Behavioral & Brain Sciences (BBS) is an interdisciplinary journal devoted to issues directly relevant to the topics we have covered in this course. An excerpt from their webpage:

BBS publishes important and controversial interdisciplinary "target articles" in psychology, neuroscience, behavioral biology, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, linguistics and philosophy. Articles are rigorously refereed and, if accepted, are circulated to a large number of potential commentators around the world in the various specialties on which the article impinges. Their 1000-word commentaries are then co-published with the target article as well as the author's response to each. The commentaries consist of analyses, elaborations, complementary and supplementary data and theory, criticisms and cross-specialty syntheses.

For the final paper, you will choose one of a selection of BBS target articles. Your choices are:

Luc Steels and Tony Belpaeme. (2005). Coordinating perceptually grounded categories through language: A case study for colour. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 28 (4). [link]

John L. Locke and Barry Bogin. (2006). Language and life history: A new perspective on the development and evolution of human language. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 29 (3). [link]

Michael A. Arbib. (2005). From monkey-like action recognition to human language: An evolutionary framework for neurolinguistics. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 28 (2). [link]

Based on what you have learned in the class, write a 4- to 6-page (1000 words max) paper in the style of a BBS commentary that critically examines your chosen article.

• Make sure your commentary is condensed and has original ideas about the article -- this is NOT a summary! See the following guidelines from BBS:

  NOTE TO COMMENTATORS: The purpose of the Open Peer Commentary service is to provide a concentrated constructive interaction between author and commentators on a topic judged to be of broad significance to the biobehavioral science community. Commentators should provide substantive criticism, interpretation, and elaboration as well as any pertinent complementary or supplementary material, such as illustrations.... Commentaries and articles should be free of hyperbole and remarks ad hominem.

• Your paper should demonstrate your ability to relate (compare, contrast) ideas in the article to the course material. You are encouraged to use results and findings as well as computational models discussed in class to support or refute arguments made by the authors.
• You should also feel free to cite works not covered in class, but doing so is neither necessary nor sufficient.

• state at the top the first page which article you are reviewing
• informative commentary title
• 60 word abstract
• 4 - 6 pages main text, 1000 words max, double-spaced
• make citations as appropriate
• make it as professional a submission as possible (that means spellcheck, proofread, etc.).

• Take some time to skim through the articles. Some of them are fairly dense reading, so don't worry if you don't understand everything at first -- just try to get a general sense of the major ideas.
• Choose your article and start reading it as soon as possible. You should assume that it will take you time and multiple readings to understand and reflect on the ideas and relevant issues.