Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Page 7
Page 8
Page 9
Page 10
Page 11
Page 12
Page 13

SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

5.07-117

Senate Committee on University Priorities

Memorandum

TO: Senate ?

FROM:

RE:

At its September 26, 2007 meeting SCUP reviewed and approved the proposal from the

Faculty

Arts and Social Sciences for a Cognitive Science Minor Program.

Motion

That Senate approve and recommend to the Board

Governors, the

Cognitive Science Minor Program in the Faculty

Arts and Social Sciences.

SCUP 07-55

ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT ACADEMIC AND ASSOCIATE PROVOST

MEMO

To: ?

Senate Committee On University Priorities

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences - Cognitive Science Minor Program

DATE ?

September U. 2007

Action undertaken by the Senate Committee on Undergraduate Studies at its

meeting of September 11, 2007 gives rise to the following recommendation:

Motion:

"that SCUP approve and recommend to Senate the Cognitive

Science Minor Program."

The relevant documentation for review by SCUP is attached.

SIM()N FRASDIL UNIVERSITY

THINKING OF THE WORLD

FASSc 0i-07

SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

Cognitive Science Program

Memorandum

TO: Peggy Lacasse

Diane Gibson

FROM:

Dr. Fred PopowichDirector

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Cognitive Science Program

-Curriculum Committee....................

RE:

Cognitive Science Minor

DATE: July 6, 2007

On Wednesday Dec 6, 2006, the Cognitive Science Steering Committee recommended

the attached proposal for a Minor in Cognitive Science. Attached is the current draft, as

a follow up to the Notice of Intent that was approved by SCUP last fall.

Based on feedback received from the Cognitive Science Steering Committee, we have

further reduced the lower level requirements for the minor from 30-35 credit hours,

contained in the original notice of intent, to 21-31 credit hours. This further addressed

the FASS program development sub-committee's concern about the extra workload

involved to complete the minor.

The attached draft proposal was distributed to Computing Science, Linguistics,

Philosophy, and Psychology in January 2007, and then to the Faculty of Arts and Social

Sciences on June

1st

who then provided us with feedback related to some proposed

changes in their own curricula, which we have incorporated into the proposal.

Would you please place this proposal on the agenda of the next meeting of the Faculty

of Arts and Social Sciences Curriculum Committee, in addition to the calendar changes

which we submitted yesterday.

Thanks

Dr. Fred P6powich, Director

Cognitive Science Program

Cognitive Science Minor (July 6, 2007)

Full Program Proposal

Executive Summary

The Minor in Cognitive Science is designed to complement the current Major in

Cognitive Science that is offered in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Students

have expressed an interest in a minor for over

decade, and we now have the

resources required to offer this program at SFU Burnaby with the recent hiring of a full

time faculty member in Cognitive Science.

SFU has a strong history of interdisciplinary research, and the interest in Cognitive

Science is increasing, as reflected by the awarding of the Tier 1 Canadian Research

Chair in Cognitive Science to Dr. Jeff Pelletier, and the recent hiring of Dr. Mark Blair as

a tenure track faculty member in Cognitive Science. The proposed program will

strengthen the existing Cognitive Science program by explicitly including in the program,

students who are majoring in other disciplines who might not otherwise get involved in

the program.

As with the Major, the core Cognitive Science courses required by the Minor are all

offered by the Cognitive Science Program, with additional courses drawn from

Computing Science, Linguistics, Philosophy and Psychology. Unlike the Major, the

Minor only requires 5 upper division courses.

The key objectives of the Minor are to provide a student with the same core Cognitive

Science material that they would have if they were to obtain a Major in Cognitive

Science, plus provide an investigation of two of the related disciplines (as opposed to

the more detailed investigation of three related fields that they would obtain were they to

take the Major). Students with a Minor in Cognitive Science would be in a good position

to apply to graduate programs in Cognitive Science.

The Minor will be attractive to students that are currently majoring in one of Computing

Science, Linguistics, Philosophy or Psychology, who want to have a broader education

in related disciplines. It would also be possible for students in other disciplines to

complete the Minor in a timely fashion, and it would provide these students with a wider

selection of employment or research opportunities after graduation.

Our goal is to have the full proposal approved and in place by January 2008, to allow

students who are completing their studies in April 2008 to apply for this credential.

