CATALINA IRICINSCHI
TEACHING PORTFOLIO
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CONTENTS
1. Teaching Philosophy……………………………………………………………………1
2. Teaching experience
a. Courses taught…………………………………………………………………..2
b. Courses assisted…………………………………………………………………3
3. Student evaluations
a. Numerical………………………………………………………………………..4
b. Verbal……………………………………………………………………………7
4. Sample syllabi
a. The Power of Storytelling: Cognitive Accounts ………………………………19
b. Language & the Body: Theories of Embodied Cognition …………………….25
c. The Psychology of Language………………………………………………….30
5. Assignments & Examinations - Samples
a. Writing Assignments & Examination questions ………………………………33
6. Teaching Awards
a. Student essay awards …………..........................................................................34
b. 2010-2011 Graduate Teaching Award in the Field of
Psychology………………………………….......................................................35
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TEACHING PORTFOLIO
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TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
I start my lectures with a big and intriguing question and I invite the class to propose answers, however
intuitive at first. Intuitions tend to be strong and they have the quality of knowledge. Providing scientific
evidence that is inconsistent with our strongest intuitions conveys a clear message: Intuition does not equate
knowledge. Engaging the students in such intellectual quests turns them into informed consumers of science,
able to distinguish between robust findings and happenstance.
I have had the opportunity to teach various courses in diverse environments: Cornell University (Cognitive and
Social Psychology), Ithaca College (Statistics in Psychology), CUNY Brooklyn College (Psychology of
Language), Auburn Correctional Facility (Introduction to Psychology). The students in my classes were
Cornellians from all over the world, they came from the culturally diverse borough of Brooklyn, or they earned
Cornell credits while incarcerated.
It is, however, my experience as a young learner that taught me the most compelling lessons about teaching. As
a young student in communist Romania, I witnessed – as I now realize – the deep struggle my teachers went
through. They taught us foreign languages with no promise of ever speaking them outside the classroom. They
made us look at every moving leaf or worm or rabbit with the curiosity of a scientist in an environment where
science was less than even a vague concept. A few of their teaching strategies have proven relevant throughout
my career.
1. Making a big lecture course feel like a seminar. Even the most pristine of lectures will be ineffective
if students disengage. I once witnessed an instructor’s enthusiasm after a serendipitous discovery: removing
one’s eye glasses ‘blurs’ the individual students into an indistinct group much less likely to induce anxiety. I
value the individual students and their distinct voices. Simply walking up into the auditorium while I lecture on
Personality to 170 students brings the students in the last row closer to the front; they then naturally contribute
to the class discussion.
2. Technology assists teaching; it does not replace it. With technological devices forbidden on the
premises of the Auburn Correctional Facility, I was left with the teaching tools of my Romanian teachers:
blackboard, chalk, knowledge, and passion. I presented research findings in a narrative format. This skill is
invaluable when used together with the wonderful technology the Cornell campus offers. Technology makes
information available while educators make it interesting and challenging.
3. A third chance may be worth it. I learned to step into a classroom thinking not of who the students are
as the semester starts, but of who they can be when the semester ends. An underperforming student once asked
for permission to miss yet another class in order to attend an event. I agreed in exchange for an essay that
related the attended event to the topic of the class. The essay was better than my highest expectation. The
student gave a class presentation on the same topic and I included his presentation in a conference talk I gave
that year.
Ultimately, what I learned from my early teachers and my own diverse teaching endeavors is that
imparting knowledge with openness and honesty cannot be undermined.
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TEACHING PORTFOLIO
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COURSES TAUGHT
Fall 2008
Writing in the Majors Section for Professor Breton Bienvenue’s Cognitive Science
Responsibilities: Weekly 1h15’ lectures, Course development, Designing & grading assignments, Office Hours.
Summer 2010 & 2011
Introduction to Psychology taught at Auburn Correctional Facility (within Cornell Prison Education Program)
Position: Lecturer
Responsibilities: Course development, Lecturing, Grading, Office hours.
Fall 2010 & Spring 2011
First-Year Writing Seminar: Language and the Body: Theories of Embodied Cognition
Responsibilities: Course development, Lecture, Grading, Office Hours, Student essay nominations.
Fall 2011 – Fall 2013
First-Year Writing Seminar: The Power of Storytelling: Cognitive Accounts
Responsibilities: Course development, Lecture, Grading, Office Hours, Student essay nominations.
Summer 2011 & 2012
Professor Tom Gilovich’s Social Psychology
Responsibilities: Daily 1h15’ lectures, Session development, Designing & grading assignments, Office Hours.
Summer 2013
Psychology of Language 2050 – six-week course
Position: Adjunct Lecturer
Responsibilities: Course development, Lecturing, Grading, Office hours.
Fall 2014 & Spring 2015
Statistics in Psychology. Ithaca College, Psychology Department.
Summer 2015
Cognitive Science. Cornell University – six-week course.
Fall 2015
Introduction to Personality 2750. Cornell University.
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TEACHING PORTFOLIO
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COURSES ASSISTED
Fall 2007
Professor Shimon Edelman’s Cognitive Psychology
Responsibilities: Grading, Office Hours, Lectured once.
Spring 2008
Professor Morten Christiansen’s Psychology of Language
Responsibilities: Grading, Office Hours, Lectured once.
Summer 2008
Professor Breton Bienvenue’s Cognitive Science
Responsibilities: Grading, Office Hours, Lectured once.
