{"id":28,"date":"2018-01-17T06:29:12","date_gmt":"2018-01-17T06:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-cognitive-science\/concentration\/"},"modified":"2024-05-23T11:44:58","modified_gmt":"2024-05-23T16:44:58","slug":"concentration","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/cognitive-science\/concentration\/","title":{"rendered":"Concentration"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\n\n Cognitive Science Concentration <\/a> \n\n<\/p>\n\n

Cognitive science is the study of how knowledge is acquired, stored, represented, and used by intelligent systems, both natural and artificial. Over the past 50 years, the study of cognition has developed into an interdisciplinary science by synthesizing aspects of computer science, linguistics, philosophy, and psychology, and is concerned with topics such as memory, decision-making, problem solving, and language comprehension. More recently, the field has developed strong links to neuroscience, behavioral economics, and other disciplines. Because the field developed as an interdisciplinary science, it represents the best aspects of the Liberal Arts and requires students to utilize concepts and techniques that emerge from a broad knowledge base of a variety of related fields.<\/p>

The Cognitive Science concentration at Macalester exposes students to scientific studies of (the) mind and other intelligent systems from a variety of academic disciplines. The core of the concentration consists of rigorous coursework on the nature of such systems from the perspective of Philosophy, Psychology, Computer Science, Linguistics and Economics.<\/p>\n\n\n

Cognitive Science Concentration<\/h2>\n \n

Structure of the Concentration<\/h3>

The concentration requires one statistics course, six content courses from the categories described below, and a poster presentation at the annual Cognitive Science Poster Session. To ensure distinction between the concentration and the student's major, at least four courses must be independent of the student's major. In addition, no more than three courses can be drawn from any one department, and at least three content courses must be at the 200-level or above. When appropriate, students may propose to meet their concentration objectives by taking other courses, including those offered at other institutions or abroad. In all situations, students are strongly encouraged to seek the advice of a steering committee member in selecting a coherent set of courses that meet their educational goals and complement their major. Students should also consult with a steering committee member regarding the contents and scheduling of their poster presentation. Courses marked with an asterisk (*) include projects that would be appropriate to present as posters. Other courses in the concentration may also include projects that would be appropriate, and students should inquire if they would like more information about a particular course.<\/p>

Statistics course (one)<\/h3>

One of the following is required for the concentration:\nGEOG 278 - Statistical Research Methods in Geography<\/a> \nSTAT 155 - Introduction to Statistical Modeling<\/a> \nPOLI 269 - Empirical Research Methods<\/a> \nPSYC 201 - Research in Psychology I<\/a> \nSOCI 269 - Social Science Inquiry<\/a> <\/p>

Content Courses (six total)<\/h3>

A. Two courses that are primarily about ways of understanding cognitive systems:<\/p>

ECON 490 - Behavioral and Experimental Economics Capstone<\/a> *\nEDUC 220 - Educational Psychology<\/a> \nLING 208 - The Human Voice<\/a> *\nPHIL 213 - Philosophy of Mind<\/a> *\nPHIL 315 - Contemporary Epistemology<\/a> *\nPSYC 242 - Cognitive Psychology<\/a> \nPSYC 244 - Cognitive Neuroscience<\/a>\nPSYC 246 - Exploring Sensation and Perception<\/a> \nPSYC 385 - Mind Reading: Understanding Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging<\/a> *<\/p>

B. Two courses that are substantially related to cognition:<\/p>

COMP 480 - Bodies\/Minds: AI Robotics<\/a> *\nCOMP 484 - Introduction to Artificial Intelligence<\/a> *\nPHIL 311 - Philosophy of Language<\/a> \nPHIL 309 - Philosophy of Mathematics<\/a> \nPSYC 100 - Introduction to Psychology<\/a> \nPSYC 342 - Intelligence<\/a> \nPSYC 377 - Moral Psychology<\/a> *\nPSYC 378 - Psychology of Language<\/a> *\nPSYC 450 - Research in Hemisphere Asymmetries<\/a> *<\/p>

C. Two courses that provide rich examples, background knowledge or skills, or analytical frameworks that enrich the understanding of cognitive science (Section A or B courses can be substituted for Section C courses):<\/p>

COMP 112 - Introduction to Data Science<\/a> \nCOMP 123 - Core Concepts in Computer Science<\/a> \nCOMP 361 - Theory of Computation<\/a>\nCOMP 364 - Human-Computer Interaction<\/a>\nCOMP 440 - Collective Intelligence<\/a> *\nECON 119 - Principles of Economics<\/a> \nECON 361 - Intermediate Microeconomic Analysis<\/a> \nENGL 260 - Science Fiction<\/a> \nLING 100 - Introduction to Linguistics<\/a> \nPHIL 110 - Critical Thinking<\/a> \nPHIL 111 - Introduction to Symbolic Logic<\/a> \nPHIL 201 - Modern Philosophy<\/a> \nPHIL 225 - Digital Ethics<\/a> \nPHIL 226 - Animal Ethics<\/a> \nPHIL 310 - Philosophy of Science<\/a> \nPHIL 313 - Advanced Symbolic Logic<\/a> \nPHIL 314 - Contemporary Metaphysics<\/a> \nPSYC 254 - Social Psychology<\/a> <\/p>

Poster Presentation at Cognitive Science Poster Session<\/h3>

The Cognitive Science Poster Session will be held annually during the spring semester and will provide an opportunity for students to present their work in cognitive science as well as hear about their peers' work. Students will be required to present a poster describing a completed cognitive science project during at least one of these annual sessions. The project will be based on work completed for a class or independent study, and the poster will describe the project and how it fits into the larger discipline of cognitive science. Students will typically present their poster during the senior year, although it is possible that some situations would warrant presenting during the junior year. As noted above, all students will consult with a steering committee member regarding the contents and scheduling of their poster presentation. In addition, all concentrators will be encouraged to attend the poster session every year, even when they are not presenting.<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-28","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/cognitive-science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/28","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/cognitive-science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/cognitive-science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/cognitive-science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/cognitive-science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/cognitive-science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/28\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":147,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/cognitive-science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/28\/revisions\/147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/cognitive-science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}