MIND, BRAIN, & BEHAVIOR CONCENTRATION

Interdivisional

 http://mbb.bard.edu/overview/

Updated August 22, 2019

 

 Advising Faculty

 

1.     Sven Anderson - Computer Science (coordinator)

2.     Sarah Dunphy-Lelii - Psychology

3.     Justin Hulbert – Psychology (on sabbatical fall ‘18)

4.     Arseny Khakhalin – Biology

5.     Kristin Lane – Psychology

6.     Bruce Robertson - Biology

7.     Frank M. Scalzo - Psychology

8.     Michael Tibbetts – Biology

 

 

Concentration Requirements

 

If you are interested in neuroscience, artificial intelligence, philosophy of mind, animal behavior, linguistics, or psychology, you might want to broaden your expertise to include the study of Mind, Brain, and Behavior (MBB). MBB is an concentration rather than a program, so an interested student must moderate into a program (primary discipline) and complete its requirements, in addition to pursuing studies in MBB.  We believe that any program can be enhanced by adding the study of cognition. That said, the degree in MBB has the greatest overlap with biology, computer science, psychology, and philosophy, so it is generally most straightforward to combine MBB with one of these fields.

 

Moderation Requirements:

 

1.     Any one of three qualifying intro courses:

·         CS 131 Foundations of MBB

·         BIO 162 Introduction to Neurobiology

·         PSY 141 Intro to Psychological Science

2.     One other course from a contributing discipline (psychology, computing, biology, philosophy, or linguistics).

3.     One course from a second, different contributing discipline (psychology, computing, biology, philosophy, or linguistics).

 

Graduation Requirements:

 

1.     First cluster - course 1

2.     First cluster - course 2

3.     First cluster - course 3

4.     Second cluster - course 1

5.     Second cluster - course 2

6.     Second cluster - course 3

7.     Upper college seminar in Cognitive Science (MBB 317)

8.     Senior Project I - must be relevant to MBB

9.     Senior Project II - must be relevant to MBB

 

Before graduation, students must complete two discipline clusters (programs or disciplines; see below).  A cluster is a coherent set of three courses, constructed by the concentration faculty, that provides an introduction to a given discipline and how it can contribute to the study of cognition.

 

 

MBB Clusters

 

Psychology:

 

The Psychology Cluster consists of three courses:

 

·         PSY 141 Introduction to Psychological Science

·         one 200 level course from those listed below

·         one 300 level psychology 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. 200 Level Psychology Courses fulfilling the 200 level course requirement for the Psychology Cluster include (but are not limited to) the following offerings:

 

·         PSY 210 Adult Abnormal Psychology

·         PSY 211 Child Abnormal Psychology

·         PSY 212 Personality Psychology

·         PSY 220 Social Psychology

·         PSY 221 Developmental Psychology

·         PSY 230 Cognitive Psychology

·         PSY 231 Neuroscience

·         PSY 237 Drugs and Human Behavior

·         PSY 241 Social Neuroscience

·         PSY 243 Learning & Memory

·         PSY 244 Psychology of Emotion

·         PSY 271 Judgment and Decision Making

 

Computing:

 

Three courses, one from each of the following sets:

 

Course 1:  CMSC 143: Object-Oriented Programming w Robots (unless admitted directly to a higher-level course)

 

Course 2: CMSC 251: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence or

                 CMSC 225: Computer Architecture

 

Course 3: CMSC 351: Artificial Intelligence or

                CMSC 353: Modeling and Simulation or

                CMSC 360: Intelligent Robots & Perception or

                CMSC 352: Machine Learning

 

Biology:

 

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

 

·         162 Introduction to Neurobiology

·         151 From Genes to Traits

·         201 Genetics and Evolution

·         202 Ecology and Evolution

·         324 Animal Physiology

·         313 Animal Behavior

·         318 Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience

·         417 Computational Neuroscience  

 

Linguistics:

 

Intro Linguistics (LIT 201) and any two of:

 

·         Psycholinguistics (Psy 256)

·         Syntax (CNSV 299)

·         Cognitive and Neural Bases of Metaphor Comprehension (PSY 339)

·         Topics in Philosophy of Language (Phil 271)

·         Music and Language (CNSV 220)

 

 Philosophy:

 

1.     PHIL 115  Introduction to the Philosophy of the Mind

2.     PHIL 247 The First Person Perspective: Philosophy of Mind

 

3.     And one of the following three courses:

 

·         PHIL 2** Problems of Irrationality

·         PHIL 2** The Conscious and the Unconscious

·         PHIL 3** Evolution and Cognition