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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)

• PSYC 433 Cognitive Science (3 credits)

  Offered by: Psychology (Faculty of Science)

  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 2024

  Instructors: Golemo, Florian (Winter)

  • Winter

  • Prerequisite(s): PSYC 212 or PSYC 213

  • Restrictions: Not open to students who have taken PSYC 532.

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

• COMP 206 Introduction to Software Systems (3 credits)

  Offered by: Computer Science (Faculty of Science)

  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 2023, Winter 2024

  Instructors: Vybihal, Joseph P; Bérubé-Vallières, Mathieu (Fall) Vybihal, Joseph P; Errington, Jacob (Winter)

  • 3 hours

  • Prerequisite: COMP 202 or COMP 250

• COMP 230 Logic and Computability (3 credits)

  Offered by: Computer Science (Faculty of Science)

  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 2023-2024 academic year.

  Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2023-2024 academic year.

  • 3 hours

  • Prerequisite: CEGEP level mathematics.

• COMP 250 Introduction to Computer Science (3 credits)

  Offered by: Computer Science (Faculty of Science)

  Overview

  Computer Science (Sci) : Mathematical tools (binary numbers, induction, recurrence relations, asymptotic complexity, establishing correctness of programs), Data structures (arrays, stacks, queues, linked lists, trees, binary trees, binary search trees, heaps, hash tables), Recursive and non-recursive algorithms (searching and sorting, tree and graph traversal). Abstract data types, inheritance. Selected topics.

  Terms: Fall 2023, Winter 2024

  Instructors: Alberini, Giulia (Fall) Alberini, Giulia (Winter)

  • 3 hours

  • Prerequisites: Familiarity with a high level programming language and CEGEP level Math.

  • Students with limited programming experience should take COMP 202 or equivalent before COMP 250. See COMP 202 Course Description for a list of topics.

• COMP 251 Algorithms and Data Structures (3 credits)

  Offered by: Computer Science (Faculty of Science)

  Overview

  Computer Science (Sci) : Introduction to algorithm design and analysis. Graph algorithms, greedy algorithms, data structures, dynamic programming, maximum flows.

  Terms: Fall 2023, Winter 2024

  Instructors: Alberini, Giulia; Waldispuhl, Jérôme (Fall) Becerra, David (Winter)

  • 3 hours

  • Prerequisites: COMP 250; MATH 235 or MATH 240

  • COMP 251 uses basic counting techniques (permutations and combinations) that are covered in MATH 240 but not in MATH 235. These techniques will be reviewed for the benefit of MATH 235 students.

  • Restrictions: Not open to students who have taken or are taking COMP 252.

• COMP 302 Programming Languages and Paradigms (3 credits)

  Offered by: Computer Science (Faculty of Science)

  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 2023, Winter 2024

  Instructors: Errington, Jacob; Kopinsky, Max (Fall) Errington, Jacob (Winter)

  • 3 hours

  • Prerequisite(s): COMP 250 and (MATH 240 or MATH 235 or MATH 318 or COMP 230 or PHIL 210)

• COMP 330 Theory of Computation (3 credits)

  Offered by: Computer Science (Faculty of Science)

  Overview

  Computer Science (Sci) : Finite automata, regular languages, context-free languages, push-down automata, models of computation, computability theory, undecidability, reduction techniques.

  Terms: Fall 2023, Winter 2024

  Instructors: Spinoso-Di Piano, Cesare; Crépeau, Claude (Fall) Crépeau, Claude; Dellas, John (Winter)

  • 3 hours

  • Prerequisite: COMP 251.

• COMP 527 Logic and Computation (3 credits)

  Offered by: Computer Science (Faculty of Science)

  Overview

  Computer Science (Sci) : Introduction to modern constructive logic, its mathematical properties, and its numerous applications in computer science.

  Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2023-2024 academic year.

  Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2023-2024 academic year.

