Requirements and Courses

Students concentrating in Mind, Brain, and Behavior (MBB) must also moderate into a program; ideally, one moderation board will be held for both the program and the MBB concentration. The moderation board must include at least one member of the core MBB faculty.
Course requirements for moderation are:

• Foundations in Mind, Brain, and Behavior (CMSC 131/PSY 131), Introduction to Neurobiology (BIO 162), or Introduction to Psychological Science (PSY 141).
• One course from an MBB-affiliated discipline such as Psychology, Philosophy, Computer Science, Biology, and Linguistics.

In addition to completing the requirements for their program, students must complete a senior project that is relevant to Mind, Brain, and Behavior, as determined by the senior project board, which must include at least two members of the core Mind, Brain, and Behavior faculty (this may mean that the board will have four members rather than the usual three).
Course requirements for graduation are:

• Seminar in Cognitive Science (CMSC 308, 2 credits)
• Two course clusters chosen from the following list. A cluster is coherent set of courses, constructed by the concentration faculty, that provides an introduction to a given discipline and how it can contribute to the study of cognition.

Biology Cluster:
Three of the following courses, at least two of them numbered 200 or higher

• BIO 141 Subcellular Biology
• BIO 150 Evolution of Model Organisms
• BIO 151 From Genes to Traits
• BIO 162 Intro. Neurobiology
• BIO 201 Genetics (Eukaryotic)
• BIO 204 Introduction to Physiology
• BIO 313 Animal Behavior
• BIO 315 Advanced Evolution
• BIO 318 Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience

Computing Cluster:
Choose one course from each group

• CMSC 141: Object-Oriented Programming or
• CMSC 143: Object-Oriented Programming with Robots
• CMSC 251: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence or
• CMSC 225: Computer Architecture
• CMSC 317: The Computational Image or
• CMSC 351: Artificial Intelligence or
• CMSC 352: Machine Learning or
• CMSC 353: Modeling and Simulation or
• CMSC 360: Intelligent Robots & Perception

Philosophy Cluster:
(subject to course availability)

• PHIL 115 Introduction to the Philosophy of the Mind
• PHIL 247 The First Person Perspective: Philosophy of Mind
• One of
• PHIL 265 The Unconscious
• PHIL 2** Self-Knowledge
• PHIL 3** The Publicity of Mind
• PHIL 3** Evolution and Cognition

Psychology Cluster:

• PSY 141 Introduction to Psychological Science
• One course chosen from
  • PSY 210 Development and Psychopathology
  • PSY 216 Developmental Psychology
  • PSY 228 Cognitive Psychology
  • PSY 229 Social Cognition
  • PSY 230 Neuroscience
  • PSY 238 Clinical Psychology
  • PSY 240 Social Psychology
  • PSY 245 Personality
  • PSY 248 Human Memory
  • PSY 256 Psycholinguistics
  • PSY 264 Adult Psychopathology
• One 300 level PSY course. Students should note that 300 level courses typically have a 200 level prerequisite in the same or closely related area, and typically require that students be moderated in Psychology or a closely related program.