Topics in Cognitive Science: Modularity of Mind

outline of the course:

The course was based on the book, "Mapping the Mind: Domain specificity in cognition and culture" edited by L.A.Hirschfeld and S.A.Gelman (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1994).This was a collection of recent research and theory discussion papers on domain specificity in human thought, which had resulted from a multidisciplinary exploration of several domains. Domains such as naïve biolog, psychology, physics, moral and other social beliefs and number were addressed in the course. The course explored ideas from the origins and nature of domain knowledge, conceptual change, knowledge transfer and implications of domain specific perspectives for education. Besides reading and presentations, each student gave a seminar on related topics either chosen from the book or from other sources.