Spring 2009
Professor David Field’s Lab in Cognition and Perception
Responsibilities: Grading, Office Hours, Student conferences, assisted students with projects.
Summer 2009
Professor Breton Bienvenue’s Cognitive Science
Responsibilities: Grading, Office Hours, Lectured once.
Fall 2009
Professor James Cutting’s Perception
Responsibilities: Grading, Office Hours, Review Sessions prior to prelims and exam.
Spring 2010
Professor David Pizarro’s Psychology of Emotion.
Responsibilities: Grading, Office Hours, Lectured twice.
Summer 2010
Professor Peter Fortunato’s Writing: The Personal Essay
Position: Summer Intern
Responsibilities: Grading, Student conferences, Course Development, Lectured twice.
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THE POWER OF STORY-TELLING: NARRATIVES IN FILM AND LITERATURE
Cognitive accounts
Course description & objectives
Stories never fail to enthrall the audience, whether young or old. What precisely makes us so receptive to stories? Is it
only the power of the story to create new worlds that capture us with their novelty? Maybe we respond so spontaneously
to stories because the human thought uses the story paradigm to understand real-world events. Moreover, unbeknownst to
ourselves, we constantly create stories: whether we daydream, plan a future action, explain complex things through
analogies, or simply gossip.
The Power of Storytelling seminar analyzes the content, structure, and cognitive function of narratives in literature and
film media. The seminar addresses the questions above (and many other related issues) and proposes cognitive accounts
for our narrative processing. Both the narrative structure and the narrative content – as we will see – are responsible for
the irresistible appeal stories have to us all.
The Power of Story-Telling is a writing class and, therefore, its objective is two-fold:
1) The class will provide the students with the writing tools adequate academic college writing requires.
2) Students will become familiar with interesting and sometimes counterintuitive cognitive concepts regarding the
relationship between narrative structure and relevant cognitive functions.
At the end of the semester, students will have learned to structure and organize an academic essay and to cogently defend
in writing their stance with respect to cognitive accounts for narrative processing.
Requirements & topics
This class focuses on the cognitive mechanisms underlying narrative processing as well as the structural analysis of
narratives (structural units that make literary and film narrative). Content analysis is discussed only in relation to the
structure of narrative. We will not go into literary or film critique.
Reading assignments will be posted online for every class meeting. The readings tend to be rather technical.
Writing assignments: This class will be writing-intensive. There will be take-home and in-class writing assignments every
week. The in-class writing assignments consist of peer-reviews and brief writing exercises (e.g., summaries of Readings,
connecting concepts, etc.). The in-class writing assignments will not be graded, but they will count as class participation
and will improve your writing skills. All assignments are due at midnight on the given deadline. Students will write three
3-4-page essays on assigned topics, a 3-page final project proposal, and three drafts (including the final version) of their
final 8-10-page essay. In a brief class presentation, each student will present their final essay topic.
The APA citation style will be used throughout the semester. At the end of this syllabus, you will find a reference list
including most of the Readings. We will discuss the APA style in class extensively, but you can also use the reference list
as a sample for citing sources in APA.
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TEACHING PORTFOLIO
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MODULE I: FOCUS ON NARRATIVE CONTENT AND FUNCTION OF NARRATIVE1
WEEK ONE: Overview
Wednesday 08.28 – Overview, Syllabus and course requirements. What is a narrative?
Friday 08.30 – Main concepts I: Cognition, film editing, parsing, conceptual blending, representation, situation model.
WEEK TWO: Introduction
Monday 09.02 – NO CLASS – LABOR DAY
Wednesday 09.04 – Main concepts II: Parsing, coherence, cohesion, diegesis. Readings: Turner (1996), pp. 1-13.
Friday 09.06 – Forms of narrative – general overview. Different media, different narratives? What is not a narrative?
Readings: Chatman (1980); Bordwell (2008), pp.110-121.
WEEK THREE: Function of narrative
Monday 09.09 – Function of narrative I – What are narratives good for? Do they serve a function?
Readings: Frank Rose (2011), pp. 31-45. Revisit Bordwell 2008.
Wednesday 09.11 – Function of narrative II – Immersive narrative. Readings: Gopnik (2002). Rayner & Sereno (1994,
pp. 57-59; 73-76). Essay due.
Friday 09.13 – Function of narrative III – Edit blindness & Continuity editing. Readings: Smith & Henderson (2008).
WEEK FOUR: The story line
Monday 09.16 – ‘Extracting’ the story line from cinematic & literary narratives
Readings: Bordwell (2008), ch.4 (pp. 135-151). Revisit Smith and Henderson 2008.
Wednesday 09.18 – ‘Extracting’ the story line: Case studies – Crime in narrative. Readings: Bordwell & Thompson
(2004, pp. 68-85). Essay due.
Friday 09.20 – Linear vs. non-linear story ‘line’. Readings: Wedel, M. (2009). In W. Buckland (Ed.), pp. 129-140.
WEEK FIVE: The puzzle plot – Nonlinear story ‘lines’
Monday 09.23 – Literary puzzle plots, literary labyrinths. Readings: Borges (1941).
Wednesday 09.25 – Cinematic puzzle plots, cinematic labyrinths. Readings: Ghislotti, S. (2009).
Friday 09.27 – What’s puzzling after all? Narrative shifts. Readings: Bordwell (2008) – pp. 85-110.
WEEK SIX: Fidelity or infidelity? Narrative ‘translation’ across media
Monday 09.30 – Degrees of fidelity I – ‘Translation’ into film medium: Faithful to the original? Readings: Swicord, R.
