On certain Thursday nights during the year, 202 Uris Hall is filled with the smell of pizza (that's free) and the sound of someone screaming -- or laughing, depending on the film being shown.

In 2007, Julie Simmons-Lynch, program manager for Cornell's Cognitive Science Program, launched "Sprocket," a film series intended to spark interest in cognitive science. The carefully chosen movies are accompanied by free pizza, soda and a lively discussion.

"We've run films as diverse as 'A Clockwork Orange,' Woody Allen's 'Sleeper' and [Akira Kurosawa's] 'Rashomon,'" said Simmons-Lynch. "Whatever the film, it always has some connection to cognitive science. Psychology, philosophy and artificial intelligence are the most popular hooks." The department maintains a collection of the Sprocket films, which are available for classroom use.

"We have about 10 people who come almost every time, but the audience number varies widely. We never know if we'll have six or 60," said Simmons-Lynch, who orders enough pizzas to ensure that no one will go hungry.

Jeff Hancock and Morten Christiansen, co-directors of the Cognitive Science Program, often lead the 15-20 minute discussions that follow the films; graduate students in the psychology department also lead.

Sometimes discussion leaders present slides to illustrate an aspect of cognitive science touched on in the movie, said Christiansen. For example, "Until the End of the World" featured a machine that enabled people to see their dreams as a kind of movie; after the film, he showed graphs from a recent neuroscience study that showed it was possible to re-create what people were looking at from their brain activity.

Although Sprocket was initially targeted at cognitive science undergraduate minors, the audience now includes faculty, staff and students from across the university. "Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary study of the mind as a thinking machine, so it intersects with many different disciplines," explained Christiansen. "We have some fun discussions."

Judy Thoroughman, a staff member in the mechanical and aerospace engineering department, has been coming to Sprocket for about three years. "I was a human development major," she said, "but although cognitive science is my area of interest, I don't get it in my day job, so Sprocket is fun for me."

Another frequent attendee is Allen Hurst, a graduate student in the field of mechanical engineering. "Sprocket offers a different way to analyze movies," he said. "It's helpful to see things from a different viewpoint."

Christiansen said that visiting professors have been very impressed by Sprocket. "They're eager to duplicate the program at their universities."

In "Mr. Nobody," the Dec. 1 film and a 2010 Sundance winner, Nemo Nobody, the oldest man on Earth, recalls the possible lives he might have lived, depending on what choices he made. The director leaves unresolved which of the many possibilities was Nobody's actual life.

Christiansen introduced the discussion by noting that the movie touched on existentialism, the quantum many worlds theory and Plato's idea that we're born knowing everything but have to rediscover it.

Ithaca resident Carl Frederick said he found the movie pompous and self-indulgent. "But," he added, "even though it's not my kind of film I thought it was a very clever choice."

To reach the broader community in 2010, Simmons-Lynch launched a Sprocket and Ithaca Motion Picture Project co-sponsorship of the Ithaca premiere of "The Woodmans" at Cinemapolis. The premiere featured the film's director, as well as a question-and-answer period with Harry Segal, senior lecturer in psychology, and Jean Locey, art professor.

Linda B. Glaser is staff writer for the College of Arts and Sciences.