Participation in class discussion
Discussion questions
Everyone is expected to contribute to the class discussion. To prepare
for this, you should come up with at least two
questions or observations about the assigned
readings. This will ensure that you have something you
are comfortable discussing in class. Note: Discussion points
should not be something that you can easily google the
answer for.
Before coming to class, it will help if you can
summarize the key points of the reading selection(s)
to be discussed that day. You should be able to follow
the flow of logic. Keeping these questions in mind
will help direct your reading (and help you come up
with discussion points):
- What is the theoretical or empirical issue being addressed? If this is a review article, what are the main questions that are being addressed in this area?
- For theoretical sections, what are the key assumptions and data used as the foundation of the argument? Do you agree with them?
- For experimental and modeling studies, what is the specific method and how does it work? Do you understand the experimental/modeling design? Do you understand the figures in the paper? What do the figures represent? Are the overall conclusions/interpretations supported by the data in the results?
- What are the main results & implications of the paper? For empirical studies, keep in mind at least one set of data points or one figure that illustrates the main gist of the paper. For review papers, keep in mind the current successful approaches that are being pursued, what the current findings are for the big questions, and what big questions remain.
- How does this relate to other selections read that week, or in previous weeks? How does it relate to the reference readings? Most selections are chosen precisely because they are on a similar topic as others during that week. All of them aim to answer something about some area of higher order of cognition using computational modeling, so keep in mind what they're trying to tackle. Can you think of any extensions that might logically follow from the current studies?
- Important: Don't get hung up on every little wrinkle. A given article may have terminology you're unfamiliar with and background assumptions you don't share. Don't panic: This is what class discussion is for.
Participation in class discussion
Preparing two discussion points is meant to help you be more comfortable joining the discussion in class. You should attempt to say something at least once during the session.
Presentation of session readings
You are responsible for leading the discussion for at least one reading selection covered during the course. For each class discussion you lead, your grade will be based on how well you lead the discussion - you certainly don't need to know everything, but you need to have thought about what the article's about so we can all try to figure out any problem areas together. In addition, you will likely need to review the reference readings to understand how they relate to the main reading.
You should prepare a presentation that covers the
main points of the paper, including:
- the theoretical or empirical issues being addressed and/or the main questions
- any key assumptions or data that the main issues rest on
- experimental/model design (or different approaches used if this is a review paper)
- key figures or examples discussed
- main findings and/or relationship between reported findings and broader questions in the area
- relationship to reference readings
Writing Assignment
Because students will come to the class with different levels of background in the area, there are three options for what the final writing assignment can be:
No matter which option is selected, 30% of your writing assignment grade will be determined as follows:
- Peer review session participation: 10%
This will occur during the final class session, and you receive credit by (i) having a draft of your writing assignment that other students can read and (ii) reading and commenting on the drafts of other students. A peer review should aim to have the following components:
- A sentence or two summarizing what the assignment is about.
- A section for major comments (general issues/observations, suggestions for organization, etc.)
- A section for minor comments (specific questions/observations about one part, typos, etc.)
Please note that comments should be in text files (either .txt or .rtf).
- Final presentation of writing assignment: 10%
This is a 5 minute overview of what you covered in your writing assignment. You should prepare a single summary slide to aid your discussion of your work. All students will present during the designated session on the Tuesday during finals week.
Please note that your slide should be in pdf form. - Overall writing style: 5%
This is credit given for a writing assignment that is comprehensible, well-structured, and has proper spelling and punctuation. - Citations and reference section: 5%
This is credit given for (i) including relevant citations appropriately throughout the writing assignment and (ii) having a reference section at the end listing the citations in their full form. Look to the articles we read and refer to in class for a sense of how to do both these things appropriately.
The remaining 70% of your writing assignment grade will be
determined by the grading scale specific to the
writing assignment you choose to do.
In addition, while you are welcome to use some material you have written in collaboration with someone else (particularly for a project description), you must write the majority of the assignment yourself and it must follow the guidelines set out below for each assignment type. Please do not simply turn in a conference paper you have written in collaboration with someone else -- this will not be acceptable.
