200138 SE Advanced Seminar: Mind and Brain (2019W)

Aims: Through discussions in English, centered on the reading of target research papers, we aim to foster critical thinking when reading or listening to contributions to the area of Cognitive Sciences, and, second, to train skills in participating in discussions in English in a “safe space” with minimal pressure. After taking this course, attendees should be able to reflect on the “bigger picture” in the field of Psychology and Cognitive Sciences. Furthermore, we intend to enable attendees to reflect on what actual findings tell us, what they do not tell us, and why this is so.
Contents: The seminar involves reading, presenting, and discussing seminal papers or book chapters in Cognitive Sciences. This includes topics such as Artificial Intelligence, Psychology as a Science, the replication crisis, Philosophy of Mind, or History of Cognitive Sciences, etc.. Though the topics raise fundamental issues in psychology, the discussions also regularly touch relevant topics of everyday life, such as the future of science, consequences of digitalization, cultural dependence on psychological concepts, development of language, truth, or free will.
Methods: Student presentation of a paper/book chapter, student-guided discussion of the text in the seminar.

Please note that in this course it is mandatory to also attend a weekly colloquium (min 60% of the sessions): This provides the opportunity to engage with current research in Psychology, as presented by renowned researchers. Through the talks, students experience state of the art research and current topics of Cognitive Science. They also get firsthand experience how research is communicated. In the seminar the talks from the colloquium will be reflected upon and further discussed to maximize the learning outcomes. The skills of critically reflecting research findings and conclusions should enable the students to reflect the contents of the talk and to critically review the presentations.