Program Overview

How do brain processes enable people to think?
Is the human mind really like a computer?
Can thinking be separated from emotions?
Why did Einstein say he did his most creative thinking in images?
Does consciousness continue after death?

These are just a few of the questions you'll be able to explore in our Cognitive Science program. Cognitive Science is the interdisciplinary study of mind and intelligence. It's an exciting, rapidly-changing field, spurred on by new developments in neuroscience, psychology, computer science, engineering, anthropology, linguistics, and philosophy.

The main theoretical aim of Cognitive Science is to understand the full range of human thinking, including perception, problem solving, decision making, learning, language, and emotion. You'll learn how insights from many fields are increasing knowledge about how the mind works.

You'll also explore the practical applications of Cognitive Science. To design a successful game, usable machine, or productive organization, you need to know how people see, communicate, understand, and learn. And knowing how minds think alike can help us to build more intelligent computers.

Cognitive Science is for you if...

you want to find out more about how the mind works,
you want to learn new methods and applications in computing,
you want to expand your horizons by debating questions such as whether emotions make us more or less intelligent and whether machines can actually think.

Whatever your special interest, you can focus on it by combining your major with an option in Cognitive Science. Here are some of the many possible combinations:

Explore new concepts in computing and add an extra dimension to your knowledge of artificial intelligence, by adding courses in Cognitive Science to a program in Computer Science.
Interested in taking a scientific approach to concepts such as the nature of consciousness and identity? Combine a Philosophy program with courses in Cognitive Science.
Want to learn how computational theories and neural models aid in the study of the human mind? Add courses in Cognitive Science to a program in Psychology.
Fascinated by where great art comes from and how we use images to convey ideas? Consider adding Cognitive Science courses to a program in Fine Arts.
Want to know what actually goes on when people read and how you can use words to communicate more effectively? Combine a program in Rhetoric and Professional Writing with courses in Cognitive Science.

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Cognitive Science

Program Overview

Cognitive Science is for you if...