Dr. Bradley Richards
tbrad.richards@ryerson.ca

This capstone seminar for students in their final year of the COGS Honours BA
program aims to deepen students’ understanding of important issues in cognitive
science and the interdisciplinary methods that are used to address them. We will
approach this end in two ways. First, as a class we will discuss a range of readings
that address important and controversial issues in contemporary cognitive science.
These discussions will be integrated with this year's Cognitive Science Speaker
Series, which features prominent cognitive scientists from around the world. In the
week prior to each talk, we will read and discuss relevant background for the
upcoming talk. In the hour before a talk, the visiting speakers will meet with our
seminar to discuss their research and answer your questions, giving the class a
unique opportunity to interact with leading experts in the cognitive sciences.
Second, over the course of the year each student will pursue an original research
project, focusing on a specific controversy of his or her own choosing. This project
will culminate in a substantial, original, interdisciplinary research paper that attempts
to make progress on the controversy. The projects are expected to engage with
relevant literature and make empirically informed arguments (though students are not
expected to conduct their original experimental research). At the end of each
semester, our classroom will transform into a mini-conference, where students
present their work to the rest of the class.
Given this year's unique learning environment, we aim to be flexible and
accommodating given student needs, while also taking the opportunity to create an
exciting and intellectually compelling capstone experience to the Cognitive Science
degree program.

Technical requirements for taking the course: *Please note Section B will be
entirely online via Zoom, and the Speaker Series talks will also be available via
Zoom.* Students are expected to attend all talks in the Cognitive Science Speaker
Series. These talks, which will occur during scheduled class hours, will be hosted
virtually on Zoom in the Fall semester. Students should also be prepared for the
possibility that some or all meetings in the course become fully remote, with
meetings being hosted on Zoom, as circumstances require. In order to fully
participate in Zoom meetings, students should ensure that they have access to a
stable, higher-speed internet connection, as well as a computer with a webcam and
microphone, and/or a smart device with these features.
All assignments, the schedule of readings and seminar meetings, course
announcements, and course policies will be posted to the eClass site for this course.
All assignments will either be submitted via eClass or completed within the eClass
interface (e.g. posting on discussion forums). The instructors will also use eClass as
their primary way of communicating with students.
Here are some useful links for student computing information, resources and help:
Student Guide to Moodle
Zoom@YorkU Best Practices
Zoom@YorkU User Reference Guide
Computing for Students Website
Student Guide to eLearning at York University
To determine Internet connection and speed, there are online tests, such as
Speedtest, that can be run.
Times and locations:
*Please note Section B will be entirely online via Zoom, and the Speaker
Series talks will also be available via Zoom.*
Wednesdays 11:30am–2:30pm EST via Zoom
Students are expected to follow the most up-to-date safety protocols laid out by the
province and by York University. For more information, see:
https://www.yorku.ca/bettertogether/students/. Students should be prepared for the
possibility that class be held fully remotely, via Zoom, depending on the evolving
circumstances of the COVID-19 crisis. (Students who do not expect to be able to
participate in-person should inquire about enrolling instead in Section B of this
course, which will be conducted fully remotely.)
Around four meetings per semester will be tied in with the Cognitive Science Speaker
Series. In the Fall, all or most these talks will be held virtually through Zoom.
For these Zoom meetings, students are not required to be physically present in
the classroom, although they may use the classroom as a space to log into the
Zoom meeting. In the Winter semester, we expect all meetings and talks to be
in-person (and they will continue to be available via Zoom).
Virtual office hours: The instructor will be available to meet with students for
scheduled office hours virtually through Zoom. All students are encouraged to attend,
individually or as a group, and discuss assignments and, more generally, topics
related to the course that are of interest to the students. Individual meetings can also
be scheduled by appointment.

Readings will be made available online through the eClass website.

1. Attendance, participation, and weekly short responses to readings 30%
2. Research Planning 10%
3. Research Paper 20%
4. Revised Research Paper (including preparatory assignments) 25%
5. Presentations 15%
(Specific breakdown and weighting of assignments is tentative and subject to
change.)

