Mental Models, Mental Logic
Dept. of Psychological and Brain Sciences
Course Location: 217 Ames Hall, Johns Hopkins University
Course # 200.383
M&T 3:30-5
Professor Justin Halberda
Office: 231 Ames Hall
Email: halberda@jhu.edu
Phone: 516-6289
Office hours: Wed, 3:00-4:30
TA:
Office:
Email:
Phone:
Office hours:
Course Aims:
This is an advanced seminar course. For each class, students will have to read an average
of 2 journal articles (approximately 25 pages of reading per class meeting). We
will adopt an environment of collaborative class discussion, focused on these
papers, and every student is expected to contribute to the discussion by making
comments and asking questions. The aim of this course is for students to grow in
their understanding of mental representation (i.e how the mind represents
knowledge in a format that can be used by the cognitive system). Other goals
include that students will increase their abilities to discuss scientific issues in a
collaborative setting that includes dynamic, friendly debate.
An Introduction to the Guiding Theme of the Course:
We all have a concept of a tree, I hope. We can think about trees (e.g. that they are
green). We can recognize trees (e.g. that we see one outside). Et cetera. This
thinking and recognizing must involve mental representations. We must have
some way of representing a tree in our minds in order for us to be thinking of it.
What is the structure of this representation TREE? Is it a tiny tree that is growing
inside of our head? Unlikely to be the case, though fMRI (functional magnetic
resonance imaging) may prove otherwise. Most likely this representation is some
pattern of neurons firing. Neurons are the physical structure that encodes
information for us. When we are asking about our representation TREE, we are
interested in the conceptual structure of the representation, not just its physical
structure. So, what is this conceptual structure? Consider two common ways of
storing information that the mind/brain appears to use: images from vision and
sentences from language. These are two of the most efficient ways that we know
of to store information. Might our representation of a tree be image-like? Like a
small picture of a generalized tree in our heads? Or, might it instead be
something more like a sentence? Like a string of informational bits, telling us
what a generalized tree looks like? E.g. “brown wood coming out of the ground
with smaller green soft planar objects attached to it,”; sounds like a tree to me.
Which one seems to be correct to you? These are the questions that will guide us
throughout the semester. We’ll begin with a brief discussion of this general
tension between image-based (i.e. imagistic) or sentence-based (i.e. propositional)
representation; what is it, how could an experiment inform us about it? Then we
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will explore what it means to be a mental representation. And for the rest of the
semester (the majority) we will be exploring these issues in a number of case
studies (specific areas of study where the debate over imagistic and propositional
representations has occurred). The course will have difficult readings, and
everyone will be expected to participate in the class discussions. I would be
happy if this was the most intellectually challenging course you’ve taken and the
most fun.
Course Materials:
Journal articles made available in class and on the web at:
http://reserves.library.jhu.edu/access/reserves/findit/articles/index.php)
Requirements:
Attendance: Everyone has to be in class, every meeting.
Participation: Everyone has to speak in class, every meeting.
Exams: There will be 2 mandatory exams: 1 midterm and 1 final (see schedule below).
These will test for the major concepts and the research methods covered throughout the
course. In this sense, the exams are cumulative. However, research findings specific to
particular topics will only appear on the relevant exam. In this sense, the exams are not
cumulative. Exams will be structured as follows. You will be given a list of
approximately 8 essay questions at least 1 week before the exam. In class, on the test
day, the professor will choose 2 of these questions and everyone will have to answer
these 2 questions during the time allotted. You will be free to use any legal resources
(see ethics statement below) that you like in order to prepare for the test, including your
class notes and readings. You may discuss the questions with other students from the
course in order to prepare for the exams. You are encouraged to do so. You can not
write out your answers to the essays in advance.
Written Assignments: At the beginning of each class, the instructor will ask a quiz
question about the papers that were read for that class. You will be given approximately
5 minutes to write an answer to this question. You must answer 10 of these questions
over the course of the semester. After hearing the question, you get to choose whether or
not you want to try to answer it. But, all answers are final. There are no make-ups for
poorly answered questions. At the end of the semester, when there are only 10 class
meetings left, anyone who hasn’t already completed their 10 required quizzes will have
no choice but to take the quizzes on the remaining days. If you only answer 8 questions,
then you will get 8 scores and 2 zeros. No make-ups.
Missed/Late Exams: You must turn in both exams and 10 quizzes. There are no
make-up exams or quizzes. If you must miss an exam due to a medical or family
emergency, you must provide official documentation. In this case, either a make-up
exam will be scheduled or your grade will be calculated without the missed exam, at the
instructor’s discretion.
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If, after seeing your graded exam or quiz, you would like your work to be re-graded you
may see the instructor or your TA. But please be advised that the entire exam or quiz
will be re-graded, and that your score may go up or down. In general, re-grades
result in a score lower than the original about 50% of the time. In asking for a re-grade,
students agree to accept the re-grade as final, whether it is lower or higher than the
original score.
