Cognitive Psychology for AI
Understanding the mind and brain: perception, attention, memory, language processing, decision-making, and experimental design in cognitive science.
Learning objectives
The goal of this course is for students to acquire a good understanding of the mind and brain, and the various aspects of human cognitive functioning. You will learn about perception, attention, memory, language processing, decision-making, and about realms of cognition in which these elements are combined. You will also learn to adopt the general mindset that cognitive scientists need in order to unravel human cognitive functioning. Finally, you will gain experience in designing and building experiments.
The goal of this course is for students to acquire a good understanding of the mind and brain, and the various aspects of human cognitive functioning. You will learn about perception, attention, memory, language processing, decision-making, and about realms of cognition in which these elements are combined. You will also learn to adopt the general mindset that cognitive scientists need in order to unravel human cognitive functioning. Finally, you will gain experience in designing and building experiments. We will cover most realms of cognition, as discussed in the book by Goldstein (neurons and neural mechanisms, perception, attention, memory, language, learning, etc.). We will also discuss the potential shortcomings of various lines of research (when might evidence be regarded as conclusive?), and the characteristics of good theoretical quality.
Assessment
70% of the grade: Exam. 10% of the grade: Participation (quizzes, small assignments). 20% of the grade: Group project (design and build your own experiment). For the exam there is a resit opportunity; for the other components there is not.
Teaching methods
The course will mostly consist of plenary lectures (2 per week), alongside practical sessions and practical assignments.