience that show how behavioral interventions in positive psychology can impact the brain’s structure and function—just like building stronger muscles during exercise. Through small-group conferences, students will apply evidence-based practices—such as bringing order and organization to their daily lives, expressing gratitude, and building social bonds (i.e., “cross training” for the mind) in activities called “Rewirements.” For the final project, called “Unlearning Yourself,” students will learn to undo or replace a detrimental habit (e.g., overspending, social-media use, poor sleep hygiene, complaining, procrastinating) by establishing a plan to cultivate evidence-based practices for sustained well-being. By the end of this course, students will have gained the ability to sift through the ever-booming literature on positive psychology and neuroscience to identify the practices that work best for them, along with an appreciation for the notion that finding and keeping happiness and well-being requires intentional practice and maintenance. Students should come prepared to engage in meaningful self-work.

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Art and Visual Perception

Open, Small Lecture—Spring

Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak. —John Berger

Psychologists and neuroscientists have long been interested in measuring and explaining the phenomena of visual perception. In this course, we will study how the visual brain encodes basic aspects of perception—such as color, form, depth, motion, shape, and space—and how they are organized into coherent percepts, or gestalts. Our main goal will be to explore how the study of visual neuroscience and art can inform each other. One of our guides in these explorations will be the groundbreaking gestalt psychologist Rudolf Arnheim, who was a pioneer in the psychology of art. The more recent and equally innovative text by the neuroscientist Eric Kandel, Reductionism in Art and Brain Science, will provide our entry into the subject of neuroaesthetics. Throughout our visual journey, we will seek connections between perceptual phenomena and what is known about brain processing of visual information. This is a course for people who enjoy reflecting on why we see things as we do. It should hold particular interest for students of the visual arts who are curious about scientific explanations of the phenomena that they explore in their art, as well as students of the brain who want to study an application of visual neuroscience. The course format is a small lecture (30 people), with one lecture and one small seminar (10 people) every week.

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Technology and Human Development

Open, Lecture—Spring

All of us today grow up in a technology-rich environment, which is not only different from the one we grew up in but also is still changing and evolving rapidly. The course examines the use and design of an array of educational technologies (computer programs, multimedia software, television, video games, websites, and so on) from the perspective of basic research and theory in the human cognitive system, development psychology, and social development areas. The course aims to provide a framework for reasoning about the most developmentally appropriate uses of technologies for children and young adults at different ages. Some of the significant questions we will focus on include: How are their developmental experiences affected by these technologies? What are the advantages and disadvantages for children using technology, especially for learning? In this class, we will try to touch upon these issues by reading classic literature, researching articles, playing games, watching programs, using apps, and discussing our experiences. Projects and assignments will include weekly class discussions on peer-reviewed journal articles and media artifact critiques written by individual students and through group project work.

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Concepts of the Mind: How Language and Culture Challenge Cognitive Science

Intermediate, Seminar—Fall

How does the human mind represent the world? And how do these representations vary across people? Could knowing a different language change how we experience time or even how we see color? Even seemingly simple concepts like “in” vs. “on” mean different things in different cultures, and words like “one” and “two” may not be linguistically universal. Indeed, the very course description that you are reading makes culturally-specific assumptions about psychology and implicitly assumes objectivity. At the same time, humans seem to share certain core experiences, such as perceiving events, creating categories, and recalling the past. Which aspects are shared, and which are unique? In this course, we will draw on research from psycholinguistics, cognitive development, and cultural psychology to learn cognitive science in a larger context. Critically, we will consider how each of those fields have been severely constrained by an emphasis on white, Western, industrialized experiences. We will investigate the broader social and ethical consequences of these assumptions and explore insights and challenges that emerge when we step out of this limited perspective. We’ll draw on primary and secondary sources, including research articles, literature, videos, raw experimental data, and audio recordings. Students will develop projects in conference work that combine their interests with the course content, such as designing an experiment to test cross-linguistic differences in visual attention, analyzing vocabulary from languages other than English, or replicating and reinterpreting an existing experiment using culturally-responsive practices.