(2008) - chapter in Kranz & Mellerski (2008).
Wednesday 10.02 – Degrees of fidelity II – What stays and what goes from book to movie. Readings: Elliott (2004).
Essay due.
Friday 10.04 – Read, watch, and judge for yourself (Lasse Hallström (2000). Chocolat) – Workshop.
WEEK SEVEN: Screenwriting & Film adaptation
Monday 10.07 – What is screen writing? Readings: ch. from Sternberg, C. (1997). Written for the screen.
Wednesday 10.09 – Illustrations of screenwriting. Readings: Excerpts from screenplays – Lolita & Cider house rules.
Friday 10.11 – The script and the actual movie. Film viewing: Excerpts from Lolita & Cider house rules.
1
I have divided the class lectures into Module I (focus on content) and Module II (focus on structure). This division is by no means
intended to indicate a clear-cut segregation between content (or form) and structure. It simply emphasizes the focus of the lectures.
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MODULE II: FOCUS ON STRUCTURE & STRUCTURAL DIFFERENCES ACROSS MEDIA
WEEK EIGHT: Narrative events I – The movie
Monday 10.14 – NO CLASS. FALL BREAK.
Wednesday 10.16 – Narratives in different media – cognitive accounts (overview; will be revisited)
Readings: chapter from Narrative across media; optional: Bordwell (2008), ch. 3 (revisit). Essay due.
Friday 10.18 – Events in film narrative I. Readings: Zacks & Tversky (2001).
WEEK NINE: Narrative events II – The book
Monday 10.21 – Events in film narrative II (cont’d) – Parsing and writing workshop. Readings: Zacks et al. (2007).
Wednesday 10.23 – Events in literary narrative I. Readings: Bailey & Zacks (2011).
Friday 10.25 – Events in literary narrative II - Parsing and writing workshop.
WEEK TEN: The structure of narrative
Monday 10.28 – Identifying structural units in literary and cinematic narratives. Lecture & Brief workshop.
Readings: Graesser et al. (1994); Ballard (1984) Empire of the Sun (excerpt).
Wednesday 10.30 – Event parsing across media. Readings: Bordwell & Thompson (2004), chapter 7. Essay due.
Friday 11.01 – Narrative ‘rhythm’? – Quicker, Faster, Darker. Readings: Cutting et al. (2010), Cutting et al. (2011).
WEEK ELEVEN: Narrative dimensions: Space and time across events
Monday 11.04 – Space and time in film. Readings: Zwaan (1996).
Wednesday 11.06 – Time and space in text. Readings: Magliano et al. (2001); Chatman (1980) revisited. Essay due.
Friday 11.08 – Narrative: A multidimensional space. Workshop.
WEEK TWELVE: Color in film
Monday 11.11 – The physiology of color - Brief introduction. Readings: Schloss et al. (2011); Bordwell & Thompson
(2004), ch. 6.
Wednesday 11.13 – Black & white & color - A bit of history: Color in film. Readings: TBA.
Friday 11.15 – Semantics of color in film. Film viewing: Gary Ross (1998). Pleasantville.
WEEK THIRTEEN: Narrative maps
Monday 11.18 – Film on the cognitive map: Situating characters & situating events
Readings: Cutting et al. (in press); Bordwell & Thompson (2004) – ch. 2.
Wednesday 11.20 – Film on the real map: Film in different cultures. Film viewing: TBA. Essay due.
Friday 11.22 – Mapping narrative – What does it mean? Readings: Anderson (1996), ch. 9.
WEEK FOURTEEEN: The soundtrack and its effects
Monday 11.25 – The soundtrack I: Diegetic vs. non-diegetic sound. Readings: Anderson (1996), ch. 7.
Wednesday 11.27 – The soundtrack II: Music in film. Readings: chapter from Chion (1994). Optional: Bordwell &
Thompson (2004), ch. 9.
Friday 11.29 – NO CLASS. THANKSGIVING.
WEEK FIFTEEN: Tying it all together
Monday 12.02 – Narratives in the press/visual media. Readings: TBA.
Wednesday 12.04 – Writing workshop. Essay due.
Friday 12.06 – Concluding Remarks and Evaluations.
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Formatting for all assignments: Not respecting the formatting may result in losing points.
Line spacing: 1.5; Font: Times New Roman, 12; Page layout: 1” all four margins
DUE DATES & GRADING (Weighted)
DUE DATE
WEIGHT
3-page essay
Wednesday 09.11
5%
Assign. 2 – 2nd draft of 3-page essay
assign. 1
Wednesday 09.18
5%
Assign. 3
3-4-page essay
Wednesday 10.02
10%
Assign. 4
5-page final project
proposal
Wednesday 10.16
10%
Assign. 5
8-page 1st draft final
paper
Wednesday 11.06
20%
Assign. 6
8-page 2nd draft final
paper
Wednesday 11.20
20%
Assign. 7
8-page final final
paper
Wednesday 12.04
25%
In-class assignments,
class presentations, and
class discussions
5%
ASSIGNMENTS
Assign. 1
Class participation
Grade cut-offs:
A+: 99-100
A: 93-98
A-: 90-92
B+: 87-89
B: 83-86
B-: 80-82
C+: 77-79
C: 73-76
C-: 70-72
D+:67-69
D: 63-66
D-: 60-62
Academic integrity
The work you submit in this course must be written for this course and must be your own product. The sources you use
must be fully acknowledged. Make yourself familiar with Cornell Code of Academic Integrity. This code is distributed to
students in the policy notebook. It can also be downloaded at http://cuinfo.cornell.edu/Academic/AIC.html. Information
on how to avoid plagiarism can be found at http://as.cornell.edu/academics/advising/academic-integrity.cfm.
