Comm 436/ 536 Communication & Cognition (crn 44706
/ 44707
)
CH 221, MW 12:00-2:00
Dr. David Ritchie, UCB 440B. http://web.pdx.edu/~cgrd/;
e-mail: cgrd@pdx.edu.
Office Hours: MW
2:00-4:00 or by appointment.
Required texts: (Check for used copies.)
Gibbs, R. W. Jr. (2006). Embodiment and cognitive science. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Semin, G. R., and Smith, E. R. (Eds.). Embodied grounding: Social, cognitive, affective, and neuroscientific approaches. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Other assigned readings may be accessed in e-format through the PSU electronic journals listings (click on “find it at PSU” and enter the citation data).
On-line discussion. This class will be partially on-line. Undergrads are required to post at least 12 times and graduate students 18 times during the quarter. One posting should respond to the assigned reading, for example by raising questions about it or by proposing ways in which the ideas presented might apply to real-life communicative interactions. At least one other posting should respond to another student’s posting. Graduate students are expected to begin posting by the end of week 2; undergraduates have until the end of week 3 to join the on-line conversation.
Weekly assignment: Reading summary and notes. Prior to each class meeting, you are expected to write a summary and notes of the readings assigned for that meeting, following the format shown on d2l. You may keep this for purposes of the class discussion, but are expected to turn in a copy no later than the end of class on the date due. Undergraduates will be allowed to use these for your mid-term and final exams.
Term Paper assignment - shown at the bottom of the syllabus.
Grading:
|
Weekly reading
notes:
18 On-line posts:
12 Mid-term
15 Final
25 Term Paper,
30
100 |
Grade
scale: 90-100 = A- to
A 80-89 = B- to
B+ 70-79 = C to
C+ 60-69 = D. |
|
A note about plagiarism. This is an upper-division class; by now you are all fully aware of the rules. If you copy anything use quotes and a complete cite. If you paraphrase you must also give a complete cite. If in doubt, cite. Evidence of plagiarism will lead to a zero on the assignment with no make-up, no excuses, no discussion, and no negotiation. |
Communication & Cognition – topics for Winter 2012
1. Jan. 9 & 11. Introduction to the class and the topic. (Reading notes due Wednesday.)
Gibbs Ch. 2; this syllabus in full. (Reading notes on the syllabus are not needed.)
2. Jan. 16 & 18. Language and thought. Reading notes for this and every following week are due in class on Monday, or via e-mail prior to class.
Boroditsky, L. (2011). How language shapes thought: The languages we speak affect our perceptions of the world. Scientific American, February, pp. 63-5.
Fausey, C., & Boroditsky, L. (2010). Subtle linguistic cues influence perceived blame and financial liability. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 17 (5), 644-650 doi:10.3758/PBR.17.5.644
3. Jan. 23 & 25. Perception and Action.
Gibbs Ch. 3; Boroditsky, L., and Ramscar, M. (2002). The roles of body and mind in abstract thought. Psychological Science, 13, 185-189.
4. Jan. 30 & Feb. 1. Concepts.
Gibbs Ch. 4; Thibodeau P. H., Boroditsky L. (2011) Metaphors We Think With: The Role of Metaphor in Reasoning. PLoS ONE 6(2): e16782. doi:10.1371/journal. pone.0016782. http://www-psych.stanford.edu/~lera/papers/.
Term paper topic statement due: ½ to 1 page plus references.
5. Feb. 6 & 8. Memory and reasoning.
Gibbs Ch. 5; Barsalou, L. W. (2008). Grounding symbolic operations in the brain’s modal systems. In Semin & Smith, pp. 9-42.
6. Feb. 13 & 15. Language.
Gibbs Ch. 6; Glenberg, A. M. (2008). Toward the integration of bodily states, language, and action. In Semin & Smith, pp. 43-70.
Mid-term
exam
7. Feb. 20 & 22. Emotion.
Gibbs Ch. 7; Barrett, L. F., and Lindquist, K. A. (2008). The embodiment of emotion. In Semin & Smith, pp. 263-288.
8. Feb. 27 & 29. Stories and memory.
Schank, R. C. and
Abelson, R. P (1995).
Knowledge and memory: The real
story. In
Robert S. Wyer
(ed.), Knowledge
and memory: The
real story.
Advances in Social Cognition, Vol. VIII.
