Seminars

You will also take part in one 50 minute seminar per week, starting in week 1. There will be material to study prior to the seminar (on the course website) and participants will be assumed to have studied it. The seminars will provide a chance to discuss issues in detail and to prepare for the computer classes. Each week some of you will be allocated particular tasks in relation to either preparing for, or conducting the seminars. Note that not all the seminar handouts on the course website have yet been updated from last year's versions.

Week 1 -- Introduction (as html, as pdf)

The aims of this seminar are

to go over the main points of the first lecture and lab class of the course;

to provide students with an opportunity to ask any questions about the structure and organization of the course; and

to discuss some basic issues concerning artificial intelligence, cognitive science and the computer- based approaches to cognitive modelling studied in this course (see [14]).
Slides for this seminar

Week 2 -- The Modelling Enterprise (as html, as pdf)

Explanation and Simulation in Cognitive Science, Chapter 2 of [10]. You will be expected to read this chapter carefully and also find one other chapter/paper (e.g. that you studied in the Term 1 course Approaches to Cognitive Science) on some aspect of modelling and be prepared to describe it to the seminar class.

Week 3 -- Production Systems (as html, as pdf)

Errors in Children's Subtraction, [16]

Week 4 -- Connectionism (as html, as pdf)

Sections in Chapters 2, 5, 6 and 10 of [10].
Slides for this seminar

Week 5 -- Modelling Behaviour (as html, as pdf)

The Control of Thought and Action, Chapter 12 of [10].
Slides for this seminar

Depending on which group you are allocated to, your seminar will be sometime on Tuesdays or Wednesdays or Fridays each week, starting in Week 1 -- check on the First Year Noticeboard or the course website. The cohort is divided across 6 seminar groups of roughly 16 students per group.