Course:COGS303
Welcome to the Cognitive Systems 303 wiki for 2014-2015 winter term 1!
Using the Wiki
The Cogs 303 wiki is hosted on UBC Wiki, which runs the same software used for Wikipedia. Anyone with a CWL may create or edit wikis on UBC Wiki. If you are unfamiliar with using wiki software, the following articles provide a good basic overview of how to use/edit the wiki:
Target Articles
Target Article Registration
Instructions
To register your target article, please do the following:
- Login with your CWL using the CWL button at top right of this page. Unfortunately, this will redirect you to the main UBC Wiki page, so you'll have to press the back button twice to get back to this page and then hit refresh so that it knows you are logged in.
- Copy the following text:
* IDENTIFIER: [LINK "TITLE"] ~~~~~ - Click the "edit" link next to the title of the target article you want to register for.
- Paste the text you copied in step 2 to the bottom of the entry form that opens and replace "IDENTIFIER", "LINK" and "TITLE" with your information. For target articles 1A and 1B, replace IDENTIFIER with your code name. For the rest of them, replace it with your first name and last initial. Be careful not to overwrite someone else's submission.
This will add a timestamped entry that looks something like this:
- VANCOUVER: "School Accused of Using Laptops To Spy on Students" 15:11, 11 September 2010 (UTC)
Target Article 1B
Go ahead and register your articles here
Target Article 1A
Go ahead and register your articles below
- AMAZON: "Obesity spreads to friends, study concludes" 20:12, 30 January 2016 (PST)
- RIO GRANDE: "Exposure to violent video games increases automatic aggressiveness"19:03, 1 February 2016 (PST)
- SEINE: "Concord grape juice supplementation improves memory function in older adults with mild cognitive impairment" 12:38, 2 February 2016 (PST)
- TIBER: "Thimerosal exposure in infants and neurodevelopmental disorders: an assessment of computerized medical records in the Vaccine Safety Datalink." 14:00, 2 February 2016 (PST)
- MEKONG: "Cerebral activation in abstinent ecstasy (MDMA) users during a working memory task: a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study" 17:15, 2 February 2016 (PST)
- RHINE: "Redness Enhances Perceived Aggression, Dominance and Attractiveness in Men’s Faces" 03:07, 3 February 2016 (PST)
- WOLF: "The rarity of reading disability in Japanese Children" 16:52, 3 February 2016 (PST)
- PYRITE: "Study examines the psychology behind students who don't cheat" 21:25, 28 March 2016 (PDT)
Target Article 2B
Go ahead and register your choice below
- QUARTZ: "What makes a video go viral? An analysis of emotional contagion and Internet memes" 18:56, 27 March 2016 (PDT)
- Amsterdam, B. (1972). Mirror image reactions before age two. Developmental Psychobiology, 5, 297-305.
- APATRITE: Le Quan Ha et al. (2003). "Extension for Zipf's Law to Word and Character N-grams for English and Chinese"
- Sunstone: "Seeing Things in the Clouds:The Effect of Visual Features on Tag Cloud Selections" 18:42, 28 March 2016 (PDT)
- Turquoise: "Models of Ecological Rationality: The Recognition Heuristic" 20:58, 28 March 2016 (PDT)
Target Article 2A
Go ahead and register your choice below
- DIAMOND: "Neural correlates of the psychedelic state as determined by fMRI studies with psilocybin" 22:28, 22 March 2016 (PDT)
- JASPER: "Orbitofrontal Cortex and Social Behavior: Integrating Self-monitoring and Emotion-Cognition Interactions" 19:17, 28 March 2016 (PDT)
- AGATE : "Neural measures reveal individual differences in controlling access to working memory" 23:17, 28 March 2016 (PDT)
- TOURMALINE :"Acute effects of caffeine on attention: a comparison of non-consumers and withdrawn consumers" 02:01, 30 March 2016 (PDT)
- Sapphire: "Structural and functional effects of prenatal cocaine exposure in adult rat brain" 18:43, 30 March 2016 (PDT)
Target Article Bank
The following are articles used by previous Cogs 303 students for their target articles. They are provided to facilitate (and expedite) your target article search. You are, however, both allowed and encouraged to find your own articles.
Keep in mind the following points:
- Some of these articles are better than others (that is some provide more clear demonstrations of the particular writing blunder under discussion than others) and you may be able to find even better examples on your own.
