Lecturer: Brigitte Römmer-Nossek, Elisabeth Zimmermann
Fields: Cognitive Science
Content
This basic course introduces you to central paradigms and concepts of cognitive science. We call our course “Co-Thinking Cognition” because the title is the program: we see cognitive science as a collaborative practice in at least two important ways: 1.) Science is always done in a community of researchers who learn and negotiate the terms and concepts used in a particular field. In an interdisciplinary endeavor like cognitive science, discussing and clarifying the use of terms is even more important and requires time and space. 2.) Many people tend to think of cognition as something that happens in a person’s head. However, we should not forget how we come to learn so-called cognitive abilities, such as language. Learning usually happens through interaction with the world and the people around us.
We will therefore create a space to discuss key concepts in cognitive science, review its history and essential terminology, and reflect on our responsibilities as cognitive scientists at a time when everyone is talking about AI’s influence on our society. Together, we want to address the challenges and deliberate on the contributions we can make.
The course will follow an interactive format, alternating between lecture elements and discussions in small teams, the whole group, and also individual reflection.
Session Outline:
1.) What is “cognition”? What is the history of cognitive science? What are the core paradigms?
2.) Focus on key concepts in cognitive science: what do we mean when we use words like cognition, knowledge, thinking, representation, intelligence, information, computation, coding, etc.?
3.) What are the boundaries of cognition? How do cognitive capabilities develop in interaction with physical and social environments?
4.) Where is cognitive science now? What can cognitive science contribute to the AI debate in our society? What can cognitive science contribute to our picture of the human being? How do we envision an ethical cognitive science?
Literature
- Clark, A. (2001). Mindware. An introduction to the philosophy of cognitive science. New York: Oxford University Press.
- De Jaegher, H., & Di Paolo, E. (2007). Participatory sense-making: An enactive approach to social cognition. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 6(4), 485–507. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-007-9076-9
- Varela, F.J., E. Thompson, and E. Rosch (1991) The embodied mind: cognitive science and human experience. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
- Walter, S. (2014). Kognition. Stuttgart: Reclam Verlag.
Lecturer
Brigitte Römmer-Nossek is head of the team Student Research and Peer Learning at the University of Vienna’s Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL). As a cognitive scientist and higher education third space practitioner, she is concerned with competence acquisition from the perspective of students, teachers and curriculum developers. She is particularly interested in the academic socialisation of students, the role social, physical and digital settings play in this. As a lecturer, she is currently involved in the master’s programme MEi:CogSci as well as in the extension curriculum “Schreibmentoring – Akademische Schreibkompetenz entwickeln, vermitteln und beforschen“ (“Writing Mentoring – Developing, teaching and researching academic writing competence”); she was involved in the curriculum development of both projects. She began her studies in English and Political Science in Vienna and Manchester before studying her self-developed studium irregulare “Brain and Cognitive Sciences”. After a period in non-university research and software development, she moved to the University of Vienna’s CTL in 2004. She is an expert and trainer in academic writing and received her PhD on academic writing as a cognitive developmental process.
Affiliation: University of Vienna
Homepage: https://ctl.univie.ac.at/ueber-das-ctl/teams-und-mitarbeiterinnen/team-wissenschaftliches-arbeiten-und-peer-learning/
Elisabeth Zimmermann is Managing Editor of the journal “Biological Theory” and Communications Officer at the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research (KLI), Klosterneuburg, Austria. She studied human biology and cognitive science at the University of Vienna and graduated with an interdisciplinary diploma thesis in cognitive neuroscience and behavioral biology. From 2006 to 2025, she served as the international study program coordinator for the joint degree program MEi:CogSci – Middle European interdisciplinary master’s programme in Cognitive Science, administering it at the local and international levels. She has been teaching cognitive science at the University of Vienna since 2006, as well as at workshops at the University of Ljubljana, the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, and the Interdisciplinary College. Her research interests focus on enactivism, embodied cognition, and phenomenology, particularly the relations of body and mind in dance and other body-mind practices, at both theoretical and practical levels. Her long-term practice of contact improvisation further shaped her interest in improvisation and play as cognitive phenomena involved in a range of developmental and learning processes.
Affiliation: Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research (KLI)
Homepage: https://www.kli.ac.at/en/people/kli_team/view/384