Cognitive Science is the interdisciplinary study of human mental processes. Its fundamental goal is to determine the nature of human intelligence, and to define what is required of a physical system to produce behaviors ordinarily deemed "intelligent". Pursuit of typical problems (reasoning, language comprehension, visual recognition) involves the integration of disciplines such as philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, and computer science.

The Program includes a state funded research unit and awards a Ph.D. minor. Students usually enroll in the Ph.D. program of a cooperating discipline; the minor is then designed in consultation with Cognitive Science Program faculty. The Program has special strength in knowledge structure, natural language processing, and cognitive neuroscience.

More than 38 faculty from 7 departments, and the following University-wide units participate in the Program: the Center for Complex Systems Study, the Cognitive Neuroscience Center, the Institute for Neurogenic Communicative Disorders, and the Neural Systems, Memory and Aging Center.