Major

Cognitive science is the cross-disciplinary study of how the mind works, with a focus on perception, reasoning, memory, attention, language, decision-making, motor control, and problem solving. It draws on tools and ideas from psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, economics, computer science, and philosophy. The major requirements are designed to provide breadth in the affiliated disciplines and depth in the student’s chosen area of specialization. 

A major in Cognitive Science consists of seven required courses and four electives in a chosen area of specialization culminating in the senior capstone. The minimum number of courses is 13 and the minimum number of points is 39.

Required courses (7 classes)

• COGS UN1001 Introduction to Cognitive Science
• One course in each of four areas: psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, and linguistics.
• Two courses in a fifth area: mathematical and computational methods. These two courses must be selected in consultation with the program director to make sure they aren’t redundant. 
• Please see below for the lists of approved courses in each area.

Area of Specialization and Electives (four classes)

Students must choose an area of specialization when they declare the major and choose four electives to build expertise in that area.

• Possible areas of specialization include: spatial learning, musicality, consciousness, emotion, dynamic semantics, natural language processing, talker recognition, computer vision, audiovisual integration, decision science, and neuroeconomics.
• The choice of specialization is flexible; there is not a predefined list. This is an opportunity for students to be creative; a student who has ideas about a new specialization that they would like to pursue may do so with the approval of the program director.
• Although there is no predefined list, each student’s area of specialization and choice of electives must be approved by the program director, and there must be at least one faculty member affiliated with the program who has expertise in the student’s chosen area. 
• The program director will consult with a faculty member who has expertise in the student’s area of specialization to ensure that the student’s electives will provide sufficient preparation for the senior project.
• Please see below for a list of courses that students might want to consider as possible electives (depending upon their specialization), but please note that this list is not definitive. Any Barnard or Columbia (or approved transfer) course that builds expertise in the student's area of specialization may be counted as an elective with the approval of the program director. 

Senior Capstone

Students may fulfill the Senior Capstone requirement in two ways: with a year-long senior project, or by taking two additional advanced courses. 

• The senior project is a year-long project in a student’s area of specialization under the supervision of a chosen advisor. The project could be an experiment or a paper.
  • Students who do senior projects must register for both COGS UN3903 Senior Project (3 points) and COGS UN3901 Senior Project Seminar (1 point) in the fall and COGS UN3904 Senior Project (3 points) and COGS UN3902 Senior Project Seminar (1 point) in the spring (8 points total).  
  • The Senior Project Seminar is an opportunity for students to present their projects to each other.
• While a year-long project is recommended, students may also satisfy the senior capstone requirement by taking two advanced courses, at least one of which must include a significant paper or project. The courses must be chosen in consultation with the program director and must be related to the student’s area of specialization. Both courses should be at the 3000-level or above.

Policies and Procedures

• You should take COGS UN1001 Introduction to Cognitive Science before choosing your specialization.
   
• After you have taken COGS UN1001 Introduction to Cognitive Science and after you have declared your major, please submit the Specialization and Electives Form. After you complete the form your response will be emailed to you.  Please forward that email to the Program Director, Professor John Morrison, at jmorriso@barnard.edu and copy Maia Bernstein at mbernste@barnard.edu. Professor Morrison will respond with either approval or suggestions for alternatives; he’ll copy Maia on his response so she can keep track of what’s been approved.
   
• You may need to submit the Specialization and Electives Form several times as your interests solidify and you find out which courses are offered each semester: that is fine!  Just please re-submit the form if and when your plans change.  
   
• If you want to count a course from another institution (transfer, study abroad, or summer course at another institution) for one of the five area requirements (psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, linguistics, and mathematical and computational methods) then please submit the Transfer and Study Abroad Credit Approval Form; please then email the syllabus for the course as a PDF attachment to Maia Bernstein at mbernste@barnard.edu .
  • Please note that the course must have already been approved by your school (BC, CC, or GS) to count towards your degree requirements before it can be considered for your Cognitive Science major requirements. 
  • Please note that a maximum of four transfer courses may be counted towards the Cognitive Science major.
• If you want to count a course from another institution as an elective, then please list it on your Specialization and Electives Form AND attach a PDF of the syllabus for the course when you email the form to Professor Morrison. 
   
• Please submit the Capstone Requirements Form in March of your junior year to tell us your plans for your senior capstone requirement: either the details of your senior project, or the two additional advanced courses you plan to take.
  • If you are doing a senior project, you must register for your advisor’s section of COGS UN3903 Senior Project (fall) and COGS UN3904 Senior Project (spring).  If your advisor cannot be the instructor of record for some reason (for instance, if your advisor is at the medical school), then you may register for the Program Director’s section. 
  • If you are doing a senior project you must also register for COGS UN3901 Senior Project Seminar (fall) and COGS UN3902 Senior Project Seminar (spring). 
     
• Please submit the Major Requirements Form for the first time in October of your senior year so that we can confirm you’re on track to graduate. 
   
• Please submit the Major Requirements Form a SECOND TIME in February of your senior year, after your last semester registration is finalized. You may have taken multiple courses which could count towards the same requirement and we’ll need to know exactly which course you want to count for which requirement when we certify you for graduation.  Please note that the courses that you list on the form to count towards your major are the courses we will include when we calculate your major GPA (which is taken into consideration for recommendations on Departmental Honors). 

Required courses:

• COGS UN1001 Introduction to Cognitive Science.
• One course in each of four areas: psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, and linguistics.
• Two courses in a fifth area: mathematical and computational methods.  These two courses must be selected in consultation with the program director to make sure they aren’t redundant. 

Please see below for the lists of approved courses in each area. 

Electives:

Please note that the list of possible electives below is just to give you ideas. Whether or not you can count a particular course as an elective depends upon your area of specialization.  Any course that builds expertise in your area of specialization may be counted as an elective with the program director’s approval, regardless of whether it is listed below; a course that does not build expertise in your area may not be counted as an elective even if it is listed below.