Cognitive Science
Graduate Interdisciplinary Graduate Program
Students with an interest in cognitive science may pursue study and research in the area by enrolling in the Ph.D. program of one of the cooperating disciplines (e.g., Computer Science, Linguistics, Philosophy, Psychology, Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences), and choosing Cognitive Science as their minor area.
The Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Cognitive Science comprises more than 50 faculty members from over a dozen departments. The list of participating faculty members can be found at the "Faculty" button above.
Arizona programs offer particular strength in several areas of cognitive science, including: learning and memory, natural language processing, judgment and decision-making, visual cognition, and speech perception.
Cognitive Science Minor Requirements
The minor in Cognitive Science consists of 9 units. The two courses (6 credits) listed under the "Breadth Requirement" heading below are required. The other course can be any of the courses listed under the "Graduate Courses Available for the Ph.D. Minor."
The Program Director can approve course substitutions.
Declaring the Minor
After selecting a tentative slate of courses, students must complete a Doctoral Plan of Study, declaring Cognitive Science as their Ph.D. minor. This requires completion and submission of the form submitted via the GradPath forms system in UAccess. (New users should begin with the "FAQs for Students" found on the GradPath webpage.)
The form will be routed to the student's major department head, major advisor, the Director of Cognitive Science, and an advisor representing Cognitive Science. The approved Doctoral Plan of Study must be filed with the Graduate College before a student is officially a Cognitive Science minor. The Graduate College recommends filing the Plan of Study in the student's third semester, but Cognitive Science recommends that it be filed as early in the student's graduate career as possible. Note that it is easy to change the slate of courses when final paperwork for the Ph.D. is filed. Therefore, although students can declare Cognitive Science as their minor at any time during their graduate studies, there is no reason not to file with the Graduate College early in a student's graduate career. Students who file with the Graduate College have access to a variety of benefits, including the ability to apply for Cognitive Science fellowships and travel funds (see Student Support, below).
Student Support
Students in the cooperating programs are supported by means of combinations of teaching and research assistantships, special fellowships, tuition and fee waivers. Travel funds for Cognitive Science students who are presenting their work at a conference are available on an ongoing basis. To request travel funds, email Dr. Jonathan Tullis at tullis@arizona.edu. As declared Cognitive Science minors, students are also eligible for awards given by the UA Graduate Interdisciplinary Programs (gidp.arizona.edu/,)such as the Herbert E Carter Travel Award and the Raphael and Jolene Gruener Research Travel Award.
Breadth Requirement:
(1) Introduction to Cognitive Science (COGS 517, 3 credits) is required for all Cognitive Science minors who declare the minor unless the student arranges a substitution with the Director of Cognitive Science. COGS 517 is offered every other year, in the spring semester. Students are encouraged to take it in their first or second year of graduate study to promote a community of interdisciplinary students who can benefit from interacting with each other.
(2) Cognitive Science Colloquium (COGS 595, 1 credit per semester, for three semesters). Students who are admitted for graduate studies at the University of Arizona are required to take 3 semesters of Colloquium credits. Students earn these credits by regularly attending the Cognitive Science Colloquium (Friday, 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.) during the semesters they are enrolled, by joining in at least one student meeting with a speaker after the colloquium, and by writing a commentary on one of the colloquia.
Courses Available for the Ph.D. Minor in Cognitive Science
Cognitive Science Courses
Cognitive Science at the University of Arizona has excellent representation in core areas of the field. The table below lists the courses that can count toward a minor in Cognitive Science. The courses are listed by home department. The columns after the course name list the number of credits, the semester during which the course is typically offered.
COURSE
| CREDITS | WHEN TAUGHT |
| COGS 500-Computing for the Research Lab | 3 | Spring |
| COGS 505-Neuroimaging Theory, Methods, and Applications | 3 | Spring |
| COGS 510-Computing for Neuroimagers | 3 | Fall |
