The ATCS course (website at http://www.informatics.sussex.ac.uk/users/christ/crs/atcs/handbook.html) is an introduction to Cognitive Science. This is an interdisciplinary field, comprising chiefly Artificial Intelligence, Linguistics, Cognitive Psychology and Philosophy. Both classic and contemporary topics in the field of cognition will be introduced, including: perception, the nature of mental representations and mental models, learning, memory, emotion, language and consciousness.

Aims and Objectives

The main aim of the course is to get you to think about the nature of the mind and to learn how cognitive scientists have attempted to explain cognition. There are a number of different perspectives for studying the mind and providing accounts of how it works. These include: Philosophy, Psychology, Artificial Intelligence and Linguistics. Furthermore, there are competing theories of how the mind works both across and within each of these disciplines. A main objective of the course is for you to understand how these various approaches complement and differ from each other.

The course is also designed to help you to learn skills that you can apply throughout your university life and beyond. These skills include note taking, critical reading, debating, project work, giving presentations, essay and report writing.

The course uses a variety of teaching methods and materials. Teaching will be through a combination of integrated lectures and seminars. The lectures will introduce and illustrate concepts, theories and techniques that are central to cognitive science. The seminars will provide you with the opportunity to discuss issues like whether the mind can be likened to a computer and whether computers can think. In the lectures you should note points to raise in the forthcoming seminars: these should include anything you would like to discuss further.