3.0

credits

Average Course Rating

This course discusses the concept of executive control, a general class of functions that support more specialized cognitive operations such as language and problem solving, and their neural underpinning. Discussion will include classification of executive functions, relationship to working memory, domain-generality or specificity of executive control functions, and experimental, neural, and computational approaches to exploring components of executive control, with a special emphasis on the role of cognitive control in the processing of language. The goal of this course is two-fold: to teach students the basic knowledge regarding cognitive and neural mechanisms of executive control, and more importantly to encourage them to put that knowledge to use by asking them to think critically about the readings, to participate in interactive discussions with questions they bring in each week based on the readings assigned for that week, and finally to propose one well thought-out question at the end of the semester and to write a short proposal on how to explore that question. As such, the course puts little emphasis on memorization and a strong emphasis on analytical abilities and integration.