认知科学博士学位课程的任务是培训下一代世界级的认知科学家，并为该领域做出重大贡献。为了与认知科学的跨学科性质保持一致，该计划训练学生整合来自各个领域的理论，方法和工具。由于没有传统的限定词，因此学生从该课程的第一学期开始就开始从事研究。学生与个人教师以及教师，博士后和研究生团队紧密合作，他们的研究兴趣包括计算认知建模，人工智能，人与机器推理，计算语言学，感知和行动，理论神经科学，认知机器人，认知工程和高级合成字符。十分强调使用形式，定量和数学工具建立自然和人工认知系统的模型。该部门拥有出色的研究设施，例如
The doctoral program in Cognitive Science was launched in 2003 with the aim of making seminal contributions to the field by training the next generation of world-class cognitive scientists. In keeping with the interdisciplinary nature of cognitive science, this program trains students to integrate theories, methods, and tools from a variety of fields. Because there are no traditional qualifiers, students become engaged in research from the beginning of their first semester in the program. Students work closely with individual faculty as well as teams of faculty, postdocs, and graduate students whose research interests include computational cognitive modeling, artificial intelligence, extreme expertise, human and machine reasoning, computational linguistics, perception and action, theoretical neuroscience, cognitive robotics, cognitive engineering, and advanced synthetic characters. There is a strong emphasis on building models of natural and artificial cognitive systems using formal, quantitative, and mathematical tools. The department has excellent research facilities, such as eye tracking equipment, an array of robotics equipment, and a large-scale immersive virtual environment lab.