Courses in the Dynamics of Perception, Action, & Cognition
PSY 498 Dynamics in Psychology
Why is the whole different from the sum of its parts? Why does context matter? How can a small change in one direction or the other create such a large effect? Those are questions that we typically ask of psychological phenomena but the way in which we study our problems – with methods that isolate variables and linear statistical tools – doesn’t allow us to capture the nonlinear trends that interest us. Dynamics is a powerful analytical tool that captures qualitative change in phenomena that tend to be composed of very many, interconnected parts (like the human body!). This class is meant as an introduction for the typical psychology student. During the semester, we will discuss the main concepts in dynamical and complex systems and apply them to phenomena that we are concerned about in psychology.
Because the concepts in this class tend to be very new to students, the format of this class is a combination of lectures, in which I introduce concepts and terminology, and class discussions in which students explore the topics in their own way.
PSY 576 Dynamical Systems in Psychology
This course is the graduate version of PSY 498. We will learn all of the concepts taught in PSY 498 as well as all of the major modeling techniques that are available in the literature . The newcomer to dynamics will come away with an appreciation for why this field of study is needed in the social sciences. The more experienced student will learn how to select from amongst the different dynamical modeling techniques to best capture patterns in observed data.
Students from all disciplines are welcome in this class. Greater diversity in this class always results in a better experience for all of us.
How do you see the world around you? How are you aware of the meanings and values of the objects in your world? And how do these perceptions influence, and get influenced by, our behaviors? These are the questions that J. J. Gibson challenged us to ask when he proposed an ecological theory of psychology. As a general perspective, ecological science emphasizes the necessity of understanding biology in the context of an organism's environment. Gibson extended this view to psychology, thereby challenging many of the dichotomies that follow from psychology's traditional emphasis on the mind and mental operations: e.g., animal and environment, sensation and perception, and perceiving and acting. The necessity of treating perception and action together in the context of the actor’s environment is also typical of the work of N. A. Bernstein. Over the course of the semester, the theoretical and empirical work associated with Gibson and Bernstein will be explored through lectures and class discussions. Students will be encouraged to reconsider certain traditional assumptions about the psychology of perception and action and to evaluate contemporary alternatives.
PSY 591 Dynamics and Complexity
Dynamics is a powerful tool that comes from physics and engineering but has been used more recently to study the behavior of living things, including human and animal motor control and learning, social psychology, and economics. This course is designed to introduce students to the basic concepts of dynamics and complex systems and to prepare interested members of the class for application to the Santa Fe Institute’s Complex Systems Summer School. To that end, we will discuss a recent publication by Solé and Goodwin, two members of the Santa Fe Institute. Topics will include Morphogenesis, Pattern formation, Biodiversity, and Social and Economic Behavior. Weekly discussions will also be determined by the research interests of class members.
PSY 591 Motor Control
Psychology is the science of mind and behavior, yet we often ignore behavior as a topic of study unto itself. We marvel at skilled movements in nature and regularly have participants perform them in the laboratory, but our questions are often about the mental processes preceding those movements, rather than the movements themselves. One reason for this is that psychologists are led to believe that behavior is automatic, uninteresting, and little more than a reflection of the preceding mental or physiological processes. This course — a novel offering in most Psychology departments — will introduce the physiological, cognitive, and dynamical processes involved in the control and coordination of skilled movements. Through readings, lectures, class discussions, and a review paper, we will explore a variety of skilled movements in both humans and animals. This course is organized around major themes in Cognitive Psychology; our goal is not to understand movement for its own sake but, rather, to see the studies of cognition and movement as partners in a complete investigation of psychology.
PSY 598 Dynamics of Perception, Action and Cognition Seminar
