Cognitive Science Minor (B.Sc.) (24 credits)
Offered by: Science (Faculty of Science)
Degree: Bachelor of Science
Program credit weight: 24
Program Description
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 https://www.mcgill.ca/science/undergraduate/advice/sousa.
Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized.
Required Course (3 credits)
PSYC 433 Cognitive Science.
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
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| COMP 206 | Introduction to Software Systems. | 3 |
Introduction to Software Systems. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. 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. | ||
| COMP 230 | Logic and Computability. | 3 |
Logic and Computability. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. 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. | ||
| COMP 250 | Introduction to Computer Science. | 3 |
Introduction to Computer Science. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. 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. | ||
| COMP 251 | Algorithms and Data Structures. | 3 |
Algorithms and Data Structures. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Data Structures: priority queues, balanced binary search trees, hash tables, graphs. Algorithms: topological sort, connected components, shortest paths, minimum spanning trees, bipartite matching, network flows. Algorithm design: greedy, divide and conquer, dynamic programming, randomization. Mathematicaltools: proofs of asymptotic complexity and program correctness, Master theorem. | ||
| COMP 302 | Programming Languages and Paradigms. | 3 |
Programming Languages and Paradigms. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Programming language design issues and programming paradigms. Binding and scoping, parameter passing, lambda abstraction, data abstraction, type checking. Functional and logic programming. | ||
| COMP 330 | Theory of Computation. | 3 |
Theory of Computation. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Finite automata, regular languages, context-free languages, push-down automata, models of computation, computability theory, undecidability, reduction techniques. | ||
| COMP 527 | Logic and Computation. | 3 |
Logic and Computation. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction to modern constructive logic, its mathematical properties, and its numerous applications in computer science. | ||
| MATH 240 | Discrete Structures. | 3 |
Discrete Structures. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. 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. | ||
| MATH 318 | Mathematical Logic. | 3 |
Mathematical Logic. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. 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. | ||
Linguistics
Any course at the 300, 400 or 500 level from the department of Linguistics, or:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| LING 201 | Introduction to Linguistics. | 3 |
Introduction to Linguistics. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. 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. | ||
| LING 210 | Introduction to Speech Science. | 3 |
Introduction to Speech Science. Terms offered: Summer 2025 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. | ||
| LING 260 | Meaning in Language. | 3 |
Meaning in Language. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. 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. | ||
Philosophy
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| PHIL 210 | Introduction to Deductive Logic 1. | 3 |
Introduction to Deductive Logic 1. Terms offered: Summer 2025 An introduction to propositional and predicate logic; formalization of arguments, truth tables, systems of deduction, elementary metaresults, and related topics. | ||
| PHIL 221 | Introduction to History and Philosophy of Science 2. | 3 |
Introduction to History and Philosophy of Science 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A survey of the development of modern science since the Eighteenth Century. | ||
| PHIL 306 | Philosophy of Mind. | 3 |
Philosophy of Mind. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. 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. | ||
| PHIL 310 | Intermediate Logic. | 3 |
Intermediate Logic. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. 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. | ||
| PHIL 311 | Philosophy of Mathematics. | 3 |
Philosophy of Mathematics. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. 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. | ||
| PHIL 341 | Philosophy of Science 1. | 3 |
Philosophy of Science 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. 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. | ||
| PHIL 411 | Topics in Philosophy of Logic and Mathematics. | 3 |
Topics in Philosophy of Logic and Mathematics. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. 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. | ||
| PHIL 415 | Philosophy of Language. | 3 |
Philosophy of Language. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. 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. | ||
| PHIL 441 | Philosophy of Science 2. | 3 |
Philosophy of Science 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An analysis of some key philosophical ideas in science and technology, e.g. problem, explanation, forecast, testability and truth. | ||
| PHIL 474 | Phenomenology. | 3 |
Phenomenology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. 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. | ||
Psychology
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| PSYC 212 | Perception. | 3 |
Perception. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. 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. | ||
| PSYC 213 | Cognition. | 3 |
Cognition. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. 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. | ||
| PSYC 301 | Animal Learning and Theory. | 3 |
Animal Learning and Theory. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. 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. | ||
| PSYC 304 | Child Development. | 3 |
Child Development. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Psychology of children, covering critical issues, theories, biological underpinnings, experimental methods, and findings in perceptual, cognitive, language, emotional, and social development. | ||
| PSYC 310 | Intelligence. | 3 |
Intelligence. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. 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. | ||
| PSYC 311 | Human Cognition and the Brain. | 3 |
Human Cognition and the Brain. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. 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. | ||
| PSYC 315 | Computational Psychology. | 3 |
Computational Psychology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. 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. | ||
| PSYC 319 | Computational Models - Cognition. | 3 |
Computational Models - Cognition. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. 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. | ||
| PSYC 340 | Psychology of Language. | 3 |
Psychology of Language. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. 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. | ||
| PSYC 410 | Special Topics in Neuropsychology. | 3 |
Special Topics in Neuropsychology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. 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. | ||
| PSYC 413 | Cognitive Development. | 3 |
Cognitive Development. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. 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. | ||
| PSYC 538 | Categorization, Communication and Consciousness. | 3 |
Categorization, Communication and Consciousness. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. 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. | ||