Cognitive Science (Humanities)

Philosophers and scientists have speculated about the nature of the human mind and how language affects it.

Recent developments, across fields such as robotics, brain imaging and speech technology, offer new ways to understand our inner workings.

Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary attempt to understand the human mind. It focuses on abilities such as:

* reasoning

* perception

* memory

* awareness

* emotion

* attention

* judgement

* motor control

* language use

Cognitive science brings together and forms connections between these abilities, through methods such as:

* computer modelling

* linguistic analysis

* philosophical reasoning

* robotics

* neuroimaging

* psychological experiments

It brings together scholars from:

* linguistics

* psychology

* philosophy

* neuroscience

* computer science

Cognitive Science at the University of Edinburgh

The University of Edinburgh played a key role in founding this discipline, by forming connections between the disciplines that contribute to the study of human cognition.

You will learn from researchers who both laid the foundations, and are still making key advances in the field. The programme content is regularly reviewed to make sure you learn about current developments.

Our Cognitive Science (Humanities) programme requires you to complete a selection of basic courses covering material in:

* linguistics

* philosophy

* psychology

* computer science

Our goal is to help you come to a broad understanding of issues, such as the:

* relationship between language and thought

* relationship between mind and brain

* philosophical implications of our ability to look inside the brain and to model its activities in computers and robots