Please note Section B will be entirely online via Zoom, and the Speaker
Series talks will also be available via Zoom.*
Weekly seminar meetings (3 hours, with breaks). Some exceptions will be explicitly
noted, including several meetings that coincide with the Cognitive Science Speaker
Series in the Fall term, which will be held virtually via Zoom. All meetings will be
conducted synchronously. Materials, assignments, and assessments will all be
delivered through the eClass website.
Please note that these details are specific to Sections A and C of the course, and
that Section B will be held fully remotely.

By the end of the course, students will be able to:
1. Understand and evaluate some of the major contemporary controversies within
cognitive science and critically analyze them.
2. Understand the main methodologies and approaches adopted by the disciplines of
cognitive science, and be able to relate them to one another and compare their
results.
3. Conduct a literature review concerning some topic in current cognitive science
research involving two or more disciplines within cognitive science.
4. Conduct their own original research in cognitive science and present the results of
their research.

The coursework will consist of weekly short responses to readings, a written
research project, and presentations. The research project will be broken down into
an iterative series of assignments, including (but not limited to): proposing and
planning the project, drafting a paper, proposing revisions to the paper in response to
instructor feedback, and implementing these revisions in a final draft. At the end of
each semester, students will present their work, as it is at that stage of development.
Course policies
Grading
The grading scheme for the course conforms to the 9-point grading system used in
undergraduate programs at York (e.g., A+ = 9, A = 8, B+ - 7, C+ = 5, etc.). Assignments and
tests* will bear either a letter grade designation or a corresponding number grade (e.g. A+ =
90 to 100, A = 80 to 90, B+ = 75 to 79, etc.). Final course grades may be adjusted to conform
to Program or Faculty grades distribution profiles.
Assignment Submissions
Assignments will be submitted via eClass. As the short responses to readings will help form
the content of the seminar meetings, no late responses are accepted for any reason.
Students are permitted to drop the lowest mark on short responses for each term. If you
need an extension on a paper or paper planning assignment, please make the request
before the due date. Reasonable extensions will be granted.
Contacting instructors
You should contact the instructor via email or the eClass direct message function. Please
note that we will be responding to messages within 24 hours during working days (i.e. not
on weekends or holidays).
Video policy
We understand that some of you might have privacy concerns about using your video
during class, and that others might have limited internet bandwidth that might make
live-streaming difficult. We are therefore not requiring students to have their videos on
during the few online meetings of the Seminar. That being said, having video cameras on
can make a big difference in terms of creating a sense of community within our seminar, so
that we feel more like a normal, in-person classroom. For this reason, we do very sincerely
encourage you to use your video as much as possible if privacy or tech issues are not
preventing you from doing otherwise. If you do need to keep your video off, please be sure
to put a profile photo on your Zoom account, so that your classmates feel like they are
talking to a person, rather than a black box with a name in it.
Zoom Chat policy
For the few meetings that will be held on Zoom, the option to privately message other
students in the chat will be disabled. Messages in the public chat should be respectful and
stay on point.
Course recordings:
Any recordings for this course should be used for educational purposes only and as a
means for enhancing accessibility. Students do not have permission to duplicate, copy
and/or distribute the recordings outside of the class (these acts can violate not only
copyright laws but also FIPPA). All recordings will be destroyed after the end of classes.
Academic honesty and integrity
In this course, we strive to maintain academic integrity to the highest extent possible. All
submitted coursework must be an expression of the student’s own understanding and
ideas. Please familiarize yourself with the meaning of academic integrity by completing
SPARK’s Academic Integrity module at the beginning of the course. Breaches of academic
integrity range from cheating to plagiarism (i.e., the improper crediting of another’s work,
the representation of another’s ideas as your own, etc.). All instances of academic
dishonesty in this course will be reported to the appropriate university authorities, and can
be punishable according to the Senate Policy on Academic Honesty.
Student Accommodations
We are committed to fairly accommodating students with disabilities. Please contact
the instructors and Student Accessibility Services
(https://accessibility.students.yorku.ca/) as soon as possible, and we will all work
together to find a fair accommodation. Note that in addition to sending the letter,
accommodations for individual assignments must specifically be requested well
ahead of the assignment's deadline.