Really wish to research and construct intelligent software for efficient learning systems - to be applied in education. The subjects involved would be in psychology, cultural anthropology, cognition, neuroscience, sociology, artificial intelligence, linguistics, human-computer interaction/interface, and software development/design/engineering.
Wish to still be open to counseling in the future as well, if I wished - am currently majoring in psychology (although feasible to change) as a sophomore.
I’ve thought BA/S Psychology -> MA Linguistics&MSc in Artificial Intelligence (maybe a certificate in AI instead) -> Cognitive Science doctorate… but not really confident in this.
Have you looked into computer science? (My university has a minor in artificial intelligence, and it’s offered through the computer science department.)
@halcyonheather Definitely have, but am really trying to find which order/combinations over a single major would work be best in this context (major->1-2 masters->doctorate). Thanks!
You will need CS in there somewhere if you want to implement this…
Now if you want to be the scientist behind it, you can always hire programmers.
A combined/double in Psychology / CS would be interesting if you want the former. I know a few of those myself.
^This. It really depends on what role you want to have in this research. If you want to be the one writing the programs, then an undergraduate double-major in computer science and psychology is probably the way to go. Then you could get a PhD in cognitive science or in educational technology (which is sometimes embedded in programs in curriculum and instruction). You might be able to find this kind of specialization in computer science or human-computer interaction program, but I think cognitive science or education is really the way to go here. Another place to look would be a cognitive psychology department that had an emphasis on linguistics and/or computational methods.
Also remember that most modern research is collaborative, so you don’t have to do or know everything. For example, if you wanted to construct a software for mathematics education, you might collaborate with a math ed professor/researcher. If you didn’t have the AI expertise you needed, you could bring an AI consultant on board to help with that part of the design. Etc.
Remember that graduate education builds on undergraduate foundations. If you have a BA or BS in psychology alone with little to no CS coursework, you will find it difficult to get a master’s in AI.
I know a guy who majored in psychology for undergrad, and minored in computer science. He then went to get a PhD in statistics. He currently works at my research center, which is focused on social science/psychological research in the health sciences; he works on developing new statistical methods for research in the field and then programming the software to run the models.