- The articles are provided in random order categorized roughly by subject. It is up to you to match the article to the given writing error for each submission.
- Some of the articles are rather lengthy. Typically, what people do is crop out a section 400 words or less for their submission.
- Even if you are using one of the below articles you must still register it above (and only one person can register each article and this is done on a first-come, first-served basis).
- Some articles may not display correctly unless accessed from campus or through UBC's VPN.
Biology, Health Sciences
- "Is Red Bull A Gateway Drug? Some John Hopkins Experts Say Caffeine Drinks Need Warning Labels"
- "Cell City Analogy"
- "The germ theory of diseases"
- "Mercury in vaccines as a cause of autism and autism spectrum disorders (ASDs): A failed hypothesis"
- "Political Preference Is Half Genetic"
- "Suicides ‘Linked to Phone Masts’ "
- "Cancer Risk in Daily Pint of Beer"
- "Genes may affect popularity, researchers say"
- "The greater your weight, the lower your IQ, say scientists"
- "Severe weight loss caused by chewing gum"
- "Concurrent ART/TB Treatment Finally Proven to Be Beneficial"
- "Anticancer Agents from the Australian Tropical Rainforest: Spiroacetals"
- "Teen & Adult Drug Use Statistics that will blow your mind"
- "Myths About Alcohol"
- "Obesity spreads to friends, study concludes"
- "Mechanisms of change"
- "When Green Dry Cleaning Services Mislead Consumers"
- "Weinberg Equilibrium"
- "Root Canal Cover-Up Conceals Numerous Side Effects"
- "Towards responsible use of cognitive-enhancing drugs by the healthy"
- "Health Care Industry"
- "Statistics on misuse of drugs have been misused"
- "Do Not Take A Swine Flu Vaccine!"
Business, Economics
- "Gasoline use up 2.8% since early time change"
- "Violence-related injury and the price of beer in England and Wales"
- "Poll predicts $500 million in online Christmas sales"
Chemistry, Physics
- "Physicists Debunk Claim Of a New Kind of Fusion"
- "There is a Fifteen Percent Disagreement in the 238U Decay Constant?"
- "The Uncertainty Principle"
- "Electricity: The Mouse Cheese Analogy"
- "Flatland - A romance of many dimensions"
- "A Short History of Fiber Optics"
- "Two Revolutionary Optical Technologies"
- "Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity"
Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence
- "Computer Analogies"
- "Swarm Intelligence: Literature Overview"
- "Application of 80/20 Rule in Software Engineering Waterfall Model"
- "Minds, Brains and Programs"
- "Microsoft's CEO: 80-20 Rule Applies To Bugs, Not Just Features"
Earth & Ocean Sciences, Astronomy
- "Climate change not caused by humans: academic"
- "Global warming will increase world death rate "
- "How Long Would It Take the Moon to Recede from Earth to Its Present Position?"
- "The Age of the Earth"
- "The Flat Earth Society"
- "Continental Drift; 1996"
- "Heliocentric system"
- "Continental Drift"
Education
- "Scientific Teaching Analogies"
- "Girls more likely to study science in single-sex schools"
- "Open Letter To Kansas School Board"
- "‘Woe is us’ — bad grammar permeates language"
History, Biography
Politics, Current Events, Opinion
- "Illegal aliens murder 12 Americans daily"
- "President Bush's Troop Announcement"
- "Gene find casts doubt on double 'cot death' murders"
- "Virginia Tech Massacre"
- "B.C. school districts evade parental rights concerns"
- "FOX News Poll: Obama Leads Going Into Election Day "
- "Hamas delivers ceasefire demands to Egyptian negotiators"
- "Are Libraries Becoming Obsolete?
- "If seeing is believing"
- "Fixed"
- "Anti-Drug Messaging: Making the Message Matter"
Psychology
- "GameSpeak: Jack Thompson"
- "Consciousness and the Voices of the Mind"
- "Cup of coffee may foster human kindness, report says"
- "'Visual diet' links to attraction "
- "Study Exams the Psychology Behind Students Who Don't Cheat"
- "Boys With Unusual Names More Likely to Break Law"
- "Seeing trees OR seeing forests in simultanagnosia: Attentional capture can be local or global"
- "Has Generation Y overdosed on self-esteem?"
