Program Requirements
The Minor Cognitive Science is intended to allow students in the Faculty of Arts or the Faculty of Science to explore the interdisciplinary study of cognition. The goal is to understand the principles of intelligence with the hope that this will lead to a better understanding of the mind and learning.
Students wishing to complete this Minor should contact the Cognitive Science Program Adviser if there are any questions about the requirements at /science/undergraduate/advice/sousa.
Required Course (3 credits)
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PSYC 433 Cognitive Science (3 credits)
Overview
Psychology : The multi-disciplinary study of cognitive science, exploring the computer metaphor of the mind as an information-processing system. Focus on levels of analysis, symbolic modeling, Turing machines, neural networks, as applied to topics such as reasoning, vision, decision-making, and consciousness.
Terms: Winter 2025
Instructors: Turgeon, Krystle-Lee (Winter)
Complementary Courses (21 credits)
Note:
Students must take a minimum of 6 credits at the 400 to 500 level.
Students may not take any courses from their home department(s).
Students complete a minimum of 9 credits each in two areas.
Computer Science and Mathematics
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COMP 206 Introduction to Software Systems (3 credits)
Overview
Computer Science (Sci) : Comprehensive overview of programming in C, use of system calls and libraries, debugging and testing of code; use of developmental tools like make, version control systems.
Terms: Fall 2024, Winter 2025
Instructors: Errington, Jacob (Fall) Vybihal, Joseph P; Kopinsky, Max (Winter)
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COMP 230 Logic and Computability (3 credits)
Overview
Computer Science (Sci) : Propositional Logic, predicate calculus, proof systems, computability Turing machines, Church-Turing thesis, unsolvable problems, completeness, incompleteness, Tarski semantics, uses and misuses of Gödel's theorem.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
3 hours
Prerequisite: CEGEP level mathematics.
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COMP 250 Introduction to Computer Science (3 credits)
Overview
Computer Science (Sci) : Mathematical tools (binary numbers, induction,recurrence relations, asymptotic complexity,establishing correctness of programs). Datastructures (arrays, stacks, queues, linked lists,trees, binary trees, binary search trees, heaps,hash tables). Recursive and non-recursivealgorithms (searching and sorting, tree andgraph traversal). Abstract data types. Objectoriented programming in Java (classes andobjects, interfaces, inheritance). Selected topics.
Terms: Fall 2024, Winter 2025
Instructors: Alberini, Giulia (Fall) Alberini, Giulia (Winter)
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COMP 251 Algorithms and Data Structures (3 credits)
Overview
Computer Science (Sci) : Introduction to algorithm design and analysis. Graph algorithms, greedy algorithms, data structures, dynamic programming, maximum flows.
Terms: Fall 2024, Winter 2025
Instructors: Alberini, Giulia; Henderson, William (Fall) Becerra, David (Winter)
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COMP 302 Programming Languages and Paradigms (3 credits)
Overview
Computer Science (Sci) : Programming language design issues and programming paradigms. Binding and scoping, parameter passing, lambda abstraction, data abstraction, type checking. Functional and logic programming.
Terms: Fall 2024, Winter 2025
Instructors: Pientka, Brigitte (Fall) Errington, Jacob (Winter)
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COMP 330 Theory of Computation (3 credits)
Overview
Computer Science (Sci) : Finite automata, regular languages, context-free languages, push-down automata, models of computation, computability theory, undecidability, reduction techniques.
Terms: Fall 2024, Winter 2025
Instructors: Waldispuhl, Jérôme (Fall) Bérubé-Vallières, Mathieu (Winter)
3 hours
Prerequisite: COMP 251.
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COMP 527 Logic and Computation (3 credits)
Overview
Computer Science (Sci) : Introduction to modern constructive logic, its mathematical properties, and its numerous applications in computer science.
Terms: Winter 2025
Instructors: Pientka, Brigitte (Winter)
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MATH 240 Discrete Structures (3 credits)
Overview
Mathematics & Statistics (Sci) : Introduction to discrete mathematics and applications. Logical reasoning and methods of proof. Elementary number theory and cryptography: prime numbers, modular equations, RSA encryption. Combinatorics: basic enumeration, combinatorial methods, recurrence equations. Graph theory: trees, cycles, planar graphs.
Terms: Fall 2024, Winter 2025
Instructors: Macdonald, Jeremy; Goh, Marcel (Fall) Fortier, Jérôme (Winter)
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MATH 318 Mathematical Logic (3 credits)
Overview
Mathematics & Statistics (Sci) : Propositional logic: truth-tables, formal proof systems, completeness and compactness theorems, Boolean algebras; first-order logic: formal proofs, Gödel's completeness theorem; axiomatic theories; set theory; Cantor's theorem, axiom of choice and Zorn's lemma, Peano arithmetic; Gödel's incompleteness theorem.
Terms: Fall 2024
Instructors: Fortier, Jérôme (Fall)
Linguistics
Any course at the 300, 400 or 500 level from the department of Linguistics, or:
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LING 201 Introduction to Linguistics (3 credits)
Overview
Linguistics : General introduction to linguistics, the scientific study of human language. Covers the core theoretical subfields of linguistics: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. Also provides background on other subfields including sociolinguistics, pragmatics, historical linguistics, linguistic variation, and language acquisition.