III

Cognitive Science Minor (July 6, 2007)

Curriculum

The proposed Minor in Cognitive Science will provide an interdisciplinary program of

study giving students the foundations of Cognitive Science, together with a significant

amount of advanced work in this field.

Cognitive Science draws upon research in the related disciplines of Computing Science,

Linguistics, Philosophy and Psychology to address issues related to human cognition.

While students have been able to Major in Cognitive Science for over two decades at

SFU, the Minor is intended for students who do not wish to Major in Cognitive Science,

but who want recognition for successful completion of foundational Cognitive Science

courses, and selected advanced Cognitive Science topics. Students having a Minor in

Cognitive Science could also use this credential as the basis of an application for

graduate studies in Cognitive Science, together with a Major in a Cognitive Science

related discipline.

The core Cognitive Science material is provided in the courses COGS 100, COGS 200,

COGS 300 and COGS 310. The course descriptions (in Appendix A) outline the

contributions of each of these courses. These are the same courses as required by the

Major, so a student completing the Minor will cover the same core material as a Major -

a key objective of the proposed Minor.

The key objectives of the Minor are to provide a student with the same core Cognitive

Science material that they would have if they were to obtain a Major in Cognitive

take the Major). Students with a Minor in Cognitive Science would be in a good position

to apply to graduate programs in Cognitive Science.

The expected class size for COGS 100, which is currently offered twice a year is 80

students. Since it is a designated breadth course at Simon Fraser University, it is taken

by a wide range of students, most of whom are not doing a degree in cognitive science.

Expected class sizes for the other courses, which will each be offered once a year, will

be 20-30 students.

Below are the courses and curriculum requirements associated with the Minor. All of the

courses either already exist, or have been approved for inclusion in the 2007-2008

calendar.

Lower Division Requirements

(21 - 31 credit hours)

COGS 100-3 Exploring the Mind

COGS 200-3 Foundations in Cognitive Science

A student must fulfill the requirements listed below for two of the four disciplines. When

provided a choice between different 200 level courses, a student should consider which

course can be used as a pre-requisite for a subsequent 300 level course.

Cognitive Science Minor (July 6, 2007)

Computing Science

Students must complete one of

CMPT 125-3 Introduction to Computing Science and Programming II

CMPT 126-3 Introduction to Computing Science and Programming

and all of

MACM 101-3 Discrete Mathematics I

CMPT 225-3 Data Structures and Programming

Linguistics

LING 220-3 Introduction to Linguistics

and one of

LING 221-3 Introduction to Phonology

LING 222-3 Introduction to Syntax

Philosophy

PHIL 100W-3 Knowledge and Reality

PHIL 201-3 Epistemology

PHIL 210-3 Natural Deductive Logic

Psychology

PSYC100-3 Introduction to Psychology I

PSYC 102-3 Introduction to Psychology II

PSYC 201-4 Introduction to Research Methods in Psychology

PSYC 221-3 Introduction to Cognitive Psychology

PSYC 280-3 Introduction to Biological Psychology

Upper Division Requirements

(15-16 credit hours)

COGS 3003 Selected Topics in Cognitive Science

COGS 310-3 Consciousness

A student must cpmplete 3 courses from the following selection of courses, including at

least one course in each of the two disciplines selected previously at the lower division

level.

Computing Science

CMPT 310-3 Artificial Intelligence Survey

•

CMPT 411-3 Knowledge Representation

CMPT 412-3 Computational Vision

CMPT 413-3 Computational Linguistics

CMPT 414-3 Model-based Computer Vision

Cognitive Science Minor (July 6, 2007)

CMPT 417-3 Intelligent Systems

CMPT 418-3 Computational Cognitive Architecture

CMPT 419-3 Special Topics in Artificial Intelligence

Note: 400 level courses require consent of instructor.

