Semester.ly

Johns Hopkins University | AS.200.363

Mind, Brain & Experience

3.0

credits

Average Course Rating

(3.88)

How do nature and nurture shape the human mind? How does experience contribute to the development of visual perception, language and social reasoning? This course explores insights into these age-old questions from neuroscience and psychology. Studies of infant behavior reveal rich knowledge about objects and people in the first months of life. At the same time, experience has profound effects on behavior and neurobiology. For example, temporary absence of vision (i.e. blindness) during development permanently alters visual perception and the visual cortex. Key evidence also comes from studies of naturally occurring variation in human experience (e.g. blindness, deafness, socioeconomic and cultural differences). We will discuss what such studies of cognitive and neural function tell us about the origins of human cognition. This is a writing intensive course with weekly lectures and seminar style discussion of primary sources. Students will be required to write weekly responses to readings and a term paper.

Fall 2013

(3.63)

Fall 2014

(4.14)

Fall 2013

Professor: Marina Bedny

(3.63)

Students found the topics covered in this class to be very interesting. The amount of reading to be completed each week seemed excessive to many students, especial y since they were required to write a response paper. Students also found it difficult to improve their writing because they never received feedback, even after asking the professor directly. Suggestions for improvement included cutting the reading back to one journal a week. Students also wanted feedback on how to improve their writing. Prospective students should be prepared for a work-intensive, but interesting class.

Fall 2014

Professor: Marina Bedny

(4.14)

Students appreciated the opportunity to participate through presentations and discussions in this course that they thought was led by a knowledgeable and engaging instructor. Students thought the class’s biggest drawback was the frequency of writing assignments that needed to be completed twice each week as a response to assigned readings. They also thought the course could be improved with greater feedback on these writing assignments. Students said it was important for people considering taking this class to know that a background in neuroscience was useful.