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CS 6795: Cognitive Science

Spring 2024
Ashok Goel
Course Syllabus
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Textbooks:
The primary textbook is:
MIND, An Introduction to Cognitive Science, Paul Thagard, MIT Press, 2nd edition,
2005.
This is an easy-to-read book that offers a light but very useful introduction. It will
provide a shared basis for our more advanced readings on selected topics. This
book is available for free online:
http://users.metu.edu.tr/baykan/arch586/Readings/Cognition/Background/Tha
gard.pdf

Here are a few other general resources for cognitive science:

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/cognitive-science/
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cognitive_Psychology_and_Cognitive_Neuroscienc
e

Cognitive Science, Jay Freidenberg and Gordon Silverman, SAGE, 2016.

An earlier edition of this book is available online
http://www2.fiit.stuba.sk/~kvasnicka/CognitiveScience/Friedenberg_Cognitive%
20science.pdf

Course Videos:
This class consists of 29 videos prepared by Ashok Goel, Sungeun An, and Qiaosi
Wang in 2022. All videos are available for viewing on the class site on Canvas. The
accompanying class schedule specifies the videos to watch for each topic.

Readings: The accompanying class schedule specifies a series of reading

assignments. We will provide digital copies of all readings. We expect that each
student will have read at least the primary readings in the week they are assigned.
Reading a research paper is not easy and can take several hours. To make the
process easier and more efficient, you want to read a paper in multiple passes. In
the first pass, read only the title, abstract, the introduction, and the conclusions.
This should be easy and fast and will give you a gist of the paper. In the second
pass, also read the section and subsection headings, the illustrations (figures,
tables, and their captions), the discussion section, and browse through the list of
references. This should give you a better understanding of the paper. In a third
pass, if needed and/or if you want to, you can read the full paper. Here are some
more tips on how to read a research paper:
https://web.stanford.edu/class/ee384m/Handouts/HowtoReadPaper.pdf
https://www.elsevier.com/connect/infographic-how-to-read-a-scientific-paper

Writing: Each student in the class will engage in five individual exercises and a
semester-long self-directed project. The project will entail the writing of a paper:
the length of the paper will vary depending on the project. Here are two tutorials
on how to write a term paper:
http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Term-Paper
http://www.collegeonline.org/library/online-assignments/termpaper-writing.html

We encourage all students to think of the semester-long term project as

potentially leading to a paper worthy of publication. Here is the IEEE template for
writing papers:
https://www.ieee.org/conferences/publishing/templates.html

Please submit your report on the final project in the IEEE format.

Canvas site and EdStem Discussion: The Head TA will maintain a Canvas site for
the class that will provide information about the course, assessments, and grades.
The Head TA will also maintain the discussion forum.

Class Participation: This class requires strong participation in the class through class
notes, online discussion forum and completion of class surveys. We will take
attendance in each class. Each student is excused for missing up to two classes
without giving any reason. Each student may also be excused for missed up to
two additional classes upon prior notification to the Tas.

Class Notes: We will encourage all students to take and post class notes at a
central place monitored by the TAs. All class notes must be posted by the end of
the day to be counted. We encourage each student to post at least two class
notes. Notes can be uploaded to the corresponding day-assignment on Canvas.
Sign up for slots to upload your notes here: https://gtvault-
my.sharepoint.com/:x:/g/personal/jkos3_gatech_edu/Ed_RQL_vuQFIsMhMuxH2t
dIBer3P8sqSTNfKKImeaYYA-g?e=2bVOCp

Class Presentations:
This course has three parts:
(1) Basics of Cognitive Science
(2) Computational Cognitive Science
(3) Cognitive Science and Human-Centered Computing.
The Instructor will cover the Basics. Starting with Computational Cognitive Science
(and including Cognitive Science and Human-Centered Computing), we will ask
students to work in teams of 4 or 5 to make 35-min paper presentations which will
be followed by Instructor led discussions. The class presentations may include a
student-led activity. We will ask all presenters to share their slides at a central
place monitored by the TAs. The students in the class will assess the student
presentations. Before presenting, students should upload their slides on Canvas.
Sign up for topic slots here: https://gtvault-
my.sharepoint.com/:x:/g/personal/jkos3_gatech_edu/EVLWHemUMh1Lg5eNRsB
P2noBCnrkPL8_7sY3329JrKtF3A?e=DeJtpS

Quizzes: We will have a quiz almost every week for a total of ten quizzes. Each
quiz will consist of multiple-choice questions. The quizzes will be directly from the
primary readings and are intended to make sure that all students are doing the
readings.

