PSYC471-21S2 (C) Semester Two 2021

Special Topic:

15 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 19 July 2021
End Date: Sunday, 14 November 2021
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Sunday, 1 August 2021
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Friday, 1 October 2021

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 that 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

Randolph Grace

Assessment

Assessment Due Date Percentage 
Lab Report (Experiment writeup) 40%
Presentations / Class Participation 20%
Literature Review/Research Proposal 40%

Textbooks / Resources

Readings will be assigned and posted on LEARN for each class.

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $1,033.00

* 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

  • PSYC471-21S2 (C) Semester Two 2021