Welcome to the Cognitive Science Unit!

What is Cognitive Science?

Cognitive science studies the capacities underlying intelligent behaviors in organisms and artefacts. These include the capacity for perception, learning, memory, thought, and language. The common denominator in all these phenomena is that they can be studied from the point of view of representing and processing information. Cognitive science is a discipline that ingegrates areas of cognitive psychology, linguistics, cognitive and computationa neuroscience, computer science and philosophy.

Cognitive science is based on naturalistic research methods such as psychological experimentation, neurophysiological measurement, mathematical modeling and philosophical argumentation.

Studying Cognitive Science at the University of Helsinki

The Study Program comprises of courses in cognitive psychology, cognitive neuroscience, generative linguistics, research methods and statistics, and analytical philosophy. The annual curriculum will contain selected courses from the Study Program (compulsory courses and selected optional courses subject to supply and demand). Most courses are in Finnish.

The teaching is research oriented, and beyond the compulsory introductory courses, the curriculum is quite flexible and can be tailored to suit individual needs and scientific interests.

In terms of studies, the Cognitive Science unit at the University of Helsinki is small and friendly, but demanding. Students often participate in research projects already at the undergraduate level.

Research

Research at the University of Helsinki Cognitive Science Unit is focused around two main areas: cognitive neuroscience and generative linguistics.