Philosophy 371: Minds and Brains/Cognitive Science Lab 1997
Lab 7: Toward the big picture, part 1
This was found last week, crumpled in the wastecan in MCEC 270:
Dear Chris,
I know you will never read this -- I know it is hopeless. We will never meet, never experience the spark of love. Why do I say this? Because you are in Minds and Brains and I am in Introduction to Cognitive Science. It’s like we live in two different worlds, you and I. The labs are the same, but they apply in such different ways in our two courses, that it’s like we weren’t even in the same place. Oh, if only we could somehow meet and share our perspectives! But it will never happen--
Later last week, the following file was dropped in Docex. Since it is a diary entry, I think it was dropped by mistake. The author is Chris:
Dear Diary,
I thought I noticed Pat watching me again tonight. When I felt those wonderful eyes upon me, I became so self-conscious that I couldn’t look back. Oh well -- I guess I shouldn’t hold out much hope. Pat’s in the other class, and I don’t have any idea what they learn there, or how the labs connect. So even if we did meet, I doubt we could really relate. It’s like Romeo and Juliet! Well, back to work....
Chris and Pat need our help. Tonight, we bring their two worlds together. Let love take it from there!
Overview.
For the last six weeks we have been probing the mind along the "high road" -- considering the capacities of normal adult humans (i.e. you), responding to tasks with whole minds. Each experiment has cast some light on the mind, but in order to integrate the labs, the evidence they have offered us needs to be interpreted in the light of larger theories and issues. Those big pictures emerge in the two courses that feed this lab. Tonight we will bring course themes and lab themes together. You will work with comrades from your same course (374 or 220) to articulate the theories from your course, but then you will teach your findings to everyone else.
Stages:
1. Join with about four others. Your entire group should be from the same course, either all Minds&Brains or all Intro to Cog Sci. (Sorry Pat, sorry Chris.)
2. You will be preparing a presentation for the rest of the class in which you discuss one main theme of your course and how one or more of the labs so far have illustrated that theme. The first task is to choose possible themes to present. Develop three topics that your group could present and list them in your notebooks. After about ten minutes, we will reconvene as a whole and decide which topics we’d like to hear.
3. Once the class has recommended a topic to you, meet with your group to prepare your presentation. You are encouraged to use transparencies and other means to make your teaching vivid. Spend about thirty minutes preparing a terrific lesson plan, with something for everyone to present. Illustrate your points with examples, including active exercises for the whole class to try. Your presentation should last ten to fifteen minutes.
4. As your presentation planning concludes, write two quiz questions on another transparency. The questions should be multiple choice, True or False, or short answer -- something quick but not necessarily easy. The class will take your quiz at the end of the evening.
List of lab topics:
1. Drawing and the concept of representation: pictures from memory, from life, and upsidedown.
2. Widgets for visual control of behavior: the horny fly (This lab would normally be in the future, but a time constraint on the lab required its placement here.)
3. Attentive and pre-attentive features: parallel and serial search
4. Into the third dimension: form from motion (geometrical and biological)
5. Binocular rivalry: variations on the Cheshire Cat
6. Working memory: its capacity, distortions, and interference effects
Evaluating tonight’s lab:
I’ll give each group a score on a simple scale: check, check plus, check minus. The whole team will get the same score, unless someone stands out as especially great or notably lazy. Virtues of good presentations include:
• clarity (organization, good planning)
• memorability (creativity, concreteness, vividness)
• accuracy (with both course themes and lab evidence)
• good connections drawn (You do see the relevance of lab observations for course issues)
Then, we’ll all take the quiz devised by your colleagues for you. If I score this, I’ll do so on a curve.
Names:
Evaluating tonight’s lab:
I’ll give each group a score on a simple scale: check, check plus, check minus. The whole team will get the same score, unless someone stands out as especially great or notably lazy. Virtues of good presentations include:
• clarity (organization, good planning)
• memorability (creativity, concreteness, vividness)
• accuracy (with both course themes and lab evidence)
• good connections drawn (You do see the relevance of lab observations for course issues)
1. Join with about four others. Your entire group should be from the same course, either all Minds&Brains or all Intro to Cog Sci.
(If you are in both courses, or neither, it’s your choice.)2. You will be preparing a presentation for the rest of the class in which you discuss one main theme of your course and how one or more of the labs so far have illustrated that theme. The first task is to choose possible themes to present. Develop three topics that your group could present and list them in your notebooks. After about ten minutes, we will reconvene as a whole and decide which topics we’d like to hear.
3. Once the class has recommended a topic to you, meet with your group to prepare your presentation. You are encouraged to use transparencies and other means to make your teaching vivid. Spend about thirty minutes preparing a terrific lesson plan, with something for everyone to present. Illustrate your points with examples, including active exercises for the whole class to try. Your presentation should last ten to fifteen minutes.
4. As your presentation planning concludes, write two quiz questions on another transparency. The questions should be multiple choice, True or False, or short answer -- something quick but not necessarily easy. The class will take your quiz at the end of the evening.