Coordinator David Yates, Departamento de Filosofia, Faculdade de Letras

The aim of the course is to provide a survey of the philosophical foundations of current cognitive science, especially the main trends and views on the nature of mind and cognition available therein. Topics to be examined include: what is cognitive science – its aims, research methods, and intervening disciplines; some salient problems and research areas – concepts, perception, language, memory, emotion, intelligence; the basic axiom of cognitive science – the mind as a computational device; the architecture of the mind – the symbolic model (and the language of thought hypothesis), the connectionist model, and the dynamic model; the issue of the modularity of the mind.

Coordinator Ana M. Sebastião, Instituto de Farmacologia e Neurociências, Faculdade de Medicina

This subject offers advanced training in experimental neuroscience, namely molecular and cellular neuroscience. The main mechanisms involved in excitability and neuronal communication will be covered. The student will have access to the techniques to investigate neuronal communication and plasticity (e.g. patch clamp electrophysiology, neurotransmitter release and uptake, calcium imaging) using neuronal preparations from laboratory animals. Setups and expertise to evaluate learning, memory and anxiety in laboratory animals are also available. The brain areas involved in different cognitive processes will also be focused together with imaging and neuropsychological approaches in humans.

Coordinator João Balsa, Departamento de Informática, Faculdade de Ciências

This course covers central aspects of computational processing of knowledge in intelligent machines, in particular artificial agents and its applications, advancing students’ initial knowledge in this area. Notion of agents. Theory of agents and agency: models and architecture. Environments. Interactions. Organizations. Applications (education, cinema, social simulation).

Coordinator Joçao Veríssimo, Departamento de Linguística Geral e Românica, Faculdade de Letras

The main goal of the seminar is to provide advanced knowledge and training in the domain of Language and Mind. Theories of grammar and the architecture of human language processing are explored. Basic concepts are given pertaining to central areas of grammar, such as syntax, semantic and phonology/prosody, which will be useful to the understanding of the cognitive and linguistic processes underlying language comprehension and production. Eye tracker system and measures of reaction times are methods to be explored in laboratory work.

To be selected for each student in order to extend his background to areas he did not get acquainted with during his graduation degree. See list here.

Coordinator Adriana Silva Graça, Departamento de Filosofia, Faculdade de Letras, Centro de Filosofia

This course introduces a set of notions, problems and views that are central to philosophical reflection about the nature of the human mind and cognition. Among the foundational issues examined in the course are the following ones.
(a) The correct typology for mental phenomena, especially the usual distinction between cognitive mental states, or propositional attitudes, and conscious states, or experiences.
(b) The constitutive marks of mentality, especially intentionality, phenomenology and self-awareness.
(c) The pros and cons of the most prominent views about the nature and structure of the mind: Dualism (both Cartesian Dualism and Property Dualism); Analytical Behaviorism; Physicalism (both Type-Type Physicalism and Token-Token Physicalism); Functionalism (both Machine Functionalism and Analytical Functionalism).
(d) The nature and workings of psychophysical causation, including mind-world causation, world-mind causation and mind-mind causation.
e) The relations between language and thought, especially the issue of whether thought is possible without language and the issue of whether thought is possible in non human animals.

Coordinator Teacher to be indicated, Departamento de Informática, Faculdade de Ciências

This course presents basic issues in computation theory – computation models, computability, and complexity. Several models of computation, of growing computational power, are presented, and it is pointed out that no model is known that has more computational power than Turing machines (Church-Turing thesis). Problems are presented that are not computable, that is, that no computer can solve no matter how much time/space resources it uses. In what concerns complexity issues, computable problems are classified according to the time/space resources that are needed to solve them. Problems exist that, although computable, are impossible to solve due to the huge amount of resources needed for their resolution.

Coordinator António Branco, Departamento de Informática, Faculdade de Ciências

This course aims at introducing central aspects of the computational processing of natural language and its applications. Representation and computation of linguistic knowledge. Syntactic analysis methodologies. Overgeneration and selection of results. Syntax-semantics interface. Semantic representation and logical form. Grammar models. Interfaces with speech and cognition.

Coordinator Tânia Fernandes, Faculdade de Psicologia

This subject offers advanced training in experimental psychology, and particularly in the method and theories of cognitive psychology. The subject will extend students basic knowledge of cognitive psychology and will provide an in-depth coverage of key research problems in areas such as memory, language, perception and social cognition. Different areas and research problems will be taught in a given year.

To be selected for each student in order to extend his background to areas he did not get acquainted with during his graduation degree. See list here.