Cognitive Science
Jesse Berlin, Cognitive Science Alumnus“Learn to question what you think…”
Our program seeks an understanding of perception, language, reasoning and consciousness by drawing on work in computer science, linguistics, human biology, philosophy and psychology.
Outside all the boxes
Our students are encouraged to excel in the field’s sub-disciplines, but are also rewarded for thinking outside of these disciplinary boxes to synthesize their learning and enrich their understanding. As alumnus Jesse Berlin observed, “Cognitive Science is about the hard problems of tomorrow and today. It's where you learn to question not only what you think and how you think, but also what thinking is. It's utterly fascinating."
Diverse Curriculum
In addition to dedicated Cognitive Science courses, our curriculum comprises a blend of mind-related courses in Computer Science, Human Biology, Linguistics, Philosophy, and Psychology.
Flexible Programs
Cog Sci is offered as either an arts or science major, each with a choice of streams tailored to your intellectual and career interests. Arts streams include Perception and Attention, Language and Cognition or Thinking and Reasoning; Science streams include Computational Cognition or Cognition and the Brain.
An Expanding Field
The Cognitive Science program is fast-growing -- enrolment is up 76 per cent since 2009! We strive to enhance scholarship and travel opportunities for students and to foster outreach programming such as our biennial undergraduate conference, “Interdisciplinary Symposium on the Mind.”
News
The 2026 Mutual Relevance conference — the biggest event on the Cognitive Science calendar — proved to be another stimulating afternoon of discussion and debate as thinkers across campus explored a central question in contemporary cognitive science: what counts as mental and where do its limits lie?
The College hosted four writing competitions open to UC and UC program students as part of the annual UC Writing Awards: the Meyer (Mike) Greenstein Memorial Student Award for Writing Excellence, the Norma Epstein Foundation Awards in Creative Writing, the Frederic Davidson Competition, and the Lorne Tepperman Prize in Public Writing.
UC is proud to announce the recipients of the 2025-26 UC Student Leadership Awards. Recognized among friends and family at a combined ceremony held at the end of each academic year, the Student Leadership Awards celebrate the accomplishments of UC students who have made their mark by enriching the university experience at the college and beyond.
Earlier this year, the Cognitive Science Research Community (CoRC) and Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence Students’ Association (CASA) co-organized the first Cognitive Science event of 2026, Nexus: Where Minds Meet — an undergraduate research symposium.
Student Initiatives
All of our students are entitled to membership with CASA (Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence Students’ Association). CASA aims to bring together anyone in the U of T community interested in the study of the mind.
The University of Toronto Interdisciplinary Symposium on the Mind (UTism) is a biennial conference offered by CASA to explore an array of topics in cognitive science and related disciplines.