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Students with disabilities. In compliance with Cornell University policy and equal access laws, I am available to discuss
the necessary and adequate academic accommodations that students with disabilities may require. Such requests must be
made during the first two weeks of class, except for extraordinary circumstances. Students with disabilities must be
registered with Student Disability Services (SDS) for disability verification such that the most appropriate
accommodations are established.
This syllabus is subject to change. Changes will be announced in class prior to taking effect.
ASSIGNMENT PROMPTS
Assignment 1 – draft 1 due Wednesday, 09.11. 2013 @ 11:59 pm.
In The Literary Mind, Mark Turner states the following: “But there is something odd here. The vizier does not say, ‘Look,
daughter, this is your current situation: You are comfortable, so comfortable that you have the leisure to get interested in
other people problems. But if you keep this up, you will end in pain’. Instead, he says, ‘Once upon a time…’ “ (Turner,
1996, p. 5). Turner implies that telling a fictitious story may be more efficient and impactful than stating the truth matterof-factly. In other words, it looks like fictitious narratives “speak louder” than actual facts. Using one cognitive
mechanism outlined by Bordwell (2008, pp. 110-121), explain why a narrative can have a more powerful effect than the
factual truth. What cognitive mechanisms account for our stronger response to storytelling compared to our response to
stating actual facts?
Rationale for assignment 1: The goal of this assignment is twofold: 1) establishing a solid basic understanding of what a
cognitive mechanism is and which specific mechanisms underlie narrative processing and 2) constructing an argument
and presenting it in writing. In order to complete this assignment, you will have to read the assigned texts for
comprehension. Superficial reading will not suffice. Why is this assignment the first for the semester? Because subsequent
assignments will refine your understanding of cognitive phenomena and your essay organization based on this first
assignment.
Assignment 2 – draft 2 of first essay due Wednesday, 09.18. 2013 @ 11:59 pm.
You received feedback on your first draft of this assignment. Please address the issues raised in the received feedback by
revising your essay accordingly. The most concern here should be the organization of your essay. The pieces of your
argument should logically connect with one another. Moreover, the entire essay should tell a coherent ‘story’ and not
present disparate cognitive findings.
Assignment 3 –due Wednesday, 10.02. 2013 @ 11:59 pm.
Chatman (1980) makes the distinction between assertion in literary narrative and showing in cinematic narrative. By
making such distinction, Chatman actually claims that the two media use different strategies to present detail and to
capture/direct the audience's attention. Eye movements are present in both reading a book and watching a movie. In your
3-4 page essay, use the evidence provided by Rayner & Sereno (1994) and Smith & Henderson (2008) to argue for or
against Chatman's claim: Do the eye tracking research findings support or contradict Chatman's claim that information is
presented and attended to differently in the two media? There is no right answer. You can argue pro or against as long as
you use the empirical evidence correctly.
Rationale for this assignment: By completing assignment 1, we gained basic knowledge about the cognitive mechanisms
that are responsible for the appeal of narratives. But how are these invisible cognitive mechanisms discovered and tested?
What are the methodologies used by cognitive psychologists to test the workings inside our mind? The second assignment
helps you understand the methodologies using eye tracking in a variety of cognitive tasks and apply such understanding to
narrative processing.
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Assignment 4 –due Wednesday, 10.16. 2013 @ 11:59 pm.
This assignment is your proposal for your final essay. In five pages, outline the thesis and argument for your final essay.
This assignment has to follow the structure of a psychology article (i.e., abstract, introduction, methods, discussion). More
detailed instructions for this assignment will be posted on blackboard.
Rationale for this assignment: This assignment gives you the opportunity to think critically and express your opinion
about the cognitive concepts and phenomena you have learned in this class. In this outline you will describe the general
topic you chose for your final essay, the existing research, and your critical take on it. This is not a report of existing
research. This proposal has to be original.
Assignments 5 & 6(due Wednesday, 10.30 & Wednesday, 11.13 @ 11:59 pm) are extended 8-10-page drafts of your final
essay. You will receive feedback on the strength & coherence of your argument as well as organization of essay
(assignment 4), and on the quality and clarity of your writing (assignment 5).
Assignment 7 – due Wednesday, 12.04 @ 11:59 pm. The last assignment of the semester is the final draft of your final
essay. It incorporates all the feedback you have received on the previous two drafts.
REFERENCE LIST (use as APA citation style sample):
Bordwell, D. (2008). Poetics of Cinema. Routledge, New York.
Bordwell, D. & Thompson, K. (2004). Film Art. McGraw Hill.
Borges, J.L. (1941). The Garden of Forking Paths. In J.L. Borges (1998). Collected Fictions. Penguin Books.
Chatman, S. (1978). Story and discourse: Narrative structure in fiction and film. Cornell University Press.
Chatman, S. (1980). What novels can do that films can’t (and vice versa). Critical Inquiry, 7 (1), 121-140.
Chion (1994). Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen. Columbia University Press.
Cutting (2010). Visual activity in Hollywood film: 1935 to 2005 and beyond. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the
Arts, 1-11.
Cutting et al. (2011). Quicker, faster, darker: Changes in Hollywood film over 75 years. i-Perception, 2, 569-576.