Terms: Fall 2024, Winter 2025
Instructors: Munteanu, Andrei (Fall) Bertrand, Anne (Winter)
Fall and Winter
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LING 210 Introduction to Speech Science (3 credits)
Overview
Linguistics : The course covers key concepts of speech science, including phonetics (acoustics, speech perception and production), fundamentals in the study of speech processing, speech development, and speech disorders, and introduces some basic methodologies of the field.
Terms: Fall 2024, Winter 2025, Summer 2025
Instructors: Clayards, Meghan (Fall) Zhai, Weiyi (Winter) Munteanu, Andrei (Summer)
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LING 260 Meaning in Language (3 credits)
Overview
Linguistics : A hands-on introduction to the strategies that natural languages use to convey meaning. Requiring no previous background in linguistics, the course surveys fundamental properties of word and sentence meaning and their interdependence with context. It provides an overview of the grammatical mechanisms that languages employ to construct the literal meanings of sentences from word meanings, explores how meanings are anchored to real life situations, and analyzes how meanings are routinely enriched in context by language users to convey more than what is literally expressed.
Terms: Fall 2024, Winter 2025
Instructors: Schwarz, Bernhard (Fall) Alonso-Ovalle, Luis (Winter)
Philosophy
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PHIL 210 Introduction to Deductive Logic 1 (3 credits)
Overview
Philosophy : An introduction to propositional and predicate logic; formalization of arguments, truth tables, systems of deduction, elementary metaresults, and related topics.
Terms: Fall 2024
Instructors: Hallett, Michael Frank (Fall)
Restriction: Not open to students who are taking or have taken MATH 318
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PHIL 221 Introduction to History and Philosophy of Science 2 (3 credits)
Overview
Philosophy : A survey of the development of modern science since the Eighteenth Century.
Terms: Fall 2024
Instructors: Tal, Eran (Fall)
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PHIL 306 Philosophy of Mind (3 credits)
Overview
Philosophy : A survey of major positions of the mind-body problem, focusing on such questions as: Do we have minds and bodies? Can minds affect bodies? Is mind identical to body? If so, in what sense "identical"? Can physical bodies be conscious.
Terms: Fall 2024
Instructors: Davies, David (Fall)
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PHIL 310 Intermediate Logic (3 credits)
Overview
Philosophy : A second course in Logic. NB. The course will be technical in nature, and some mathematical aptitude is essential. The emphasis is on the expressive properties of standard logical systems, including implications for the philosophy of mathematics. We will study the Completeness of First-Order Logic, then the 'limitative' theorems of Tarski and Gödel.
Terms: Winter 2025
Instructors: Hallett, Michael Frank (Winter)
Prerequisite: PHIL 210 or equivalent
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PHIL 311 Philosophy of Mathematics (3 credits)
Overview
Philosophy : This course provides an historically informed introduction to philosophy of mathematics. It gives the student an overview of prominent issues and arguments, to enable her to follow and discuss contemporary research in philosophy of mathematics.
Terms: Fall 2024
Instructors: Schlimm, Dirk (Fall)
Prerequisite: PHIL 210
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PHIL 341 Philosophy of Science 1 (3 credits)
Overview
Philosophy : A discussion of philosophical problems as they arise in the context of scientific practice and enquiry. Such issues as the philosophical presuppositions of the physical and social sciences, the nature of scientific method and its epistemological implications will be addressed.
Terms: Fall 2024
Instructors: Magal, Oran (Fall)
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PHIL 411 Topics in Philosophy of Logic and Mathematics (3 credits)
Overview
Philosophy : A course focusing on some philosophical issue (e.g., the nature of numbers or the relation of truth to provability) as it arises in the study of mathematics and logic.
Terms: Winter 2025
Instructors: Schlimm, Dirk (Winter)
Prerequisites: PHIL 210 or the equivalent, and one intermediate course in philosophy
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PHIL 415 Philosophy of Language (3 credits)
Overview
Philosophy : An examination of central notions in the philosophy of language (reference, meaning, and truth, e.g.), the puzzles these notions give rise to, and the relevance of these notions to such questions as: What is language? How is communication possible? What is understanding? Is language rule-governed.
Terms: Fall 2024
Instructors: Gillon, Brendan (Fall)
Prerequisites: PHIL 210 or equivalent and one intermediate course in philosophy
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PHIL 441 Philosophy of Science 2 (3 credits)
Overview
Philosophy : An analysis of some key philosophical ideas in science and technology, e.g. problem, explanation, forecast, testability and truth.
Terms: Winter 2025
Instructors: Tal, Eran (Winter)
Prerequisite: PHIL 341 or written permission of the instructor
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PHIL 474 Phenomenology (3 credits)
Overview
Philosophy : A study of phenomenology from a historical and thematic perspective. The course will typically involve the study of central thinkers such as Husserl, Heidegger, or Merleau-Ponty, with an examination of the nature and development of the phenomenological movement.