  • 3 hours

  • Prerequisite: COMP 302

  • Restriction: Not open to students who have taken COMP 426

• MATH 240 Discrete Structures (3 credits)

  Offered by: Mathematics and Statistics (Faculty of Science)

  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 2023, Winter 2024

  Instructors: Fortier, Jérôme; Macdonald, Jeremy (Fall) Macdonald, Jeremy; Lee, Kiwon (Winter)

  • Fall and Winter

  • Corequisite: MATH 133.

  • Restriction: For students in any Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or Software Engineering programs. Others only with the instructor's permission. Not open to students who have taken or are taking MATH 235.

• MATH 318 Mathematical Logic (3 credits)

  Offered by: Mathematics and Statistics (Faculty of Science)

  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 2023

  Instructors: Tserunyan, Anush (Fall)

  • Fall

  • Prerequisite(s): MATH 235 or MATH 240 or MATH 242.

Linguistics

Any course at the 300, 400 or 500 level from the department of Linguistics, or:

• LING 201 Introduction to Linguistics (3 credits)

  Offered by: Linguistics (Faculty of Arts)

  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 2023, Winter 2024

  Instructors: Munteanu, Andrei (Fall) Bertrand, Anne (Winter)

  • Fall and Winter

• LING 210 Introduction to Speech Science (3 credits)

  Offered by: Linguistics (Faculty of Arts)

  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 2023, Summer 2024

  Instructors: Munteanu, Andrei (Fall) Munteanu, Andrei (Summer)

• LING 260 Meaning in Language (3 credits)

  Offered by: Linguistics (Faculty of Arts)

  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 2023, Winter 2024, Summer 2024

  Instructors: Alonso-Ovalle, Luis (Fall) Paillé, Mathieu (Winter) Smith, Irene (Summer)

Philosophy

• PHIL 210 Introduction to Deductive Logic 1 (3 credits)

  Offered by: Philosophy (Faculty of Arts)

  Overview

  Philosophy : An introduction to propositional and predicate logic; formalization of arguments, truth tables, systems of deduction, elementary metaresults, and related topics.

  Terms: Fall 2023, Summer 2024

  Instructors: Hallett, Michael Frank (Fall) Carlsson Tjernström, Samuel (Summer)

  • Restriction: Not open to students who are taking or have taken MATH 318

• PHIL 221 Introduction to History and Philosophy of Science 2 (3 credits)

  Offered by: Philosophy (Faculty of Arts)

  Overview

  Philosophy : A survey of the development of modern science since the Eighteenth Century.

  Terms: Winter 2024

  Instructors: Tal, Eran (Winter)

• PHIL 306 Philosophy of Mind (3 credits)

  Offered by: Philosophy (Faculty of Arts)

  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 2023

  Instructors: Davies, David (Fall)

• PHIL 310 Intermediate Logic (3 credits)

  Offered by: Philosophy (Faculty of Arts)

  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 2024

  Instructors: Hallett, Michael Frank (Winter)

  • Prerequisite: PHIL 210 or equivalent

• PHIL 311 Philosophy of Mathematics (3 credits)

  Offered by: Philosophy (Faculty of Arts)

  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: This course is not scheduled for the 2023-2024 academic year.

  Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2023-2024 academic year.

  • Prerequisite: PHIL 210

• PHIL 341 Philosophy of Science 1 (3 credits)

  Offered by: Philosophy (Faculty of Arts)

  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 2023

  Instructors: Magal, Oran (Fall)

• PHIL 411 Topics in Philosophy of Logic and Mathematics (3 credits)

  Offered by: Philosophy (Faculty of Arts)

  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: Fall 2023

  Instructors: Hallett, Michael Frank (Fall)

  • Prerequisites: PHIL 210 or the equivalent, and one intermediate course in philosophy

• PHIL 415 Philosophy of Language (3 credits)

  Offered by: Philosophy (Faculty of Arts)

  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: Winter 2024

  Instructors: Magal, Oran (Winter)

  • Prerequisites: PHIL 210 or equivalent and one intermediate course in philosophy

• PHIL 441 Philosophy of Science 2 (3 credits)

  Offered by: Philosophy (Faculty of Arts)

  Overview

  Philosophy : An analysis of some key philosophical ideas in science and technology, e.g. problem, explanation, forecast, testability and truth.

