Cognitive Psychology Concentration
Coordinator, Dr. Tom Ward, tward@bama.ua.edu

What is now the Cognitive Psychology concentration began in 1966 as a graduate training program in intellectual disability research, with funding from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Over the years, the emphasis on cognitive aspects of intellectual disability grew, and in 1990 the program began to offer a full array of coursework and research in basic cognitive psychology. This included study in basic areas of cognition (e.g., attention, memory, spatial cognition, reading, human factors) with the unique opportunity to focus on individual differences such as intellectual disability, aging, autism, and reading disorders. In 2006, developmental science and social psychology were added to the experimental offerings. Now cognitive psychology is one of three experimental psychology concentrations.

Areas of study

Hemispheric lateralization

Human factors

Spatial cognition

Creativity

Cognition and aging

Cognitive aspects of autism

Cognitive aspects of intellectual disability