Cognitive Psychology
Conducting EEG Research
The cognitive area spans a wide array of interests and explores basic cognitive mechanisms such as perception, attention, memory, thought, reasoning, and analogy, as well as both the development of human cognition and how it might be modulated based on social interactions. To explore many of the fascinating questions relating to human cognition, faculty members use a variety of approaches such as behavioral studies, psychophysics, computational models, eye-tracking and motion tracking in virtual reality, electroencephalogram (EEG) measures, as well as developmental, genetic, and animal research approaches. Graduate students work in close collaboration with an advisor as they develop independent research programs to explore the fascinating way that our minds operate. Prospective graduate students are strongly encouraged to contact faculty members in the cognitive area to explore training and research opportunities.
Cognitive Faculty
I. Core Faculty
Dr. Patricia Couvillon, Associate Professor, is investigating the comparative analysis of learning, and her work includes study of both vertebrate and invertebrate species. Work with honeybees is focused on: 1) the rules that govern the interaction of stimuli in compound conditioning experiments, including summation, overshadowing, and blocking; 2) studies of inhibition in classical conditioning experiments; 3) the role of short-term memory; 4) the effects of variation in quality, quantity, and probability of reward on choice behavior in "risk-sensitivity" experiments; and 5) the development of a quantitative theory of honeybee choice behavior.
Dr. Joni Sasaki, Assistant Professor, is using an integrated biological and socio-cultural approach to conduct basic psychological research on multiple forms of diversity—including ethnic, religious, and biological diversity—in the areas of social cognition and social behavior. Her research has been supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada and Sir John Templeton Foundation and has been published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Cognitive Science, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. She received the 2013 Society of Experimental Social Psychology (SESP) Dissertation Award for her work investigating the individual, situational, and cultural moderators of religion's effects.
Dr. Scott Sinnett, Associate Professor and Concentration Coordinator, is examining fundamental concepts and mechanisms involved in human attention and perception. His research explores information processing in neurotypical and atypical populations, with a special focus on understanding both unisensory and multisensory influences on processing. Currently his laboratory is investigating aspects of inattentional blindness/deafness, the development of sensory dominance, how aging modulates information processing, how human cognition is adversely affected after traumatic brain injury, and how expertise (e.g., in video games or athletics) can improve attentional and perceptual capabilities.
Dr. Grayden Solman, Assistant Professor, uses a combination of eye-tracking, motion-tracking, naturalistic observation, and interactive computer tasks to explore how the arrangement of space, and the arrangement of objects in space, influence search, action, and decision-making. His work emphasizes the active and cyclical aspects of naturalistic behaviour, noting that our actions are not only influenced by the organization of space, but also routinely alter that organization. These kinds of cycles exhibit rich dynamics and underlie the bulk of naturalistic behaviours, but remain poorly understood.
II. Affiliate Faculty
Dr. Adam Cohen: My research interests include social attention, the ability to attend to where others are attending, and theory of mind, the ability to think about what others are thinking. My research is organized around three broad questions. How do the computational and neural structures supporting social attention and theory of mind work? How do developmental mechanisms construct and reorganize these neurocomputational mechanisms across time? How do social attention and theory of mind interface and how does this interface change, if at all, over development? That is, how do we attend to where others are attending in order to learn about what they are thinking? I'm also interested in foundational issues in cognitive science (e.g., domain-specificity and functional specialization, origins of knowledge, flexibility of cognition, nature of representation and computation). Website.
Dr. Jonas Vibell investigates human brains and behavior using a variety of brain imaging tools such as EEG, TMS and fMRI. His PhD at Oxford University investigated cortical timings of multisensory attention. As a Research Fellow between University College London and Harvard University, he looked at early perceptual processes. As a Senior Scientist at Archinoetics, LLC, Dr Vibell applied cognitive neuroscience research to develop technologies for understanding brain function and improve behavioral efficiency. Some of the applied technologies Dr Vibell has been working on include brain-machine interfaces, artificial intelligence and sensor technologies to enhance perception, improve economic decision-making, understand group behavior and improve behavior in healthy and disease populations. More information about Dr. Vibell's lab.
III. Emeritus Faculty
- Dr. Catherine Sophian, Professor Emeritus
Concentration Specific Requirements
In addition to the general M.A. and Ph.D. degree coursework requirements, concentration specific coursework is required for the Cognitive concentration.
Cognitive Concentration Specific Coursework
- PSY 626: Cognitive Psychology
- An additional advanced graduate seminar taught by a core cognitive area faculty member.
Ph.D. Degree Cognitive Comprehensive Examination
The comprehensive exam for all cognitive students is designed to cover three areas of cognition. Given that cognitive psychology is very broad and covers a large number of topics, the chosen areas will likely be related to some degree to the research interests of each student. However, it is intended that the examination will cover at least one area that falls outside of the area of research that the student is involved in. This will ensure a degree of breadth of knowledge for all students.
I. Comprehensive Exam Guidelines
- The committee shall be comprised of no less than four faculty members. Two of these faculty members must come from the cognitive area in the psychology department, while the other two are open. While the comprehensive exam committee will likely also form the majority of your dissertation committee, the final dissertation committee will also require an official outside member. Please refer to Office of Graduate Education guidelines when selecting this person.
- The chair of the committee (your advisor) and the committee will work together to select a number of publications to comprise a reading list. You are encouraged to discuss this list with your advisor and make suggestions.
- The committee will generate three questions that you will write on. While the reading list will provide most of the material needed to answer these questions, you will likely have to go beyond this list and provide additional evidence and support for your arguments.
- Your advisor will send you the questions and you will have three weeks to complete the exam in its entirety.
II. Comprehensive Exam Grading
The examination will be graded on the following scale (using fractional scale values as appropriate):
| 5 | Outstanding | Unusual in a graduate student |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | Very Good | Better than average |
| 3 | Average Performance | Passing although deficient in minor details |
| 2 | Inadequate | Clearly below average performance |
| 1 | Very Inadequate | Clearly inferior performance |
- Pass with distinction: 4 or above on all questions.
- Pass: 3 or above for each question.
- Fail: below 3 for any question.
- Any question that is failed must be repeated if the student wishes to pass the comprehensive exam.
