12154

SCI 127 Learning about Learning

Harold Haggard

M W 1:30 pm-2:50 pm F 1:10 pm-3:10 pm

HEG 106 HEG 204

LS

SCI

What is learning? How can we learn more quickly? What happens in our brains when we learn? This course will tackle an experimental investigation of what influences the depth and quality of our learning. We will take a synthetic look at the psychology, philosophy, and cognitive science of learning, reading books such as Benedict Carey’s How We Learn and Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow. A major focus of the course will be student-generated, quantitative experiments designed to test ideas about learning. In addition, there will be one learning experiment that we all will run on how much practical probability we can learn in two weeks. Our course motto will be ``It costs very little to find out," that is, we will aim to test ideas by trying them. This course will challenge you to take a more active role in choosing how you go about learning. No specific science or mathematics background beyond algebra is assumed.

Class size: 16