Elliott, K. (2004). Literary film adaptation and the form/content dilemma. In M-L. Ryan (Ed.), Narrative across media:
The languages of storytelling. University of Nebraska Press.
Gopnik, A. (September 30, 2002). Bumping into Mr. Ravioli. The New Yorker.
Ghislotti, S. (2009). Narrative comprehension made difficult: Film form and mnemonic devices in Memento. In W.
Buckland (Ed.), Puzzle Films: Complex Storytelling in Contemporary Cinema (87-106). West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.
Graesser, A. C., Singer, M., Trabasso, T. (1994). Constructing inferences during narrative text comprehension.
Psychological Review, 101 (3), 371-395.
Magliano, J. P., Miller, J., & Zwaan, R. A. (2001). Indexing space and time in film understanding. Applied Cognitive
Psychology, 15(5), 533–545.
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LANGUAGE AND THE BODY: THEORIES OF EMBODIED COGNITION
COURSE OVERVIEW
Course description & objectives: We all speak a language (if not more) and we all have a body. The question whether
our ability to process language interacts with our physical body would receive a negative intuitive answer from most
people. But can we learn motion verbs without performing bodily movements in the environment? Could we acquire the
word ‘grasp’ if we never grasped things? The Language and the Body class will give the students the opportunity to learn
about a series of cognitive phenomena that show how connected language and the body actually are. The material we will
read for this class indicates that language is an embodied cognitive system. Students will become familiar with
embodiment concepts through writing for Language and the Body is a writing class. Therefore, the objective of this class
is two-fold. First, the class will give its students the necessary writing tools appropriate with academic college-level
writing. Secondly, the class will present students with interesting and sometimes counterintuitive concepts about
embodied cognition. By the end of the semester, the students in this class will have learned to structure an academic essay
and to cogently defend in writing their stance with respect to embodiment.
TOPICS, REQUIRED READINGS, AND ASSIGNMENTS
WEEK ONE: Overview
Tuesday 01/25: Overview, Syllabus, and Course requirements. Introduction of main concepts (linguistics, cognition,
perception, sensation, embodied/grounded cognition).
Thursday 01/27: Tentative definitions. Readings: Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point (pp. 133-168).
The in-class assignment is relevant to the writing of assignment 1.
WEEK TWO: Language and the rest of cognition
Tuesday 02/01: Language as a modular system?
Readings: Max Coltheart (1999) & S. Pinker (1994) – The Language Instinct (selected pages). Assignment due.
Thursday 02/03: Language and thought: Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. Readings: L. Boroditsky (2001) and Konrad
Koerner (1992). Additional (optional) readings: Fodor, J. (1983). The modularity of mind.
WEEK THREE: Perception of body
Tuesday 02/08 – Proprioception
Readings: M. Graziano (1999). Assignment 2 due.
Thursday 02/10 – Kinesthesia
Readings: Chapter two from Shaun Gallagher’s How the body shapes the mind.
WEEK FOUR: Language, the senses, and the motor system
Tuesday 02/15 – Language and sensorimotor skills. Assignment due. Readings: Kaschak et al. (2005); Zwaan et al.
(2004).
Thursday 02/17 – Language and the senses. Readings: Barsalou et al. (2003).
WEEK FIVE: Language, the senses, and the motor system II
Tuesday 02/22 – Language and motor skills. Assignment due. Readings: E. Gibson (2000), Ellis & Tucker (2000).
Thursday 02/24 – Touch, blindness, and language. Readings: L. Gleitman (1990) (read the first 22 pages).
Additional reading: Tucker & Ellis (2001) and Roder et al. (2000) [language in blind people].
WEEK SIX: Developmental aspects of embodiment
Tuesday 03/01 – The infant’s motor skills. Readings – Smith & Gasser (2005).
Thursday 03/03 – How do children learn language?
Readings – Smith et al. (2002), Smith & Yu (2008).
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WEEK SEVEN: Definitions of embodiment
Tuesday 03/08 – Definition(s) for embodiment I. Readings: A. Clark (1999), Ziemke (2001).
Thursday 03/10 – Definition(s) for embodiment II. Readings: Ziemke (2000). Assignment 5 – Essay 3 due.
WEEK EIGHT: Language and Space
Tuesday 03/15 – Language, spatial cognition, and the body – postures & spatial encodings
Readings: Dijkstra et al. (2006). Research on crossed hands effects on cognition: Shore et al. (2002).
Thursday 03/17 – Language and the environment – spatial frames of reference. Readings: Majid et al. (2004).
WEEK NINE
Tuesday 03/22 – NO CLASS. SPRING BREAK.
Thursday 03/24 – NO CLASS. SPRING BREAK.
WEEK TEN: Language and Gestures
Tuesday 03/29 – Deaf people & Sign language. Readings: Senghas & Coppola (2001); Goldin-Meadow & Mylander
(1998). The Nicaraguan Sign Language – Link: http://www.columbia.edu/~as1038/L02-sign-language.html
Thursday 03/31 – Hearing people and their gesturing
Readings: S. Goldin-Meadow (1999). Assignment 6 due.
WEEK ELEVEN: Metaphors and the body
Tuesday 04/05 – What are metaphors? Readings: Lakoff & Johnson (1980). Metaphors we live by.
Thursday 04/07 – Are metaphors embodied? Readings: Gibbs (2005).
WEEK TWELVE: The brain in a vat
Tuesday 04/12 – In the absence of sensory input. In class: Watch pieces of movie. Discuss the communication system
the character developed practically without a body.
Thursday 04/14 – The brain in a vat: Is embodiment relevant to learning only?
