Our cognitive science undergraduate program reflects the interdisciplinary nature of the field, allowing students to approach the study of the mind and brain from multiple perspectives. Students gain broad knowledge of the field as a whole, plus a greater depth of the understanding in two of the sub-disciplines within the field. Training emphasizes not only learning about the principal theories and evidence, but also development of the conceptual and practical skills needed for understanding and conducting theoretical and empirical work in the field.
Did you know? JHU bachelor degree recipients receive a 50% reduction in fall/spring tuition if admitted to our MA program in Cognitive Science.
Requirements
Detailed major requirements are available in the Academic Catalog. First-year and new transfer students should use the current Academic Catalog. All other students should use the archived catalog published the year they entered Johns Hopkins.
Note: Starting July 2023, the Office of the Registrar is in the process of implementing a new degree audit system. Fillable PDF degree checklists are being utilized for degree requirements during the transition. Click here for details.
Cognitive science majors distribute their coursework across five areas, with special emphasis on two areas chosen as focal areas, providing both breadth and depth of knowledge. Majors thus acquire a broad perspective which will enable them to situate particular research disciplines within the overall study of the mind/brain. The three areas not chosen for depth are loosely referred to as ‘non- focal’ areas for advising purposes.
Program of Study (POS) tags are used in SIS to identify courses inside and outside the department that fulfill our focal areas.
| Focal Areas | POS-Tags |
|---|---|
| Cognitive Psychology/Neuropsychology | COGS-COGPSY |
| Linguistics (also see Linguistics Minor) | COGS-LING |
| Computational Approaches to Cognition | COGS-COMPCG |
| Neuroscience | COGS-NEURO |
| Philosophy of Mind | COGS-PHLMND |
Majors must also complete two math courses. See course catalog for details.
Focal Area Course List
These are courses that qualify for each of the five areas. To inquire whether a course can be added to this list, contact our Director of Undergraduate Studies and provide a course description and syllabus. Courses change over time and some are not offered every year, just as courses offered in a given term are subject to change, withdrawal, etc.
| Course No. | Course Title | Focal Area POS Tags | Semester |
|---|---|---|---|
| AS.001.146 AS.050.112 AS.365.106.02** | FYS: Nature, Nurture, Cognition | COGS-COGPSY | |
| AS.001.189 AS.050.107 AS.365.106.03** | FYS: Language and Advertising | COGS-LING | |
| AS.001.248 | FYS: Who has an accent? Dialects of English | COGS-LING | Fall 2024 |
| AS.050.102 | Language and Mind | COGS-COGPSY; COGS-LING | Fall 2023; Fall 2024 |
| AS.050.105 | Introduction to Cognitive Neuropsychology | COGS-COGPSY; COGS-NEURO | Fall 2023; Fall 2024 |
