Cognitive scientists don't have/need degrees in Cognitive Science?

VincentCraven · 07-08-2010, 10:34 AM

I've done my research and have seen that cognitive science was only established as a discipline about 50 years ago, so I can understand that the older faculty will not have formal degrees in that. However, even in recent books, it still seems that such degrees haven't become the norm for practicing "cognitive scientists."

I have plans to go to graduate school in for cognitive science at a cognitive science department anyway, as I'm interested in how to represent the mind in general, but I've not found many programs thus far (MIT, JHU, USCD, Rensselaer) and it's difficult to find programs that focus on what I'm interested in, or that tell how good the programs are.

So, I suppose my question is, am I reading the situation right? If so, do other departments focus on a general representation of the mind? I would guess some labs in AI do such things, basing their models on data accumulated about human behavior. If not, what's a good source for finding other departments in cognitive science? Perhaps I'm just dissatisfied by all the work done specifically on vision.

cosmicfish · 07-08-2010, 01:46 PM

I am not familiar with cognitive science specifically, but most advanced fields can be approached from several different departments. I was interested in a plasma science lab, and they had grad students and researchers in each of electrical engineering, nuclear engineering, mathematics, and physics, all doing more or less the same thing - the difference is that they focused on those parts of the research that were closest to their specific area of study. I suspect that cognitive science is the same way - psychologists, neurophysiologists, biochemists... all could probably study some part of cognitive science, and vice versa.

Momwaitingfornew · 07-08-2010, 02:07 PM

"Cognitive science" is a interdisciplinary term that can encompass psychology, biology, computer science . . . . just about any field that can be applied to understanding the workings of the mind. If you broaden your search by including other names for it, you'll see that there are a tremendous number of programs that might appeal to you. Try looking under neuroscience (for a more biological and/or medical approach), psychology, or computer science. For instance, if you look at UCSD's neuroscience program, you'll find many of the top thinkers in cognition on the faculty.

For cognitive neuroscience, check out Duke, UCSD, University of Pittsburgh, University of Rochester, and (I think) Emory in addition to those you've already listed.

If you are interested in AI and computer-related approaches to the mind, check out computer science programs. (I know that Carnegie-Mellon has a joint certificate in cognitive sciences with Pitt through the Center for Neural Base of Cognition: CNBC Home)

If you're interested in the psychology side of cognitive sciences, check out programs in psychology to see whether they meet your needs.

If you're interested in vision, then check out the neuroscience departments at Penn and Brown. Most visual cognition research is done on non-human primates, although some is performed on other animals. Visual cognition generally falls under the category of systems neuroscience, if that helps you pinpoint programs.

Momwaitingfornew · 07-08-2010, 02:08 PM

Yikes. I forgot Stanford. Their neuroscience program takes students from a wide variety of academic backgrounds -- biology, psychology, math, computer science, engineering . . .

wgmcp101 · 07-08-2010, 02:48 PM

Pitt and Carnegie-Mellon have a joint program, the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, and a joint undergrad program in computation neuroscience. It may be the best such center in the country combining Pitt's bioscience/neuroscience/psychology with CMU's computer science. The two universities' campuses are adjacent and overlapping with one another.

In any case, it does not matter at all what neuroscience field you specialize in at undergrad level, or even if its neuroscience at all, although you do want to get extensive research experience in some sort of biosciences. If you want some sort of AI, some sort of computer science training would be good. It's nice to do what you are interested in, but you really don't settle on your specialty in the field until one is at the post-doc level of training. Pitt has a fantastic general undergrad neuroscience program with access to undergrad research at all the CNBC labs.

wgmcp101 · 07-08-2010, 04:06 PM

Note that my directly preceding post was directed at an undergrad. If individuals are exploring grad training, then you definitely want to seek out programs like the CNBC or similar. Just so my message isn't confused by anyone coming along reading this, at the grad level, if this is what you want to do then you should absolutely do your PhD training in a neurocognitive lab. Undergrad doesn't matter at all as far as where you may end up in a particular field, and although I have known people that have successfully switched into the neurocognitive fields as post-docs,if you know that is what you want then definitely do your PhD research in it.

BrownParent · 07-08-2010, 09:05 PM

see this, and it has a link to the Center for Vision Research

Brown University Brain Sciences

These links will show the interdisciplinary members contributing to the field and what their specific interests and projects are.

And here are the related grad programs:
Brown University Brain Sciences - How to Apply

My daughter worked at Brown with Chad Jenkins on Robot vision and with Pedia Neskovic with facial recognition software, and in the Brain Science office of director Leon Cooper (Nobel Prize, Physics) She also did work for a professor of cognitive science, administering exams that tracked human vision using some kind of device while they look at a painting, but that's all I know about it. She didn't go into those areas in the end, though.

VincentCraven · 07-08-2010, 10:20 PM

@cosmicfish: Interesting. I guess if it's like that everywhere, then cognitive science would certainly be a similar situation.

@Momwfn: Thanks! I knew the general field was interdisciplinary, but that's still quite a bit of depth that I didn't know about (esp. what systems neuroscience was). Seems vision is pretty popular, but it's not for me.

@wgmcp: I've already pretty much gotten ugrad planned out, but I've heard CNBC enough to take a second look. Thanks.

Though I've read quite a bit about the field of cognitive science, reading your replies is quite helpful in that it gives me an idea of what the current direction for cognitive science is. I know what I want, though it seems that I need to re-update my word choice to stop pulling up all the things I don't want. Thanks everyone.

VincentCraven · 07-08-2010, 10:37 PM

@BrownParent: What a surprise. That link has stuff from theory and computation to cells and synapses. Even if it doesn't focus on what I want, it's still a great resource for finding other programs. I am pleasantly surprised. Thank you.

Momwaitingfornew · 07-09-2010, 07:47 AM

One more word about the CNBC: you apply to a main PhD program (say, neuroscience) and then submit an auxiliary application to the CNBC. This second application can be completed after you've been accepted to one of the Pitt/CMU programs and have decided to attend. My daughter will be attending Pitt neuro in the fall and is just now starting the application process to CNBC. They told her that she could even wait until she got to campus to apply without any delay in training.