Universität Wien

180040 SE New Trends in Cognitive Science (2011W)

Learning (and) Decision Making

6.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 18 - Philosophie
Continuous assessment of course work

First session
Mon, 03. Oct 2011, 1600-1800

NIG, University of Vienna
HS 3C, 3rd floor

Introduction and topic/group selection
Wed, 05. Oct 2011, 1815-2000

MR Centre, Medical University of Vienna
Lazarettgasse 14, 1090 Vienna
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=lazarettgasse+14&hl=en&ll=48.218221,16.349005&spn=0.001374,0.002822&sll=48.218439,16.350242&sspn=0.005497,0.011287&vpsrc=6&t=m&z=19

All further dates will be announced in the first session.
Moodle

Details

max. 25 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes

Currently no class schedule is known.

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

What makes us, humans, unique is our ability to make choices and decisions in an ever-changing environment. These decisions are based on situated influences and a combination of innate and acquired predispositions that form a network of individual hunches, opinions, feelings, beliefs, and personality traits. Though this cognitive network needs to be stable enough to provide for the individual nature and integrity of a person’s character, it also has to be dynamically adaptive to changing situations.

Studying decision-making has become increasingly popular within all sub-disciplines of cognitive science. The idea of this course is to get students involved with the current discussion on decision making and their dynamical change. The seminar will be thematically grouped into four modules that consist of a presentation and a reflection/discussion session:

M1. A developmental perspective.
Possible topics:
- The role of education in decision making.
- From baby to grown-up: the neurobiology of development.
- Pathologies in human decision making.
Main disciplines: Psychology, pedagogic, neuroscience, psychiatry, and neurology.

M2. An evolutionary perspective.
Possible topics:
- Self-regulation of cells and organisms.
- Interactions with the environment.
- Decisions and social interactions.
Main disciplines: Evolutionary and behavioral biology.

M3. A modeling perspective.
Possible topics:
- Decision making in artificial agents
- The psychology of decision making
- Decision making of and within a crowd
Main disciplines: Artificial intelligence, robotics, psychology, game theory, and sociology.

M4. A personal perspective.
Possible topics:
- Free Will and human agency
- Concepts of a person
- Decisions and moral
Main disciplines: Philosophy, neuroscience, and psychology.

Assessment and permitted materials

The following deliverables are requirements for final grading:
- Presenting a topic of a module in a group presentation with 1-3 other students in the first session of one selected module and providing useful hand outs (submitted to the eLearning platform)
(final grade: 30% individual performance, 20% group performance, 10% quality of the slides and hand outs)
- One review of a presentation (submitted to the eLearning plattform)
(final grade: 20%)
- Active participation (questions, statements, summaries) in the discussion sessions and the eLearning platform of the course (comments)
(final grade: 20%)

Grades: >93 1, >81 2, >71 3, >61 4, <61 5.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

- Deeper understanding of a current approach in cognitive science and its influence on the field
- Awareness and understanding of current relevant topics and discussions in the field of cognitive science
- Ability to follow scientific developments in the field of cognitive science in a reflective manner
- Ability to write and present according to scientific standards
- Ability to interpret and evaluate results of primary scientific literature at an advanced level
- Ability to choose autonomously and give a condensed account on primary scientific literature
- Ability to communicate one’s expertise in order to contribute constructive criticism in the context of scientific debate
- Ability to work collaboratively within an interdisciplinary intercultural team in physical and virtual environments
- Ability to moderate dicussion on current topics in cognitive science
- Ability to deal with different points of view in an intercultural context

Examination topics

Each module consists of two sessions. In the first session, one group is asked to present their topic within 75 minutes. They are requested to use canonical text book knowledge from at least two disciplines as basic material and supplement it with recent review papers. A short discussion session is mainly intended to give short feedback, for clarification questions, and to name issues and questions that might be of further interest. At the end of the first session the presenters have to provide a hand out version of their presentation and the reference of an interesting (and maybe controversial) paper they stumbled upon during their preparation. Then two or three reviewers are assigned to review the presenters' individual and group performance and note what they have been missing. The second session of the module will be used for interdisciplinary discussion. All participants are expected to read the provided paper, or optionally use additional literature. The discussion session should be used to find answers for open questions, integrating knowledge and compare different perspectives on the topic. After all, the students will have a solid understanding of the principal concepts used in the respective fields and about selected topics of state-of-the-art discussion.

Reading list

Since recherche and literature study is an essential part of this course, no explicit literature will be provided.

Association in the course directory

Last modified: Fr 31.08.2018 08:52