Readings: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/brain-vat/
WEEK THIRTEEN: The body language
Tuesday 04/19 – The body language. Readings: G. Beattie - Visible thought: the new psychology of body language.
Assignment due.
Thursday 04/21 – On dance, language, and embodiment. Readings: Block & Kissell (2001), Borghi & Cimatti (2010),
Phillips-Silver & Trainor -Movement (2007). Additional (optional) readings: Hanna (2008); Dornhaus & Chittka (2004)honeybees dance.
WEEK FOURTEEN: Religion and the body
Tuesday 04/26 – Religion, language, and the body. Readings: M. B. McGuire (1990) & Barsalou et al. (2005)
Thursday 04/28 - What is embodied language? Readings: Fischer and Zwaan (2008).
WEEK FIFTEEN - CONCLUSION
Tuesday 05/03 – Is there embodiment beyond learning? Readings: Fischer and Zwaan (2008). Assignment 8 due.
Thursday 05/05 – Embodied or grounded cognition? Readings: Revisit Ziemke (2000).
ASSIGNMENTS
This class will be writing-intensive. There will be take-home and in-class writing assignments every week. The in-class
writing assignments consist of peer-reviews and brief writing exercises. The in-class writing exercises that we will have
every single class will not be graded and will not contribute per se towards your grade but they will count as class
participation and will improve your writing skills. All assignments are due at the beginning of class on the specified date.
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Below is a list of all writing assignments together with a rationale that states the purpose of each assignment. Knowing
why you write a particular essay puts things in perspective and helps you connect different class topics.
Assignment 1 due on 02/01: Preliminary/preparatory work (may be done in class): The assigned chapter from Gladwell’s
The Tipping Point relates a number of apparently disparate phenomena: the drop of crime rate in New York City, a prison
experiment, school kids cheating, etc. Read the text carefully and identify the thesis that connects all these phenomena.
State this thesis in a concise and well crafted short paragraph. Actual assignment 1 – In a 4-page essay answer the
following questions: 1. How is the thesis stated above attested in each of the phenomena described in the assigned
chapter? 2. The class slides give you two pairs of images. Compare and contrast the images in one of the two provided
pairs. Does the thesis you stated in the preparatory work apply to your comparison?
Assignment 2 due on 02/08: Choose either the article by Coltheart or the excerpt from Pinker and write a one-page
summary. Finish with a conclusion as to what you think the author’s main point is. You will submit your summary at the
beginning of class.
Rationale for this assignment: These texts are not easy to read. They are dense and contain terminology you may not
know. As will become clear by the end of this semester, writing is a learning tool. Writing about an article will help you
understand the article better. Summarizing helps you condense and retain the information. Moreover, you will need a
good understanding of the concept of nativism as it is relevant to your essay 1 (assignment 3).
Assignment 3 due on 02/15: In one and a half pages, summarize one of the articles assigned for 02.08-02.10.2011 by
including the following: assumption of the authors (hypothesis); method used in experiments; results/findings (do they
support the hypothesis?); theoretical implications.
Rationale: This is another piece of preparatory work. When you write your next essay (assignment 4), you will need to use
the structure you outlined in this assignment.
Assignment 4 due on 02/22: Write a three-page essay to answer the following question: Do we need to sense (see, touch,
hear, taste) an object, entity, or event in order to understand the word(s) that refer to or describe it? Use at least one of the
Readings to support your argument. In organizing your essay, you should follow the structure outline in assignment 3.
Something you may want to think about when writing your essay: Are there words that we understand despite the fact that
they refer to things we never saw or touched? If yes, can we use this fact to oppose embodiment proposals? Bring a hard
copy to class for peer review.
Rationale: The main point of this assignment is to make you think, given what we read and discussed in this class, about
the communicative function of language as it interacts with the environment we inhabit. Is our language confined to
describing our physical perceptible world?
Assignment 5 due on 03/10 (The concept paper) – Read Ellis & Tucker (2000) – on blackboard. Instructions for this fourpage essay:
Present the researchers’ hypothesis, the methodology they used in each experiment, their findings and conclusion.
Provide an interpretation of these findings in which you use Barsalou’s ‘simulation’ concept and Gibson’s
‘affordance’ concept.
- Propose a novel experiment that tests the same hypothesis. In doing so, you may find useful thinking about real
life instances of affordances.
Bring a hard copy of your essay to class. Each of you will exchange essays with another student and will provide feedback
concerning the clarity of the essay, the flow - is the essay choppy or does it follow a continuous thread, from announcing
the hypothesis to concluding whether the hypothesis was verified or not? – and the correct or incorrect use of the two
concepts.
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Rationale: In order to complete this assignment, you will have to read the articles more closely. Close reading is a
prerequisite for clear writing. Moreover, it will help you think critically about the concepts you have to identify and
understand. The concepts of simulation and affordance are essential to the notion of embodiment because they define our
perception of the environment through the body-world interactions. We will return to these two concepts when we
formulate an actual definition for embodiment.
Assignment 6 – final project outline/proposal due on 03/31. Think of a topic related to language and/or embodiment you
would want to give a class presentation and write a 6-to-7 page essay on. Write a two-page proposal including the topic
(question you will address), brief summaries of three pieces of empirical evidence you want to include, and a rationale for
choosing the topic you chose (relevance to you and the class). This assignment will assist you in both giving your tenminute class presentation and in writing your essay.