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Speaking the Unspeakable: Trauma, Emotion, Cognition, and Language

Intermediate, Seminar—Fall

Psychological trauma has been described as unspeakable—so cognitively disorganizing and intense that it is difficult to put into words the experience and the emotions that it evokes. Yet, the language that survivors use to describe their traumas provides insight into the impact of trauma and the process of recovery. This course will begin with an overview of theories of trauma, resilience, and post-traumatic growth, as well as an introduction to the study of trauma narratives and how language reflects emotional and cognitive functioning. We will then explore different aspects of the cognitive, emotional, and biological impact of undergoing a trauma and how these changes are reflected in the language that trauma survivors use as they speak and write about their experiences. We will consider works by experts on trauma and language, including Judith Herman, Bessel van der Kolk, and James Pennebaker, as well as current research in the field of trauma and trauma narratives. Through these readings, we will address topics such as what makes an experience traumatic, how representations of trauma in popular culture color our perceptions of trauma and recovery, the role of resilience and growth following a trauma, and what we can learn from attending to the content and structure of language. This course will be of interest to students who are curious about how the words we use reflect our cognitive and emotional functioning, especially for students interested in pursuing topics such as these at an advanced or graduate level.

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Mind-Body Interactions: Psychoneuroimmunology

Intermediate, Seminar—Fall

Why do we tend to get sick more often when we feel tired or stressed? Can feeling happy reduce the time it takes to heal from physical injuries? How does acute (short-term) and chronic (long-term) illness impact the ways we navigate the world (our thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and interactions with others)? This semester, we will address these and other questions by examining the intricate and bidirectional connection between the brain and the body through the lens of the immune system. We will consider how adverse emotional states that are triggered by daily stressors, trauma, mental-health disorders, and social determinants of health (e.g., loneliness, social comparison, bullying, and marginalization/discrimination) can impact our physical health and well-being. We will conversely examine the ways in which managing stress, experiencing positive emotions, cultivating warm and positive relationships, and striving for equity and social justice serve as essential “buffers” against acute and chronic stress and poor health outcomes. Emerging evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic on the ways in which our psychological states influence our immunity, and vice-versa, will also be discussed. Throughout the semester, in seminar and through conference work, students will also learn about the relevant methodologies that are used to study the connection of and between the brain, mind, and immune system. This course is recommended for students who are seeking specialized training in preparation for postgraduate studies in psychology, neuroscience, public health, public policy, and medical school, as well as for any student with a genuine curiosity to learn more about how the mind and body are deeply and intricately intertwined. It is recommended, but not required, that students take this course in conjunction with the spring semester, intermediate-level seminar offering on psychoneuroendocrinology.

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Psychology Advanced Research Seminar

Intermediate/Advanced, Seminar—Fall

In this research seminar, students will gain valuable experience through a weekly seminar meeting focused on research methods, research ethics, and contemporary research questions and approaches; a weekly lab meeting with one of the faculty members leading the research seminar; and individual and group conference meetings with faculty supervisors on a regular, as-needed basis. The seminar component will include readings on, and discussions of, research methods and ethics—both broad and specific to the research in which students are involved—as well as the discussion of contemporary research articles that are relevant to student and faculty research projects. All faculty and students involved in the research experience will take turns leading the discussion of current research, with faculty taking the lead at the beginning of the semester and students taking the lead as their expertise develops. Weekly lab meetings will also involve reading and discussing research articles and research-methods papers specific to the topics of research being undertaken by each student and faculty member. Students will be expected to learn the current research approaches being employed by their supervising faculty member, contribute toward ongoing research in the form of a research practicum, and develop and implement their own independent research projects within the labs in which they are working. Faculty supervising each lab will also be available to meet with students, both individually and in small groups, on an ongoing basis—as needed and at least every other week—in addition to the regular weekly, hour-long lab meeting. Students participating in the Psychology Advanced Research Seminar will be expected to attend and actively participate in weekly full-group seminars, weekly lab meetings, and regular (typically, at least biweekly) individual and group conference meetings; keep an ongoing journal and/or scientific lab notebook; select and facilitate group and lab discussions of relevant contemporary research articles (at least once for each meeting type); work at least 5 hours within a lab and/or community setting, as appropriate for their projects; contribute toward ongoing research and practice within their lab or community settings; develop, implement, and report on (in the form of a short paper prepared for possible publication and a poster at the Natural Sciences and Mathematics Poster Session) an independent research project; and provide their colleagues with ongoing verbal and written feedback on their projects.