| AS.050.116 | Visual Cognition | COGS-COGPSY; COGS-COMPCG; COGS-NEURO | Spring 2023; Spring 2024; Spring 2025 |
| AS.050.121 | Theory of Mind and the Science of “Mindreading” | COGS-COGPSY; COGS-PHLMND | |
| AS.050.135 | Speech & Voice | COGS-LING | |
| AS.050.202 | Introduction to Computational Cognitive Science | COGS-COMPCG | Fall 2023; Spring 2025 |
| AS.050.203 | Cognitive Neuroscience | COGS-COGPSY; COGS-NEURO | Spring 2023; Spring 2024; Spring 2025 |
| AS.050.206 | Bilingualism | COGS-COGPSY; COGS-LING | Spring 2023; Spring 2024; Spring 2025 |
| AS.050.233 | Lost in Space | COGS-COGPSY; COGS-LING; COGS-COMPCG | |
| AS.050.236 | Neurolinguistics | COGS-COGPSY; COGS-NEURO | Fall 2023; Fall 2024 |
| AS.050.239 (prev. AS.050.339) | Cognitive Development | COGS-COGPSY; COGS-NEURO | Spring 2023; Spring 2024; Spring 2025 |
| AS.050.240 | The World of Language | COGS-LING | |
| AS.050.244 | Cognitive Neuroscience Lab | COGS-NEURO | Fall 2023; Fall 2024 |
| AS.050.308 | Acoustic Phonetics | COGS-LING | Spring 2025 |
| AS.050.311 | Written Language: Normal Processing and Disorders | COGS-COGPSY; COGS-NEURO | |
| AS.050.312 | Cognitive Neuroimaging Methods in High-Level Vision | COGS-NEURO; COGS-COGPSY | Fall 2023; Fall 2024 |
| AS.050.315 | Cognitive Neuropsychology of Visual Perception | COGS-COGPSY; COGS-NEURO | Spring 2024; Spring 2025 |
| AS.050.317 | Semantics I | COGS-LING | Fall 2023 |
| AS.050.320 | Syntax I | COGS-LING | Spring 2023; Spring 2024; Spring 2025 |
| AS.050.325 | Phonology I | COGS-LING | Spring 2023; Spring 2024; Spring 2025 |
| AS.050.326 | Foundations of Cognitive Science | COGS-COMPCG; COGS-PHLMND | Spring 2023; Spring 2025 |
| AS.050.332 | Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience | COGS-COGPSY; COGS-NEURO | |
| AS.050.333 | Psycholinguistics | COGS-COGPSY; COGS-LING | Fall 2024 |
| AS.050.337 | Reading the Mind: Computational Cognitive Neuroscience of Vision | COGS-COMPCG; COGS-NEURO | Spring 2023; Spring 2024; Spring 2025 |
| AS.050.342 | Windows to the Mind | COGS-COGPSY; COGS-NEURO | |
| AS.050.344 | Written Language and the Brain | COGS-COGPSY; COGS-NEURO | |
| AS.050.346 | Decoding the Brain | COGS-COGPSY; COGS-COMPCG; COGS-NEURO | |
| AS.050.347 | Deep Learning for Cognitive Neuroscience | COGS-COMPCG; COGS-NEURO | Fall 2024 |
| AS.050.348 | First Language Acquisition | COGS-COGPSY; COGS-LING | Fall 2023; Fall 2024 |
| AS.050.349 | Second Language Acquisition | COGS-COGPSY; COGS-LING | Spring 2023; Spring 2024; Spring 2025 |
| AS.050.252 (prev. AS.050.352) | Appling Cognitive Neuro Science to Artificial Intelligence Part I | COGS-COGPSY; COGS-COMPCG; COGS-NEURO | |
| AS.050.253 (prev. AS.050.353) | Applying Cognitive Neuroscience to Artificial Intelligence Part II | COGS-COGPSY; COGS-COMPCG; COGS-NEURO | Spring 2023 |
| AS.050.357 | Sociophonetics | COGS-LING | Fall 2024 |
| AS.050.358 | Language and Thought | COGS-COGPSY; COGS-LING | Fall 2023; Fall 2024; Spring 2025 |
| AS.050.360 | Computational Psycholinguistics | COGS-COGPSY; COGS-LING; COGS-COMPCG | |
