HNUH278A

Cross-listed with: HESP214. Credit only granted for: HNUH278A or HESP214. How does the human mind use language? Type "Language Science News" into your Google search bar. Among the more than 3 billion hits, headlines like "What is love? It depends what language you speak" and "Science's English dominance hinders diversity" invite you to think about the impact of words on thought and behavior. These are stories about how humans acquire and use language, but they ultimately address big questions about how we experience knowledge itself. In a world of unprecedented access to science journalism, did you ever read a headline about human behavior and wonder: How do we know? This class takes up the elegant ways cognitive scientists design experiments to answer crucial questions about language and thought, brain and behavior, that have no intuitive answers. Students will dive deep into the media coverage of their favorite claims about what we know, debate the psychological science behind these claims, and develop transferable critical-thinking skills in the process. Restricted to UH students matriculating in Fall 2020 and later. This course is the required I-Series course in the "In A Word" thematic cluster. Other courses in the "In A Word" cluster will be offered through Spring 2023; and HNUH278A will be offered through Fall 2023.