What is LGCS?

Better question: What can’t you study with cognitive science? Decision making? Mood? Dreams? Creativity? Perception? Beauty? Consciousness? Anything a person thinks or has thought is yours to study. Past projects from Cognitive Science majors at Pomona College have ranged from topics such as humor and visual attention to music and language. Check out our Sakai site to read past students’ theses, and our department site to read summaries of students’ summer research projects.

Because cognitive science is so interdisciplinary, you will have a lot of flexibility in your career after you graduate. Graduates with degrees in cognitive science can work for tech companies, marketing firms, intelligence agencies, educational institutions, clinical practices, law firms, and more. Check out our post-grad section for more information about finding a career in cognitive science and to learn about how our alumni got to where they are now.

Psychology contains many different subfields, such as social psychology, organizational psychology, developmental psychology, and clinical psychology, among others. Cognitive psychology, another subfield, bears the strongest resemblance to cognitive science. The Psychology major at Pomona prioritizes a broad survey of these subfields and research methods. The Cognitive Science major also prioritizes breadth of knowledge, but across more disparate disciplines, which are connected by a focus on cognition, intelligence, language, emotion, and memory.

Neuroscience focuses more strictly on the anatomy and functions of the brain and nervous system, prioritizing skills in biology, chemistry, and other physical sciences. Students with interests in genetics, pharmacology, or surgery who want hands-on experience in a lab might enjoy majoring in neuroscience. Students who prefer theoretical or experimental social science research that connects to topics in the arts, humanities, technology, and physical sciences might prefer cognitive science.

Podcasts

If you’re interested in cognition as it relates to artificial intelligence or machine learning:

Try: Sleepwalkers

If you’re interested in cognition as it relates to neurobiology, culture, or empathy:

Try: Invisibilia

If you’re interested in cognition as it relates to behavior, biases, or social issues:

Try: Hidden Brain

Still not convinced? Watch this.

Have you ever wondered why the plural of goose is geese but the plural of moose isn’t “meese”? Curious about how autocorrect can accurately guess what word you will type next? Maybe you’d like to know why second language learners have a difficult time producing a specific sound, or why you were drilled in elementary school to speak a certain way. Do you find it a coincidence that the word “lick” begins with the letter “l” in a lot of languages? Linguistics can point you to faraway places, for example investigating how politeness and sources of evidence are part of the grammatical structure of some languages. But it can also reveal to you knowledge that you currently possess, but are not conscious of. For example, why are prepositions just fine to end sentences with? We are taught the opposite in school, but you may not have noticed that the preceding two sentences both end with prepositions. Or in the social realm, how is it that someone can guess with high accuracy the color of your skin just by hearing your voice? Linguistics allows us to study a broad range of facets of language, from the biological to the cognitive to the social to the political, but to do so in systematic ways, with established scientific methods.

Because language is pervasive and multi-faceted, linguistics concerns itself with many different topics; in terms of the mental structures of language, you will study phonology (the study of speech sound systems), syntax (the study of sentence formation), and semantics (the study of meaning formation). To see one of these topics in action, let’s consider syntax. If you are a native English speaker, you know that you can both “run up a hill” and “run up a bill.” But while you can also “run a bill up,” you can’t “run a hill up.” Something is wrong with that last phrase: it doesn’t follow the “rules” that govern how English works. But it’s a different kind of rule than the grammar rules you were taught in elementary school. It’s a mental rule, and one that we instinctively acquired without having to be taught. Rules like this allow you to construct your sentences properly. By using the tools linguistics offers, we can arrive at a comprehensive understanding of ALL the mental rules that make up a language.

In our department our engagement with language goes far beyond mental grammar, however, including how minds process language, how bilinguals (mentally) manage multiple language systems, how language use intersects with social identity, and the ways in which language can be a central aspect of social justice. To see students apply these ideas and others in their research, check out our student research page on the Pomona College website, or check out past students’ theses on Sakai.

Linguistics deals with language, which is everywhere, but also deals with large-scale data analysis, complex analytical thinking, and asks for skilled communication from its students. Linguistics is a malleable tool that can help you achieve a broad range of imaginative goals. From teaching a language, to programming artificial intelligence, to interpreting the law, linguistics and its many sub-fields can be applied almost anywhere! For more information on post-college applications, check the “How to Find a Career in Linguistics/Cognitive Science” tab under “Post-Grad,” and look at the LGCS Alumni Pathways page to see where our students have gone after leaving our department.

Our liaisons recommend the following linguistics related podcasts! (All can be found on most Podcast platforms)

A Way with Words – English Etymology, General Linguistics
Grammar Girl – English Grammar & Etymology
Lexicon Valley – General Linguistics
Lingthusiasm – General Linguistics
The Allusionist – English Etymology, Wordplay
Field Notes – Fieldwork in Linguistics

Check out the following YouTube channels that discuss linguistics!

NativLang, Xidnaf, jan Misali, Biblaridion, David Peterson.

Here are some more websites you can learn more about linguistics!

Superlinguo – A blog by linguist Lauren Gawne who hosts Lingthusiasm along with linguist Gretchen McCulloch

All Things Linguistics – A blog by linguist Gretchen McCulloch who hosts Lingthusiasm along with linguist Lauren Gawne

Field Notes – A blog of the same-name podcast where linguist Martha Tsusui Billins hosts of fieldwork in Linguistics

Have any further recommendations? Feel free to reach out to the Liaisons to offer suggestions! We’d love to hear from you!