 

Faculty

The Power and Meanings of Play in Children’s Lives

Intermediate/Advanced, Seminar—Fall

Play provides us with an amazing and informative lens for observing the development and complex inner lives of young children. Yet, play is being threatened by increasing amounts of time spent on technology and a growing societal focus on scheduled activities and academic goals. This course will offer an introduction to the many fascinating aspects of play, including the importance of unstructured free play, how play shapes the brain, sensory processing and self-regulation in play, outdoor play, cultural contexts of play, and humor development in play. Through readings, video illustrations, and discussion of student fieldwork at the Early Childhood Center, we will explore the many ways in which play contributes to the complex social, cognitive, emotional, and imaginative lives of children. This course will provide a foundation for the spring course, Early Intervention Approaches for Young Children and Families.

Faculty

The Stories We Could Tell: Theatre Through Memory

Open, Small seminar—Spring

All stories can enlighten us, all can transform the listener, and all can allow the storyteller to see and experience things that they have forgotten. The stories we could tell are limitless. In this course, 8-10 students will be trained in improvisational exercises used for building community and narrative storytelling. They will begin the course practicing and learning the varied theories connected to the work of community and social practice programs and Theatre of the Oppressed. Once the students feel comfortable using the exercises, we will spend one afternoon a week visiting and discovering the stories of the residents of the senior low-income housing and assisted-living communities at Wartburg Rehabilitation Center in Yonkers. We will listen to, invest in, and develop the stories from the lives of the residents. Some stories will be dramatic reflections of their life events; others will be simple adventures of everyday existence. Students do not need any background in theatre, just a desire to connect to the Wartburg culture and explore memory through storytelling. As we gather these stories, we will develop a theatre project with and for the residents. The goal of the collaboration is to motivate, expand, and create more vivid memories in us all.

Faculty

How Humans Learn Language

Open, Seminar—Spring

By the time you read this course description, you have likely learned more than 40,000 English words. That’s at least an average of six words per day—and many more if you are multilingual. How is this possible? This course is about how humans come to learn language so early and so quickly among striking environmental variation. For example, caregivers in the United States often alter and repeat their words when talking to children, while caregivers in a Tseltal Mayan community rarely talk to children at all. And yet, children in both settings successfully learn language on similar timescales. At the same time, no two children are alike. We will explore how the spectrum of neurodiversity sets many children on their own communicative path. We will also consider variation in modality: Babies in deaf communities rapidly learn to comprehend and produce sign. What kind of learning mechanism could operate under such diverse inputs? Together, we’ll evaluate existing theories and try to generate our own new theories of language development. We will bring these ideas beyond the seminar room, drawing connections to second-language learning in adults, early childhood education, and social and economic policy. Students will develop conference projects that relate frameworks and findings from language-learning research to their own developing interests, such as observing how children innovate language at the Early Childhood Center, designing structured interviews to compare the grammatical knowledge of children to artificial neural networks (such as ChatGPT) or conducting a meta-review on the effects of early-childhood programs such as Head Start.

Faculty

Cognition Through the Lens of Neuropsychology

Open, Seminar—Spring

What would life be like if you grew up without a large chunk of brain tissue (your prefrontal cortex) located at the front of the brain that makes you “you”? Or without your amygdala, a structure buried deep in the brain that helps us learn about emotions and develop fear responses? Neuropsychology is the specific field of study that is conducted in laboratory, clinical, and forensic settings to deepen our understanding of how the brain gives rise to various aspects of perception (sight, hearing, taste, smell, etc.) and cognition (language, emotions, personality, decision making, etc.). This course will introduce students to the foundations of neuropsychology, starting with the historical arc of neuropsychology from Ancient Egypt to the present day, to appreciate that a seemingly widely accepted concept—that the brain gives rise to behavior—was, and in some cultures and groups still is, the topic of many theoretical, philosophical, and spiritual debates. We will also survey the sub-branches of neuropsychology, including clinical neuropsychology (the study of patients with brain damage and illness, as described above); experimental neuropsychology (the study of similarities/variations in behavior among “neurotypical” individuals); and comparative neuropsychology (studies across different species). Insights from patients with brain injuries and illnesses—including individuals studied by leading researchers and physicians in the field such as Paul Broca, Carl Wernicke, Brenda Milner, Antonio Damasio, Oliver Sacks, Lesley Fellows, and others—have, by far, generated the clearest inroads to understanding how the brain works. Throughout the course, students will also explore experimental tools and methods that are still being used today to plumb the depths of the human brain’s most essential functions.

