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Affiliated Programs
Faculty and students in the CNS program participate in several interdisciplinary endeavors which cross departmental lines. The major ones are described below.
Students enrolled in the Psychology doctoral program may elect a Ph.D. minor in Cognitive Science, the interdisciplinary study of human mental processes. Its fundamental goal is to determine the nature of human intelligence.The pursuit of research on typical problems in the area (e.g., reasoning, learning, concept representation, problem solving, language comprehension and production, visual recognition of objects and events, goal directed movement in complex environments) involves several disciplines. These include philosophy (knowledge representation, logic), psychology and related fields (human cognition, perception and performance), computer science (computational theory, artificial intelligence, and robotics), and linguistics (formal theories of language structure). In addition, theories of the structure and function of the brain (neuroscience) are of great importance. Describing human intelligence requires that our cognitive models be realizable in systems physically constrained as human organisms are. Hence, we must examine the relations between computational systems and the biological systems that instantiate them. This latter enterprise is the domain of cognitive neuroscience.
Thirty-eight faculty from seven different departments participate in the Cognitive Science Program, including most of the cognitive psychology faculty. In addition to the laboratories based in the departments, the program benefits from several University centers and laboratories.
Division of Neural Systems, Memory & Aging
An interdisciplinary program at the University of Arizona in cognitive and neurosciences, focusing on:
- Learning mechanisms of the brain
- Neural computation
- Cognitive processes
- Special emphasis on brain alterations during the normal aging process.
The unit has a strong emphasis on development of 'cutting-edge' new experimental approaches and methodology.
The philosophy of this program is to provide students with opportunities to acquire technical expertise in the latest neuroscience technologies, and to generate neuroscientists who will be competitive in the academic, industrial, and/or government job markets of the coming decades.