The Cognitive and Neural Sciences

Programs and Requirements

The University of Evansville is pleased to offer several curricular options for students interested in the study of the mind and brain. 

Cognitive Psychology is the branch of psychology that focuses on how we think. As an area of study, its roots go back more than 150 years. In its contemporary form, cognitive psychology explores cognition primarily by observing subjects, both human and non-human, in a controlled setting and correlating objective data. Researchers in cognitive psychology investigate topics such as attention, sensation and perception, language, memory, problem-solving, judgment and reasoning.

Cognitive Science is the general study of intelligence. It seeks to understand how thought processes function, how they might be instantiated in machinery, and how our cognitive initiatives relate to brain and body. Researchers in cognitive science work in a variety of areas ranging from artificial intelligence and neurophysiology to cognitive psychology and the philosophy of mind.

Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system in both human and non-human animals. The goal of neural science is to understand how we perceive, move, think and remember. Achieving this goal is done by examining brain development, nerve communication, neural pathways and disease. Researchers in neuroscience work in a variety of areas ranging from molecular biology and cellular biology to behavior studies along with the applied disciplines of neurology (medicine) and neuropsychology (clinical psychology).

In addition to the above, students interested in mind and brain issues sometimes gravitate toward computer science, computer engineering or electrical engineering. These practical sciences are related to mind and brain study for several reasons. Computational tools can be used to model human cognitive and behavioral abilities and are therefore essential to cognitive and neural experimentation. Additionally, some theories of mind in the cognitive and neural sciences are explicitly computational and characterize cognition and behavior as a series of input/output transformations. The brain, in other words, is a kind of computer.

Navigating a Maze in the  Robot Lab - College of Engineering and Computer Science

Using what we know from the cognitive and neural sciences, we can also build smarter technologies, as in the fields of artificial intelligence and robotics. If you are interested in exploring these practical applications, please consider the curricular options available through the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.