The cognitive psychology PhD program will prepare you for research and teaching careers at the college-level, or research positions in an educational or medical research institute

While working closely with faculty and other students, you'll train in several topics:

• memory
• cognitive control and executive functions
• cognitive and affective interactions
• reading & language processes
• neural modeling
• unconscious cognition and social cognition

Using methodologies such as:

• experimental design
• functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
• event-related potentials (ERPs)
• behavioral genetics
• psychophysiology

We cover both adult and developmental perspectives on these issues.

Because all cognitive psychology faculty participate in the developmental cognitive neuroscience program, they offer a cognitive neuroscience perspective in each of the content areas.

Our labs are well-equipped with computers and software for online control of experiments and data analysis. Training on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is available both from coursework and from faculty labs that use the magnet at the nearby medical school for research.

Access to patients with neuropsychological disorders and developmental disabilities allows you to study the components of cognition from the perspective of neurological breakdowns.

Core Faculty & Labs

Anne DePrince
Expertise: Trauma, violence, cognition, psychopathology
Lab: Traumatic Stress Studies Group

Janice M. Keenan
Expertise: Reading and language comprehension; cognitive and genetic etiology of language deficits
Lab: Reading & Language Lab

Kateri McRae
Expertise: Emotion/Cognition interactions; emotion regulation, fMRI
Lab: The AACT Lab

Bruce F. Pennington
Expertise: Understanding atypical development (e.g., ADHD, autism, dyslexia) at several levels of analysis
Lab: Developmental Neuropsychology Lab

George R. Potts
Expertise: Memory, inferential processes and unconscious cognition

Jeremy R. Reynolds
Expertise: Cognitive neuroscience of control
Lab: Mechanisms of Cognitive Control Lab

In addition to core cognitive faculty, you may work with faculty in the affect/social, clinical or developmental areas.