Educational Psychology 711
Instructor: Chuck Kalish Ph: 262-0840 Office: 1057 EdSci.
Email: Cwkalish@facstaff.wisc.edu
Class Email list: mind-works@lists.students.wisc.edu
Class Web page: http://labweb.soemadison.wisc.edu/edpsy920-kalish/
The premise of Evolutionary Psychology is that the human
mind is adapted to work in particular ways; we are built to think some things
but not others. In this seminar we
will consider the often quite radical claims about human nature that are said
to be consequences of an evolutionary perspective. The main focus will be on drawing out the implications of
this approach for understanding children's thinking, its development, and the
ways adults and culture may affect that development (e.g., in schools).
Our starting point will be Steve Pinker's book "How the mind works." This is a popular introduction to Cognitive Science and Evolutionary Psychology. As the interests of the class dictate, we will explore selected topics in depth with further readings drawn from the scientific literatures. My inclination will be to focus on the area of social cognition: How are we built to think and learn about other people?
1) Each student will be responsible for writing 2-3 seminar
papers during the semester. There
will be 1-2 papers for each class period and students will sign-up for
particular topics. The paper
should be a short (3-5 pgs) presentation of the author's (your) reactions to
(some of) the readings for the week.
The seminar paper should not be a simple summary of the
readings. Rather this paper should
present and argument for a particular interpretation/reaction to the material. This paper will form part of the basis
for our in-class discussion and will be distributed to all the
participants. Since the seminar
paper is part of the required reading for the class period it must be available
no later than 5:00 pm of the Wednesday before class. The paper will be available on the class
web-page and/or via the class email distribution list. Authors will make brief presentations
of their papers to the class.
2) Students taking the class for three credits will have the
additional responsibility of a research paper. Students may work individually or in groups. This assignment involves picking a
topic related to the content of this class, writing a substantial research
paper (15 pages or so, 1 paper each person), and distributing a seminar paper
outlining the issues involved (for the last or 2nd to last class meeting). If time permits, I will ask people
doing research papers to make brief presentations.
3) All students are expected to be active participants in
class discussions. At a minimum
this requires doing the reading (carefully) before class. Participation is welcomed at all
levels; from educating all of us on some technical point within one's unique
area of expertise to general, "naive," questions ("What I didn't
understand was...").
In furtherance of class participation, each student not
writing a seminar paper (or doing a presentation) should submit two questions
or comments about the readings each week.
Weekly questions should be emailed to me (see address above) by Thursday
afternoon (6:00 or so).
Weighting of requirements will be (from most important to
least): class participation, class project, seminar paper.
Class participation will be a substantial portion of student evaluation. The seminar papers and weekly comments are written forms of class participation. I also encourage students to take an active role in our in-class discussions. As the criteria for evaluation of participation are necessarily vague, I encourage students who are concerned about their grade for this class to speak with me. The weighting of requirements is Class participation (including weekly questions)-50%, seminar paper/s-25%, In-class presentation-25%.
My plan is to use the chapters in Pinker's book as the starting point for more in depth exploration of specific topics. Based on our discussions and interests, we will (as a class) choose readings to follow up on material from the book. I have listed suggested topics (and in many cases readings) that I see as plausible avenues. I encourage suggestions for new topics and readings to include in the syllabus. Most of what you see below should be thought of as suggested reading. I'll try to get us to choose topics somewhat ahead of time, but I do want flexibility to respond to issues that arise during discussions. On the syllabus, the weeks marked with an asterisk are "topics" classes. The readings/topics listed are suggestions, or defaults. We'll decide on the actual readings the week before. If I have to scare up readings, I'll make my best efforts to have them available on the web by Tuesday evening. Let me know if not having readings available before Tuesday would create a hardship.
The text for the class is How the Mind Works by Steven Pinker. I've ordered copies through the University Bookstore. I believe the book is generally available at finer booksellers throughout town.
Supplemental readings will be available over the web. Where possible I have identified readings available over the internet. Any reading without a URL is on reserve at the CIMC (3rd floor Teacher Ed. Building), and is available on the ereserves site maintained by the CIMC. The URL of the reserves for this class is: http://cimc.education.wisc.edu/e_reserves/edpsych/711-2f00/. As new readings are added to the syllabus, they'll be available at this site and as hardcopies at the CIMC.
Video, Topics, Time Change
Pinker, Chapter 1
Cosmides & Tooby
Cosmides & Tooby's primer: http://www.psych.ucsb.edu/research/cep/primer.html
Or hear a talk http://online.itp.ucsb.edu/online/colloq/cosmides1/rm/full.ram
Paul Rozin. Evolution and adaptation in the understanding of behavior, culture, and mind. American Behavioral Scientist, March 2000 (available via proquest: http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?RQT=407&TS=967565330)
A true believer? http://www.evoyage.com/Essays.htm
David Buller, Critical Review: http://www.uniroma3.it/kant/field/ep.htm
Lewontin, R. The
evolution of cognition: Questions we will never answer. In An Introduction
to Cognitive Science 2nd Edition: Volume 4, Conceptual Foundations.
