Cognition and Computation

Aimed at graduates of either the computational sciences or the psychological sciences, the MA/MSc in Cognition and Computation is an ideal foundation for a research career in the cognitive sciences.

It studies the cognitive processes and representations underlying human thought, knowledge and behaviour, and integrates a wide range of disciplines and methodologies with the core assumption that human cognition is a computational process, implemented in neural hardware.

Key topics include: the nature of computational explanation; general principles of cognition; methodology of computational modelling; theories of the cognitive architecture; symbol systems; connectionism; neural computation; and case studies in computational cognitive modelling.

The course will give you intensive training in experimental design and methodology. You will build computational models and carry out a substantial piece of original research.

• The Department of Psychological Sciences has an outstanding research tradition, with an international reputation in all aspects of cognitive neuroscience, especially developmental cognitive neuroscience. You will have the opportunity to interact with world-class researchers and attend research seminars organised by the department and a number of other local research centres and institutes.
• The department is consistently regarded as one of the top psychological sciences departments in the UK. In the 2021 Research Excellence Framework, and for the third time, it was ranked in the top ten universities in the UK.
• ESRC funding may be available in conjunction with PhD study.
• Watch Professor Rick Cooper give a detailed description of what this course entails.