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Cognitive Psychology


Program Requirements

Course Requirements for the Cognitive Psychology Program

The guiding principle underlying these minimum course requirements for the Cognitive Psychology Program recognizes the need for certain common experiences in all students along with opportunities for the development of special expertise in more narrowly defined interest areas.  A central value of the program is the preservation of maximum time to conduct independent research and develop special expertise.  Thus, the requirements delineated in this document are to be regarded as a common minimum core.   It is expected that students will take a variety of courses not specified in this document in order to create the special competencies they desire.  Students may also be required to sign up for additional course hours in order to satisfy university requirements for full-time enrollment while being supported on fellowships and assistantships.  Full time enrollment is defined as 9 hours for those eligible for a matriculation fee waiver.  Twelve hours are required for students receiving fellowships or those who are ineligible for a matriculation fee waiver.  Eligibility for a waiver is based on receiving a departmental, research, or teaching assistantship of at least 10 hours per week.  Underload permits may be obtained from the Graduate Training Office (209 PSY) if the student is not eligible for a tuition waiver.  Other requirements, which apply to the Psychology Department as a whole, are contained in the document titled "Guidelines for the Operation of the Graduate Program".

Required courses are identified in three areas, the psychology content core, the research/experiential core, and the statistics/methodology core.  A specific number of courses must be taken from each of these areas.

No distinction is made here between requirements for Master's and Ph.D.  The only specific requirements for a Master's degree are those listed as departmental or college requirements.   It should be noted that the requirement for the Master's involves thirty semester hours (18 of which must be those in which a letter grade is assigned).

Psychology Content Core

EXP 5508 plus one other course from among those designated by the psychology department as the departmental core: DEP 5165 Developmental Psychology, SOP 5053 Social Psychology, EXP 5056 Biological Psychology, PSB 6059 Behavioral Endocrinology, EXP 5406 Conditioning and Learning, PPE 5055 Personality Theory, PSY 6919 Cross-area Seminar, and PSY 6919 Personality and Social Psychology.

EXP 6920 Current Issues in Cognitive/Behavioral Science (total of two hours, one in the Fall and one in the Spring).  The purpose of this course is to acquaint students with work of the faculty, to accomplish specific skills instruction that is outside of other course content, and to create unity in the first year class.

Four advanced courses.  These may be either seminars or regularly offered courses that are not listed as part of the department wide core.  Listed below are some examples of courses that satisfy this requirement.  Other courses used to satisfy this requirement (e.g., courses offered by other departments) must have the approval of the student's major professor and committee.

  • EXP-5642 Psychology of Language
  • EXP 6609 Verbal reports and Protocol Analysis
  • EXP-6919 Memory
  • EXP-6919 Cognitive Neuroscience
  • PSY 6919 Introduction to Expertise and Skill Acquisition
  • EXP-5916 Visual Information Processing and Eye Movement Control

Research/Experiential Core

  • PSY 5917r  Supervised Research - 2 hours
  • PSY 5973r  Master's Thesis - 6 hours minimum, and no maximum
  • PSY 6656r  Preliminary Examination Preparation -  Minimum 3 hours, maximum 9 hours
  • PSY 6980r  Dissertation - Minimum 24 hours

In addition to these required courses, students may wish to gain additional hours of supervised research/experience by signing up for PSY 5908r (Directed Individual Study), which may be repeated.

Statistics/Methodology Core

Students must take one of the following courses:

  • PSY 6919 Design and Analysis in Psychology I (3)
  • PSY 6919 Design and Analysis in Psychology II (3)
  • EDF 5401  General Linear Model Application (4)
  • STA 5126  Statistical procedures for the behavioral sciences (4)
  • STA 5206  ANOVA and the Design of Experiments (3)
  • STA 5207  Applied Regression Methods (3)

In addition, students must take two additional courses either from the list above or from the following list.

  • EDF 5402  Advanced Topics in Analysis of Variance (3)
  • EDF 5406  Multivariate Analysis (3)
  • EDF 5411  Factor Analysis (3)
  • PSY 6919r Multivariate Applications: Observable Variables
  • PSY 6969r Multivariate Applications:  Latent Variables
  • PSY 5916 Meta Analysis (3)
  • EDF 5410  Nonparametric Analysis (2)
  • STA 5857 Applied Time Series Analysis (3)

 

Note: none of the statistics/methodology courses can be used to substitute for an advanced psychology content course.

Guidelines for Completion of the Critical Review paper or Comprehensive Exam

The purpose of these guidelines is to clarify the requirement of completing a Critical Review paper or passing a comprehensive exam. Completing a Critical Review paper or passing a comprehensive exam is required for advancement to candidacy and initiation of a doctoral dissertation. The purpose of this requirement is to demonstrate that a student is ready to begin a dissertation. The decision about whether to meet this requirement by completing a Critical Review paper or passing a comprehensive exam should be made jointly by the student and his or her advisor, in consultation with the student’s other committee members.

Guidelines for Completing a Critical Review paper

The intent of the Critical Review paper is for the student to demonstrate mastery of an area by writing a critical analysis of a theoretically significant topic. The Critical Review paper is different from a typical Master’s Thesis in the extent and quality of analysis required. It is different from a typical dissertation in that reporting of original data is optional. Ideally, but not necessarily, the Critical Review paper serves as preparation for proposing a dissertation topic.

The ultimate goal of completing a Critical Review paper is for it to be published. As such, the Critical Review paper should be a well-written and edited document that is ready to be submitted for possible publication. Although there are no length requirements, the target length is the typical range for manuscripts to be submitted for publication (i.e., 30 to 50 pages). Although the primary objective of a Critical Review paper is critical analysis of a theoretically significant topic and reporting of original data is not required, original data can be reported if it helps achieve the primary objective. In some cases, including empirical data may increase the likelihood that the Critical Review paper will be published by expanding the range of possible publication outlets.  The Critical Review paper may also take the form of a metanalysis.

Guidelines for Taking a Comprehensive Exam

The purpose of the comprehensive exam is for the students' committee to verify that the student has mastered his area of specialization by a written and/or oral examination. The first step for a student is to select committee members and submit a written proposal to them defining the area in which the student wishes to claim competency and listing a preliminary set of readings that represents the current knowledge about that area. The committee will meet with the student and make necessary adjustments to the definition of the area and the reading list. The committee can reconvene if the definition needs to be changed or the reading list requires adjustment. Upon the recommendation of the student the committee will determine how the examination will be organized.

Type of examination: oral; written (without reference books); written (with access to reference books); or some combination of written and oral. For a written examination, each committee member will submit one or two questions and the supervisor will select a suitable number of questions and monitor that the questions are appropriate given the definition of the agreed area of specialization and the reading list. The supervising professor will be responsible for the administration and proctoring of the exam. Recommended duration is two days with different questions with an 8-hour time limit for each day.

For an oral exam the supervisor will monitor that the committee members' questions are consistent with the definition of the specialization and reading list. Recommended duration is between two and three hours.

If the student shows general mastery but weakness in some limited areas, the committee can decide to reconvene with renewed questions restricted to those areas within an oral examination format.