Grading:
Grading percents will be set by the students by vote during the first class meeting for the
class as a whole. Everyone gets graded by these same percentages and they will not be
changed over the course of the semester. This first meeting gives students a chance to
choose how heavily to count the quizzes, exams, and class participation. The minimum
for each category being 15%.
(chosen by the students in class on 9/7)
Class Participation:
50 %
Quizzes:
20 %
Midterm:
15 %
Final Exam:
15 %
Total:
100%
Participating in Research for Extra Credit:
No extra credit will be given in this course for research participation. But, go to the
Research Participation Website at http://experimetrix2.com/JHU for details about how to
sign up.
Academic Ethics:
From the JHU Ethics Policy Statement:
"The strength of the university depends on academic and personal integrity. In this
course, you must be honest and truthful. Ethical violations include cheating on exams,
plagiarism, reuse of assignments, improper use of the Internet and electronic devices,
unauthorized collaboration, alteration of graded assignments, forgery and falsification,
lying, facilitating academic dishonesty, and unfair competition. Violations can lead to
failure of an examination, failure of the course, a notation on the student's transcript,
and/or other actions.
"Report any violations you witness to the instructor. You may consult the associate dean
of students and/or the chairman of the Ethics Board beforehand. Please consult the
Academic Ethics for Undergraduates guide and the Ethics Board website for more
information."
Instructor Availability:
Your professor and your TA want to help you learn from and enjoy this course! We
encourage you to ask questions in class, to email us with questions and/or comments, to
come talk to us during our office hours, or to schedule appointments with us if our office
hours are not convenient for you. No question is too big or too small.
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Course Schedule
(Subject to change, which will be announced in lecture)
MONDAY
LABOR DAY:
NO CLASS
TUESDAY
9/7
Course introduction &
welcome
Grading Percentages set in
stone
9/13
9/14
Are humans Logical 1?
Are humans Logical 2?
9/20
9/21
Conditional Reasoning 1
Conditional Reasoning 2
9/27
9/28
Conceptual Structure 1
Conceptual Structure 2
10/4
10/5
Vision & Images
Sentences & Propositions
10/11
FALL BREAK:
NO CLASS
10/12
10/18
10/19
Transitive Inference 2
Transitive Inference 3
Transitive Inference 1
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10/25
10/26
Mental Imagery 1
Mental Imagery 2
11/1
11/2
Mental Imagery 3
MIDTERM
HELD IN CLASS
11/8
11/9
Navigation 1
Navigation 2
11/15
11/16
Navigation 3
Navigation 4
11/22
11/23
Mental Logic
Mental Models
11/29
11/30
Children & Logic
Word Meaning
12/6
12/7
Consciousness
Final day: Wrap-up
Final Exam: 9-12 Noon Saturday, December 11
Paper & Book Reserve Request:
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Course #: 200.383
Course Title: Mental Models, Mental Logic
Professor: Justin Halberda
231 Ames Hall
Dept. of Psychological and Brain Sciences
Preferred Reserve Method: .pdf
Assignment Date: 9/13
How the mind works. Pinker, Steven; New York, NY, US: W. W. Norton & Co, Inc, 1997. xii,
pgs343-351.
The hot hand in basketball: On the misperception of random sequences. Gilovich, Thomas;
Vallone, Robert; Tversky, Amos; Cognitive Psychology, Vol 17(3), Jul 1985. pp. 295-314.
Assignment Date: 9/14
Larkey, P.D., Smith, R.A., & Kadane, J.B. (1989). It's okay to believe in the 'Hot Hand.' Chance,
2(4), 22-30.
Tversky, A., & Gilovich, T. (1989). The 'Hot Hand': Statistical reality or cognitive illusion? Chance,
2(4), 31-34.
Communicating statistical information. Hoffrage, Ulrich; Lindsey, Samuel; Hertwig, Ralph;
Science, Vol 290(5500), Dec 2000. pp. 2261-2262.
Assignment Date: 9/20
How the mind works. Pinker, Steven; New York, NY, US: W. W. Norton & Co, Inc, 1997. xii, pgs
333-338.
Why we are so good at catching cheaters. Fodor, Jerry; Cognition, Vol 75(1), Apr 2000. pp. 2932.
Why are we good at detecting cheaters? A reply to Fodor. Beaman, C. Philip; Cognition, Vol
83(2), Mar 2002. pp. 215-220
Assignment Date: 9/21
Duyck, W., Vandierendonck, A. & De Vooght, G. (2003). Conditional reasoning with a spatial
content requires visuo-spatial working memory. Thinking And Reasoning, 9 (3), 267-287.
Assignment Date: 9/27
How the mind works. Pinker, Steven; New York, NY, US: W. W. Norton & Co, Inc, 1997. xii, pgs
89-93.
Johnson-Laird, P. N. (1983) Mental Models: Towards a cognitive science of language, inference
and consciousness, Cambridge, MA, US: Harvard University Press. pgs. ix-22.
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