Programming for Cognitive and Brain Sciences

Author:

Christophe Pallier.

Main document web page:

https://pcbs.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

Git repository on github

https://github.com/chrplr/PCBS

Slack discussion forum

http://cogmaster-pcbs.slack.com (Join here). Use the #general channel to ask questions. Do not hesitate!

Schoology code

KN88-5TR4-XQG29

Bring your own laptop

You will need to bring your own laptop (preferably with a full battery…). Before attending the first lecture, make sure to install all of the required software (see below)

Contents:

• First things first
  • Course description
  • Prerequisites
  • Software Installation
  • Learn how to open a Terminal
  • Download the course materials
• Running Python
  • Running a python script from the command line
  • Testing a short piece of python code
  • Write code inside a text editor (Edit-run cycle)
  • Using an Integrated Development Environment like Spyder
  • Perform an interactive data analysis with jupyter-notebook or jupyter-lab
• Resources
  • Books relevant to Cognitive and Brain Sciences Programming
  • Programming skills
  • Resources to learn Python
  • Stimulus/Experiment generation modules
  • Data analyses, Statistics in Python
  • Simulations
  • Resources to learn the command shell
  • Resources to learn Git
• How to solve problems
  • How to think like a programmer: lessons in problem solving
  • How to report bugs effectively
  • How to solve it by Polya
  • Computer Science Distilled
• Writing clean code
  • Comments
  • Names
  • Functions
  • Successive refinement
  • General
  • Testing
• Tools to do Reproducible Science
  • Two tools: literate programming and version control
  • Lesson 101: how to compare files or directories
  • Introducing git
  • Working with remotes
• Automata and Computers
  • The Computational Theory of Mind
  • What is computation anyway ?
  • The ancestors of the computer: the automata
  • Formal description of an automaton
  • Examples of transition diagrams
  • What is a Computer?
  • Register machines
  • The Seven secrets of computers revealed
  • Programmable computers
  • Compilation and interpretation
  • Operating systems
  • What is a Terminal?
• Practical interaction with a computer (in a Nut shell)
  • How to open a Terminal
  • The shell
  • Disks, Directories and files
  • filenames, directory structure
  • Working directory. Absolute pathnames vs. relative pathnames (..)
  • What is the PATH?
  • What is a library (or module/package)?
• Creating static visual stimuli
  • Kanizsa illusory contours
  • Herman grid
  • Ebbinghaus-Titchener
  • Honeycomb and Extinction illusions.
  • Random-dot stereograms
• Creating dynamic visual stimuli
  • Wertheimer line-motion illusion.
  • Flash-lag illusion
  • Dynamic version of the Ebbinghaus-Titchener
• Creating and playing sounds
  • Sound localisation from binaural dephasing
  • Pulsation (Povel & Essen, 1985)
• Experiments
  • Simple reaction times
  • Sound-picture matching
  • Posner’s attentional cueing task
  • Stroop Effect
  • Lexical Decision Task
  • A general audio visual stimulus presentation script
  • More examples using expyriment.org
• Data Analyses
  • Basic Data Analysis with R
  • Comparing means using Easy ANOVA (Analysis of Variance)
  • Permutation tests
  • Bootstrap
  • Frequency Analysis
• Lexical Statistics
  • Zipf law
  • Benford’s law.
• Simulations
  • Monte Carlo Estimation
  • Fractals
  • Cellular Automata
  • Artificial Neural networks
  • Natural Language Parsing
  • Neuroimaging
• Projects
• Examples of Students’ Projects from previous sessions
  • Some ideas
• Starting from Scratch
  • Programming = turning an algorithm into code
  • Starting with Scratch
• Representations of numbers, text, images
  • Representation of integers
  • Representation of text
• Programming Exercices
  • Basics
  • Convert temperature from Fahrenheit to Celcius
  • Multiplication tables
  • Taxis
  • Pascal triangle
  • computer-guess-a-number
  • unique
  • word count
  • head
  • tail
  • string-detector
  • prime numbers
  • Kaprekar numbers
  • RPN Calculator
  • Rodrego-simulator

Indices and tables

• Index
• Module Index
• Search Page