All graduate students complete the general psychology core, the research skills core, a master’s thesis, and a doctoral dissertation. Cognitive psychology students also attend a weekly research seminar and complete advanced coursework as indicated under the heading “Advanced Coursework.”
The department also offers a combined cognitive-developmental science curriculum.
General Psychology Core
- PY650 Cognition and Learning
- PY629 Biological Bases of Behavior
- One of: PY652 Life-Span Developmental Psychology, PY672 Advanced Social Psychology
- PY670 Perception
Research Skills Core
- PY607 Research Methods in Psychology
- PY602 Advanced Statistics I
- PY603 Advanced Statistics II
- PY604 Multivariate Methods of Analysis, PY659/BER558 Psychometrics, BER646 Structural Equation Modeling, PY693 statistics topics, or approved alternative statistics course (must be individually approved in advance by the Graduate Statistics Committee)
Advanced Coursework
- PY654, 655, and 656 Seminar in Psychology (12 hours on experimental psychology topics are required, with at least 9 of them on cognitive psychology topics). Topics may include Visual Cognition, Creativity, Cognitive Development, Memory, Decision-making Cognitive Aging, etc.
- PY695 Teaching of Psychology
- Elective (3 hours, graded)
- PY625 Contemporary Issues in Cognitive Psychology (4 hours total)
- PY698 Graduate Research (3 hours)
Thesis and Dissertation Hours
- PY599 Thesis research (6 hours)
- PY699 Dissertation research (24 hours)