The faculty in the cognitive area have breadth in (1) research content areas, (2) methodologies, and (3) applications to which their research contributes. Content areas include memory (Chad Dodson, Nicole Long, Per Sederberg), computational modeling (Per Sederberg), big datadata science approaches to brain imaging (Jack Van Horn), social cognition and epigenetic approaches to development (Jamie Morris), cognitive aging (Mariana Teles Santos Golino), and education (Dan Willingham). The area’s research laboratories make use of virtual reality, eye tracking, and brain imaging technologies including EEG and fMRI. Finally, the area contributes to a number of applied concerns, human-computer interaction, eye-witness testimony, cognitive decline during aging, education practice, and autism. Overall, the area has considerable strength in the content and techniques of cognitive neuroscience as well as in behavioral research. Our goal is to train researchers in cognitive psychology and cognitive science. We help our students prepare for careers in pure research (typically in university settings), as well as applied research in industry, where the skills of cognitive psychologists are in demand. We take care to tailor programs of study to each student's interests: we encourage some of our students to deepen their mathematical training, others to study topics in neuroscience, computer science, linguistics. We also insure that our students learn how to teach, give lectures to colleagues, write well, and obtain funding for their research. All of our students become seasoned data-analysts, and many learn how to program computers. Throughout your studies you work as a teaching assistant in undergraduate courses (such as Introductory Psychology, Research Methods & Data Analysis, Introduction to Perception, Introduction to Cognition, Cognitive Neuroscience), and are a participant in the department’s Teacher Training program. We believe that one of the best ways to understand a topic in depth is to teach it to beginners.
