Program Overview

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COGS 201: Foundations of Cognitive Science

Course Description

Cognitive Science is the interdisciplinary study of mind. This course covers foundational topics in cognitive science from the perspectives of cognitive psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, philosophy, and computation. Topics may include how minds are defined, how they represent the world, how they communicate, and how they behave adaptively.

Course Details

• Dates: 6 July 2026 to 8 November 2026
• Starts: Trimester 2
• Fees:
  • NZ$1,083.45 for domestic students
  • NZ$5,058.00 for international students
• Lecture start times:
  • Monday 3.10pm
  • Wednesday 3.10pm
  • Thursday 3.10pm
• Campus: Kelburn
• Estimated workload: Approximately 150 hours or 8.3 hours per week for 18 weeks
• Points: 15

Entry Restrictions

• Prerequisites: COGS 101
• Corequisites: PSYC 122, one of (STAT 193, QUAN 102, MATH 177)
• Restrictions: None

Taught by

Te Kura Mātai Hinengaro—School of Psychological Sciences — Faculty of Education, Health, and Psychological Sciences

Disclaimer

This course outline may be subject to change.

About this Course

This is an interdisciplinary course co-taught by academics from Psychology, Linguistics, Philosophy, and Computer Science/AI. The course will be optimised for face-to-face delivery. Lectures will cover core topics from multiple perspectives, and, where appropriate, will be co-taught by lecturers from different disciplines. Labs will integrate material across perspectives and provide hands-on experience with research methodologies.

Course Learning Objectives

Students who pass this course should be able to:

1. Explain key theories of cognition and cognitive neuroscience relating to a range of topics including perception, attention, memory, mental imagery, language, consciousness, animal cognition, cross-cultural cognition, cognitive development, and decision-making.
2. Show how research methods in experimental psychology, cognitive neuroscience, computational modelling, and philosophy contribute to an understanding of mind.
3. Communicate scientific research findings.
4. Design, collect data, and analyse simple cognitive experiments.

How this Course is Taught

This course requires in-person attendance for some of its activities including class presentations and lab sessions, for which there are no online alternatives. Lectures will be recorded, will often include discussion; consistent in-person attendance is not mandated but strongly recommended. Some assessment items (class presentations) will require in-person attendance.

Assessment

• In-class presentation of a classic paper (in groups) 15 - 20 mins: 15%
• Lab experiment report in poster format (group work, individual posters): 30%
• Two popular-science news reports on lecture content: 30%
• Bi-weekly quizzes, 10 multiple choice questions per quiz: 25%

Lecture Times and Rooms

• 6 July 2026 to 16 August 2026
• 31 August 2026 to 11 October 2026

What you'll need to get

You do not need to get any texts or equipment for this course.

Past Versions of this Course

You may be able to access older versions of this course through our course archive.

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