| AS.050.365 | Cracking the code: Theory and modeling of information coding in neural activity | COGS-COMPCG; COGS-NEURO | Fall 2024 |
| AS.050.370 | Mathematical Models of Language | COGS-LING; COGS-COMPCG | |
| AS.050.371 | Bayesian Inference | COGS-COMPCG | Fall 2023; Fall 2024 |
| AS.050.372 | Foundations of Neural Network Theory | COGS-COMPCG | Spring 2024 |
| AS.050.375 EN.601.485 | Probabilistic Models of the Visual Cortex | COGS-COMPCG | Fall 2023; Fall 2024 |
| AS.050.383 | Computational Social Cognition | COGS-COMPCG; COGS-NEURO | Fall 2023 |
| AS.050.822 | Research Seminar in Syntax (requires instructor approval for UG enrollment) | COGS-LING | |
| AS.080.105 | Introduction to Neuroscience | COGS-NEURO | |
| AS.080.301 | Behavioral Assessment of Animal Models of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders | COGS-NEURO | Fall 2023; Fall 2024 |
| AS.080.250 | Neuroscience Lab | COGS-NEURO | Spring 2023; Fall 2023; Spring 2024; Fall 2024 |
| AS.080.304 | Neuroscience Learning and Memory | COGS-NEURO | Spring 2023; Spring 2024; Spring 2025 |
| AS.080.305 | Neuroscience: Cellular and Systems I | COGS-NEURO | Fall 2024 |
| AS.080.306 | Neuroscience: Cellular and Systems II | COGS-NEURO | Spring 2023; Spring 2024; Spring 2025 |
| AS.080.308 | Neuroeconomics | COGS-NEURO | Fall 2023; Fall 2024 |
| AS.080.312 | The Making of a Cognitive Map | COGS-COGPSY; COGS-NEURO | |
| AS.080.316 | Prefrontal Cortex- Computational Models and Neurophysiology | COGS-COMPCG; COGS-NEURO | Fall 2023; Fall 2024 |
| AS.080.320 | The Auditory System | COGS-NEURO | |
| AS.080.321 | Computational Neuroscience | COGS-COMPCG; COGS-NEURO | Spring 2023; Spring 2024; Spring 2025 |
| AS.080.323 | Advances in Neuroplasticity and its Applications in Neurology | COGS-NEURO | Fall 2024 |
| AS.080.328 | Behavioral Neuroscience Lab | COGS-NEURO | Spring 2023; Spring 2024; Spring 2025 |
| AS.080.339 | Cognitive Neuroscience of Aging | COGS-NEURO | Spring 2023; Spring 2024; Spring 2025 |
| AS.080.345 | Great Discoveries in Neuroscience | COGS-NEURO | Spring 2023; Spring 2024; Spring 2025 |
| AS.080.348 | Science of Learning | COGS-NEURO | |
| AS.080.355 | Computational Principles of Biological Vision | COGS-COMPCG; COGS-NEURO | Fall 2023; Fall 2024 |
| AS.080.357 | Developmental Neuroscience | COGS-NEURO | |
| AS.080.360 | Diseases and Disorders of the Nervous System | COGS-NEURO | Fall 2023; Fall 2024 |
| AS.080.370 | The Cerebellum | COGS-NEURO | |
| AS.130.218 | Language and Society | COGS-LING | |
| AS.145.105 | Minds and Machines (FA19, SP20 only) | COGS-PHLMND | |
| AS.150.118 | Introduction to Formal Logic | COGS-PHLMND | Spring 2023; Spring 2024; Spring 2025 |
| AS.150.129 | The Theory of Knowledge | COGS-PHLMND | |
| AS.150.139 | Introduction to Philosophy of Mind | COGS-PHLMND | Spring 2024 |
| AS.150.136 | Philosophy of Science | COGS-PHLMND | Fall 2024 |
| AS.150.140 | Minds, Bodies, and Persons | COGS-PHLMND | |