Rationale: Did you ever feel the need to speak your thoughts out in order for you to write them down? It does feel as if
speaking helps writing. Well, let’s see if writing helps speaking as well. It is probably not in vain that politicians have
their speech written before-hand. Writing before engaging in a discussion may make the discussion more efficient. This
assignment represents the first preparatory step towards writing the final essay. Writing a clear outline will help you
organize your thoughts and subsequently the essay in which you present those thoughts.
Assignment 7 – due on 04/19 – Final essay draft 1 – Write a 6-to-7 page essay on the topic of your presentation. Be clear
in introducing your thesis/argument and in supporting it with empirical evidence and your own interpretation. Peer review
will be provided.
Rationale: The more effort you put into this draft, the less you will need to put into the final essay. This is the essay in
which students demonstrate what they learned in this class.
Assignment 8 – due on 05/03 – final version of final essay (assignment 7).
Class presentations: There will be two student presentations each class between 04/05 and 05/03 at the end of lecture
and class discussion. These 10-minute presentations will focus on the topic of your final essay.
Formatting for all assignments: Line spacing: 1.5; Font: Times New Roman, 12; Page layout: 1” all four margins.
GRADES Weighting
ASSIGNMENT
DUE DATE
WEIGHT
Assign. 1
02/01
2.5%
Assign. 2
02/08
2.5%
Assign. 3
02/15
10%
Assign. 4
02/22
10%
Assign. 5
03/10
5%
Assign. 6
03/31
5%
Assign. 7
04/19
25%
Assign. 8
05/03
35%
Class participation
In-class assignments, class
presentations, and class
discussions
5%
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Grade cut-offs:
A+: 99-100
A: 93-98
A-: 90-92
B+: 87-89
B: 83-86
B-: 80-82
C+: 77-79
C: 73-76
C-: 70-72
D+:67-69
D: 63-66
D-: 60-62
Academic integrity. The work you submit in this course must be written for this course and must be your own product.
The sources you use must be fully acknowledged. Make yourself familiar with Cornell Code of Academic Integrity. This
code is distributed to students in the policy notebook. It can also be downloaded at
http://cuinfo.cornell.edu/Academic/AIC.html.
Information on how to avoid plagiarism can be found at
http://as.cornell.edu/academics/advising/academic-integrity.cfm. Any form of dishonesty or plagiarism related to this
class will result in a grade of F in the class.
Students with disabilities. In compliance with Cornell University policy and equal access laws, I am available to discuss
the necessary and adequate academic accommodations that students with disabilities may require. Such requests must be
made during the first two weeks of class, except for extraordinary circumstances. Students with disabilities must be
registered with Student Disability Services (SDS) for disability verification such that the most appropriate
accommodations are established.
Syllabus disclaimer: This syllabus is subject to change. Changes will be announced in class prior to taking effect.
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PSYCHOLOGY OF LANGUAGE: FROM DATA TO THEORY
Course description and objectives: The Psychology of Language course will present the students with theories
of language from a cognitive psychology perspective. In addition to providing background material from the
fields of linguistics and cognitive psychology, the course will delve into relevant research on communication
systems in non-human species, language acquisition, bilingualism, language & memory, and language &
thought. The biological, cognitive, and social bases of language will be discussed in conjunction with
corresponding research methods and findings. In-class mock experiments will illustrate the intricacies of
language we are unaware of in our daily language use. The lectures on connectionist modeling of language,
while presented in a clear and accessible manner, will appeal to students with broad backgrounds in computer
science or engineering. By the end of the summer semester, students will be familiar with topics such as
cognitive studies of language processing, language disorders, models for language processing, and theoretical &
empirical accounts for language acquisition and development. Moreover, the students in this class will know
what methodologies are used in experimental settings for language processing and will be able to interpret
empirical findings.
Requirements: This class focuses on the cognitive mechanisms underlying language processing as well as the
analysis of experimental designs and empirical findings.
Examinations: There will be two preliminary exams and one final exam. Your class participation is worth 10%
of the grade. The class participation score is established based on the quality of questions and comments you
make in class as well as the content of the brief in-class assignments.
Textbook: Harley, T. (2008). Psychology of Language: From data to theory – 3rd edition. The assigned
readings will include a number of articles in addition to the textbook chapter. These assigned articles will be
posted on the blackboard page for this course. We will read these articles in order to understand methodological
details of the empirical evidence that, more often than not, have an impact on the reported findings. We will
thus be able to think critically about existing theories of language processing.
LECTURE TOPICS
WEEK ONE:
Monday 06/24 – Overview, Syllabus, and Course requirements. Introduction: What is language?
Tuesday 06/25 – What is language? Readings: Textbook pp. 3-25.
Wednesday 06/26 – Foundations of language. Readings: Textbook pp. 51-79.
Thursday 06/27 – Language and thought. Readings: Textbook pp. 79-100.
Friday 06/28 – Language acquisition I. Readings: Textbook pp. 103-120 AND Smith & Gasser (2005).
WEEK TWO:
Monday 07/01 – Language acquisition II. Readings: Textbook pp. 120-151.
Tuesday 07/02 – Bilingualism. Readings: pp. 153-163.
Wednesday 07/03 – Word recognition. Readings: pp. 168-181 & 185-199.
Thursday 07/04 – NO CLASS.
Friday 07/05 – TBA.
WEEK THREE:
Monday 07/08 – Prelim I
Tuesday 07/09 – Psychology of reading. Readings: pp. 209-227.
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Wednesday 07/10 – Speech comprehension. Readings: pp. 257-281.
