The Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Program in Cognitive Science
Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary study of the mind and deals with the nature of perception, motor organization, memory, language, thinking, consciousness, and learning and development. It investigates these topics from a number of methodological perspectives, including behavioral evidence for how these systems operate and formal, symbolic, and biological evidence on the computational and neural machinery that underlies them.
Research on these topics comes centrally from several traditionally distinct fields: experimental psychology, computer science, linguistics, philosophy, and neuroscience. Other relevant disciplines— biology, anthropology, economics, decision sciences, and education—are also part of this burgeoning field.
About Cognitive Science
For centuries, philosophers and scientists of many stripes have sought to understand the relationship between the brain and mind, sometimes described as the hardest problem in science. How is it that the human brain, three pounds of matter, supports so many faculties that distinguish our species from all other life forms: consciousness, language, science, mathematics, morality, music, art, and more? We need good theories of the brain, the mind, and of the link between them, the mind/brain.
On the brain side, one of the most striking developments of the last few decades has been the growth of neuroscience. The Society for Neuroscience was formed forty years ago and now has 43,000 members; its annual meetings attract 35,000 participants every November. Georgetown has participated in this development, with one of the earliest and strongest Ph.D. programs in the field. Indeed, the National Research Council in its latest survey of Ph.D. programs ranked our Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience (IPN) as the highest of Georgetown’s Ph.D. programs.
On the mind side, cognitive science is the interdisciplinary study of the mind and deals with the nature of perception, motor organization, memory, language, thinking, consciousness, and learning and development. It investigates these topics from a number of methodological perspectives, including behavioral evidence for how these systems operate and formal, symbolic, and biological evidence on the computational and neural machinery that underlies them. Research on these topics comes centrally from several traditionally distinct fields: experimental psychology, computer science, linguistics, philosophy, and neuroscience. Other relevant disciplines – biology, anthropology, economics, decision sciences, and education – are also part of this burgeoning field.
The Cognitive Science Society was formed in 1979, just after the Society for Neuroscience. In recent years, the interdisciplinary cognitive sciences have grown in stature and prominence, both in the US and around the world. There is a renamed section of the National Academy of Sciences and a new National Research Council Board that cover these areas; virtually all major research universities offer graduate and postdoctoral programs in cognitive science and cognitive neuroscience, with variation in the character of the programs depending on the interdisciplinary strengths of each university.
Academics
Georgetown University’s Interdisciplinary Program in Cognitive Science offers an undergraduate minor in cognitive science, and courses open to all students. Our faculty come from several departments throughout the Main Campus, the Medical Center, and the Law Center. We have close ties with the Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, a Ph.D. program based at the Medical Center. We encourage undergraduate students to learn about faculty and graduate student research projects at Georgetown and to work as partners in that research.
Learn More About Our MinorAbout the Program Director
Dr. Kris Cook is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Linguistics and the Director of the Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Program in Cognitive Science. Her primary research interests include applied psycholinguistics, communication and technology, multilingualism in romantic relationships and families, as well as cognitive and affective factors in second language learning.