| AS.150.193 | Philosophy of Language Seminar: Proper Names and Definite Descriptions | COGS-PHLMND | |
| AS.150.205 | Introduction to the History of Modern Philosophy | COGS-PHLMND | Spring 2024; Spring 2025 |
| AS.150.210 | Minds, Consciousness, and Computers | COGS-PHLMND | |
| AS.150.215 | Problems with Knowledge, Evidence, and Action | COGS-PHLMND | |
| AS.150.216 | Minds & Machines | COGS-PHLMND | |
| AS.150.223 | Formal Methods of Philosophy | COGS-PHLMND | Fall 2023 |
| AS.150.245 | Philosophy of Mind | COGS-PHLMND | Fall 2023 |
| AS.150.254 | Philosophy of Memory | COGS-PHLMND | |
| AS.150.330 | Decisions, Games & Social Choice | COGS-PHLMND | |
| AS.150.340 | Philosophy of Psychology | COGS-PHLMND | |
| AS.150.345 | Me, Myself, and I: Personal Identity and the Self | COGS-PHLMND | Fall 2023 |
| AS.150.361 | Partial Truth | COGS-PHLMND | Fall 2024 |
| AS.150.375 | Majors Seminar: Philosophy of Language (Proper Names and Descriptions | COGS-LING | Spring 2023 |
| AS.150.376 | Philosophy of Perception | COGS-PHLMND | Spring 2025 |
| AS.150.411 | Modal Psychology | COGS-PHLMND | |
| AS.150.415 | Typefaces and Meaning | COGS-PHLMND | |
| AS.150.423 | Theology of Knowledge | COGS-PHLMND | Fall 2024 |
| AS.150.427 | Aristotelian Philosophical Psychology | COGS-PHLMND | |
| AS.150.429 | Topics in Logic: Ontology and Knowledge Representation | COGS-COMPCG | |
| AS.150.432 | Philosophy of Memory | COGS-PHLMND | |
| AS.150.434 | Formal Methods of Philosophy | COGS-PHLMND | Fall 2023 |
| AS.150.436 | Philosophy of Psychology (SP09, SP11 only) | COGS-PHLMND | |
| AS.150.451 | Animal Points of View | COGS-PHLMND | |
| AS.150.457 | Color and Color Perception | COGS-PHLMND | |
| AS.150.467 | Philosophic Logic | COGS-PHLMND | |
| AS.150.471 | Philosophy and AI | COGS-PHLMND | Spring 2024; Spring 2025 |
| AS.150.476 | Philosophy & Cognitive Science | COGS-PHLMND | |
| AS.150.490 | Mutual Recognition | COGS-PHLMND | Fall 2023 |
| AS.150.688 | Philosophy of Psychology (instructor permission required) | COGS-PHLMND | |
| AS.200.101 | Introduction to Psychology | COGS-COGPSY | Fall 2023; Fall 2024 |
| AS.200.110 | Introduction to Cognitive Psychology | COGS-COGPSY | Spring 2023; Spring 2024; Spring 2025 |
| AS.200.130 | Good Vibrations | COGS-COGPSY; COGS-NEURO | |
| AS.200.132 | Introduction to Developmental Psychology | COGS-COGPSY | Fall 2023; Fall 2024 |
| AS.200.141 | Foundations of Brain, Behavior, & Cognition | COGS-COGPSY; COGS-NEURO | Spring 2023; Fall 2023; Spring 2024; Fall 2024; Spring 2025 |
| AS.200.163 | Gamechangers: Conceptual Breakthroughs in Neuroscience | COGS-NEURO | |
| AS.200.211 | Sensation and Perception | COGS-COGPSY; COGS-NEURO | |
| AS.200.238 | Primate Minds | COGS-COGPSY | Fall 2023; Fall 2024 |
| AS.200.304 | Neuroscience of Decision Making | COGS-NEURO | Spring 2023; Spring 2024; Spring 2025 |
| AS.200.311 | Sensory Representations in the Brain: Maps, Modules & Distributed Coding | COGS-NEURO | Spring 2023; Spring 2024; Spring 2025 |
| AS.200.313 | Models of Mind and Brain | COGS-COMPCG | Fall 2023 |