Thursday 07/11 – Syntax: Sentence structure I. Readings: pp. 287-298.
Friday 07/12 – Catch-up lecture (if we fall behind) OR Animal Communication. No reading.
WEEK FOUR:
Monday 07/15 – Syntax: Sentence structure II. Readings: pp. 298-319.
Tuesday 07/16 – Semantics: Word meaning. Readings: pp. 321-352.
Wednesday 07/17 – Discourse processing I. Readings: pp. 361-377.
Thursday 07/18 – Discourse processing II. Readings: pp. 378-392.
Friday 07/19 – Language production I. Readings: pp. 397-427.
WEEK FIVE:
Monday 07/22 – Prelim II
Tuesday 07/23 – Language production II. Readings: pp. 428-448.
Wednesday 07/24 – Psychology of conversation: Conversational inferences. Readings: pp. 453-462.
Thursday 07/25 – Psychology of conversation: Structure of conversation. Readings: same as above OR catch
up if you fell behind.
Friday 07/26 – Catch-up lecture (if we fall behind) OR Theoretical debates: Language modularity. No reading.
WEEK SIX:
Monday 07/29 – The language system: Modules? Readings: pp. 463-476.
Tuesday 07/30 – Language and memory. Readings: Article to be posted on Blackboard.
Wednesday 07/31 – Models for language processing: Connectionism. Readings: pp. 353-359; pp. 485-489.
Thursday 08/01 – Language during court trials. Readings: Article to be posted on Blackboard.
Friday 08/02 – STUDENT PROPOSED LECTURE.
GRADES AND EXAM DATES
Exam
Prelim 1
Prelim 2
Final exam
Class participation
Grade cut-offs:
When & where
Friday 07/08 – @ 10 am in
class G76
Friday 07/22 – @ 10 am in
class G76
TBA
A+: 99-100
A: 93-98 A-: 90-92
B+: 87-89
B: 83-86 B-: 80-82
C+: 77-79
C: 73-76 C-: 70-72
D+:67-69
D: 63-66 D-: 60-62
Weight
25%
25%
40%
10%
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Academic integrity
The work you submit in this course must be written for this course and must be your own product. The sources
you use must be fully acknowledged. Make yourself familiar with Cornell Code of Academic Integrity. This
code is distributed to students in the policy notebook. It can also be downloaded at
http://cuinfo.cornell.edu/Academic/AIC.html. Information on how to avoid plagiarism can be found at
http://as.cornell.edu/academics/advising/academic-integrity.cfm.
Students with disabilities
In compliance with Cornell University policy and equal access laws, I am available to discuss the necessary and
adequate academic accommodations that students with disabilities may require. Such requests must be made
during the first two weeks of class, except for extraordinary circumstances. Students with disabilities must be
registered with Student Disability Services (SDS) for disability verification such that the most appropriate
accommodations are established.
This syllabus is subject to change. Changes will be announced in class prior to taking effect.
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WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND EXAMINATION QUESTIONS
Writing Assignment:
Chatman (1980) makes the distinction between assertion in literary narrative and showing in cinematic narrative. By
making such distinction, Chatman actually claims that the two media use different strategies to present detail and to
capture/direct the audience's attention.
Eye movements are present in both reading a book and watching a movie. In your 3-4 page essay, use the evidence
provided by Rayner & Sereno (1994) and Smith & Henderson (2008) to argue for or against Chatman's claim: Do the eye
tracking research findings support or contradict Chatman's claim that information is presented and attended to differently
in the two media? There is no right answer. You can argue pro or against as long as you use the empirical evidence
correctly.
Rationale for this assignment: By completing assignment 1, we gained basic knowledge about the cognitive
mechanisms that are responsible for the appeal of narratives. But how are these invisible cognitive mechanisms
discovered and tested? What are the methodologies used by cognitive psychologists to test the workings inside
our mind? The second assignment helps you understand the methodologies using eye tracking in a variety of
cognitive tasks and apply such understanding to narrative processing.
Psychology of Language examination questions:
1. Can a connectionist framework account for the aphasic verbal behavior through the
backpropagation algorithm? Please define backpropagation.
2. Describe an instance of language processing that connectionism, at least according to some
views, fails to capture.
3. Both eye tracking and mouse tracking research methodologies showed that language processing
is immediate and incremental. Are these two techniques redundant? What is the difference
between the two? Briefly describe a study (hypothesis, findings) that used one of the two
techniques.
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Student essay Awards
The Knight Institute for Writing in the Disciplines encourages writing instructors to nominate outstanding
student essay for the end-of-the-semester campus-wide competition. The winning essays are published in the
Discovery magazine issued by the Knight Institute for Writing in the Disciplines at Cornell University.
I am pleased to note that two of my students received Awards for their essays.
The first essay discussed the embodiment of religious practices. “Embodiment in Religion” [Psych 1140.
Perception Cognition Development: Language and the Body - Theories of Embodied Cognition, Instructor:
Catalina Iricinschi] was published in Discoveries issue for Spring 2012.
The second winning essays, “The Good Human and the Evil Koopa: Designing Friends and Foes in Video
Games” [Psych 1140. Perception Cognition Development: The Power of storytelling: Cognitive Accounts.
Instructor: Catalina Iricinschi] analyzed humanoid features in negative characters of video games targeting
different ages. Apparently, games for young children design negative characters (the ones who die) as bearing
very little resemblance to humans. As the gamer matures, the enemies become human faces. The essay will be
published in the Discovery issue for Spring 2014.
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