There are two broad directions which can be taken in this concentration—one is behavioral/experimental and the other is computational/modeling. In either case, the goal is to understand the nature of cognition from a neural perspective.

The Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences (CLPS) was created in July 2010, through the integration of the Department of Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences and the Department of Psychology. Both departments have had a long and distinguished history at Brown: The Department of Psychology was created in 1892, and the Department of Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences was created in 1986 by merging the Department of Linguistics with the faculty participating in the Center for Cognitive Science. In June 2007, based in part on the external review of Psychology that year, the Provost approached the Chairs of the respective departments with the vision of integrating the two units to form a new department.