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From: spf@bonnie.ATT.COM
Newsgroups: comp.cog-eng,comp.ai
Subject: Re: cognitive science programs
Message-ID: <3002@clyde.ATT.COM>
Date: Mon, 17-Nov-86 10:30:06 EST
Article-I.D.: clyde.3002
Posted: Mon Nov 17 10:30:06 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 17-Nov-86 22:26:00 EST
References: <7876@tekecs.TEK.COM>
Sender: lp@clyde.ATT.COM
Reply-To: spf@bonnie.UUCP (Steve Frysinger)
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Whippany NJ
Lines: 48
Keywords: cognitive science, programs, graduate, undergrad, requirements
Xref: mnetor comp.cog-eng:8 comp.ai:34


>From clyde!rutgers!lll-crg!mordor!sri-spam!sri-unix!hplabs!decwrl!decvax!tektronix!orca!tekecs!mikes Mon Nov 17 10:05:58 EST 1986
>
>and second, what do you consider 
>would be a viable program at the graduate level to warrent an advanced degree
>(MS or PhD) in cognitive science?
>			   Mike Sellers

  Well, I can tell you what I did (it must be right, no?).  With a B.A.
in Environmental Physics (no, I'm not sure what that is), I first took
an M.S. in Computer Sciences, which gave me a solid foundation in
algorithms, formal languages, and a little AI.  At the time I was
doing some industrial research with a cognitive psychologist (ex-EE),
and came to appreciate the need for FORMAL training in experimental
psychology.
  "Tech" types (myself included) tend to believe they can step into the
psychology arena, derive a partial differential equation describing
brain function, and solve it to know who people work.  Of course,
this is ridiculus; VERY little is known about how the brain (and
it's owner) works.  And experimenting with humans is not like doing
physics experiments -- the sample rarely behaves the same way two
days (or hours) in a row, and no two samples are alike.  Besides that,
the basic science of psychology is today where physics was in
Newton's time (that's not a flame -- in fact, that's one reason
why it interests me!).  So, as a result of the
above observations, I went back and got a second M.S. in Applied
Psychology (experimental psychophysics, cognition, perception).

  Actually, I'm just finishing that M.S. now, and am considering
grabbing a PhD (if my sheep farm doesn't intrigue me more).
I think the duel M.S. has served me well;  if I had taken HALF
the courses in each of the two disciplines (CS and psych), as would
have been the case with a single, combined masters, I don't
think I'd have an adequate understanding of either. I don't know
what the ideal PhD program for me would be, but I suspect it
will consist of AI-type courses (pattern recognition, inference
systems, etc), and advanced psych courses in cognition and perception,
and possibly linguistics.  Of course, this relates to my research
interest in sensory data representation (auditory and visual) and
other areas of "natural" intelligence enhancement.

I'd enjoy seeing some discussion about "cognitive science" programs
and curricula.

Steve
***
How can they know it's time for them to go?
		-- Sandy Denny