PSYCH 112D
Animal Cognition
Description: Lecture, 90 minutes; discussion, 90 minutes. Requisites: courses 10, 100A, 110. Designed for juniors/seniors. Investigation of scientific study of cognition and behavior in animals. Topics include perception and attention, working and reference memory, spatial cognition, timing and counting, concept formation, and abstract reasoning. Most discussions focus on laboratory findings with animals, as viewed from evolutionary framework concerned with natural histories of animals. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2021 - If you do the work for this class, you should get an A. You do have to go to class each week (is part of the grade). Essentially, you will be put into a group of 3-4 students and you will have to do 2 presentations with them on 2 articles that the professor assigns you. There were 10 presentation groups total and each did 2, and for each presentation you watched (so all presentations other than your own ones), you had to write a write-up about what the presentation was on as well as the strengths and weaknesses of that presentation. I'm not sure if he really grades these, more so just if you do them and put some effort into them, but these definitely got a bit annoying when you had to submit 2-4 write-ups each week (but there's no exams in the class, so I definitely understand that he has to assign some stuff). During finals week, the class takes place in a final debate (worth 20% of your grade) on 2 topics the professor tells you about on the last lecture. Seriously, the A in this class is yours to lose. If you are willing to do the work and go to class and prepare somewhat for the debate, you should be fine. Professor Blaisdell is so kind and is super knowledgeable and passionate about this subject. I HIGHLY recommend this class. It was interesting to learn about animal cognition and to be a part of such a small class (~30 students). It was also nice to just have a class without exams that I had to worry about. Thanks Prof. Blaisdell for being an absolute gem of a professor! Great class!
Winter 2021 - If you do the work for this class, you should get an A. You do have to go to class each week (is part of the grade). Essentially, you will be put into a group of 3-4 students and you will have to do 2 presentations with them on 2 articles that the professor assigns you. There were 10 presentation groups total and each did 2, and for each presentation you watched (so all presentations other than your own ones), you had to write a write-up about what the presentation was on as well as the strengths and weaknesses of that presentation. I'm not sure if he really grades these, more so just if you do them and put some effort into them, but these definitely got a bit annoying when you had to submit 2-4 write-ups each week (but there's no exams in the class, so I definitely understand that he has to assign some stuff). During finals week, the class takes place in a final debate (worth 20% of your grade) on 2 topics the professor tells you about on the last lecture. Seriously, the A in this class is yours to lose. If you are willing to do the work and go to class and prepare somewhat for the debate, you should be fine. Professor Blaisdell is so kind and is super knowledgeable and passionate about this subject. I HIGHLY recommend this class. It was interesting to learn about animal cognition and to be a part of such a small class (~30 students). It was also nice to just have a class without exams that I had to worry about. Thanks Prof. Blaisdell for being an absolute gem of a professor! Great class!
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