Critiques
Instructions
To register your 2 critique articles, please do the following:
- Login with your CWL using the CWL button at top right of this page. Unfortunately, this will redirect you to the main UBC Wiki page, so you'll have to press the back button twice to get back to this page and then hit refresh so that it knows you are logged in.
- Copy the following text:
* IDENTIFIER ~~~~~:
#[LINK1 "TITLE1"]
#[LINK2 "TITLE2"] - Click the "edit" link next to the critique registration section (below).
- Paste the text you copied in step 2 to the bottom of the entry form that opens and replace "IDENTIFIER", "LINK1", "LINK2", "TITLE1" and "TITLE2" with your information. Replace "IDENTIFIER" with your first name and last initial. Be careful not to overwrite someone else's submission.
This will create an entry that looks like the following:
- BRETT S. 22:18, 21 October 2010 (UTC):
Critique Registration
Go ahead and register here AFTER you confirm your articles with Tess
- Tisha S. 19:58, 26 January 2016 (PST):
- "Gorillas in our midst: sustained inattentional blindness for dynamic events"
- "The role of social meaning in inattentional blindness: When the gorillas in our midst do not go unseen"
- Aditya K. 21:31, 2 February 2016 (PST):
- Afifa H. 21:48, 5 February 2016 (PST):
- "Training-related brain plasticity in subjects at risk of developing Alzheimer's disease"
- "Taking Control of Alzheimer's Disease: A Training Evaluation"
- Ethan C. 22:05, 5 February 2016 (PST):
- "Beyond Nintendo: design and assessment of educational video games for first and second grade students"
- "Effects of Modern Educational Game Play on Attitudes towards Mathematics, Mathematics Self-Efficacy, and Mathematics Achievement"
- Winson S. 22:09, 5 February 2016 (PST):
- "Lung Cancer Cell Identification based on artificial neural network ensembles"
- "Neural Network Ensembles using Interval Sets and Bagging for Mineral Prospectivity prediction and Quantification of Uncertainty "
- Thomas C. 22:18, 5 February 2016 (PST):
- "Facial emotion recognition in schizophrenia: When and why does it go awry?"
- "Social cue perception in Japanese schizophrenic patients, Schizophrenia Research"
- Irem O. 22:29, 5 February 2016 (PST):
- "The Effect of Tonal Information on Auditory Reliance in the McGurk Effect"
- "Temporal constraints on the McGurk effect"
- Ryan L.23:03, 5 February 2016 (PST):
- " Category specificity in normal episodic learning: Applications to object recognition and category-specific agnosia"
- "A Spurious Category-Specific Visual Agnosia for Living Things in Normal Human and Nonhuman Primates"
- Ti Wu 00:07, 6 February 2016 (PST):
- "The influence of the wording of interrogatives on the accuracy of eyewitness recollections"
- "Leading questions and the eyewitness report"
- Sylvia H. 13:39, 6 February 2016 (PST):
- "The Effect of Early Music Training on Child Cognitive Development"
- "Music Training, Cognitive Abilities and Self-Concept of Ability in Children"
- Kennady K. 18:03, 6 February 2016 (PST):
- "Modeling the Effects of Intrinsic Motivation, Extrinsic Motivation, Amount of Reading, and Past Reading Achievement on Text Comprehension between U.S. and Chinese students"
- "Student investment in a research methods course: The influence of achievement goals on motivational patterns"
- Sharareh F. 13:39, 6 February 2016 (PST):
- "Antidepressant Drug Effects and Depression Severity"
- "Emotional blunting or reduced reactivity following remission of major depression"
- Kaitlyn B. 20:17, 6 February 2016 (PST):
- "Role of β1-adrenoceptor in the basolateral amygdala of rats with anxiety-like behavior"
- "Validation of open : closed arm entries in an elevated plus-maze as a measure of anxiety in the rat"
- Tamara L. 01:54, 7 February 2016 (PST):
- "EEG evidence for Mirror Neuron Dysfunction in Autism Spectrum Disorders"
- "On the relationship between mouth opening and “broken mirror neurons” in autistic individuals. "
- Leyla Y. 02:05, 7 February 2016 (PST):
- "Can Robots Manifest Personality?: An Empirical Test of Personality Recognition, Social Responses, and Social Presence in Human–Robot Interaction"
- "The similarity-attraction effect in human-robot interaction"
- Felicia T. 11:51, 7 February 2016 (PST):
- "Intra-Cultural Differences in Susceptibility to Geometrical Illusions and in Pictorial Depth Perception"
- "Cultural Differences in the Perception of Geometric Illusions"
- Andrew Y. 17:24, 7 February 2016 (PST):
- "Effects of Screen Size and Message Content On Attention and Arousal"
- "After-effects of TFT-LCD Display Polarity and Display Colour on the Detection of Low-contrast Objects"
- Adeline C. 17:19, 8 February 2016 (PST):
- "Effect of Music Therapy on Anxiety and Depression in Patients with Alzheimer's Type Dementia: Randomized, Controlled Study"
- "Managing Agitated Behaviour in People with Alzheimer's Disease: The Role of Live Music"
- Megan O. 21:14, 9 February 2016 (PST):
- "Hypothalamic activation in spontaneous migraine attacks. "
- "Brain stem activation in spontaneous human migraine attacks."
