You must consult with the IU Graduate School Bulletin for official degree requirements and program details. The following is not the official record.

Students pursuing a graduate degree in Cognitive Science should use the University Graduate School Academic Bulletin.

Coursework

For official degree requirements, you must consult with the Graduate School Bulletin. The information below is not the official record.

Coursework for the Ph.D. requires a minimum of 90 credit hours, including the courses lited below.

The six Cognitive Science core courses:

• Q520 – Mathematics and Logic in Cognitive Science
• Q530 – Programming Methods in Cognitive Science
• Q540 – Philosophical Foundations of the Cognitive and Information Sciences
• Q550 – Models in Cognitive Science
• Q551 – The Brain and Cognition
• Q560 – Behavioral Methods in Cognitive Science

Note: On the basis of their undergraduate background, students may be exempted from one or more of the core courses other than COGS –Q540, which all students must take. Request for exemptions must be made prior to candidacy. Exemptions from any core courses require approval by the Director of Graduate Studies of the program and Dean Daleke in the University Graduate School.

At least 16 additional credit hours from offerings listed or cross-listed in Cognitive Science.

A maximum of 6 of these 16 credit hours may come from pure research courses (Q799, Q899, or the equivalent in another department).

Students must also take at least four semesters of the Colloquium Series course COGS Q733 before candidacy. Please note, students entering program starting fall 2018, will need to sign up for Q733 for 1 credit for four semesters prior to candidacy.

On the basis of their undergraduate background, students may be waived from one or more of the core courses other than COGS Q540, which all students must take. Waivers and substitutions, from any core courses require approval by the Director of Graduate Studies of the program and the University Graduate School (prior to candidacy).

All Ph.D. students pursuing the stand-alone Cognitive Science Ph.D. are required to complete a Research Project.

Students should decide on a supervisor and topic for their projects by the end of their first year and submit the Research Project Progress Report Form to the Cognitive Science Program office.

The project must be completed by the end of the second year. At this time students should submit the Completion of the Research Project Form and a copy of their project report.

The project should constitute significant original research done while the student is enrolled in the Ph.D. program. With permission from the student’s project supervisor and the Cognitive Science Program office, the project report may take the form of two refereed conference papers on related topics rather than a single report.

Research Presentation Requirement

Students must present a research talk to a Cognitive Science audience (including at least three faculty members who assess it), covering some aspect of the student’s own research in Cognitive Science. The presentation should be advertised to the cognitive science community, and could be part of campus lecture series like Cognitive Lunch, Logic Seminar, Developmental Seminar, Linguistics Colloquia, Grey Matters, etc. The research covered may be from any stage of the student’s career, including (but not restricted to) the thesis research. The presentation must be made before advancement to candidacy. At least three CogSci faculty members will need to attend this talk.

Each student selects a Content Specialization, an area of study that can be approached from the perspectives of the different disciplines within Cognitive Science. With the approval of the student’s advisory/research committee, any relevant area of cognitive science may fulfill the Content Specialization requirement. Some possibilities are Language and Speech, Dynamical Systems, Logic, Neuroscience and Human-Computer Interaction. Students must complete at least five courses in their specialization, and these courses must be taken in at least two different departments. Courses from the student’s minor may count toward the Content Specialization, but not core COGS courses. The Content Specialization should be selected by the end of the student’s second year in the program, and the courses selected must be approved by the student’s advisory/research committee. The Content Specialization must be completed prior to Candidacy.

1. By the end of the student’s second year in the program, the content specialization should be selected. Once the selection has been made, a written proposal should be submitted to the student’s advisory committee, giving a detailed course of study that includes at least five courses in at least two different departments. This proposal may be a revised draft of an earlier proposal that was not approved or an alteration of a previously approved proposal. It may contain a request for a revision of any of the stated requirements.
2. The proposal must be approved by the student’s advisory committee. The student should file a copy of the approved proposal attached to the Content Specialization Proposal Submission Form (bearing the signature from the chairperson in advisory committee) with the Cognitive Science Program office.
3. When the approved courses have been completed, the student’s advisory committee will confirm that the approved course of study, including at least five courses in at least two different departments, has been completed successfully. The student must submit to the Cognitive Science Program office the Content Specialization Verification Form bearing the signatures of the student’s advisory committee and director of graduate studies.

Students must complete a minor in another department or program. Courses counting toward the minor may also count toward the student’s content specialization. The minor should normally be completed by the beginning of the student's fourth year.