Timing plays a critical role in most all aspects of our behavior.
Cognitive processes ranging from memory retrieval to creative problem solving all unfold over time. In this seminar, we will take time seriously. The authors of this text contend that the information processing approach to cognitive modeling should be abandoned in favor of an approach based on coupled differential equations, attractors, and bifurcations. We will critically examine this claim, weighing the respective benefits of the computational and dynamical metaphors. This seminar will provide a basic introduction to dynamical systems theory and will survey its application to studies in cognition.