PSYC471-19S2 (C) Semester Two 2019

Special Topic:

15 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 15 July 2019
End Date: Sunday, 10 November 2019
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Friday, 26 July 2019
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Friday, 27 September 2019

Description

Information available from HoD / PSYC400 Course Coordinator in Psychology

PSYC471: Special Topic: Mathematical Cognition

There is something mysterious, even miraculous, about how mathematics is so deeply embedded in our mental and physical worlds. An abstract creation of the human mind, mathematics provides the basis for theories that describe the physical world with astonishing degrees of accuracy. Mathematical objects such as a circle or triangle seem to exist in a Platonic realm of ideas that is somehow open to our introspection, and new areas of maths invented solely for curiosity turn out centuries later to be essential for understanding nature (such as so-called 'imaginary numbers'). Mathematics is intimately connected with our world and ourselves in ways that we do not fully understand.

Mathematical cognition is a subfield of Psychology which studies how we learn about quantity, numbers and numerical reasoning. In this course we will take an interdisciplinary approach to mathematical cognition, including topics from history and philosophy of mathematics, developmental, comparative, experimental and educational psychology, biology, neuroscience, and computational modelling, and aesthetics. Our goal is to reach a new understanding of the mathematical nature of the mind, and how psychological intuitions provide the basis for mathematics.

Note: This is a Psychology paper - no prior coursework in mathematics (beyond basic school-level algebra) is assumed or required!

Prerequisites

Subject to approval of the Head of Department

Course Coordinator

For further information see School of Psychology, Speech and Hearing Head of Department

Assessment

Assessment Due Date Percentage 
Literature Review 40%
Presentations / Class Participation 20%
Research Proposal 40%


Assessment will be based on written assignments (provisionally, two lab reports – each worth 40%) and presentations done as class participation (worth 20%).  At least one assignment will be a write-up of an experiment that we will conduct and that the class will participate in running, and is due at the end of the year.  It is expected that students will give at least one presentation during the year.  This will be assessed, but the grade for this portion of the class will take into account the improvement over the course of the year.

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $1,002.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

For further information see School of Psychology, Speech and Hearing .

All PSYC471 Occurrences

  • PSYC471-19S2 (C) Semester Two 2019
Previous year Next year