This description was prepared in February of 2000 for the Undergraduate Academic Bulletin. For the most current description of this major, please see the department or program's web site. It combines the application of approaches from all of these disciplines to the study of language processing, perception, action, learning, concept formation, inference, and other activities of the mind, and the applications of the resulting theories to Information Technology and the study of Artificial Intelligence. The Major Program Minimum requirement 18 c.u.
Cognitive science is the empirical study of intelligent systems.
It is, by its very nature, an interdisciplinary science which combines results from biology, computerscience, linguistics, mathematics, neuroscience, philosophy and psychology. The major in Cognitive Science in the School of Arts and Sciences is designed to introduce students to the core literature of this multifaceted discipline and then allow them to specialize in some subarea of cognitive science. The major is organized around a nine course core curriculum that all students in the major are required to follow. This core of courses will provide a general introduction to the cognitive science canon and provide students with a common foundation upon which they can build a more specialized knowledge. Each student can then follow a nine course track devised in collaboration with his or her faculty advisor.