CSCI 1377: Tools for Thought - S26
CS1377<br>Lectures<br>Assignments<br>Calendar<br>Staff<br>Policies
Instructor<br>Will Crichton
Lectures<br>Tu/Thu 10:30-11:50am<br>CIT 477
Links<br>EdStemGradescopeAnonymous Feedback Form<br>Anki<br>Download deck(Updated 4/13)
Tools for Thought<br>Spring 2026<br>Humanity's technological progress is defined in part by the development of tools for thought (TfT) which augment our cognitive capabilities: mnemonics, writing, diagrams, calculators, notation, and more. Computers have powered a TfT revolution, as seen through software such as data visualizations, search engines, digital maps, computational notebooks, and generative AI. This course provides the foundations for understanding the TfT of today to help you build the TfT of tomorrow.<br>We will explore computational TfT from several perspectives:<br>Psychology: How can theories of cognition inform the design of TfT? We will focus principally on theories of memory, perception, problem solving, and learning.<br>History: What can we learn from the near and distant past of TfT? We will examine TfT ranging from oral tradition to medieval codices to the origins of the modern internet.<br>Engineering: What are the design trade-offs involved in building TfT? How can we build TfTs that are easy to archive, scale, share, and customize?
Lectures<br>Show quotesExpand cited
01/22<br>Introduction
Vannevar Bush. "As We May Think" (1945)
Douglas Engelbart. "Mother of All Demos" (1968)
Alan Kay. "Dynabook: The Complete Story" (1996)
Apple Knowledge Navigator (1987)
Bret Victor. Computational Public Space (2024)
all cited works<br>Douglas Engelbart. "Augmenting Human Intellect" (1962)
Microsoft: Productivity Future Vision (2011)
“There are many man-machine systems. At present, however, there are no man-computer symbioses.” — J.C.R. Licklider, 1960
01/27<br>Mnemonics I<br>Science and Tradition of Memory
John Anderson. Cognitive Psychology (2020). Chs 6-7
Walter Ong. Orality and Literacy (1982)
David Rubin. Memory in Oral Traditions (1997)
all cited works<br>George Sperling. "Successive approximations to a model for short term memory" (1967)
Glenberg. Smith. and Green. "Type I rehearsal: Maintenance and more" (1977)
Ericsson. Chase. and Faloon. "Acquisition of a Memory Skill" (1980)
Chase and Simon. "Perception in Chess" (1973)
McKeithen et al. "Knowledge Organization and Skill Differences in Computer Programmers" (1981)
Pirolli and Anderson. "The Role of Practice in Fact Retrieval" (1985)
Jullian Blackburn. The Acquisition of Skill (1936)
Harry Bahrick. "Semantic memory content in permastore: Fifty years of memory for Spanish learned in school" (1984)
Pavlik and Anderson. "Practice and Forgetting Effects on Vocabulary Memory" (2005)
Roger Shepard. "Recognition memory for words, sentences, and pictures" (1967)
Godden and Baddeley. "Context-Dependent Memory in Two Natural Environments: On Land and Underwater" (1975)
Saufley, Otaka, and Bavaresco. "Context effects: Classroom tests and context independence" (1985)
Eric Havelock. Preface to Plato. (1963)
Eric Havelock. The Greek Concept of Justice. (1978)
Francis Yates. The Art of Memory. (1966)
“Now let us turn to the treasure-house of inventions, the custodian of all the parts of rhetoric, memory.” — Ad Herennium, circa 85 BCE
01/29<br>Mnemonics II<br>Spaced Repetition Systems
Gwern Branwen. "Spaced Repetition for Efficient Learning"
Matuschak and Nielsen. "How can we develop transformative tools for thought?" (2019)
all cited works<br>Roediger and Karpicke. "Test-Enhanced Learning: Taking Memory Tests Improves Long-Term Retention" (2006)
Landauer and Bjork. "Optimum Rehearsal Patterns and Name Learning" (1978)
Kang et al. "Retrieval practice over the long term: Should spacing be expanding or equal-interval?" (2014)
Sebastian Leitner. So lernt man Lernen. (1972)
Gilbert et al. "A Cohort Study Assessing the Impact of Anki as a Spaced Repetition Tool on Academic Performance in Medical School" (2023)
Ganjavi et al. "ChatGPT and large language models (LLMs) awareness and use" (2024)
Michael Nielsen. "Augmenting Long-term Memory" (2018)
Github user Expertium. "Note Types to Avoid Pattern Matching"
Matuschak and Nielsen. "Quantum computing for the very curious" (2019)
Andy Matuschak. "How Might We Learn?" (2024)
Piotr Wozniak. Optimization of learning. (1990)
“I alone have more memories than all mankind since the world began.” — Jorge Luis Borges, Funes the Memorious (1962)
02/03<br>Reading I<br>Technology of the Written Word
Steven Fischer. A History of Writing (2020)
Rayner et al. Psychology of Reading (2012)
John Anderson. Cognitive Psychology (2020), Ch 13
all cited works<br>Kuhn et al. "Aligning Theory and Assessment of Reading Fluency: Automaticity, Prosody, and Definitions of Fluency" (2011)
Hasbrouck and Tindal. "Oral Reading Fluency Norms: A Valuable Assessment Tool for Reading Teachers" (2011)
Aaronson and Scarborough. "Performance theories for sentence coding: Some quantitative...