The document provides an overview of the Cognitive Science program at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, Turkey, including details about the interdisciplinary nature of the program drawing from the Computer Engineering, Linguistics, Philosophy and Psychology departments, as well as typical course electives and research areas of study for students in the Masters program.

1. Boğaziçi University
Cognitive Science Program

2. BOĞAZIÇI UNIVERSITY - BRIEFLY

3. Boğaziçi University - Briefly...
 Established in 1863 as the first American educational
institution outside USA, as Robert College. The founders
 A public university since 1971.
 Spread over 6 campuses.
 Teaching language is English.
 Faculties:
 Education, Arts and Sciences, Economy and Adm. Sciences,
Engineering, Applied Disciplines
 Institutes:
 Grad. Studies in Social Sciences, Inst. For Modern Turkish
History, Biomed. Eng., Envir. Sciences, Grad. Studies in Science
and Engineering, Earthquake Research Inst.

4. Boğaziçi University - Briefly...
 12.300 undergrad students
 2.050 Masters students
 850 PhD students
 Students from Europe (200), Asia (200) and USA (60).
 84 Erasmus students in 2009, 181 in 2010.

5. Boğaziçi University - Briefly...
 One of the leading universities
of Turkey.
 Library contains close to
600.000 items, and
subscriptions to many major
databases, used by 3.500
users daily.
 Active social life promoted by
student clubs and associations

6. Istanbul as seen from Boğaziçi Univ.

7. COGNITIVE SCIENCE –
PROGRAM OVERVIEW

8. The Cognitive Science Program
 An interdisciplinary program of the Computer
Engineering, Linguistics, Philosophy and Psychology
Departments.
 Confers a Master of Arts (MA) degree. First student
graduated in 2005.
 Usually takes three years to complete.
 Requires a remedial year to prepare students for
interdisciplinary work.
 Students take 8 graduate courses focused on two
disciplines + a seminar course.
 Students prepare a Masters thesis in their last year.

9. Example Curriculum
 This student had a PHIL background. In this case, the remedial
semesters include undergraduate courses from the other three
disciplines, including an introductory COGS course. If the student
has an interdisciplinary background, the remedial stage can be
shorter.
 Remedial Semester I
 Cognitive Psychology (PSY)
 Intro. to Language and Linguistics (LING)
 Introduction to Computing (CMPE)
 Remedial Semester II
 Intro. to Neuroscience: Brain & Behavior (PSY)
 Morphology & Syntax (LING)
 Introduction to Cognitive Science (COGS)
 Fundamentals of Object Oriented Programming (CMPE)

10. Example Curriculum (PHIL-CMPE)
 The graduate courses the student took are in PHIL- CMPE areas. They
related to the thesis topic the student would like to pursue, in this case
probably knowledge acquisition in artificial agents...
 Advance Neuroscience (PSY)
 Epistemology (PHIL)
 Aspects of Phonology (LING)
 Principles of Artificial Intelligence (CMPE)
 Cognitive Psychology (PSY)
 Special Topics: Evidence (PHIL)
 Mind and Cognition (PHIL)
 Autonomous Robots (CMPE)
 Complex Systems (CMPE)
 Curiosity (PHIL)

11. THE FOUR COMPONENTS OF
THE PROGRAM

12. Computer Engineering Dept.
 Computer Engineering Dept. is research-oriented, with groups
working on artificial intelligence and robotics, perceptual
intelligence, computer networks, natural language processing,
computer vision, pattern recognition and machine learning. In 2012,
15 PhDs graduated from the program.
 Levent Akın (robotics)
 Ethem Alpaydın (machine learning)
 Haluk Bingöl (complex systems)
 Tunga Güngör (natural language processing)
 Fikret Gürgen (speech and multimedia)
 Albert Ali Salah (human behavior analysis)
 Pınar Yolum (multiagent systems)

13. Typical Area Electives
 The following graduate courses are preferred by CogSci students:
 Principles of Artificial Intelligence
 Mathematical Fundamentals of Artificial Intelligence
 Computer Vision
 Computer Analysis of Human Behavior
 Pattern Recognition
 Artificial Neural Networks
 Natural Language Processing
 Bayesian Statistics and Machine Learning
 Interaction Design
 Autonomous Robots
 Speech Processing
 Intelligent Control
 Each semester new courses are added to this list. Recent topics are dealt
with in “Special Topics” courses.
 The CogSci program also has additional “Special Topics” courses.

14. Linguistics
 The Linguistics Program offers courses including phonology,
morphology, syntax and discourse analysis, with interrelation with
fields such as psycholinguistics, philosophy and computer science
being possible. The main line of research in the program is aimed at
investigating the nature of the rules and principles that determine
the structure of Turkish.
 Meltem Kelepir (sign languages)
 Mine Nakipoğlu-Demiralp (neurolinguistics)
 Sumru Özsoy (cognitive linguistics)
 Marcus Pöchtrager (phonology)

15. Typical Area Electives
 Phonology in the 20th Century
 Language and Identity
 Language and Gender
 Introduction to Discourse Analysis
 Brain and Language
 Aspects of Phonology
 Issues in Government Phonology
 English-Turkish Contrastive Grammar and its Application
 Syntactic Theory
 Discourse Analysis
 Special Topics in Linguistics
 Topics in Linguistic Theory