Sterelny, K. (1995). The adapted mind. Biology and Philosophy, 10, 365-380.
Jerry Fodor. The trouble
with psychological darwinism (London review of books) http://www.lrb.co.uk/v20n02/fodo2002.html
And/or
the intro from his forthcoming book "The mind doesn't work that way"
http://cognet.mit.edu/bboard/ed-com-msg.tcl?msg_id=00002X&latest=1
Gould & Lewontin Spandrels of San Marcos: http://www.aaas.org/spp/dspp/dbsr/EVOLUT/SPANDREL.htm
Sober Adaptationism from Philosophy of Biology
Pinker, Chapters. 3 &4
Plomin, R., & Neiderhiser, J. M. (1992). Genetics and experience. Current Direction, 1, 160-163.
Scarr, S. (1994) Why developmental research needs evolutionary theory: To ask interesting questions. In Bertelson & Eelen, (Eds.). International perspectives on psychological science, Vol. 1: Leading themes. (pp. 159-179). Hove, England UK: Erlbaum
Oyama, S. (2000). Evolution's eye. Durham, NC: Duke U. Press. Chapter 11: Evolutionary and Developmental Formation: Politics of the Boundary.
Cummins & Cummins, (1999) Biological preparedness and evolutionary explanation. Cognition.1999 Dec; Vol 73(3): B37-B53. (available online at Cognition brief articles:
http://www.elsevier.nl/cgi-bin/cas/tree/store/cognit/cas_sub/browse/browse.cgi?year=1999&volume=73&issue=3&aid=966)
Samuels, R (1998) Evolutionary psychology and the massive modularity hypothesis. British Journal of the Philosophy of Science, 49, 575-602
Petrill (1997). Molarity versus modularity of cognitive functioning? A behavioral genetic approach. Current directions, 6, 96-99.
**Foley, R. (1995).
Causes and consequences in human evolution. Journal of
the Royal Anthropological Institute, 1, 67-86.
Pinker Chapter 5
Todd & Gigerenzer Precis of "Simple heuristics that make us smart" in BBS http://www.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/bbs/Archive/bbs.todd.html
Optional: Chapter 11 on categorization
Pinker Chapter 6
Pinker Chapters 7 & 8
Overview w/ examples of Mating
strategies etc.: http://salmon.psy.plym.ac.uk/year3/PSY339EvolutionaryPsychology/EvolutionaryPsychology.htm
Halsam, N. (1997). Four grammars for primate social relations. In J. Simpson & D. Kenrick (Eds.) Evolutionary social psychology (pp. 297-316). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Masters, R. (1991). Conclusion: Primate politics and political theory. In G. Schubert & R Masters (Eds.) Primate politics (pp. 221-247). Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.
**Tiger, L. (1992) The evolution of cultural norms. Masters, Roger D. (Ed); Gruter, Margaret (Ed). The sense of justice: Biological foundations of law. Sage focus editions, Vol. 136. (pp. 278-289)
Sperber, D. (1990). The epidemiology of beliefs. in C. Fraser and G. Gaskell (Eds.), Social psychological study of widespread beliefs. (pp. 25-44). Oxford: Clarendon Press
Barkow, J (1989) The elastic between genes and culture. Ethology and Sociobiology, 10, 111-129.
Dennet (1995). Darwin's dangerous idea. Chapter 12 "Cranes of culture."
Tomasello, M (1999). The
human adaptation for culture. Annual Review of Anthropology, 28,
509-529.
Geary, D. C. (1995). Reflections of evolution and culture in children's cognition: implications for mathematical development. American Psychologist, 50
Premack, D & Premack, A (1996). Why animals lack pedagogy and some cultures have more of it than others. In D. Olson & N. Torrance (eds.) Handbook of Education and Human Development : New models of learning, teaching and schooling. (pp. 302-323). Oxford, England UK: Blackwell
Pinker, S. & Bloom, P. (1990). Natural language and natural selection. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 13 (4): 707-784. http://www.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/bbs/Archive/bbs.pinker.html
Bates & Elman with a different idea
Other possibilities:
Peter Singer How the Left got Darwin wrong
Albee,G. (1996). Psychological origins of the white male patriarchy. Journal-of-Primary-Prevention. 17, 75-97.
Ehrenreich & McIntosh (1997).The New Creationism: Biology Under Attack. The Nation, June 9.