Individual Exercises: We will have six individual exercises. Each of the five exercises
will also pertain to the readings in the class. Each exercise will result in a short report
on the exercise.

Guided Project: Each student will do a 3-week long guided project on scientific
cognition as a tangible exercise in applied cognitive science. Students will work
in a small team of 3-4 on this project. SAMI will help form the student teams. The
learning goals in these projects include (a) learning about cognitive science
theories of a cognitive phenomenon with which all of us are familiar (scientific
cognition), (b) understanding how the cognitive science theory results in the
design, development and deployment of an interactive AI-based learning
environment (called VERA) for augmenting human cognition, (c) learning about
the cognitive science methodology of controlled experimentation, (d) using
mixed methods (qualitative as well as quantitative) for analyzing the results of a
cognitive science experiment, and (e) reflection on and critique of the above.
The first project will result in a brief report of 5-6 pages long. We will provide
details with the release of the project.

Self-Directed Project: The self-directed team project will unfold over 10 weeks.
Again, students will work in small teams of 3-4 on these projects; again, SAMI will
help form student teams. We will encourage students to join a different team for
the self-directed project. Each team will investigate a topic of its choice. We
expect each student to spend at least 60 person hours on the project over the
semester. Each team will conduct a detailed analysis of a problem from the
perspective of cognitive science and survey of the related literature. We expect
a team of 3 students to conduct a literature survey. We expect a team of 4
students to either conduct a cognitive science experiment, or build a small
computational “proof-of-concept” system for the task. To keep track of
students’ progress, we will have 4 milestones 2-3 weeks apart; we will provide
details as part of the project release. We expect some of the term project
reports to be 10-12 pages long and of a quality that can be submitted to
professional workshops for potential publication.

Peer review: We will hold confidential peer reviews of all student presentations
(likely around 18). The peer reviews will not impact students’ grades.

Peer assessments: We will hold confidential peer assessments for evaluating the
contributions of teammates on the guided project and the self-directed team
project. We will have a total of 5 main peer assessments (the guided team
project, and 4 milestones for the self-directed team project). We will hold about
18 peer assessments for the student presentations. The peer assessments will
impact students’ grades.

Exemplary Assignments: We will share exemplary assignments and reports with

the whole class. Students who submit exemplary assignments will get extra
credit.

Examinations: There are no examinations in this class.

Assignment Due Dates: All assignments are due at 11:59pm Anywhere on Earth
time, unless otherwise noted. We will not accept assignments submitted late due
to time zone issues. You should update your Canvas to reflect your time zone.
There are no exceptions; sorry.

Late and Make-up Work Policy: There will be no make-up work provided for
missed assignments. Of course, emergencies (illness, family emergencies) will
happen. In those instances, please contact the Dean of Students office. The
Dean of Students is equipped to verify emergencies and pass confirmation on to
all your classes. For consistency, we ask all students to do this in the event of an
emergency.

Communication Policy:
You are responsible for knowing the following information:
1. Anything posted to this syllabus
2. Anything emailed directly to you by the teaching team (including
announcements via Canvas and Ed Discussions), 24 hours after receiving
such an email or post.
Because Canvas and Ed Discussions announcements are emailed to you as
well, you need only to check your Georgia Tech email once every 24 hours to
remain up to date on new information during the semester. Georgia Tech
generally recommends students to check their Georgia Tech email once every
24 hours. So, if an announcement or message is time sensitive, you will not be
responsible for the contents of the announcement until 24 hours after it has
been sent.

