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 explores the interdisciplinary study of cognition, including the principles of intelligence, the mind and learning.
Required Course (3 credits)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| PSYC 433 | Cognitive Science. | 3 |
Cognitive Science. Terms offered: Winter 2027 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. | ||
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: Fall 2026, Winter 2027 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: Fall 2026, Winter 2027 Object oriented programming in Java: classes and objects, interfaces, inheritance. Data structures and abstract data types: arrays, stacks, queues, linked lists, trees, binary trees,binary search trees, heaps, hash tables, graphs. Recursive and non-recursive algorithms and their asymptotic complexity: searching and sorting, tree and graph traversal. Mathematical tools: induction, recurrence relations. | ||
| COMP 251 | Algorithms and Data Structures. | 3 |
Algorithms and Data Structures. Terms offered: Fall 2026, Winter 2027 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: Fall 2026, Winter 2027 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: Fall 2026, Winter 2027 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: Fall 2026, Winter 2027 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: Fall 2026 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: Fall 2026, Winter 2027 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 2026, Fall 2026 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: Fall 2026, Winter 2027 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 203 | Introduction to Artificial Intelligence Ethics. | 3 |
Introduction to Artificial Intelligence Ethics. Terms offered: Winter 2027 An introduction to several important debates in the ethics of artificial intelligence (AI), including: artificial general intelligence, artificial consciousness, existential risk, and the moral status of advanced AI systems, to practical ethical and political issues raised by the uses of AI systems, including opacity, discrimination, privacy,disinformation and impacts on work and wealth distribution. | ||
| PHIL 210 | Introduction to Deductive Logic 1. | 3 |
Introduction to Deductive Logic 1. Terms offered: Summer 2026, Fall 2026 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: Fall 2026 A survey of the development of modern science since the Eighteenth Century. | ||
| PHIL 306 | Philosophy of Mind. | 3 |
Philosophy of Mind. Terms offered: Fall 2026 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: Winter 2027 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: Winter 2027 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: Fall 2026 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: Fall 2026 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: Winter 2027 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 211 | Introductory Behavioural Neuroscience. | 3 |
Introductory Behavioural Neuroscience. Terms offered: Fall 2026, Winter 2027 An introduction to contemporary research on the relationship between brain and behaviour. Topics include learning, memory and cognition, brain damage and neuroplasticity, emotion and motivation, and drug addiction and brain reward circuits. Much of the evidence will be drawn from the experimental literature on research with animals. | ||
| PSYC 213 | Cognition. | 3 |
Cognition. Terms offered: Fall 2026, Winter 2027 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 304 | Child Development. | 3 |
Child Development. Terms offered: Summer 2026, Winter 2027 Psychology of children, covering critical issues, theories, biological underpinnings, experimental methods, and findings in perceptual, cognitive, language, emotional, and social development. | ||
| PSYC 311 | Human Cognition and the Brain. | 3 |
Human Cognition and the Brain. Terms offered: Fall 2026 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 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 341 | The Psychology of Bilingualism. | 3 |
The Psychology of Bilingualism. Terms offered: Fall 2026 This course will examine issues in bilingualism, including second language acquisition in children and adults, critical period hypothesis, cognitive consequences and correlates of bilingualism, social psychological aspects of bilingualism, and bilingual education. | ||
| PSYC 403 | Modern Psychology in Historical Perspective. | 3 |
Modern Psychology in Historical Perspective. Terms offered: Fall 2026 A survey of the scientific and ideological influences on psychology from its philosophical beginnings through the period of the schools to its modern situation. | ||
| PSYC 406 | Psychological Tests. | 3 |
Psychological Tests. Terms offered: Fall 2026 An introduction to the theory and practice of psychological measurement in health, educational, clinical and industrial/organizational settings. Attention to procedures for developing and validating tests and questionnaires. Techniques include: intelligence tests, projective tests, questionnaires, structured interviews, rating scales, and behavioural/performance tests. | ||
| PSYC 410 | Special Topics in Neuropsychology. | 3 |
Special Topics in Neuropsychology. Terms offered: Fall 2026 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: Fall 2026 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 427 | Sensorimotor Neuroscience. | 3 |
Sensorimotor Neuroscience. Terms offered: Winter 2027 A systematic examination of the sensorimotor system, drawing on models and data from both behavioural and physiological studies. Topics include: cortical motor areas, cerebellum, basal ganglia, spinal mechanisms, motor unit properties and force production, prioception, muscle properties. | ||
| PSYC 443 | Affective Neuroscience. | 3 |
Affective Neuroscience. Terms offered: Winter 2027 Focus on the neurobiology of emotion, the links between emotion and cognition, and the role of experience and individual differences in emotional states associated with psychopathology. | ||
| 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. | ||