16. Psychology
 Psychology Department offers specialization in Clinical Psychology
and Psychological Sciences. Under the heading of Psychological
Sciences program are the subfields of Cognitive Psychology, Social
Psychology, Psychobiology & Learning, Developmental Psychology.
The program also offers Ph.D. programs in Clinical Psychology,
Neuropsychology and Cognitive Psychology.
 Ercan Alp (cognitive development)
 Elif Aysimi Duman (behavioral epigenetics)
 Ayşecan Boduroğlu (visuospatial working memory)
 Reşit Canbeyli (behavioral neuroscience)
 Esra Mungan (cognitive psychology)
 Ali Tekcan (memory and metacognition)

17. Typical Area Electives
 Advanced Research Methods I & II
 Advanced Cognitive Psychology
 Memory
 Advanced Developmental Psychology
 Cognitive Development
 Special Topics in Cognitive Psychology
 Visual Attention and Working Memory
 Behavioral Neuroscience

18. Philosophy
 The Philosophy Department combines individual specialization with
departmental comprehensiveness and a general branching out,
joining analytic and continental viewpoints as well as historically and
scientifically-minded approaches. The Philosophy program offers
courses in three groups:
 Group 1: ethics, aesthetics, social philosophy, political philosophy, philosophy of
law.
 Group 2: logic, philosophy of science, epistemology, metaphysics and ontology,
philosophy of language, philosophy of mind.
 Group 3: history of philosophy.
 İlhan İnan (philosophy of language)
 Berna Kılınç (cognitive psychology)
 Karanfil Soyhun (philosophy of language and mind)
 Lucas Thorpe (history of philosophy)
 Steven Voss (philosophy of mind)

19. Typical Area Electives
 Philosophy of Mind
 Philosophy of Language
 Theory of Knowledge
 Special Topics in Philosophy
 Directed Study
 Philosophy of Action
 Topics in the Philosophy of Science
 Topics in Logic
 Freedom and Determinism

20. Other supporting faculty members
 Ata Akın (Biomedical Eng., FNIRS)
 Burak Güçlü (Biomedical Eng., tactile
sensing, EEG)
 Yağmur Denizhan (Electrics and Electronical
Eng., biosemiotics)
 Taner Bilgiç (Industrial Eng., decision
analysis)
 ... and more

21. Cognitive Science Laboratory
 BrainVision 32 channel EEG
 ExG for bipolar sensor data
acquisition (inc. Galvanic Skin
Response, acceleration,
temperature, blood pulse)
 Functional Near Infrared
Spectroscopy (FNIRS)
 Tactile stimulator
 Augmented reality equipment
 Analysis and experiment
design software, including E-
Prime

22. Application requirements
 2.5 / 4.0 GPA
 ALES score of 55
 English requirements
 Coursework that shows interest in
interdisciplinary work
 Applications in April for the Fall semester.

23. Some Completed Theses...
 Elif T. Kuş, "A temperature-based, stochastic model of mate-choice with incomplete
information and evolving representations", MA thesis, June 2005, (advisors: Ali
Tekcan, A.C.Cem Say).
 Hakan Ünlü, "A visual search task to evaluate top-down and bottom up control of pre-
attentive stage and the ACT-R/PM vision module", MA thesis, July 2006, (advisors:
Resit Canbeyli, A.C.Cem Say).
 Robert Ian Bowers, "Fake sex: diploidy, dominance, coupling, attraction", MA thesis,
2006, (advisors: Steven Voss, Pinar Yolum)
 Emre Sevinc, "The Effects of Extensive Musical Training on Time Perception
Regarding Hemispheric Lateralization, Different Time Ranges and Generalization to
Different Modalities", MA thesis, July 2008, (advisors: Resit Canbeyli, A.C. Cem Say).
 Elif Eyigöz, A lexicon for idiomatic compounds in Turkish, MA thesis, 2007, (advisors:
Mine Nakipoğlu Demiralp, A.C. Cem Say).
 Ahmed Emin Orhan, Unsupervised learning of high-level invariant visual
representations through temporal coherence, MA thesis, 2008, (advisor: Ethem
Alpaydin).

24. Some Completed Theses...
 Tuna Çakar, Detecting emotions during the application of skin conductance and heart
rate measurement techniques, MA thesis, 2009, (advisors: Burak Güçlü, Karanfil
Soyhun).
 Aysegül Çetinkaya, ACT-R based memory models of iterated prisoner’s dilemma, MA
thesis, 2009, (advisors: Esra Mungan, Taner Bilgiç).
 Ediz Dikmelik, The charge of c in animal behavior: a philosophical analysis, MA
thesis, 2009, (advisors: Berna Kilinç, Falih Köksal).
 Asli Selim, Gigerenzer’s eclectic normativism, MA thesis, 2009, (advisors: Berna
Kilinç, Taner Bilgiç).
 Ahmet Subasi, Cognitive dynamics of scientific curiosity, MA thesis, 2009, (advisors:
Ilhan Inan, Sumru Özsoy).
 Avni Burak Erbora, Mental representation in phonology: a case study in the
philosophy of cognitive science, MA thesis, 2011, (advisor: Markus Pöchtrager).
 Ömer Daglar Tanrikulu, Biases in probability judgments: hot hand versus gambler's
fallacy, MA thesis, 2011, (advisors: Berna Kilinç, Hasan Galip Bahçekapili).

25. Further information
 Check www.cogsci.boun.edu.tr
 Send an e-mail to the program coordinator
(you will find the e-mail address on the
program website)