- Siddarth S 23:30, 9 February 2016 (PST):
- "Neural Correlates Of Consciousness In Humans"
- [ http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030698770500263X "Neural correlates of consciousness: A definition of the dorsal and ventral streams and their relation to phenomenology" ]
- McLellan-Carich, Rachel
- [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8417555 "Intelligence and brain structure in normal individuals"
- [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232845988_Sex_Differences_in_IQ_Score_Predictions_in_Higher_Education "Sex Differences in IQ Score Predictions in Higher Education"
- Colleen K 09:12, 16 February 2016 (PST):
- "Does Rejection Hurt? An fMRI Study of Social Exclusion"
- "The effects of the behavioral inhibition and activation systems on social inclusion and exclusion"
- Ida M. 23:30, 18 February 2016 (PST):
- Aurelia K. 18:45, 22 February 2016 (PST):
- "When Language Affects Cognition and When It Does Not: An Analysis of Grammatical Gender and Classification"
- "Language and culture effects on gender classification of objects."
- Torin O.-L. 6:56, 25 February 2016 (PST):
- "Whose Job is it Anyway? A Study of Human-Robot Interaction in a Collaborative Task"
- "The carrot and the stick. The role of praise and punishment in human–robot interaction"
- Arshnoor K. 13:08, 25 February 2016 (PST):
- Charlotte Z. 18:47, 25 February 2016 (PST):
- "Russian blues reveal effects of language on color discrimination"
- "A Colour Sorting Task Reveals the Limits of the Universalist/Relativist Dichotomy: Colour Categories Can Be Both Language Specific and Perceptual"
- Britany T. 14:27, 6 April 2016 (PST):
- "Patterns of spontaneous recovery in aphasic groups: A study of adult stroke patients"
- "Transcranial doppler monitoring during language tasks in stroke patients with aphasia"
- Jeyachandren, J. 14:37, 6 April 2016 (PDT):
- "Robot Communication via Substrate Vibrations"
- "A Bio-Inspired Flying Robot Sheds Light On Insect Piloting Abilities"
Frequently Asked Questions
If a source was used for a target article from earlier in the term, can I still use it for the upcoming target article?
Yes. The same source may be fitting for multiple target article assignments and so they may be reused. The restriction is only on having the same source used by two different students for a target article due on the same day.
- Brett
I'm not sure what the target article assignment is asking me to do? What does X mean?
A good starting point is to do the readings for day the target article is due. The target article topics coincide with the readings for the due date, so this should be helpful. There are also two sample target articles one the main course page that may be helpful to look over as an example of how to do the target article assignments. Of course, if after doing the readings, you still find the topic confusing, feel free to contact the TAs for further clarification.
- Brett
Do I need to cite my sources for the essays? If so, what format should I use?
You don't need to reference any papers for the essays, but if you do gather information from some sort of source (e.g. from a book, website, journal, etc.), you should include it in a references section. We won't get picky about requiring proper MLA format, but make sure you include enough information for any sources you list such that we could find the relevant information from your reference. You can include references from either the course readings or other sources if you wish. Also, note that your references section does not count toward the 400 word limit of the essay.
That said, you may find that referencing other peoples ideas, research, etc. may strengthen your argument. I didn't use any sources in my essays for 303 last year, but a lot of people did (and so did the people who got 10/10 on the sample essays listed on the course page). It's up to you to decide.
- Brett
How can I improve my essays?
See the section "Essay Tips" in the wiki. Also, feel free to contact the TAs if you would like to go over any essays that have been marked for additional feedback and advice.
