The program is motivated by the need of interaction among different fields in Cognitive Science, specifically, on various aspects of natural language, on issues such as its computational processing, its psychological and neurological underpinnings, its grammar and its philosophy.

The goals of the program are those that define Cognitive Science, or Cognitive Neuroscience, as it is more commonly known nowadays. This is not a new discipline requiring new specialists; thus, the goal of the program is not to train researchers on a new, emerging field. Rather, research on the psychological, computational, linguistic or philosophical aspects of natural language is a well-established tradition which can only be carried out by specialists well-trained in each one of the subjects's techniques and theoretical assumptions (in fact, of even more specific areas inside them). Acquiring a proficient level in one of them is, perhaps unfortunately, incompatible with acquiring it on all the others. The main idea behind Cognitive Science is thus that a good understanding of linguistic phenomena can only be achieved through particular contributions from all these interacting disciplines; because of this, research on any one of them will necessarily benefit from a good knowledge (if not at the level of the specialist, at least at that of a sophisticated, motivated amateur) of the others ongoing contributions. It thus seems convenient that, during their formal academic training, potential future contributors to those disciplines acquire the basic elements to make it later easier to acquire such interdisciplinary knowledge.

Students who take the doctorate program are supposed to have already a good knowledge of their own incoming disciplines (most commonly, philosophy, psychology and linguistics, but also mathematics, medicine and education), and only students committed to do significant research on them are accepted. The program then offers some subjects designed to lead such mature, knowledgeable and motivated students to acquire a good mastery of some of the techniques and theoretical assumptions of the other disciplines, while at the same time offering also enough subjects in their own disciplines to properly continue their education and further specialization.