Cognitive Science examines different approaches to questions concerning:
- The nature of mind
- The representation of knowledge
- The acquisition, comprehension, and production of language
- The development of learning and intelligence
- The use of information to draw inferences and make decisions
- The assessment of “goodness of fit” between purportedly similar systems (e.g., the computer and the mind).
Exploration of some or all of these questions has been and is being undertaken in such disciplines as cognitive psychology, linguistics, philosophy, artificial intelligence, robotics, neuroscience, education, social cognition, cognitive anthropology, behavioral economics, and others.
The major and the minor in Cognitive Science therefore represent a formal means of bringing together students and faculty in different disciplines who share common interests. We seek to enrich the view provided by any one discipline through an exploration of the methodologies of others.