Cognitive Science
Master's Degree Program
part of joint interdisciplinary master's programme MEI:COGSCI
Field: | Cognitive Science |
Form: | full-time |
Typical duration: | 2 years |
Language of courses: | English |
Program director: | |
Co-Guarantors: | prof. RNDr. Ľubica Beňušková, PhD. |
Related programs: | bachelor's degree programs Applied Informatics |
Program Description
Cognitive science is an interdisciplinary endeavour connecting various fields, technical, social and humanities, with the goal to study the basic components of cognition – perception, reasoning, thinking and behavior. The key disciplines of cognitive science are psychology, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, philosophy, linguistics and antropology. The master programme in cognitive science combines formal approaches of informatics with experimental methods of psychology and neuroscience. The graduates of the program will be acquainted with the latest knowledge about human thinking, acting and sociability, will be able to combine formal computer science techniques with experimental methods of psychology and neuroscience and in this context use and enrich knowledge of other scientific, social and humanity disciplines.
They will gain ability to:
- specify, design, implement and maintain integrated intelligent systems and large-scale modern applications with a high degree of use of cognitive science and artificial intelligence methods,
- design, implement, analyse, evaluate and interpret computational simulations related to applications of cognitive science,
- design, test and evaluate behavioural and neuroscience experiments (using statistical analysis and data interpretation),
- demonstrate a thorough understanding of the key areas of knowledge of cognitive science, together with the ability to make critical judgement in the full range of information technology issues,
- apply computer methods, concepts, but also programming skills in empirical areas of research such as psychology, neuroscience and linguistics,
- work independently with literature, including English (with an ability to obtain and select relevant sources) and present the results in writing in this language,
- work as a researcher in cognitive science or a creative worker in applications of one of the sciences related to cognitive science.
What to Expect
The programme is an integral part of Middle European Interdisciplinary Master Programme in Cognitive Science within the open consortium of (currently) four universities: University in Vienna (in collaboration with Medical University in Vienna), University in Ljubljana, Loránd Eötvös University in Budapest, and Comenius University in Bratislava (perspective partners are Jagiellonian University in Kraków and University of Zagreb).
The strength of the Cognitive science program is interdisciplinarity, i.e. the study of a selected phenomenon from the perspective of more than one discipline, and the search for associations and connections between them. The great advantage of this international programme is a (mandatory) mobility at one of the universities of the consortium (in the 3rd semester), where students can get hands-on experience working on research projects. The students will also benefit from annual international student conference, regular meetings of students and teachers of the consortium, social events, etc.).
Master’s Thesis
With the diploma thesis, the student has to demonstrate the ability to independently acquire theoretical and practical knowledge based on the current state of science and creatively apply, use and develop them. The final thesis will be prepared by the student under the guidance of the thesis supervisor. An important part of the thesis is interdisciplinarity, which aims to look at the chosen topic from the perspective of various relevant disciplines, using different research methods. For example, when modeling a certain phenomenon, it is important to assess the biological and/or psychological plausibility of the approach. In a theoretical or experimental work, it is important to try to integrate knowledge from different disciplines (e.g. psychology and neuroscience). The supervisor of the final thesis will prepare a written review on the final thesis and propose its evaluation. The final work is also assessed by the opponent. The opponent will prepare a written review on the final thesis and propose its evaluation.
Examples of successful final theses of our students:
- A quantitative analysis and characterization of mouse CA1 neuron classes: A knowledge base for computational models (Nicole Vella, 2020) - theoretical work
- Computational model of memory consolidation (Lukáš Rückschloss, 2017) - computational model
- The role of the left inferior frontal cortex in semantic retrieval: a tDCS study (Ondrej Hadidom, 2019) - empirical research
- The role of mirror neurons in cognition (Samuel Sitáš, 2015) - compilation work
Graduates' Career Opportunities
Graduates of cognitive science can work in various professions, depending on their overall education including previous studies. Our 2023 cognitive science alumni survey showed that 37% of our respondents were employed in IT, followed by the health sector (16%), business (14%) and academia/research (10%). Approximately 14% continued with PhD studies. Despite the diversity of professions of KV graduates in general, it can be said that they most often apply in professions that are related to working with people or relate to the design or use of intelligent (usually software) systems that are used by humans. They also have good preconditions for scientific orientation in professional life. Other examples of occupations are: IT programmer, analyst, human resources coordinator, job consultant, marketing worker, clinical trials coordinator, occupational therapist, UX & web designer, university teacher, researcher and more. Graduates of the cognitive science program will therefore be employed in the academic sphere, the private sphere as well as the public sphere of society.