Please note that all writing assignments should be submitted in pdf form.
Literature review
The literature review should aim to be concise (ideally about 4 pages, single-spaced + references).
The set of articles reviewed can consist of one of the following:
- only specific research articles (number required: at least four)
- only review articles (number required: at least two)
- a combination of review articles and specific research articles (number required: at least one review article and at least two specific research articles)
The goal of the literature review is to synthesize the ideas being presented, rather than simply summarizing what each article says. So, for any combination of articles being reviewed, the following must be included:
- Main questions/issues of each article, and how they relate to each other (Are they overlapping in any way? What's similar vs. what's distinct?)
- Specific methodologies used, and how they relate to each other (Again, do they overlap? Are there similar approaches or are they very distinct?)
- Discussion of results, and how they relate to each other (Do they agree or are there discrepancies? Are there higher level similarities? Do the results build on each other to create a larger, coherent whole?)
- Discussion of open questions, and how they relate to each other (Is there overlap? What's similar vs. what's distinct?)
Remember: You're aiming to describe the current state of research that these articles collectively represent. Someone should be able to read your literature review and have a good idea about what the main approaches are to the question(s) being investigated, what the interesting results are, and what questions remain.
- Discussion of main questions: 15%
- Discussion of methodologies: 20%
- Discussion of results: 20%
- Discussion of open questions (conclusion): 15%
Detailed project proposal
The detailed proposal should aim to be concise (ideally about 6 pages, single-spaced + references). But if you need to make it longer to include the necessary information, that's fine.
You must include the following in your proposal:
- The question you are trying to address
- Relevant previous work on this question. Include whatever detail is relevant for your current proposal -- you don't need to include everything they previously did.
- The methodology you would use (the specific algorithm, computational framework, etc.)
- Possible results, and what implications each set of results would have for the question you are trying to address. Since you are proposing a computational study rather than carrying it out, you obviously will not have results yet. However, your study was probably motivated by what you would expect to happen - so your discussion of possible results is very important. What are the implications for the different possible outcomes in your study?
- How the results would fit into the "big picture". What question would it answer, would it answer it better than previous studies on this topic or address shortfalls of previous studies, etc.
Remember: You're aiming to create a proposal that's detailed enough for you (or someone else) to carry out the project described. Whoever's carrying it out should be able to read your proposal and know exactly why it's interesting to carry out the project described.
- Discussion of proposal goal: 10%
- Literature review: 15%
- Methods discussion: 20%
- Results discussion: 15%
- Open questions & conclusion: 10%
Implemented model + project description
You may choose to implement a modeling study, particularly if it's in your area of research. In this case, you'll write a more targeted paper similar in structure to the detailed proposal. However, because a segment of your final project is the implementation of the modeling code itself, you can provide an abbreviated version of the aspects required for the detailed project proposal. Your paper should focus on these aspects:
- The question you are trying to address and why this is a sensible modeling study to implement to answer that question
- The specific model implementation you used and the data you used
- Detailed results (graph or table, etc.)
- Discussion of what the results mean and how to interpret them with respect to the question you're trying to address
The paper can be as long as it needs to to be adequately cover the material, but should probably be no shorter than 3 pages single-spaced, not including references.
Remember: You're aiming to describe your implemented model so that someone understands why it was created, how exactly it was implemented, and what the results mean.
- Discussion of main question: 15%
- Model implementation: 20%
- Results discussion: 15%
- Results interpretation: 20%
Your two discussion points will be due by 1pm the day of class, posted on the class message board under the thread for that class session. Everyone is responsible for submitting these discussion points, even if they are the ones presenting for that class session. We will spend the first 10 minutes or so of class collectively reviewing the posted discussion points, so that everyone has a chance to see all the submissions.
Please note: Even if you miss the class session, you are still responsible for submitting your discussion points about the material to be covered in the session. In addition, late submissions that occur before class starts will receive partial credit.