Coordinator: Prof.ssa Valentina Cardella
Language: Italian
Posizioni: 8
The PhD Programme has been continuously active since the 18th cycle and offers broad, cross-disciplinary training grounded in the “cognitive turn.” Cognitive science, in fact, is a field of study that does not belong to any single disciplinary sector; rather, it addresses complex, intrinsically interdisciplinary problems concerning the nature and functioning of the mind in any natural or artificial system, through a multiplicity of approaches.
The classical foundations of cognitive science (philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, and computer science) have, over the years, been programmatically extended to include the social sciences, the life sciences, and new media and performative technologies, with particular attention to the contribution of the most recent AI technologies.
In the life sciences domain, the programme aims to deepen the evolutionary and naturalistic aspects of theoretical approaches within the neurosciences, focusing on disciplines such as bioethics, neuroaesthetics, cognitive ethology, biopolitics, and social and affective neuroscience.
In the area of applications to the social sciences, the programme explores developments in cognitive and social psychology in relation to issues arising from interpersonal interactions and group dynamics. By examining social relationships and community behaviour, cognitive science can provide a comprehensive picture of the dynamics of social processes. For example, it can explain how an individual conforms to social norms, how differences in social identity affect interpersonal relationships or prejudice (gender, racial, ideological), and how emotions can transform into social behaviours. More generally, the current epistemological framework of cognitive science makes it possible not only to effectively investigate both the individual and social levels, but also to propose models that explain the relationship between these two planes. These topics can also be addressed experimentally during the PhD programme through technologies such as virtual reality and virtual environments, which can be recreated in laboratory activities.
Regarding the development of AI technologies, the PhD programme explores Artificial Cognition—that is, the set of studies aimed at modelling human cognition through artificial intelligence techniques such as artificial neural networks, machine learning algorithms, and automated reasoning. A central aspect of Artificial Cognition applications is language understanding and processing (Natural Language Processing, NLP), which constitutes the most substantial intersection between philosophy, linguistics, neuroscience, and advanced computational text-analysis techniques used in various applied fields. The development of AI and NLP enables the exploration of the complexity of cognitive processes involved in natural language comprehension and its integration with thought, memory, reasoning, and sentiment. In this direction, they can also contribute to new educational solutions, offering interoperable tools that improve the efficiency of cognitive processes such as interlinguistic translation, foreign language learning, the refinement of communicative effectiveness in texts, discourse analysis, and the evaluation of student learning.
The PhD programme is organised into two curricula (philosophical-naturalistic and technological-social). The curriculum “Philosophies of Language and Mind, Psychology, and Evolutionary Sciences” brings together cognitive science research interests relevant to interdisciplinary interactions across philosophical, psychological, pedagogical, and scientific-naturalistic domains, particularly neuroscience, ethology, and evolutionary biology. The methodology adopted is theoretical-experimental and requires the use of laboratories, including the Cognitive Neuroscience labs at the Messina and Noto campuses. The curriculum “Social, Territorial, Media, and Performing Arts Theories and Technologies” gathers research interests relevant to interdisciplinary interactions among media, social, territorial, and artistic technologies, adopting unified methodologies aimed at investigating the performative dimension of cognitive processes and their social practices. The methodology is theoretical-experimental and employs IT, cartographic, and multimedia laboratories (video-photo-web). Doctoral candidates are also required to organise seminar activities and provide teaching support within the disciplines included in the study plan.
Together, the two curricula outline the typical scope of ERC SH4: “The Human Mind and Its Complexity: cognition, psychology, linguistics, philosophy and education.”