Grades: Here is a distribution of weights for different activities for calculating the
final grade.
Class attendance: 5%
Participation in the class surveys and peer assessments: 5%
Participation in the class (through notes) discussion forum(posts): 5%
Quizzes (Q1-Q10): 15%
Exercises (E1-E6): 15%
Class Presentations: 10%
Guided project: 15%
Self-directed term project(M1-M4): 30%

We will assign extra credit to exemplary exercises and projects and post them on
Canvas. Thus, it is possible to get a score higher than 100% in this class.

We will release class averages after each major assignment. The final grades will
be normalized (or curved). You can find grade distribution of my previous
classes at https://critique.gatech.edu/prof?profID=ag25

Honor Code: Learning is a social process. Thus, we encourage class participation,

team work, and collaborative learning. On the other hand, we will abide by the
Georgia Tech’s honor code of academic conduct. This means that any work
submitted by a student must be his or her own. With the advent of the internet
(see ChatGPT for the latest AI invention), it has become easy to take materials
from various resources available on the web. But please remember that it has also
become easy to check for it: the TA can and will enter an arbitrary sentence from
a paper into a search engine and find out if the sentence has been taken from
elsewhere. Students are encouraged to consult resources available on the web
and elsewhere. However, any material taken from any resource must be properly
attributed. In the end, the paper must reflect the student’s own design and
analysis, work and writing.

Georgia Tech Counseling: The COVID-19 global pandemic has caused many
problems related to health, including mental health. Georgia Tech offers
counseling services to all students, staff and faculty
(https://counseling.gatech.edu/content/services). It also offers emergency
counseling services (https://counseling.gatech.edu/content/students-crisis). It is
for all of us to take care of one another as well as ourselves.
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CS 6795: Cognitive Science
Spring 2024
Ashok Goel
Course Schedule
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This is a day-by-day schedule for our class. The schedule specifies a series of video
lessons and corresponding reading assignments. All readings are listed by the last
names of the first author. All readings are available on Canvas in a digital form.
We expect that each student will have watched the video lessons and read at
least the primary readings on each topic in the assigned week.

The schedule also specifies the activities and assessments for each week: surveys,
quizzes, exercises, and self-directed projects. Note also that all assessments are
due on Sunday midnight AOE, which translates to Monday 8 am in Atlanta.

There will be six class surveys in total, including the final CIOS survey administered
by Georgia Tech.

The ten quizzes are multiple-choice and based on both the video lectures and
reading assignments.

The six individual exercises too will be based on the primary readings.

The term project will unfold over 12 weeks, with 4 milestones 2-3 weeks apart.

Peer Feedback refers to students providing feedback on their peers’ milestone

assignments.

Part A of the course: Basics of Cognitive Science

(1) Week of 1/8

Videos Lesson 1
Lesson 2

Readings Representation -1 Thagard Ch. 1

Logic, probability Thagard Ch. 2

Activities Onboarding quiz assigned 1/8, due 1/16

Start-of-Course survey assigned 1/8, due 1/16
 (2) Week of 1/15

Videos Lesson 3
Lesson 4

Readings Rules -1 Thagard Ch. 3

Concepts -1 Thagard Ch. 4

Activities Individual exercise 1 assigned 1/16, due 1/30

Pre-VERA survey assigned 1/16, due 1/23
Onboarding quiz due 1/16
Start-of-Course survey due 1/16

(3) Week of 1/22

Videos Lesson 5
Lesson 6

Readings Analogies -1 Thagard Ch. 5

Images -1 Thagard Ch. 6
Connections -1 Thagard Ch. 7

Activities Quiz 1
Pre-VERA survey due 1/23
Guided project assigned 1/23, due 2/13

(4) Week of 1/29

Videos Lesson 7
Lesson 8

Readings Review of CogSci Thagard Ch. 8

Brains Thagard Ch. 9
Emotions Thagard Ch. 10

Activities Team Formation assigned 1/29. due 2/4

Exercise 1 due 1/30
Exercise 2 assigned 1/30, due 2/13

(5) Week of 2/5

Videos Lesson 9
Lesson 10

Readings Consciousness Thagard Ch. 11

Body Thagard Ch. 12
Culture Thagard Ch. 13
Review Thagard Ch. 14
Activities Quiz 2
Quarter-Course survey assigned 2/6, due 2/13

