2026-27 CATALOG YEAR

Introduction

Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary study of how minds work. Its founding vision was to unify the science of biological intelligence with the science of computation—to understand minds by understanding both brains and the machines that model them. That vision is now more vivid than ever. The advent of large language models and other inferential computational systems has placed the science of cognition at the center of one of the most consequential developments in human history. Cognitive science is uniquely positioned as the field that bridges artificial and biological intelligence; and Lawrence’s cognitive science minor is designed to give you the tools to rigorously investigate cognition, whether it occurs in a brain or a machine. 

Students often complete the minor alongside a major in one of the core disciplines of cognitive science—philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, or computer science—or alongside an allied discipline, such as anthropology, economics, political science, or music theory. Students also have the option of expanding the minor into a student-designed major by proposing additional courses and a Senior Experience for approval by the instruction committee (see "student-designed majors" in the catalog).

Students who study cognitive science often go on to graduate study in the field or one of its related disciplines. Other students go on to applied work in fields such as artificial intelligence, natural language processing, or technology design.

 


Requirements for the minor in cognitive science

Requirements for the Minor in Cognitive Science

The minor consists of seven courses organized into three levels: an introductory level, an intermediate level, and electives.

Introductory level (two courses required)

The following two courses are required of all students in the minor and should be completed before advancing to the intermediate level:

  1. COSC 105/PHIL 105: Introduction to Cognitive Science 
  2. DASC 110:  Data Science I

Intermediate Level (two courses required: one from each group, A and B)

Students must complete one course from each of the following two groups. COSC 105/PHIL 105 satisfies the prerequisite for courses in Group A. DASC 110 satisfies the prerequisite for CMSC 208/LING 208/STAT 208. (CMSC 470 and 490 have additional prerequisites beyond courses offered in the cognitive science minor.)  

Group A — Cognitive Neuroscience and Cognitive Psychology (choose one):

  1. PSYC 340 or 342: Cognitive Psychology
  2. PSYC 343: Cognitive Neuroscience

Group B — Computational Methods (choose one):

  1. CMSC 208/LING 208/STAT 208: Statistical Machine Learning
  2. CMSC 470: Artificial Intelligence
  3. CMSC 490: Neural Networks

Elective Courses (three required)

Students must complete three elective courses. At most one of these courses can contribute to any of the student’s majors. At least one must be at the 300 level or above. 

  • PHIL 111: Computation and Cognition
  • LING 150: Introduction to Linguistics
  • EDST 180: The Science of Learning
  • STAT 255: Statistics for Data Science
  • COSC 300: Topics in Cognitive Science
  • COSC 345/ANTH 345/PSYC 345: Distributed Cognition and the Extended Mind
  • PSYC 370: Perception
  • NESC 383: Memory Systems
  • PHIL 405/LING 405: How to Do Things with Words
  • PHIL 410: Philosophy of Mind
  • LING 470: Cognitive Linguistics
  • COSC 545/LING 545/PSYC 545: Gesture Studies
  • NESC 580/BIOL 340: Topics in Neuroscience

Additional courses from the intermediate level above may also count toward the elective requirement.


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