Faculty

Mind-Body Interactions: Psychoneuroendocrinology

Intermediate, Seminar—Spring

We navigate complex social interactions, often unaware of the role that our hormones play in shaping these experiences; nor do we often appreciate the subtle ways that our behaviors can alter our hormones. Through an exploration of the intricate and bidirectional connection between the brain and the body, we will cover the primary functions of specific hormones (e.g., cortisol, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, oxytocin, vasopressin); the ways in which hormones can affect social behaviors; and, conversely, the effect that our behaviors and social environments have on hormone release. As part of this work, we will cover a basic overview of the endocrine system; methods for measuring hormones; and the topics of aggression, bonding, trust/empathy, social threat, loneliness, discrimination, and mating/reproduction. Through seminar and conference work, students will apply this knowledge to infer how these interactions between the mind and the body can impact long-term health outcomes under specific social settings/conditions. This course is recommended for students who are seeking specialized training in preparation for postgraduate studies in psychology, neuroscience, public health, public policy, and medical school, as well as for any student with a genuine curiosity to learn more about how the mind and body are deeply and intricately intertwined. It is recommended, but not required, that students take this course in conjunction with the fall semester, intermediate-level seminar offering on psychoneuroimmunology.

Faculty

Psychology Advanced Research Seminar: Professional Learning and Advanced Research Methods

Intermediate/Advanced, Small seminar—Spring

The primary objective of this course is to provide students with additional instruction on professional learning for conducting research in psychology. This seminar will, therefore, be a useful companion to the completion of an independent research project as part of a senior thesis, research seminar, or conference project in psychology or related fields. Students may also develop their own independent research project within this course. Seminars will take place weekly and will be conducted in a workshop format that will allow students to learn about and apply various concepts in research related to open science practices, finding funding/grant writing, collecting and analyzing data, and more. Students participating in the course will also be expected to attend and actively participate in weekly lab meetings; develop an individualized training plan; keep an ongoing journal and/or scientific lab notebook; select and facilitate group and lab discussions of relevant contemporary research articles (at least once for each meeting type); work within a lab and/or community setting, as appropriate for their projects; contribute toward ongoing research and practice within their lab or community settings; develop, implement, and report on (in the form of a short paper prepared for possible publication and a poster at the SciMath Poster Session) an independent research project; and provide their colleagues with ongoing verbal and written feedback on their projects. Students will be responsible for working collaboratively with their colleagues to further develop their understanding of each of the topics covered in class. By the end of the semester, students will be more conversant on, and knowledgeable of, common practices for conducting research in psychology; their work will result in a final project report, be it a thesis, independent study, or other conference project.

Faculty

A Window Into the Growing Mind: Research Methods in Cognitive Development

Intermediate/Advanced, Seminar—Spring

We have never known as much about the minds of infants and toddlers as we do now. Babies are better than adults at distinguishing faces of other races, perform spontaneous experiments with their toys, and even starting to learn language in utero. But how did we discover all of this? In this course, you will learn about classical and cutting-edge methods for studying learning and reasoning. This course will be a deep dive into multiple measures of behavior, starting with measurements of looking behaviors (e.g., real-time eye tracking, habituation paradigms, head-turn methods), reaction time measures, and naturalistic tasks and interviews with toddlers and children. We will also review the promise of neural methods (fNIRS, fMRI, psychophysiological), as well as their challenges. For each of these methods, we will explore how they shape ongoing debates about how best to design experiments, analyze data, and build inclusive theories that reflect human diversity. In the culminating project, you will design an experiment to test a novel research question, using one of our behavioral methods such as eye tracking or reaction time, and revise the proposal after peer review. During conference work, you’ll learn to use the method, implement the experiment, collect preliminary data, and present your findings in seminar. By the end of the course, you will have a strong understanding of several central research methods in psychology, your own perspective of the strengths and limitations of different approaches, and the tools to critically evaluate and communicate about published findings.

