200074 SE Advanced Seminar: Mind and Brain (2018S)

Aims: Attendees should be able to reflect on the “bigger picture” in the field of Psychology and Cognitive Sciences. Students are able to reflect on what actual findings tell us, what they do not and why so. Furthermore, through discussions in English we first aim to foster critical thinking when reading or listening to contributions to Cognitive Sciences. And second students can train their skills in participating in discussions in English in a “safe space” with minimal pressure.

Contents: The Journal Club involves reading, presenting, and discussing seminal papers or book chapters in Cognitive Sciences. This includes topics such as Artificial Intelligence, Psychology as a Science, replication crisis, Philosophy of Mind, or History of Cognitive Sciences. Though the topics raise fundamental issues, the discussions regularly touch relevant topics of everyday life, such as the future of science, psychological consequences of digitalization, cultural dependence of psychological concepts, development of language, truth, or free will.

Methods: Presentation of a paper/book chapter, discussion of the text in class, written reflection on the course
Please note that in this course it is mandatory to also attend a weekly colloquium: This provides the opportunity to engage with current research in the domain of General, Cognitive and Biological Psychology, as presented by renowned researchers. Through the talks, students experience state of the art research and current topics of Cognitive Science. They also get firsthand experience how research is communicated. In the seminar the talks from the colloquium will be reflected upon and further discussed to maximize the learning outcomes. The skills of critically reflecting research findings and conclusions should enable the students to reflect the contents of the talk and to critically review the presentations.

Course language: English