MA Honours in Cognitive Science (C850)

Cognitive science studies how the mind works: it investigates human cognitive functions such as perception and action, memory and learning, language and communication, reasoning and problem solving.

Cognitive scientists carry out experiments to find out more about these cognitive functions. A typical experiment on language, for example, would ask participants to read a text while their eye-movements are being recorded using a special device. Eye-movement data provide information about which parts of text are difficult to understand, allowing us to draw conclusion about how we are reading works. Cognitive scientists take such data and construct computational models of the underlying mental and brain processes.

A head-mounted eye-tracker is a device that makes it possible to record eye-movements during reading with high accuracy.

Such computational models help us understand the cognitive functions they are simulating. For the first time in the long history of the study of the mind, mental and brain processes can be cashed out as explicit computations, though very different kinds of computations than those performed by artificial computers. An example is a neural network model that simulates the eye-movements that people make while reading. Such models can also lead to practical applications, e.g., computer systems that understand language.

What makes cognitive science different from psychology is that cognitive science is a highly interdisciplinary enterprise which also draws on methods and insights from artificial intelligence, linguistics, neuroscience, and philosophy. This makes it a versatile and intellectually stimulating subject to study.

What is special about the Edinburgh degree programme

Edinburgh has internationally recognised strengths in all the component disciplines of cognitive science, with research focusing on language and communication, robotics and learning, neural computation, and philosophy of mind. As a student you will acquire a broad background in all these areas. At the same time, the degree allows a great deal of choice (in particular in years 3 and 4), so that you can specialise in the areas that interest you.