Information for the student – Cognitive Science and Language

The general objective of the master's degree in Cognitive Science and Language is to provide training to language researchers from three scientific perspectives: those of the linguist, the cognitive psychologist and the analytic philosopher. Interdisciplinary training in each of these areas will enable students to monitor and appraise new contributions in the other two areas.

Basic competences:
On completion of the degree, students will be able to:

• Display a capacity for original thinking in the development and/or application of ideas in a research context.
  
• Apply the knowledge acquired during the course to problem-solving in new or relatively unknown environments related to the specific field of study.
  
• Integrate knowledge and tackle the complexity of formulating judgements based on incomplete or limited information, giving due consideration to the social and ethical responsibilities involved in applying knowledge and making judgements.
  
• Present conclusions and the grounds on which they have been reached in a clear and concise manner.
  
• Demonstrate the learning skills acquired to facilitate further learning requiring a more independent and self-directed approach.

General competences:
Successful students will also be able to:

• Master the resources needed for research (languages of scientific interest, efficient information search, use of computer resources).
  
• Display a capacity for the critical analysis of relevant scientific bibliography in a specific field of study and for the development of research work appropriate to the level demanded by the programme.

Specific competences:
With respect to the specific applications of their knowledge, students will be able to:

• Show mastery of the principles and methods of linguistics, analytic philosophy and cognitive psychology, in order to apply them to the study of language, while displaying a capacity for critically evaluating the main contemporary contributions of these disciplines.
  
• Describe linguistic phenomena clearly, capturing all of their complexity and using the necessary level of detail.
  
• Display a capacity for extracting the logical form of arguments, evaluating their validity and identifying any fallacies or methodological errors, and make critical use of the methods for studying language appropriate to contemporary analytical philosophy (specialization in Logic and Philosophy).
  
• Gather data and formulate analysis to solve problems in the areas of theoretical linguistics and computational linguistics (specialization in Grammatical Theory and Linguistic Processing).
  
• Use and evaluate results obtained through the main exploration techniques in neuroscience, correctly design and carry out experimental research in cognitive science, and apply the statistical techniques needed to analyse the results correctly (specialization in Cognitive Processing Models).