200143 SE Vertiefungsseminar: Geist und Gehirn (2024W)

Aims: Through discussions, in English, centered on the reading of target research papers, we aim to foster critical thinking in the area of Psychology and the Cognitive Sciences. After taking this course, attendees should be especially able to reflect on the “bigger picture” underlying academic discussions and to approach scientific communications and ideas critically. Unlike many other courses which target specific empirical study papers, we will be focusing on seminal papers, ideas, or book chapters in Cognitive Science which provide the framework and context for much of Psychology and Cognitive Science's activity itself––Where do our terms, our problems, our solutions in Psychology come from? Why is this so? How did we all get here? Where do we want to go? If you are interested in some of these questions, and also want a chance to read on some topics that, while important, you may not yet have been exposed to. This might be the class for you.

Second, we aim to train skills in participating in such discussions in English—in a “safe space” with minimal pressure (i.e., no evaluations will be made regarding correctness of language, rather the emphasis is on discussion and collaboratively unpacking course topics).

Contents: The seminar involves reading, presenting, and discussing seminal papers or book chapters in Cognitive Sciences. This includes topics such as Artificial Intelligence, Psychology as a Science, how research findings can be generalized, the replication crisis, Philosophy of Mind, research practices, diversity in psychology (i.e., should we only be studying WEIRD populations?), etc. Our discussions will also (hopefully) regularly touch relevant topics of everyday life, such as the future of science, consequences of digitalization, cultural dependence on psychological concepts, development of language, truth, or free will.

Methods: Student presentation of a paper/book chapter, student-guided discussion of the text in the seminar, presentation and listening to topic-related podcasts.