  Terms: Winter 2024

  Instructors: Magal, Oran (Winter)

  • Prerequisite: PHIL 341 or written permission of the instructor

• PHIL 474 Phenomenology (3 credits)

  Offered by: Philosophy (Faculty of Arts)

  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 2024

  Instructors: Xie, Boyu (Winter)

  • Prerequisite: one intermediate course in philosophy

Psychology

• PSYC 212 Perception (3 credits)

  Offered by: Psychology (Faculty of Science)

  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: Winter 2024

  Instructors: Gaskin, Stephane (Winter)

  • Fall 2 Lectures, 1 conference

• PSYC 213 Cognition (3 credits)

  Offered by: Psychology (Faculty of Science)

  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 2023, Winter 2024

  Instructors: Johns, Brendan (Fall) Sheldon, Signy (Winter)

  • Winter

  • 2 lectures, 1 conference

  • Prerequisite: One previous course in Psychology.

• PSYC 301 Animal Learning and Theory (3 credits)

  Offered by: Psychology (Faculty of Science)

  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 2023-2024 academic year.

  Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2023-2024 academic year.

  • Fall

  • Prerequisite(s): PSYC 211 or PSYC 213 or permission of instructor.

  • Restriction: Not open to students who have taken PSYC 211 prior to the 2000-01 academic year

• PSYC 304 Child Development (3 credits)

  Offered by: Psychology (Faculty of Science)

  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 2023, Summer 2024

  Instructors: Krol, Sonia (Fall) Krol, Sonia (Summer)

  • Fall

  • 2 lectures, 1 conference

  • Prerequisites: two courses from PSYC 211, PSYC 212, PSYC 213, and PSYC 215 or permission of the instructor

  • This course is a prerequisite for PSYC 412, PSYC 413, PSYC 414, PSYC 416

• PSYC 310 Intelligence (3 credits)

  Offered by: Psychology (Faculty of Science)

  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: Fall 2023

  Instructors: Gagnon, Geneviève (Fall)

  • Winter

  • 2 lectures

  • Prerequisites: PSYC 204 or equivalent; one of PSYC 211, PSYC 212, PSYC 213, PSYC 215 or one of BIOL 111, BIOL 112, BIOL 115; or permission of instructor.

• PSYC 311 Human Cognition and the Brain (3 credits)

  Offered by: Psychology (Faculty of Science)

  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 2023, Summer 2024

  Instructors: Brochu Barbeau, Elise (Fall) Brochu Barbeau, Elise (Summer)

  • Fall

  • 2 lectures; 1 conference

• PSYC 315 Computational Psychology (3 credits)

  Offered by: Psychology (Faculty of Science)

  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 2024

  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.

• PSYC 319 Computational Models - Cognition (3 credits)

  Offered by: Psychology (Faculty of Science)

  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 2023-2024 academic year.

  Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2023-2024 academic year.

  • Restrictions: U2 or above. Restricted to students in Psychology, Linguistics and Cognitive Science.

• PSYC 340 Psychology of Language (3 credits)

  Offered by: Psychology (Faculty of Science)

  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 2023-2024 academic year.

  Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2023-2024 academic year.

  • Winter

  • Prerequisite: PSYC 212 or PSYC 213.

• PSYC 410 Special Topics in Neuropsychology (3 credits)

  Offered by: Psychology (Faculty of Science)

  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: This course is not scheduled for the 2023-2024 academic year.

  Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2023-2024 academic year.

  • Fall

  • Two lectures per week.

  • Prerequisites: PSYC 213 and PSYC 311 (or NSCI 201). Knowledge of basic neuropsychology at the level covered in PSYC 311 is assumed.

• PSYC 413 Cognitive Development (3 credits)

  Offered by: Psychology (Faculty of Science)

  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 2023

  Instructors: Onishi, K (Fall)

  • Fall

  • 3 hours

  • Prerequisite: PSYC 304 or PSYC 213 or equivalent

• PSYC 538 Categorization, Communication and Consciousness (3 credits)

  Offered by: Psychology (Faculty of Science)

  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 2023

  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.