Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence

What you will learn

This course allows you to study the cognitive processes and representations underlying human thought, knowledge and behaviour. It integrates a wide range of disciplines and methodologies with the core assumption that human cognition is a computational process, implemented in neural hardware.

Key topics include: the nature of computational explanation; general principles of cognition; methodology of computational modelling; theories of the cognitive architecture; symbol systems; AI; neural computation; Bayesian approaches; case studies in computational cognitive modelling; ethics of AI.

You will be able to follow your interests with option modules emphasising cognitive neuroscience, AI and data science, or philosophy and ethics. You will gain from intensive training in experimental design and methodology and will build computational models and carry out a substantial piece of original research.

How you will learn

This course is available to study full- or part-time with classes taking place mostly during the daytime, which may help you organise this as a day study release from work. Please note, however, that two of the compulsory modules are taught only in the evening.

You will complete the MA by undertaking a dissertation based on a critical scholarship of existing published works. The MSc requires you to write a dissertation on an experimental or computational project that has generated new data.

Highlights

Careers and employability

On successfully graduating from this course, you'll have developed an array of transferable skills, including in:

Graduates can pursue career paths in behavioural and psychological sciences and other disciplines in which computer simulation is used, such as in data science and social policy. Possible professions include: