Modern Research Methods in Cognitive Science

Catalog description

The purpose of this course is twofold: First, to give students a foundational understanding of new and innovative methods in cognitive science research, particularly those that make use of artificial intelligence/machine learning; and second, to explore the current state of the literature in cognitive science by reading recent reviews and research papers. Among other topics, we will see examples of how current methods are being used to address challenges pertaining to data collection and cleaning (as well as the topic of synthetic data) and modeling cognition and cognitive processes. By the end of the course, students should have a firm understanding not only of the concepts that underlie modern AI-based research methods, but also how these methodological advances help us understand human minds and behavior. Note that some prior background in cognitive science and/or its associated disciplines, such as linguistics or psychology, is useful but not required.