Academics
General Program Requirements
Advising Requirement
Each student in the cognitive science program will have
two faculty advisors:
- a Primary Advisor in their home department, who
bears primary responsibility for supervising the
student's research and dissertation, and
- a Secondary Advisor in another department and/or
discipline of Cognitive Science.
One of these faculty advisors (either the primary or
secondary) must be affiliated with the Cognitive
Science program.
These two advisors, together with other members on
thesis committees (as required by the Graduate
School and/or home department, will be responsible
for conducting and grading the written and oral
exams and/or theses proposals and defenses.
These two advisors should be selected within the
student's first year of the program. When students ask a
faculty member to be their Secondary Advisor, they
should discuss the requirements of the Cognitive Science
Program with this advisor and ask them to sign the
Secondary Advisor Form.
Core Research Competencies Requirement
By the time they graduate, all Cognitive Science Ph.D. students must achieve a
degree of professional quality in the following four main research methods in Cognitive Science:
- Formal methods: Students should demonstrate
working knowledge in formal methods, such as neural
networks, Bayesian methods, game-theoretic methods,
formalization and derivation in different logics,
linguistic theory.
- Programming methods: Students should demonstrate
working knowledge of programming methods for
cognitive science, such as techniques from
artificial intelligence and computer simulation of
cognitive models, representations, data structures,
and algorithms.
- Statistical methods: Knowledge in statistical
methods and data analysis.
- Experimental design: Students should demonstrate
experience with experimental design, conducting and
critiquing experiments, and analysis of experimental
outcomes.
Evidence that a student has competency in these four
areas of Cognitive Science may be provided in the
following ways:
- Transcripts of previously taken courses in the
above areas (either taken at Tufts or taken before
beginning the Ph.D. program).
- Papers authored by students that employ any of
the required methods.
Students will send their documentation and/or
detailed description for each of these four
research methods to both their Primary Advisor and their
Secondary Advisor.
In the case that the demonstration is found insufficient
and is thus not approved, the student's two advisors
will work with the student to suggest ways to obtain
sufficient documentation (e.g., by taking courses,
writing research papers that demonstrate sufficient
preparation, participating in research projects, etc.).
When the student has successfully demonstrated
competency in the four main research methods, the
Primary and Secondary Advisors should sign the
CogSci Grad Advisors Verification Form for the Core
Research Methods. This form should be submitted to the
Program Administrator, Teresa Salvato. Please submit one form for each core
research method.
Written Qualification Requirement: Two papers
- Students must submit an original research paper
describing their research in one area of Cognitive
Science, to a peer-reviewed journal by the end of
their sixth semester. They should work together with
their Primary Advisor to do this. When the paper is
submitted, the Primary Advisor should sign the
CogSci Grad Advisor Verification Form for the
Original Research paper. This form should be
submitted to the Program Administrator, Teresa Salvato. A final version
of the paper should also be emailed to the Program
Operating Director. In addition, this research
should be orally presented in public (e.g., as part
of a dissertation, a talk as part of a lab meeting,
course, or symposium). This requirement may overlap
with research or a PhD requirement that the student
is carrying out in his/her home department.
- Students must also write another paper, which
should be interdisciplinary in nature, that
is, covering more than one discipline of
Cognitive Science (for example, Psychology &
Computer Science; Computer Science & Child Study and
Human Development). This paper does not have to be
submitted for publication (although this is
encouraged). It can be written as part of a course.
When this paper is complete, the student should send
it to both their Primary and their Secondary Advisor
(or an alternative faculty member from the second
area of Cognitive Science that is being covered in
the paper) for feedback. The student should address
any feedback these faculty request. After
incorporating this feedback, both faculty should
sign the
CogSci Grad Advisors Verification Form for the
Interdisciplinary paper, confirming that the
paper is interdisciplinary in their opinion (e.g.
covers two subfields of cognitive science) and meets
the requirements of the program. This form, along
with the final version of the paper, should be
submitted to the Program Administrator, Teresa Salvato.
Teaching Requirement
All students enrolled in the Cognitive Science Ph.D.
program are required to teach for one academic year (two
semesters). This teaching experience can take the
following forms:
- Serve as a Teaching Assistant for a Tufts
undergraduate course.
- Serve as a primary research mentor for an
undergraduate student, such as an undergraduate in
the Cognitive and Brain Sciences Major.
After the student has fulfilled this teaching
requirement, the Primary Advisor should sign the
CogSci Grad Advisor Verification Form for the Teaching
Requirement. This form should be submitted to the
Program Administrator, Teresa Salvato.
Colloquium Series
All cognitive science students are required to regularly
attend the Cognitive Science colloquium series for at
least three semesters. Please note that this colloquium series
will take place only in the Fall.
The colloquium series features
speakers from Tufts as well as the Cognitive Science
community at large. It has an important educational
mission, namely that of exposing students to cutting
edge research in Cognitive Science. At the same time,
the colloquium series also has an important
community-building function by bringing together faculty
and students (both graduate and undergraduate)
interested in cognitive science, providing an informal
setting where students can interact with faculty and ask
questions. Ultimately, the goal is for it to become a
forum for discussion and exchanges of ideas that can
lead to future research collaborations on campus.
All students should make sure that they are on the
CogSci mailing list (check with the Program Administrator, Teresa Salvato).
Cognitive Science Graduation Requirements
All Cognitive Science Ph.D. students are required to pass an oral qualification.
For Psychology and Child Study and Human Development students, this is either
the masters or PhD dissertation proposal. For Education students, this is the
PhD dissertation proposal. For Computer Science students, this is the oral
qualifying exam.
The PhD examining committee should include a minimum of
four members, as specified by the student’s school and
home department. It should include the student's Primary
Advisor and their Secondary Advisor as well as one
member from outside the University.
After the student has written and defended his/her PhD
dissertation, the Primary and Secondary advisors should
sign the
CogSci Grad Advisors Verification Form for the
Dissertation. This form should be submitted to the
Program Administrator, Teresa Salvato.
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