Cognitive Science Program
at the University of Virginia

What, exactly, is Cognitive Science?

Cognitive Science is the scientific study of the structure, acquisition, and use of knowledge. Knowledge-based systems have the capabilities of encoding information, applying lawful transformations on these inputs, and modifying their processing logic in accordance with changes in both their inputs and outputs.

The scientific study of information processing systems has developed in a number of interrelated yet distinct disciplines which are developing overlapping domains of inquiry.

• Cognitive Psychology, which is concerned with human information processing faculties;
• Computer Science, which deals with the modeling or automation of intelligent functions on digital hardware;
• Linguistics, which is concerned with the particular cognitive faculty of language;
• Neuroscience, which seeks to explain how information processing functions are performed within the constraints of the neuroanatomical structure of biological systems;
• Philosophy, which looks at the way our current conceptions of knowledge relate to long-held ideas about its form and origins.