Why Cogsci?

Psychology is a crucial part of Cognitive Science, but it offers only one perspective. A defining feature of Cognitive Science is that it is interdisciplinary, drawing from not only Psychology, but also Anthropology, Computer Science, Linguistics, Neuroscience, and Philosophy. Students considering a major in Cognitive Science should have a real interest in understanding how these different disciplines can each contribute to our understanding of the mind and information processing.

We are living through a moment in human history when questions about the nature of the mind have moved to the center of public life. What is intelligence? What makes humans different from the artificial systems we are building? What do we lose, and what do we gain, as machines take over the knowledge-based work that we once thought was uniquely human? These are cognitive science questions. And they are suddenly among the most urgent questions of our time.

But first, ask yourself this question: Do you love psychology because you want to understand people, or because you want to understand mental processes? Wanting to understand people (their emotions, social relationships, and mental health) points toward Psychology. Wanting to understand the nature of mental processes (perception, attention, memory, language, reasoning) and what they look like in brains and machines points toward cognitive science. The two majors overlap, but they tend to focus on genuinely different questions. Make sure you know which questions excite you most!

Students intending to major in Cognitive Science should take the three core courses as early as possible.

• PSYC 100: Introduction to Psychological Science
• PSYC 200: Methods and Analyses
• CGSC 299: Cognitive Science

Several courses that count toward the breadth requirement of the major and/or count as electives can be taken without any prerequisites. Some of these include:

• ANTH 101: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
• CMSC 101: AI and the Human Mind
• CMSC 105: Elementary Programming
• CMSC 150: Introduction to Computing
• LING 203: Introductory Linguistics
• PHIL 251: Elementary Symbolic Logic 

Students should be aware of the prerequisites that are required for certain upper-level courses in the major

• Biology: Several 300-level Biology courses count as optional electives for the Cognitive Science major. The prerequisites for these courses include: BIOL 199 (or BIOL 192), CHEM 141 (or CHEM 192), BIOL 200, and BIOL 202.
  
  
• Computer Science: Several 300-level Computer Science courses count as optional electives for the Cognitive Science major. They all require at least CMSC 150 and CMSC 221 as prerequisites. Some require additional prerequisites as well. Please review the major requirements (insert link that goes to major requirements page) for more information.
• Psychology: All cognitive science majors must take either PSYC 331 or PSYC 441. Both of these courses require PSYC 100 and PSYC 200 as prerequisites. Several of other 300- or 400-level PSYC courses count as optional electives for the Cognitive Science major. All of these require PSYC 100 and PYSC 200 as prerequisites.