| AS.200.316 | Thought and Perception | COGS-COGPSY; COGS-PHLMND | |
| AS.200.318 | Quantitative Methods for Brian Sciences | COGS-NEURO | |
| AS.200.322 | Clinical Neuropsychology | COGS-COGPSY | Fall 2023; Fall 2024 |
| AS.200.324 | How to Build a Mind: Lessons from Babies | COGS-COGPSY | Fall 2023 |
| AS.200.328 | Methods for Studying Infant Minds | COGS-COGPSY | Fall 2023 |
| AS.200.329 | Real World Human Data: Analysis & Visualization | COGS-COMPCG; COGS-NEURO | |
| AS.200.330 | Human and Machine Intelligence | COGS-COMCG | Spring 2023; Spring 2024; Spring 2025 |
| AS.200.332 | Seminar in Theoretical Neuroscience | COGS-COMPCG; COGS-NEURO | Spring 2023; Spring 2024; Spring 2025 |
| AS.200.334 | Human Memory Psychology | COGS-COGPSY; COGS-NEURO | |
| AS.200.335 | How Does the Brain Predict the Future? | COGS-COGPSY | |
| AS.200.336 | Foundations of Mind | COGS-COGPSY; COGS-PHLMND | |
| AS.200.357 | Advanced Statistical Methods | COGS-COMPCG | Fall 2023 |
| AS.200.361 | Tests and Measurements | COGS-COGPSY | |
| AS.200.368 | Altered States of Consciousness | COGS-NEURO | |
| AS.200.369 | Neuroscience of Motivation and Reward | COGS-NEURO | |
| AS.200.370 | Functional Human Neuroanatomy | COGS-NEURO | |
| AS.200.376 | Psychopharmocology | COGS-NEURO | Fall 2023; Fall 2024 |
| AS.200.380 | Neurobiology of Human Cognition | COGS-NEURO | Fall 2024 |
| AS.200.385 | Mind, Brain, & Experience (prev. AS.050.363) | COGS-COGPSY; COGS-NEURO | Fall 2023 |
| AS.200.386 | Animal Cognition | COGS-COGPSY | |
| AS.211.311 | Introduction to Romance Linguistics | COGS-LING | |
| AS.250.205 | Introduction to Computing | COGS-COMPCG | Spring 2023; Fall 2023; Spring 2024; Fall 2024; Spring 2025 |
| AS.360.306 | Computational Intelligence for the jhumanities | COGS-COMPCG | Spring 2025 |
| AS.376.371 PY.610.637** | Topics in Music Cognition I | COGS-COGPSY | Spring 2024 |
| AS.376.372 PY.610.638** | Topics in Music Cognition II | COGS-COGPSY | |
| EN.500.112 | Gateway Computing: JAVA | COGS-COMPCG* | Spring 2023; Fall 2023; Spring 2024; Fall 2024; Spring 2025 |
| EN.500.113 | Gateway Computing: Python | COGS-COMPCG* | Spring 2023; Fall 2023; Spring 2024; Fall 2024; Spring 2025 |
| EN.500.114 | Gateway Computing: MatLab | COGS-COMPCG* | Spring 2023; Spring 2024; Spring 2025 |
| EN.500.200 | Computing for Engineers and Scientists | COGS-COMPCG* | |
| EN.520.315 | Introduction to Information Processing of Sensory Signals | COGS-COMPCG | |
| EN.520.412 | Machine Learning for Signal Processing | COGS-COMPCG | |
| EN.520.414 | Image Processing and Analysis I | COGS-COMPCG | Fall 2023; Fall 2024 |
| EN.520.415 | Image Processing and Analysis II | COGS-COMPCG | Spring 2023; Spring 2024; Spring 2025 |
| EN.520.433 | Medical Image Analysis | COGS-COMPCG | Spring 2023; Spring 2024; Spring 2025 |
| EN.520.438 | Deep Learning | COGS-COMPCG | Spring 2023; Spring 2024; Spring 2025 |
| EN.553.426 | Introduction to Stochastic Processes | COGS-COMPCG | Spring 2023; Spring 2024; Spring 2025 |
