Philosophers and scientists have long speculated about the nature of the human mind and the role of language in making the human mind what it is. Recent developments – in fields as diverse as robotics, brain imaging and speech technology – bring a host of new perspectives to our quest to understand our own inner workings. Cognitive Science brings together scholars from linguistics, psychology, philosophy, neuroscience and informatics. Our Cognitive Science (Humanities) programme requires you to undertake a selection of basic courses in linguistics, philosophy, psychology and informatics. At honours level, in the third and fourth year, you will choose from a wide variety of more advanced courses in this range of disciplines, and you will probably specialise in two of them. Our goal is to help you come to a broad understanding of issues such as the relationship between language and thought, the relationship between mind and brain and the philosophical implications of our increasing ability to look inside the working brain and to model its activities in computers and robots.

Graduates with degrees in cognitive science have excellent prospects of employment in fields that will shape our society – those which depend on computers, such as economics, entertainment, technology, mobile systems, manufacturing and health, to name but a few – and also those thought of traditionally as more arts orientated, such as the civil service, management, finance, journalism, social work and teaching.