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Robert J. Glushko
Distinguished Visiting Scholar
in Cognitive Science
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Funded by a gift from Robert J. Glushko, Adjunct Professor in the UC Berkeley School of Information, the program brings to the UCB campus every year a distinguished cognitive scientist who presents a program of lectures and seminars geared to the interests of both undergraduates in the Group Major in Cognitive Science and the faculty of the Institute for Cognitive and Brain Sciences, their graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and other researchers. The Visiting Scholar Program was inaugurated in the 2006-2007 academic year.
2007-2008
Barry Schwartz
Dorwin Cartwright Professor of Social Theory and Social Action
Swarthmore College
 Barry Schwartz received his BA in psychology from New York University in 1968, and his PhD in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1971. Aside from sabbaticals, he has spent his entire academic career at Swarthmore College. Schwartz began his career in the study of operant (instrumental) conditioning, and then gradually shifted from the study of basic learning processes to research on judgment and decision-making, and the connections between psychology and economics. He is the author of two textbooks, Psychology of Learning and Behavior (5th ediition, with E. Wasserman and S. Robbins, 2002) and Learning and Memory (1991, with D. Reisberg), Behaviorism, Science, and Human Nature (1982), and The Battle for Human Nature: Science, Morality, and Modern Life (1986). More recent explorations of behavioral economics include The Costs of Living: How Market Freedom Erodes the Best Things in Life (1994) and The Paradox of Choice (2004).
During his term, Prof. Schwartz will present two lectures and a workshop offering a critique of normative rationality.
Click here for a detailed introduction to Barry Schwartz
| April 4 |
"The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less"
Abstract: As Americans, we assume that more choice means better options and greater satisfaction. But beware of excessive choice: choice overload can make you question the decisions you make before you even make them, it can set you up for unrealistically high expectations, and it can make you blame yourself for any and all failures. In the long run, this can elad to decision-making paralysis. And in a culture that tells us that there is no excuse for falling short of perfection when your options are limitless, too much choice can lead to clinical depression.
Related Papers:
"The Tyranny of Choice" (2004)
Download the Slides (PDF)
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| April and May |
Workshop on:
"Practical Wisdom: What It Is, Why We Need It, What Psychology Has to Say about it, and Why It's in Ever Diminishing Supply"
April 9, 16, 30, and May 7
Tolman Hall 4131 3:00 - 5:00 PM
The topic of this workshop is "practical wisdom". With my collaborator Ken Sharpe, I have written a book intended to bring Aristotle's important concept into contact with modern life and modern psychology. The reading for the workshop will be the first draft of our book, tentatively titled Moral Jazz: Practical Wisdom and the Improvisations of Everyday Life (available to workshop participants on CD-ROM). I intend the workshop to be very much a partnership. I'm eager to get your thoughts about the book while there's still time to fix it. Each week, several workshop participants will prepare a brief set of "talking points" from the reading that will guide discussion.
April 9: What Wisdom Is
April 16: Wisdom and Work
April 30: Wisdom and Psychology I: Concepts, Decisions, Networks
May 7: Wisdom and Psychology II: Emotion, Morality, Motivation
Related paper:
"Practical wisdom: Aristotle Meets Positive Psychology (with K. Sharpe, 2005)
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| April 11
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"Leaky Rationality": How Research on Behavioral Decision Making Challenges Normative Standards of Rationality
Related papers:
"Leaky Rationality" How Research on Behavioral Decision Making Challenges Normative Standards of Rationality
Download the Slides (PDF)
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2006-2007
Michael Cole
University Professor of
Communication and Psychology
University of California, San
Diego
 Michael Cole received his BA in psychology from UC Los Angeles in 1959, and his PhD in psychology from Indiana University in 1962. He previously held faculty positions at Yale, UC Irvine, and Rockefeller University. and Psychology at the University of California, San Diego, and Director of the Laboratory
of Comparative Human Cognition. As an exchange scholar at
the University of
Moscow (1962-1963),
he worked with A.R. Luria and was introduced to the Russian tradition of
cultural-historical activity theories of knowledge and
learning. Cole's early
research focused on the role of literacy and schooling in cognitive
development. More recently, he has been studying interactive video
conferencing as a medium for teaching and interinstitutional collaboration, as
well as after-school educational activities that make use of computer-based
communication technologies. Among other works, he is
the author
of Culture and Thought: A Psychological Introduction (with Sylvia
Scribner, 1974), and Cultural Psychology: A Once and Future Discipline (1996). Cole is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Education. In 2006, he received the Award for Distinguished Contributions to the International Advancement of Psychology from the American Psychological Association.
The theme for Prof. Cole's visit
is "Thinking About a
Culture-Inclusive Cognitive Science"
Click here for a detailed Introduction to Michael Cole
| September 22 |
"Thinking About a
Culture-Inclusive Cognitive
Science"
Download The Slides (PDF)
Abstract: This talk begins with a brief
historical overview of Cognitive Science with a special
emphasis on the
role that the concept of culture played in the founding and early
decades of the discipline. This history will be linked to
the earliers,
and partly constituitive role of psychology in Cognitive
Science and the
role that culture has played in that discipline. The
argument will then
be made that for a developmental approach to cognitive
science that sees
human nature as the emergent outcome of
four "streams of history" or "genetic domains":
phylogeny, cultural history, ontogeny, and microgenesis. Current
research seeking to develop this approach will be given.
Related Papers:
"Culture and Cognitive Science" (1997)
"Alexander Luria, Cultural Psychology, and the Resolution of the Crisis in Psychology" (1997)
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| November 3 |
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| Spring 2007
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Bio-Cultural-Historical Approaches to the Study of Literacy
In my previous lectures I have argued to an approach to cognitive science that views mind as the emergent outcome of four different "streams of history." Phylogeny, cultural history, ontogeny, and microgenesis. The purpose of this four part series of seminars is to concretize this general perspective with respect to the human ability to read and write.
The format of these four sessions will differ radically from those of the prior two.
- First of all, we will meet via Internet video rather than face to face. We have tested the quality of the connection and it the high quality should enable serious discussion.
- Second, instead of me simply standing and lecturing, this will be a reciprocal set of exchanges in which Berkeley participants will be expected to do some reading and will be given targeted contributions to make. I plan primarily to the orchestrator of the ensuing discussion, but will have prepared carefully with supplementary materials.
The workshop will meet on four Mondays distributed throughout the semester, from 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM, in Dwinelle Hall, Room 4.
Click here for more detailed information.
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| May 3 |
Institute for Cognitive and Brain Sciences Spring Retreat
Download The Slides (PDF)
Prof. Cole will round out his visits to Berkeley with a final summing-up at the end-of-semester retreat.
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 Robert J.
Glushko,
Adjunct Professor at the UC Berkeley School of Information, and Director of its
Center for Document Engineering, specializes in information management,
electronic publishing, Internet commerce, and human factors in computing
systems. After receiving his BA in experimental psychology from Stanford
in 1974, and his PhD in Cognitive Science from UC San Diego in
1979, he went on to found three companies, and pioneered the use of the XML
language for business-to-business transactions. Prof Glushko is also
President of the Robert J. Glushko and Pamela Samuelson Foundation, which
sponsors the Rumelhart Prize in
Cognitive Science awarded annually by the
Cognitive Science Society. He is the author (with Tim McGrath)
of Document
Engineering (2005), among other works.
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