160093 VO Einführung in die kognitive Psychologie für LinguistInnen (2010W)

The course is aimed at giving a comprehensive introduction to cognitive psychology (and, more broadly, to cognitive science), with special emphasis on general issues relevant to linguistics. The first semester is devoted to exploring the historical roots, basic concepts, methodology, key problems and fundamental approaches which characterise the present-day science of human mind. The topics therefore will include, among others, the followings: kinds of explanation in cognitive science; the concept of internal (mental) representations; types of representations; levels of description/explanation; the relationship between neuroscience, computer modelling, psychology and linguistics; the nativism / empiricism / constructivism debate; basic views on mental architecture; analogies and dis-analogies between language and other domains of knowledge; the problem of human consciousness in cognitive science. Discussing these issues we shall use human linguistic capacities and their various explanations as recurring examples.