In the schedule below the two assigned books are designated by acronyms:
CITW = Cognition in the Wild
StM = Supersizing the Mind
Other readings are provided either directly via links on this page, or via electronic reserves at the UCSD library.
Lectures slides will be posted on or before the day of lecture.
Lecture audio will be available as a podcast at: http://podcast.ucsd.edu

Thursday, September 24
Introduction and overview of course: course mechanics, basic themes.
What is happening today in cognitive science.
Lecture: Introduction

Tuesday, September 29  
The centralized mindset. How we can break free of the centralized mindset. Five heuristics for thinking about decentralized systems.
Readings: "Learning about Life" and "Cognition, Distributed" Preparation for readings
Lecture: Centralized mindset
Exercise 1: Meaning and space

Thursday, October 1  
The socio-technical context of ship navigation.
Readings: CITW Introduction and Ch 1 Preparation for reading
Lecture: Welcome Aboard!
Complete Plagiarism tutorial and quiz before midnight on this date.

Tuesday, October 6
Exercise 1 due in class
Classical Cognitive Science, cognition as computation.Physical symbol system hypothesis, propagation of representations.
Reading: Computing in Cognitive Science Preparation for reading
Lecture: Formal Systems
Exercise 2: Relations in a cognitive ecosystem

Tuesday, October 20
Exercise 2 due in class
Social Organization affects the cognitive properties of groups, the coordination of action, paradox of the commons, traffic jams, juries, committees, voting schemes, fractal structure of cognition.
Reading: CITW Ch 4 Preparation for reading; CITW Ch 5 Preparation for reading
Lecture: Social Organization of Distributed Cognition
Exercise 3: Features of Socially Distributed Cognition

Thursday, October 22 
The context of learning. The role of skepticism in science.
Reading: CITW Ch 6, Cole "A re-medial approach to reading instruction" Preparation for reading
Lecture: Social Organization of Distributed Cognition

Tuesday, October 27  
Learning in Context
Reading: CITW Ch 7 Preparation for Reading
Lecture: Learning a procedure

Thursday, October 29  
Organizational Learning, unplanned adaptive change, evolution and design of organizations.
Reading: CITW Ch 8 Preparation for reading
Lectures:

Tuesday, November 3
Exercize 3 due in class
The body in the world.
Readings: StM Appendix, Introduction, Ch1 & Ch2
Lecture: Organizational Learning

Thursday, November 5  
The body in the world continued plus a bit of philosophy of science
Readings: StM Ch 1 & Ch 2
Lectures: From Embodiment to Extension, Dynamical CogSci, Two facts in CogSci
Exercize 4: The Principle of Ecological Assembly

Tuesday, November 10
The world around the body
Readings: StM Ch 3 & Ch 4
Lectures: Material Symbols; Imagining Computational Media

Thursday, November 12
Doubts about extended mind
Reading: StM Ch 5, Six views of embodied cognition. Preparation for reading
The cure for cognitive hiccups
Reading: StM Ch 6, "I see what you are saying"
Lecture: podcast only, no lecture slides available

Tuesday, November 17
Exercise 4 due in class
Rediscovering the brain
Reading: StM Ch 7
Lecture: Cognitive Niche Construction

Thursday, November 19
Sensorimotor looping
Reading: StM Ch 8
Lectures: Enacted Representations, Thinking with the body
Exercize 5: Enacted representation

Tuesday, November 24
Disentangling embodiment
Reading: StM Ch 9 & 10
Lecture:

Thursday, November 26
Thanksgiving Holiday

Tuesday, December 1
Embodiment in the big picture of cognitive science
Readings: "Modeling the Emergence of Language"
Lecture:

Thursday, December 3
Exercize 5 due in class
Culture and Cognition, what we miss by failing to see cognition as a cultural process. Putting Distributed Cognition in historical perspective, the holy grail of cognitive science.
Preparation for reading
Readings: CITW Ch 9
Lecture: Overview of Distributed Cognition