Class Assignments (aka "Reading Responses")

This page will contain all of your "reading response" prompts. As a reminder, all reading responses must be between 150-200 words in length, and are submitted through Canvas. Please pay attention to the due date; while most of these assignments are due on Tuesdays, not all are! (Including even the first one.)

1. Assigned 8/29, due 9/5:

   Is it important to know where in the brain a given mental process occurs?
   In class, Prof. Firestone gave some reasons to think YES, and some reasons to think NO.
   Pick any of the reasons Prof. Firestone discussed and say whether you agree or disagree with it (and why)

2. Assigned 9/5, due 9/10:

   In class today, Prof. Firestone gave an example of an important difference between understanding language and doing calculus. What was that difference, and how did we demonstrate it in class?

3. Assigned 9/12, due 9/17:

   How do the studies by Gandhi et al. show that carpentry is not the source of the Muller-Lyer illusion?

4. Assigned 10/3, due 10/8:

   Babies can’t tell you what they see, think, or want. How do developmental psychologists overcome this to successfully study the developing mind? Give two examples from Prof. Feigenson’s lecture.

5. Assigned 10/10, due 10/16:

   Identify and explain a ‘cognitive feat’ that an animal can do but that a human cannot. But don’t just pick any example — use one from Prof. Krupenye’s guest lecture.