Mar 28, 2024  
USC Catalogue 2016-2017 
    
USC Catalogue 2016-2017 [ARCHIVED CATALOGUE]

Cognitive Science (BA)


Director: Toben Mintz, PhD

Cognitive science is an interdisciplinary major that focuses on the mind and cognition from a variety of perspectives and approaches. The core and electives sample from courses from computer science, human and evolutionary biology, linguistics, mathematics, philosophy and psychology.

The major consists of four fixed core courses, plus two tiers of flexible core courses. The first tier generally consists of more introductory courses and the second tier of more advanced courses, although there are exceptions, and some courses satisfy either tier. Students must take two courses from the first tier and three courses from the second. The purpose of the flexible tiers is to structurally implement interdisciplinary breadth with some degree of flexibility. The flexible core is a subset of the electives, from which students can choose in order to complete the required number of units.

Students may elect to focus their curriculum from one of three tracks, which are suggested courses of study for focusing on a particular theme in cognitive science. This may be accomplished through individual advisement: language, reasoning and decision-making, and the computational mind.

Total required units for major: 43–48 units. Consisting of 16 core units, 18–20 flexible core units and 9–12 elective units.

Total units: 16


Flexible Core Requirements (5 Courses)


Electives (3 Courses)


Total units: 9-12


*Prerequisite required

Total units: 43–48


Note: A course that is listed in both flexible core categories can be taken in either one. Students must choose a minimum of 16 upper-division units from the flexible core and electives lists.