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Course-unit Programme
(Regular Full-time Course Syllabus)
Course-unit details:
Name of course-unit (subject):

Cognitive Approach of Communication

Language of instruction (from sample unit): English
Course-unit type (subject unit):
o

lecture

practical class

lecture and practical class to be completed together

training

Course-unit term requirements (subject unit):

o

examination

practical grade based on a scale from 1 to 5

mid-term classroom test at practical class + exam (pre-condition of applying for the exam is at least
a 50% performance at the practical class)

practical grade based on a three-grade scale

Content features of course-unit:

Teaching objectives of course-unit (description of 2-3 lines) (sample unit):

The course gives an overview of cognitive processes in communication. It tackles the question of
production and processing of communication act and social cognition processes that take part in different
fields of communication.
The topics and detailed syllabus of the factual content of the course-unit in a weekly breakdown
(sample unit):

1. week: Attribution
2. week: Social cognition: making sense of others. Impression formation and schema
3. week: Message production
4. week: Message processing
5. week: Perspective taking
6. week: Cognitive processes in audience decision making
7. week: Heuristics and biases in audience decision making

8. week: Person perception in audience decision making

9. week: Emotions in audience decision making
10. week: Cognitive processes in media use 1
11. week: Cognitive processes in media use 1
12. week: revision
Detailed description of the methods applied to evaluate and grade student performance at a lecture:
o

Option to take a preliminary exam the last week of term-time

Written exam

Oral exam

Complex exam (written and oral)

Reading material necessary to complete the course-unit:

Charles R. Berger & Nicholas A. Palomares (2011) Knowledge Structures and

Social Interaction pp. 169-199. In Mark L. Knapp, John A. Daly (eds.) The SAGE Handbook
of Interpersonal Communication. Fourth Edition. Sage Publications.

Susan R. Fussell, Roger J. Kreuz (1998) Social and Cognitive Approaches to Interpersonal
Communication.. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Richard Jackson Harris (2009) A Cognitive Psychology of Mass Communication 5th Edition.
Routledge
Bara, B. G. (2010). Cognitive Pragmatics: The Mental Processes of Communication
Cambridge: MIT Press chapter 2. Tools for communicating,4. Generation and
comprehension of communication acts

Susan T. Fiske (2004) Social beings: core social motives by. John Wiley and Sons. Chapter
3. Attribution or ordinary personology. Figuring out why people do what they do , Chapter 4.
Social cognition: making sense of others. Impression formation and schema