Fall  2001,  Monday and Wednesday, 1 - 2:30, Building 56-154

Prof. Molly Potter NE20-453 molly@psyche.mit.edu x3-5526
    Office Hours: Wednewday 3-4; or call/email
    (Messages etc.: Undergraduate Administrative Assistant, NE20-384, x3-0482

Duane Watson, T.A. dgwatson@psyche.mit.edu 452-2474
     Office Hours: NE20-448 by appointment (call or email)

Text: Reisberg, D. (2001). Cognition: Exploring the science of the mind.  2nd Edition.  New York: Norton

Other readings: As shown here.

Requirements for the course:

Participation in 2 in-class labs, with lab reports                        14%
One paper (4-5 pages, double spaced) designing an or
   original experiment, plus 4-minute class report.                    18%
Two in-class quizzes                                                                    44%
Final Exam (2 hours)                                                                    24%
 

Schedule

Sept.  5  Introduction; How We Read  Ch. 1
handout

Sept 10  The Brain  Ch. 2 (Lila Davachi)

Sept 12  Object Recognition  Ch. 3
handout

Sept 17  MIT HOLIDAY

Sept 19  Attention I Ch. 4
handout

Sept 24  Attention II
             Luck, S. J., Vogel, E. K., & Shapiro, K. L. (1996, October 17).
             Word meanings can be accessed but not reported during the
             attentional blink. @i(Nature, 383), 616-618.
handout

Sept 26  LAB 1:  Memory

Oct 1 Memory I:  Working Memory  Ch. 5  LAB 1 REPORT DUE
handout

Oct 3  Memory II: Conceptual Short Term Memory
handout  lab report handout

To read a recent new yorker article on flashbulb memory, click here

COLUMBUS DAY HOLIDAY

Oct 10  FIRST QUIZ

Oct 15  Memory III:  Implicit Memory  Ch. 6
handout

Oct 17  Memory IV:  Remembering and Forgetting  Ch. 7
handout

Oct 22  Memory V: Associative Memory  Ch. 8
handout

Oct 24  Learning
            Anderson, J. R. (2000). @i(Learning and memory), 2nd Ed. NY: Wiley.
            Chapter 2 and some of 3.
handout

Oct 29  LAB 2: Images, Concepts, Language

Oct 31  Concepts and Prototypes  Ch. 9  LAB 2 DUE
handout

Nov 5  Language: Psycholinguistics  Ch. 10 (Duane Watson)
handout

Nov 7  Visual Knowledge  Ch. 11
handout  lab 2 handout

Nov 12  Veterans Day HOLIDAY

Nov 14  SECOND QUIZ

Nov 19  Experimental Design and Hypothesis Testing: Tutorial Instructions for
             final paper (4-5 pages);  Reading TBA
             Mental Codes I
             Potter, M. C., & Faulconer, B. A. (1975). Time to understand
             pictures and words. @i(Nature, 253), 437-438.
handout    paper instructions

Nov 21  Mental Codes II

THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY

Nov 26  Judgment
             Ch. 12
handout

Nov 28  Reasoning
             Ch. 13
handout

Dec 3  PAPER DUE   Reports of Papers I (4 min. per student)

Dec 5  Reports of Papers II (4 min. per student)

Dec 10  Solving Problems  Ch. 14
handout

Dec 12  Conscious and Unconscious Thought  Ch. 15;  REVIEW
handout

Final Exam during Exam Period (2 hours), to cover whole course but
with special attention to the last third. The final is scheduled for Tuesday,
Dec 18th at 1:30 in E25-117.