| EN.553.436 | Introduction to Data Science | COGS-COMPCG | Spring 2023; Fall 2023; Spring 2024; Fall 2024; Spring 2025 |
| EN.553.493 | Mathematical Image Analysis | COGS-COMPCG | Spring 2023; Spring 2024; Spring 2025 |
| EN.580.200 | Introduction to Scientific Computing | COGS-COMPCG* | |
| EN.580.439 | Models of the Neuron | COGS-NEURO | Spring 2023; Spring 2024; Spring 2025 |
| EN.601.107 | Introductory Programming in Java | COGS-COMPCG* | |
| EN.601.220 | Intermediate Programming | COGS-COMPCG* | Spring 2023; Fall 2023; Spring 2024; Fall 2024; Spring 2025 |
| EN.601.226 | Data Structures | COGS-COMPCG | Spring 2023; Fall 2023; Spring 2024; Fall 2024; Spring 2025 |
| EN.601.229 | Computer System Fundamentals | COGS-COMPCG | Spring 2023; Fall 2023; Spring 2024; Fall 2024; Spring 2025 |
| EN.601.230 | Mathematical Foundations for Computer Science | COGS-COMPCG | Fall 2023; Spring 2024; Fall 2024; Spring 2025 |
| EN.601.231 | Automata and Computation Theory | COGS-COMPCG | |
| EN.601.320 EN.601.420 | Parallel Programming | COGS-COMPCG | Fall 2023 |
| EN.601.365 | Knowledge Discovery from Text | COGS-COMPCG | |
| EN.601.404 | Brain & Computation | COGS-COMPCG | Spring 2023; Spring 2024; Spring 2025 |
| EN.601.426 | Principles of Programming | COGS-COMPCG | Spring 2023; Spring 2024; Spring 2025 |
| EN.601.428 | Compilers & Interpreters | COGS-COMPCG | Fall 2023; Fall 2024 |
| EN.601.433 | Introduction to Algorithms | COGS-COMPCG | Spring 2023; Spring 2024; Fall 2024; Spring 2025 |
| EN.601.461 | Computer Vision | COGS-COMPCG | Fall 2024 |
| EN.601.463 | Algorithms for Sensor-Based Robotics | COGS-COMPCG | Spring 2023; Fall 2023; Spring 2024; Fall 2024; Spring 2025 |
| EN.601.464 | Artificial Intelligence | COGS-COMPCG | Spring 2023; Spring 2024; Fall 2024; Spring 2025 |
| EN.601.465 | Natural Language Processing | COGS-LING; COGS-COMPCG | Fall 2023; Fall 2024; Fall 2024 |
| EN.601.467 | Introduction to Human Language Technology | COGS-LING; COGS-COMPCG | Fall 2023; Fall 2024; Fall 2024 |
| EN.601.468 | Machine Translation | COGS-LING; COGS-COMPCG | Fall 2023; Fall 2024; Fall 2024 |
| EN.601.471 | Natural Language Processing: Self-Supervised Models | COGS-COMPCG | Spring 2023; Spring 2024; Spring 2025 |
| EN.601.475 | Machine Learning | COGS-COMPCG | Spring 2023; Fall 2023; Spring 2024; Fall 2024; Spring 2025 |
| EN.601.476 | Machine Learning: Data to Models | COGS-COMPCG | |
| EN.601.482 | Machine Learning: Deep Learning | COGS-COMPCG | Spring 2023; Fall 2023; Fall 2024 |
| EN.601.484 | Explainable AI Design & Human-AI Interaction | COGS-COMPCG | Spring 2025 |
| EN.601.490 | Introduction to Human-Computer Interaction | COGS-COMPCG | Fall 2023; Fall 2024 |
| EN.601.491 | Human-Robot Interaction | COGS-COMPCG | Spring 2023 |
| EN.601.783 | Vision as Bayesian Inference (instructor permission only) | COGS-COMPCG | Spring 2023 |
** These course numbers do not automatically populate the major's Degree Audit. Contact the DUS or program coordinator to apply them.