USD Launches a New Interdisciplinary Cognitive Science Minor in Fall 2023

Starting this fall, USD will offer a new interdisciplinary minor in cognitive science. Cognitive science is the scientific study of minds and brains – human or animal, real or artificial.  The new minor will help prepare students for a wide variety of exciting careers at the interfaces of technology, minds, brains and behavior. 

“Cognitive science provides an excellent chance to make connections with researchers in other fields who are interested in similar questions about how people, non-human animals, and computers perceive, learn, remember and act,” says Dr. Laura Getz, the director of the cognitive science minor. 

The minor was created by assistant professors at USD: Dr. Laura Getz from the College of Arts and Sciences Department of Psychological Sciences, Dr. Marilynn Johnson from the College of Arts and Sciences Department of Philosophy and Dr. Jennifer Olsen from the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering Department of Computer Science. 

This minor is unique in that the founding faculty members are across colleges at USD. The minor also includes classes from all three undergraduate schools, including the Knauss School of Business. Dr. Getz adds, “One of my favorite things about USD is the opportunity for interdisciplinary and cross-college collaborations that support a broad liberal arts education for all our students.” 

The minor first arose out of casual conversations between the founding faculty members Drs. Getz, Johnson and Olsen, who all studied cognitive science as a part of their graduate training. They wanted to give the same opportunities they had to study and understand cognitive science to students at USD. Dr. Marilynn Johnson notes, “Philosophy, psychology and computer science are all jointly needed to properly formulate and research cognitive science questions. We realized that there was an opportunity with our new minor to make explicit the interdisciplinary links between these fields for our students.” 

The new minor also comes with a newly created course. COGS 101: Introduction to Cognitive Science, which will introduce students to questions in cognitive science – from the history to research methods to contemporary cutting-edge issues such as memory and learning in AI. Students will also complete required courses in computer science, philosophy and psychology. Finally, students will complete electives from a wide range of other departments, including anthropology, computer science, industrial and systems engineering, marketing, philosophy and psychological sciences. 

Dr. Jennifer Olsen adds, “Many of the classes included in the minor are already addressing questions related to cognitive science. The minor is helping students to develop a toolset and provides an integrated perspective for addressing these questions.” 

Dr. Olsen will teach COGS 101 in Fall 2023 on Mondays and Wednesdays from 2:30 to 3:50 p.m. Interested students can register for her course and sign up for the minor now.

Questions about the minor should be directed to Dr. Laura Getz at lgetz@sandiego.edu.