- Brett
How can I do better on the quizzes? I've done the readings, but I still have trouble with the quizzes!
The following are tips that Haven and I came up with for how we did well in the quizzes last term:
- Reading the essays once or just scanning the pages will not be enough to do well on the quizzes. You need to actively engage the material multiple times.
- Do the readings a few days in advance. As you’re reading, highlight or underline important points and circle key terms. Aim to underline no more than one-third of the essay. This forces you to read actively as you need to pay attention to determine what is most important in the reading.
- Now that you’ve underlined important points and circled key terms in advance, come to class early and review the parts you’ve underlined and circled. This will ensure the material is fresh in your mind.
- Remember that a lot of the terms from the readings have a common usage and a technical usage. They are not the same. You need to know the technical usage presented in the readings. You will not get marks for describing the common usage of the term. (For example, if the quiz asked something like “what is an argument” and you wrote something like “an argument is when two people disagree on something,” you are using the common usage of the term. A more appropriate response would be something like “an argument is a position that is stated and then backed up with evidence so as to persuade others to adopt the same position”)
- Brett
Student list of relevant sources for essay topics?
I found these articles very relevant as sources for the essay topics in 303, but sadly did not get to use any because they were more relevant to the other cohort's topics. I thought I would post it here for people in future terms: * "10 Classics from Cognitive Science"
-Sean
Essay Writing Tips
Include a Brief Introductory Paragraph
Although you are working with a word limit, it is always a good idea to start an essay with a quick, "This is what I will be discussing, and here's how I'm going to do it." For these essays, it will usually look something like three:
"The compositional hierarchy is a valid model for a variety of natural systems. It is a good model to use whenever appropriate, since it is easy to understand and talk about. Three areas of research that could benefit from modeling data this way are: (1) cellular biology, (2) nuclear physics, and (3) visual perception."
Note how in the above example the three main points of the paper are clearly identified. The following paragraphs will each take-up one of these points and argue for it fully.
Conclusions Can Be Ommitted
Conclusions are usually a good idea, but these essays are so short that they are not really necessary (and waste space).
Choose an Interpretation of the Topic, State it, and Stick with it
Often, your essay topics will be a bit vague. For essay 1, you might have wondered, "What the heck does useful mean?" You can frame the essay as you like, as long as your framing is clearly stated and consistently followed.
Define Important Terms
This is just as much for you as for the reader. If you are worried that definitions take up word count, do this: briefly define key words in the intro, write your paper with those definitions in mind, and then remove the definitions if you run out of room. That way, there will be consistency within your essay. Definitions aren't a requirement, but they are a good thing to have if you can fit them in without breaking the flow.
Define Technical Terms
These essays should be readable by most Cogs students. Don't isolate your reader by using a technical term and assuming she'll know what it means. If you are worried about breaking the flow, use a footnote.
Don't Define Terms that are Used in their Common Usage
Although it is important to define terms, stick to defining the terms that are likely to cause confusion to your reader. Defining terms that are used in their common usage wastes space and bores the reader. For example, if the topic is "kittens are cute," you do not need to write something like "I define 'kittens' for the purpose of my essay as 'domesticated felines under the age of 2 years' and I define 'cute' as meaning 'of a certain aesthetic that is found to be endearing and heart-warming to human beings.'"
Stick to defining terms only in cases where you are using terms outside of their common usage or are making a sharper distinction between two terms than is common.
State the Paragraph's Point at it's Beginning
Each of the paragraphs following your introductory paragraph, should each be making a point that supports your thesis. State the point your paragraph is making right at the beginning of the paragraph and then use the rest of the paragraph to provide evidence, arguments, etc., that support this point.
When you do the opposite of this, and make your point at the end of your paragraph, it creates confusion for the reader as they do not know where the argument is going, and by the time they do (at the end of the paragraph) they will need to go back and reread the paragraph to understand how the evidence you offered supports the point you were making. In general, this can confuse and/or frustrate the reader.
Use as Few Words as Possible
For example, don't say, "One example of a research area that I could think of in which compositional hierarchies could prove useful is cell biology due to the fact that cells are actually compositional hierarchies." Rather, say something like "Cells are compositional hierarchies, so it is natural and useful to model them as such."
Research and Graduate School Resources
For more information on research at UBC, graduate school, and writing and critical thinking skills visit the COGS 303 Wiki Resources page.