Welcome to the Cognitive Science in the Classroom Web Site

Designed to provide resources that will enhance the teaching of cognitive science, this website was developed by faculty members in the Pomona College Department of Linguistics and Cognitive Science with the support of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Our goal is to support teaching of cognitive science at the undergraduate level by identifying and discussing topics that are central to cognitive science and that form the backbone of an introductory curriculum in cognitive science. The ultimate goal is to build, collaboratively, a website that will be a teaching tool for instruction in cognitive science for instructors, researchers and students. The website describes effective pedagogical approaches to both theoretical and empirical issues in cognitive science. The great challenge in this endeavor is to include the diverse fields and methodologies that contribute to cognitive science. Please use the comment pages to add your reflections on the essays and demonstrations and to identify additional important topics or resources.

Resources on this site: (click heading to expand topic)
ESSAYS

Each essay addresses a specific area of cognitive science and is written by an expert in that area. The essays address many of the fundamental issues that undergraduates should learn in an introductory course in cognitive science. The authors describe the basic issues and identify primary readings that should be covered in each specific area. Some essays also identify on-line resources that aid teaching.

You will find a comment page after each essay. We hope you will share your thoughts about pedagogical approaches to these issues and suggest additional areas to be covered.

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DEMONSTRATIONS
We identify hands-on demonstrations of various cognitive phenomena that are central to the study of cognitive science and that are available on the internet or this website. Students can test themselves and experience the phenomena first hand and, in many cases, analyze their own responses quantitatively.

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SYLLABI
We have collected syllabi (with permission) for introductory, undergraduate courses in cognitive science that are taught at various US colleges and universities. Cognitive science courses are somewhat unusual in assigning more primary sources for reading than other introductory courses, and thus the syllabi are an additional source of basic readings appropriate for an introductory course

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RESOURCES
Here we provide links to some resources that are useful for teaching and research projects in cognitive science. Please let us know about other useful resources that we can add.

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