Faculty

Sociology of the Body

Sophomore and Above, Seminar—Fall

How are bodies produced in the contemporary world? To what degree are our bodies truly our own? Using Michel Foucault’s term “biopower” and his related work as its point of departure, this course will address the above questions as well as others related to the body in order to analyze and better understand how modern social institutions and relations regulate and attempt to control our bodies. Our examination and analysis will include the various modalities through which power is enacted at the macro level—including, for example, state surveillance, violence, and policy formation. We will also explore the relation between such forces and micro-level, everyday experiences throughout, deploying the concept of “embodiment” to understand how social power not only acts upon us but also becomes internalized within our very beings. This framework will help us better understand how social power is carried through the body and shapes our physicality, as well as the ways in which we move through the social world and interact with each other. Our analysis will enable us to examine biopower more critically with respect to constructions and interpretations of sex/gender, race, class, and sexuality at multiple social scales. For conference, students are expected to select a social context of their preference through which to examine the relationship between biopolitical forces and the embodied experiences of the individual(s). Students might also explore strategies of resistance—both individual and collective—to establish bodily autonomy and resist domination. In addition to social scientific studies, students may deploy ethnographic research, media analysis, and/or turn to personal (auto)biographies as bases of their research and analysis.

Faculty

The Stories We Could Tell: Theatre Through Memory

Open, Small seminar—Spring

All stories can enlighten us, all can transform the listener, and all can allow the storyteller to see and experience things they have forgotten. The stories we could tell are limitless. In this course, eight-to-10 students would be trained in improvisational exercises used for building community and narrative storytelling. The students would begin the course practicing and learning the varied theories connected to the work of Community and Social Practice Programs and Theatre of the Oppressed. Once the students feel comfortable using the exercises, we will spend one afternoon a week visiting and discovering the stories of the residents of the senior low-income housing and assisted-living communities at Wartburg Rehabilitation Center in Yonkers. We would listen to, invest in, and develop the stories from the lives of the residents. Some will be dramatic reflections of their life events; others will be simple adventures of everyday existence. Students do not need any background in theatre, just a desire to connect to the Wartburg culture and explore memory through storytelling. As we gather these stories, we will develop a theatre project with and for the residents. The goal of the collaboration is to motivate, expand, and create more vivid memories in us all.

Faculty

Children’s Literature

Open, Small Lecture—Fall

Who doesn’t love Frog and Toad? Have you ever wanted to write something like it—or like Charlotte’s Web or A Snowy Day? Why do our favorites work so well and so (almost) universally? We will begin by reading books we know and books we missed and discuss what makes them so good. We will be looking at read-to books, early readers, instructional books for children, rude books, chapter books, books about friendship, and (possibly) young adult books. We may consider what good children’s history and biography might be like. We will talk about the place of the visual, the careful and conscious use of language, notions of appropriateness, and what works at various age levels. Invariably, we will talk about childhood, our own and as part of an ever-changing set of social theories. We will try our hand at writing picture books, early readers, friendship stories, collections of poems like Mother Goose. Conference work will involve making a children’s book of any kind, on any level. Classes will be in both lecture and conversational mode, and group conferences will involve looking at our writing.

Faculty

Creative Nonfiction

Intermediate/Advanced, Seminar—Fall

This is a course for creative writers who are interested in exploring nonfiction as an art form. We will focus on reading and interpreting outside work—essays, articles, and journalism by some of our best writers—in order to understand what good nonfiction is and how it is created. During the first part of the semester, writing will be comprised mostly of exercises and short pieces aimed at putting into practice what is being illuminated in the readings; in the second half of the semester, students will create longer, formal essays to be presented in workshop.

Faculty