Terms: Winter 2025
Instructors: Buckley, R Philip (Winter)
Prerequisite: one intermediate course in philosophy
Psychology
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PSYC 212 Perception (3 credits)
Overview
Psychology : Perception is the organization of sensory input into a representation of the environment. Topics include: survey of sensory coding mechanisms (visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, gustatory), object recognition, spatial localization, perceptual constancies and higher level influences.
Terms: Fall 2024, Winter 2025
Instructors: Graham, M. Dean (Fall) Roy, Mathieu (Winter)
Fall 2 Lectures, 1 conference
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PSYC 213 Cognition (3 credits)
Overview
Psychology : Where do thoughts come from? What is the nature of thought, and how does it arise in the mind and the brain? Cognition is the study of human information processing, and we will explore topics such as memory, attention, categorization, decision making, intelligence, philosophy of mind, and the mind-as computer metaphor.
Terms: Fall 2024, Winter 2025
Instructors: Johns, Brendan (Fall) Sheldon, Signy (Winter)
Winter
2 lectures, 1 conference
Prerequisite: One previous course in Psychology.
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PSYC 301 Animal Learning and Theory (3 credits)
Overview
Psychology : Contemporary and historical research and theory on animal learning approached from a behavioural, cognitive and biological perspective. Classical and instrumental conditioning, cognitive learning, and biological constraints. The status and history of North American behaviourism will be discussed and compared with cognitive and other approaches.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
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PSYC 304 Child Development (3 credits)
Overview
Psychology : Psychology of children, covering critical issues, theories, biological underpinnings, experimental methods, and findings in perceptual, cognitive, language, emotional, and social development.
Terms: Fall 2024
Instructors: Krol, Sonia (Fall)
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PSYC 310 Intelligence (3 credits)
Overview
Psychology : Introduction to the evolution and assessment of intelligence. Emphasizes measurement and correlates of the human intellect and the role of environment and heredity in social and race differences in intellectual and adaptive functioning. Evolution of intelligence in vertebrates and other intelligences including practical and emotional intelligence will be covered.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
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PSYC 311 Human Cognition and the Brain (3 credits)
Overview
Psychology : The course is an introduction to the field studying how human cognitive processes, such as perception, attention, language, learning and memory, planning and organization, are related to brain processes. The material covered is primarily based on studies of the effects of different brain lesions on cognition and studies of brain activity in relation to cognitive processes with modern functional neuroimaging methods.
Terms: Fall 2024
Instructors: Masset, Paul (Fall)
Fall
2 lectures; 1 conference
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PSYC 315 Computational Psychology (3 credits)
Overview
Psychology : Application of computational methods to the simulation of psychological phenomena. Comparison of natural and artificial intelligence. Symbolic and neural network techniques. Methods for evaluating simulations.
Terms: Winter 2025
Instructors: Johns, Brendan (Winter)
Fall
Prerequisite: 15 credits in any of Psychology, Cognitive Science, Biology, Mathematics and Statistics, Computer Science, or Neuroscience.
Restriction: Not open to U0 or U1 students.
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PSYC 319 Computational Models - Cognition (3 credits)
Overview
Psychology : Introduction to the purpose, design, and role of computational modeling in the cognitive sciences. Domains examined will include memory, categorization, and language. Focus will be on computational models to attain a better theoretical understanding of human behaviour. New trends, including the use of big data and machine learning.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Restrictions: U2 or above. Restricted to students in Psychology, Linguistics and Cognitive Science.
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PSYC 340 Psychology of Language (3 credits)
Overview
Psychology : A survey of issues in psycholinguistics, focusing on the nature and processing of language (e.g., how we understand speech sounds, words, sentences, and discourse). Also surveyed: language and thought, the biological foundations of language, and first language acquisition.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
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PSYC 410 Special Topics in Neuropsychology (3 credits)
Overview
Psychology : Developments in cognitive neuroscience and cognitive neuropsychiatry via readings from primary sources. Topics include the neural bases of memory, emotion, social cognition and neuropsychiatric diseases. Integrating knowledge from studies in clinical populations and functional neuroimaging studies.
Terms: Winter 2025
Instructors: Ristic, Jelena (Winter)
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PSYC 413 Cognitive Development (3 credits)
Overview
Psychology : In-depth exploration of cognitive development in infants and children including knowledge representation and processing, conceptual development, language development, and theories and principles of cognitive development.
Terms: Fall 2024
Instructors: Onishi, K (Fall)
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PSYC 538 Categorization, Communication and Consciousness (3 credits)
Overview
Psychology : The main challenges that cognitive science faces today, focusing on the capacity to learn sensorimotor categories, to name and describe them verbally, and to transmit them to others, concluding with cognition distributed on the Web.
Terms: Fall 2024
Instructors: Harnad, Stevan (Fall)
Prerequisite(s): Student must have completed a 300 level course in one of the following: Linguistics, Philosophy, Psychology, Computer Science, or Neuroscience.
Restriction(s): Restricted to U2 students or above.
