Genuinely an informative, discussion-based class.

OVERVIEW
- Seminar-like class formatted similar to a research journal review club
- Groups (3-4) read and present on a research paper every week
- Critique group presentations (2-4/week)
- Professor lectures from slides. Hard to know what lecture was on without actually attending.
- Only exam (final) is a debate graded on active participation/engagement

GRADING
- If you attend every class and do your assigned work, you should receive an A

PERSONAL COMMENTS
- The final is an absolute blast. We took the entire 2.5 hours or so. Hands-down one of my best experiences at UCLA
- Professor Blaisdell was always quick to respond to questions both in and out of class
- There's a week on dog cognition and it was lit
- 12/10 recommend. I actually remember content from this class after spring break, which is a rarity. Goes to show how deep of an impression it was.

If you do the work for this class, you should get an A. You do have to go to class each week (is part of the grade). Essentially, you will be put into a group of 3-4 students and you will have to do 2 presentations with them on 2 articles that the professor assigns you. There were 10 presentation groups total and each did 2, and for each presentation you watched (so all presentations other than your own ones), you had to write a write-up about what the presentation was on as well as the strengths and weaknesses of that presentation. I'm not sure if he really grades these, more so just if you do them and put some effort into them, but these definitely got a bit annoying when you had to submit 2-4 write-ups each week (but there's no exams in the class, so I definitely understand that he has to assign some stuff). During finals week, the class takes place in a final debate (worth 20% of your grade) on 2 topics the professor tells you about on the last lecture. Seriously, the A in this class is yours to lose. If you are willing to do the work and go to class and prepare somewhat for the debate, you should be fine. Professor Blaisdell is so kind and is super knowledgeable and passionate about this subject. I HIGHLY recommend this class. It was interesting to learn about animal cognition and to be a part of such a small class (~30 students). It was also nice to just have a class without exams that I had to worry about. Thanks Prof. Blaisdell for being an absolute gem of a professor! Great class!