Linguistics

LING 350-3 First Language Acquisition

Philosophy

PHIL 302-3 Topics in Epistemology and Metaphysics

PHIL 314-3 Topics in Logic I

PHIL 341-3 Philosophy of Science

PHIL 343-3 Philosophy of Mind

PHIL 344-3 Philosophy of Language I

Psychology

PSYC 303-3 Perception

PSYC 325-4 Memory and Mind

PSYC 330-3 Attention

PSYC 335-3 Sensation I

PSYC 382-3 Cognitive Neuroscience

PSYC 383-3 Psychopharmacology

PSYC 385-3 Evolutionary Psychology

Cognitive Science Minor (July 3, 2007)

Learning Methodologies

The same learning methodologies used for the Major in Cognitive Science will be used

for the Minor in Cognitive Science. All COGS classes are lecture based, and there are

currently no plans to develop COGS distance education courses. Note, however, that

some of the non-COGS courses taken as part of the Minor have labs and/or tutorials,

and others can be taken via distance education:

Faculty

The resources required to implement the program are already present in the Cognitive

Science Program. The Program has one full time faculty member (Dr. Mark Blair), the

Canadian Research Chair Tier One in Cognitive Science (Dr. Jeff Pelletier), one

additional faculty member who was jointly appointed with linguistics (Dr. Nancy

Hedberg), the Director (Dr. Fred Popowich), and an administrative assistant (Shamina

Senaratne). No special equipment or space is required for the Minor, other than the

office space associated with the Cognitive Science Office. CVs for the above mentioned

faculty members are provided in Appendix B.

Program Consultations and Evaluations

This draft proposal has been assembled with input from members of the Cognitive

•

Science Steering Committee, who have home departments from Computing Science,

Education, Interactive Arts and Technology, Kinesiology, Linguistics, Philosophy, and

Psychology. In January 2007, a draft of the full proposal was distributed to Computing

Science, Linguistics, Philosophy and Psychology. The minor changes from these four

departments, reflecting upcoming changes to their own program changes, were then

incorporated into draft document, to result in the current document.

The proposal has been provided to the following external groups for comment:

Cognitive Systems Program, UBC

Cognitive Science, Carleton University

Comments received appear in Appendix C, along with comments from related programs

at Simon Fraser University.

On-going review of the Minor program will be achieved in the same manner as the

Major, through the participation of the interdisciplinary steering committee for Cognitive

Science which includes members from all the related SFU disciplines. All Cognitive

Science courses will have student evaluations. A member of the Cognitive Science

student association will continue to provide feedback to the Cognitive Science steering

committee on matters related to the curriculum. We will also expand our Cognitive

Science Alumni program to get feedback from students once they have graduated.

Cognitive Science Minor (July 6, 2007) ?

Admission

All GPA requirements associated with the Minor will be the same as those required for

the current Major in Cognitive Science.

Students majoring in one of the Cognitive Science related disciplines should be able to

complete the additional course requirements associated with the Minor within the same

time frame that would normally be required for completion of their degree.

Other

If approved, the proposed Minor will be the first credential of its sort in British Columbia.

McGill and UNB to the best of our knowledge are the only other Canadian universities

having a Minor in Cognitive Science.

Cognitive Science currently has over 30 Majors. We anticipate the number of Minors in

the program to eventually match the number of Majors. We feel this goal is achievable

based on our interactions with students at various recruiting events, and based on our

disëussions with students in the SFU Cognitive Science student society.

Every year, there have been e-mails from current SFU students as well as prospective

students enquiring about a minor in cognitive science. As reflected in the minutes of

past meetings of the COGS student society, there has been student interest in a minor

for several years. Back in the late 1990s, there were initial discussions in the Cognitive

Science steering committee about the creation of a Minor, but at the time, the program

did not have the infrastructure necessary to promote such a proposal. Now that the

program has support staff, it is in a position to offer such a program.

With respect to the labour market demand, a student with a Minor in Cognitive Science

would have a substantial number of courses in each of Computing Science, Linguistics,

Philosophy and Psychology, and thus could be a candidate for employment in positions

requiring experience in any one of these areas.

No additional budget is required for offering the Minor in Cognitive Science.

Cognitive Science Minor (July 6, 2007)

• ?

Appendix A. Course Descriptions/Outlines

COGS 100 Course Outline

COGS 100-3: Introduction to Cognitive Science

An introduction to Exploring the Mind. Cognitive Science is an interdisciplinary field that has

arisen from the convergence on a common set of questions by philosophy, computer science,

artificial intelligence, linguistics, psychology, and neuroscience. Cognitive scientists view the

human mind as a complex system that receives, stores, retrieves, transforms, and transmits

information. Each discipline makes its own distinctive contribution to the goal of formulating a

computational theory of the human mind. Previously, each discipline sought to understand the

mind from its own perspective, benefiting little from progress in other fields because of different

methods employed. With the advent of Cognitive Science, however, common interests and

theoretical ideas have overcome methodological differences, and interdisciplinary interaction has

become the hallmark of this field.

