Program Requirements

In addition to the Emphasis requirements, students must satisfy all requirements in their home departments. Work completed in satisfaction of departmental Ph.D. requirements may also be used to satisfy Emphasis requirements

Note: Students who entered their PhD program before Fall 2020 also have the option of completing the prior set of Cognitive Science Requirements

The core requirements (updated Fall 2020) are:

1)   Participation in the 4-unit Cognitive Science Seminar (INT 200) for one quarter. Typically, this course is offered in the Fall quarters (however, students are encouraged to participate in this seminar throughout their graduate careers.)

2)   Completion of at least four cognitive science elective courses. At least three of the four courses must be from outside of the student's home department, and at least one of these from outside of the student's home Division. (Generally, these are courses with cognitive science content that are taught by participating faculty--a list of approved courses for each quarter is provided here) Further courses can be proposed or petitioned for at any time, and will be subject to approval by the Cognitive Science Steering Committee. A student may also petition the committee for one course taken at another university, or a course not currently listed, to be counted as an elective towards the course requirements (Elective Petition Guidelines).

Additionally, one approved, upper-division undergraduate course from outside the student's home department may be taken to count for a Cognitive Science elective.

3)  Completion of a research project, completed before the dissertation, resulting in a written paper/project suitable for publication. The paper must be prepared under the supervision of a participating faculty member, usually part of the student's committee (see req 5).

4)  Presentation of a talk on the student's dissertation topic area in the Cognitive Science Seminar (INT 200), at the annual UCSB Grad Student Cognitive Science Symposium, or at a professional meeting/conference (if the latter is outside UCSB, student must provide pertinent documentation). This requirement can be completed anytime after the student has advanced to candidacy.

5)  A Ph.D. dissertation centrally focused on questions emerging from cognitive science, with at least two committee members who are affiliated CogSci faculty (committee members may be from any department, including the student's home department). A list of currently affiliated faculty members is provided here

In order to indicate your intent to pursue the Cognitive Science Emphasis, please complete and file a Change of Degree Status Petition with the UCSB Graduate Division

Upon completion of all requirements, please contact the current graduate program manager and program chair with this completed form: Cognitive Science Emphasis Official Completion form

Contact our Graduate Program Assistant, Tiffany Ta (tiffanybta@ucsb.edu), with any questions!