Green,
M. C.
(2004). Transportation
into narrative
worlds: The
role of prior knowledge and
perceived realism.
Discourse
Processes, 38, 247-266.
9. March 5 & 7.
Kopietz, R., Hellmann, J. H., Higgins, E. T., & Echterhoff, G. (2010). Shared-reality effects on memory: Communicating to fulfill epistemic needs. Social Cognition, 28, 353–378.
Echterhoff, G., Higgins, E. T., & Levine, J. M. (2009). Shared reality: Experiencing commonality with others’ inner states about the world. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 4, 496-521.
10. March 12 & 14. Summing up. Term paper due March 12.
Pickering M.J. & Garrod S. (2009) Prediction and embodiment in dialogue European Journal of Social Psychology (39) pp 1162-1168
Final Exam. Monday, March 19, 12:30-2:20 (may be on-line – TBA).
Term Paper
Assignment: Research
paper Due March 12.
You will
write a research paper on a
topic relevant to this class. In
addition to the readings assigned for this class,
undergraduate students are
expected to cite at least 6 peer-reviewed articles or
book chapters; graduate
students are expected to cite at least 10 additional
articles or book
chapters.
The topic
may be theoretical,
focusing on questions such as memory organization, the
role of emotion in
cognition, intentionality, the Whorf-Sapir hypothesis,
framing, etc. The
topic may also be applied – what can the
embodied cognition perspective contribute to our
understanding of conversation,
media effects, doctor-patient communication, group
decision-making, humor,
metaphor, etc.
You may also
write on one of the
cognitive perspectives we do not cover.
The assigned readings are good sources for paper topics. Graduate students are encouraged to use this term paper assignment as part of their thesis proposals.
You may work individually or in groups of 2-3 persons. Groups will be expected to produce longer and more detailed papers with more external references.
Length: The complete paper will be in the range of 10-12 for undergraduates, 15-20 pages for grad students, not counting title page, abstract, and references. (Remember, group projects will be longer and more detailed than single-authored projects.)
I recommend
that you pattern your
paper after one of the assigned articles.
You should express ideas from secondary sources (assigned readings and refereed journal articles) in your own words, using few or no direct quotations, and of course cite the sources in proper APA format. A paper that is more than 10% quotations is unlikely to receive a passing grade. You will probably find it useful to use headings and sub-headings to organize your paper, and at the end of each section, summarize what you accomplished in that section. Then, in the Summary and Conclusions section, pull together the major themes from the entire paper and tell me what it all means.
Writing style matters: incomplete sentences, proof-reading lapses, rambling sentences and paragraphs, word usage and spelling problems, etc. will lead to a lower grade – very many writing errors and the grade will not be a passing grade. You should follow APA style throughout: Citations are always in the form of Surname (date), with no first name or initial and no incidental information about the author.
Some other perspectives: Your term paper may focus on one or more of these. If you choose that route, you should include at least one section in which you compare, contrast, and otherwise link the perspective you chose to the embodied perspective covered in this class.
Dennett,
Daniel
C. 1995. Darwin's
Dangerous
Idea: Evolution
and the
meanings of life.
NYC: Simon
& Schuster. (Evolutionary
Psych approach.)
Feldman, J. A. (2006). From molecule to metaphor: A neural theory of language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. (Computer modeling / AI approach.)
Fauconnier, G., and Turner, M. (1998). Conceptual integration networks. Cognitive Science, 22(2), 133-187. (“Conceptual blending”)
Fauconnier, G., and Turner, M. (2002). The way we think: Conceptual blending and the mind’s hidden complexities. New York, NY: Basic Books.
Giora, R. (2003). On our mind: Salience, context, and figurative language. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. (Graded Salience hypothesis.)
Landauer, T. K., and Dumais, S. T. (1997). A solution to Plato’s problem: The latent semantic analysis theory of acquisition induction, and representation of knowledge. Psychological Review, 104, 211-240. (Computational / connectionist approach.)
Lakoff, G., and Johnson, M. (1999). Philosophy in the flesh: The embodied mind and its challenge to western thought. New York NY: Basic Books. (Related to the embodied perspective but goes off in a different direction.)
For a critique of the embodied cognition approach from the perspective of standard (computational) cognitive science, I recommend:
Shapiro, Lawrence (2010) Embodied Cognition. Hoboken : Taylor & Francis.