This course examines how the mind carries out functions such as memory, language, and vision.

The major themes common to the understanding of the cognitive science of memory, language

and vision including nature and nurture, categories and representations, concept formation and

•

categorization, problem solving, computations, and different types of mental representations will

be discussed together with the role of language in mental activity. Training in cognitive science

prepares students admirably well for many of the careers that are major growth fields of the

twenty-first century, including: computer science and communication, information processing

and data retrieval, human-computer interaction and computational linguistics, psychology,

psycholinguistics, and cognitive linguistics.

PREREQUISITE: None. Open to all students. Students with credit for COGS 200 may not take

COGS 100 for further credit.

REQUIRED TEXTS:

Mindware: Introduction to the Philosophy of Cognitive Science.

Andy Clark. Oxford University Press, 2000 ISBN:

0195138570

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

Students will be expected to keep up with all course readings and to participate in class

discussions.

Grades are earned through assignments

(25%), 

quizzes (25%), a midterm exam (20%), and a

comprehensive final

(30%). 

/0.

Cognitive Science Minor (July 6, 2007)

COGS 200 Course Outline

COGS 200-3: Foundations in Cognitive Science

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course is an in-depth introduction to the major empirical methods and theoretical

frameworks for exploring the mind. It introduces students to some of the major results

in cognitive science and fleshes out several of the foundational debates that have fueled

investigations in the past fifty years. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the course

illustrates how a convergence of ideas from psychology, philosophy, linguistics, and

computer science has led to deep explanations of the topics listed below, as well as

clarified some research questions that are being actively investigated today.

COURSE TOPICS

Mind as a computer, cognitive processes as algorithms, computational models of the

mind, nature of language and communication, nature of beliefs, mental representations,

human vision, concept learning, categorization, rationalism/ empiricism, role of

experience/ prior knowledge in learning, consciousness, level of analysis (neural

substrate or higher level mental knowledge), formal versus non-formal theories of

mind, processing of statistical/ structural information, mental knowledge from

substantive stored information or mathematical abstractions (=rules)

PREREQUISITE: COGS 100. Students who have taken COGS 200 before 1998 may

take this course for further credit.

REQUIRED TEXTS:

Jay Friedenberg and Gordon Silverman. 2005.

Cognitive Science: An Introduction to the

study of Mind.

Published by Sage, ISBN 1-4129-2568-1.

Also: supplementary readings may be required in a custom courseware.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Students will be expected to keep up with all course readings and to participate in class

discussions. Grades are earned through assignments (257o), quizzes (257o), a midterm

exam

(20%),

and a comprehensive final (307o).

1/.

Cognitive Science Minor (July 6, 2007) ?

COGS 300 Calendar Description

COGS 300-3 Selected Topics in Cognitive Science

Description:

An interdisciplinary exploration of recent work on some special topic in cognitive science

(such as vision, reasoning, connectionism, etc.) Prerequisite: lower division cognitive

science course requirements.

Cognitive Science Minor (July 6, 2007)

imA

COGS 310 Course Outline

COGS 310-3: Consciousness ?

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Consciousness is often called "the last great

mystery of science". Even the very

definition of consciousness is hotly debated. This course will review cognitive

scientists' attempts to understand the qualities, boundaries, purposes and origins

of human consciousness. Philosophy, Psychology, Neuroscience, and Computing

will provide the data for this dramatic struggle between intuition and fact on this

journey of scientific and self discovery. The aim of the course is to give students a

thorough grounding in the current state of the scientific understanding of

consciousness, and a chance to exercise their reading, writing, debating, and

critical thinking skills.

PREREQUISITE: COGS 100 and COGS 200 (or permission of instructor)

REQUIRED TEXTS:

Consciousness: An Introduction,

Susan Blackmore

Oxford University Press, USA ISBN 019515343X

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

Students will be expected to keep up with all course readings and to participate

in class discussions. Grades are earned through participation(107o), short

assignments (257o), quizzes

(25%)

and a research paper (407o).

Cognitive Science Minor (July 6, 2007)