Part B of the course: Computational Cognitive Science

(6) Week of 2/12

Videos Lesson 11
Lesson 12

Readings Explanations Simon Ch.1 - Ch. 5

Information-processing levels Marr Newell

Activities Quiz 3
Guided Project due 2/13
Exercise 2 due 2/13
Exercise 3 assigned 2/13, due 2/27
Quarter-Course survey assigned 2/13
Peer Feedback for guided project assigned 2/13, due 2/21
Self-Directed Milestone 1 assigned 2/13, due 2/27

(7) Week of 2/19

Videos Lesson 13
Lesson 14

Readings Representation – 2 Markman Bechtel

Concepts - 2 Schank Nersessian

Activities Quiz 4
Peer assessment for guided project due 2/21

(8) Week of 2/26

Videos Lesson 15
Lesson 16

Readings Analogies -2 Kolodner Centner

Images - 2 Larkin Dehaene

Activities Individual exercise 3 due 2/27

Milestone 1 due 2/27
Milestone 2 assigned 2/27, due 3/12
Exercise 4 assigned 2/27, due 3/12
Peer assessment for Self-directed team project Milestone 1 assigned 2/27,
due 3/5
 (9) Week of 3/4

Videos Lesson 17
Lesson 18

Readings Cognitive Architectures Laird, Libere, Rosenbloom Langley

Neural Networks Rogers Bengio

Activities Mid-course survey assigned 3/5, due 3/12

Peer assessment for Milestone 1 due 3/5
Quiz 5

(10) Week of 3/11

Videos Lesson 19
Lesson 20

Readings Embodied Cognition Brooks

Distributed Cognition Hutchins Grosz

Activities Mid-Course survey due 3/12

Milestone 2 due 3/12
Milestone 3 assigned 3/12, due 4/2
Quiz 6
Exercise 4 due 3/12
Exercise 5 assigned 3/12, due 3/26
Peer assessment for Milestone 2 assigned 3/12 due 3/26

(11) Week of 3/18

Videos None
Readings None
Activities Spring Break

Part C of the course: Cognitive Science and Human-Centered Computing

(12) Week of 3/25

Videos Lesson 21
Lesson 22

Readings Culture Tomasello Shore

Relationship to AI Langley Goel

Activities Quiz 7
Exercise 5 due 3/26
Exercise 6 assigned 3/26, due 4/09
Peer Feedback for Milestone 2 due 3/28
 (13) Week of 4/1

Videos Lesson 23
Lesson 24

Readings Relationship to Learning Bransford Lave

Relationship to Design Norman Simon

Activities Self-directed project Milestone 3 due 4/2

Final Self-directed project (Milestone 4) assigned 4/2, due 4/23
Peer assessment for Milestone 3 assigned 4/2, due 4/09

(14) Week of 4/8

Videos Lesson 25
Lesson 26

Readings Relationship to Human-Computer Interaction Baron-Cohen

Relationship to Robotics Cakmak Fitzgerald

Activities Quiz 8
Exercise 6 due 4/09
Peer assessment for Self-directed team project Milestone 3 due 4/09

(15) Week of 4/15

Videos Lesson 27
Lesson 28

Readings Relationship to Creativity Boden

Activities Quiz 9
End-of-Course Survey assigned 4/15, due 4/23

(16) Week of 4/22

Videos None

Readings None

Activities End-of-Course Survey due 4/23

Quiz 10
Final Self-directed project (Milestone 4) due 4/23
AI Tools Survey assigned 4/22, due 4/28
CIOS Survey assigned 4/22, due 4/28
Peer Feedback for Milestone 4 assigned 4/22, due 4/30
 (17) Week of 4/29

Videos None

Readings None

Activities Peer Feedback for Milestone 4 due 4/30

(18) Week of 5/06

Videos None

Readings None

Activities Final Grades are due on 11:59 AM on May 6th