| COGS 512-Experience in Neuroimaging Study Design and Analysis | 3 | Spring |
| COGS 517-Introduction to Cognitive Science | 3 | Spring |
| COGS 595-Colloquium | 1 | Fall & Spring |
| COGS 599-Independent Study | 1-3 | Fall & Spring |
| COGS 696E-Master Seminar in Cognitive Science | 3 | Fall |
| COGS 699-Independent Study | 1-3 | Fall & Spring |
| ANTH 583-Sociolinguistics | 3 | Fall |
| CSC 573-Theory of Computation | 3 | Spring |
| CSC 577-Introduction to Computer Vision | 3 | Spring |
| CSC 645-Advanced Topics in Algorithm Analysis | 3 | Fall & Spring |
| ECE 508-Agent-based Simulation | 3 | Fall |
| ECOL 524-Chance, Purpose & Progress in Evolution & Religion | 1 | Spring |
| ECOL 573-Topics in Behavioral Ecology | 3 | Spring |
| ECOL 4587R-Animal Behavior | 3 | Fall |
| ECOL 596G-Complex Systems: Networks & Self-organization in Biology | 2 | Fall |
| ECOL 600A-Fundamentals of Evolution | 3 | Fall & Spring |
| EDPSYCH 615B-Self-Regulated Learning | 3 | Fall |
| ISTA 510-Bayesian Modeling and Inference | 3 | Spring |
| ISTA 521-Introduction to Machine Learning | 3 | Fall |
| ISTA 550-Artificial Intelligence | 3 | Spring |
| LING 501-Formal Foundations of Linguistics | 3 | Fall |
| LING 503-Foundations of Syntactic Theory | 3 | Fall |
| LING 504-Advanced Syntactic Theory | 3 | Spring |
| LING 505-Theories of Grammar | 3 | Spring |
| LING 506-Major Works in Syntactic Theory | 3 | Spring |
| LING 510-Foundations of Phonological Theory I | 3 | Fall |
| LING 514-Foundations of Phonological Theory II | 3 | Spring |
| LING 515-Phonological Phonetics | 3 | Fall |
| LING 522-Lexical Semantics | 3 | Spring |
| LING 432/532-Psychology of Language | 3 | Fall & Spring |
| LING 533-Theories of Language Development | 3 | Fall |
| LING 535-Morphology | 3 | Fall |
| LING 538-Computational Linguistics | 3 | Fall |
| LING 539-Statistical Natural Language Processing | 3 | Fall & Spring |
| LING 540-The Bilingual Mind | 3 | Spring |
| LING 543-Advanced Language Development | 3 | Fall & Spring |
| LING 548-Auditory and Visual Word Recognition and Lexical Processing | 3 | Spring |
| LING 549A-Biolinguistics | 3 | Fall |
| LING 564-Formal Semantics | 3 | Fall |
| LING 578-Speech Technology | 3 | Spring |
| LING 581-Advanced Computational Linguistics | 3 | Spring |
| LING 596D-Topics in Linguistics and Philosophy | 3 | Spring |
| LING 632-Psychological and Linguistic Approaches to Language | 3 | Spring |
| LING 696D-Topics in Language Acquisition and Psycholinguistics | 3 | Spring |
| LING 696F-Topics in Psycholinguistics and Language Processing | 3 | Fall & Spring |
| LING 696G-Topics in Computational Linguistics | 3 | Fall & Spring |
| MGMT 600-Behavioral Science theory and Method in Management | 3 | Fall |
| MGMT 696D-Judgment and Decision Making | 3 | Spring |
| NRSC 512-Reverse-Engineering the Fly | 3 | Fall |
| NURS 647-Human Factors in Health Information Technology | 3 | Fall |
| PHIL 501A-Symbolic Logic | 3 | Fall |
| PHIL 539-Decision Theory | 3 | Fall & Spring |
| PHIL 541-Theory of Knowledge | 3 | Fall & Spring |
| PHIL 542-Knowledge and Cognition | 3 | Fall |
| PHIL 550-Philosophy of Mind | 3 | Fall & Spring |
| PHIL 551-Philosophy and Psychology | 3 | Fall & Spring |
| PHIL 555-Philosophy and Artificial Intelligence | 3 | Fall & Spring |
| PHIL 563-Philosophy of Language | 3 | Fall & Spring |
| PHIL 565-Pragmatics | 3 | Spring |
| PHIL 596K-Philosophy of Mind | 3 | Fall & Spring |
| PHIL 596L-Philosophy of Language | 3 | Fall & Spring |
| PHIL 596V-Philosophy and Cognitive Science | 3 | Fall & Spring |
| PSY 501A-Principles of Psychophysiology | 3 | Fall & Spring |
| PSY 501B-Psychophysiology Lab | 1 | Fall & Spring |
| PSY 502-Principles of Neuroanatomy | 4 | Spring |
| PSY 503C-Introduction to Computational Neuroscience | 3 | Fall |
| PSY 504A-Human Brain-Behavior Relationships | 3 | Fall |
| PSY 506A-Neural Encoding: Memory and Comprehension of Mammals | 3 | Fall |
| PSY 506B-Foundations of Cognitive Psychology | 3 | Fall & Spring |
| PSY 524-Gerontology: A Multidisciplinary Perspective | 3 | Fall |
| PSY 526-Advanced Human Memory | 3 | Fall |
| PSY 528-Cognitive Neuroscience | 3 | Fall & Spring |
| PSY 530-Neural Basis of Language | 3 | Fall |
| PSY 536-Visual Cognition | 3 | Fall & Spring |
| PSY 542-Topics in Psycholinguistics | 3 | Fall & Spring |
| PSY 543-Advanced Language Development | 3 | Fall & Spring |
| PSY 544A-Computational Cognitive Neuroscience | 4 | Spring |
| PSY 596F-Cognitive Psychology | 3 | Fall & Spring |
| SLHS 520-Cognitive Neuroscience of Hearing | 3 | Fall |
| SLHS 541-Language Acquisition | 3 | Spring |
| SLHS 543-Adult Language Disorders: TBI and Dementia | 3 | Spring |
| SLHS 544-Adult Language Disorders: Aphasia and Right Hemisphere Disorders | 3 | Fall |
| SLHS 555-Developmental Language Disorders | 3 | Fall |
| SLHS 568-Speech Perception | 3 | Spring |