Human Factors 1.0 studied how humans interact with machines and technology, bringing engineering and psychology into contact in the 1950s and giving rise to theories of user-centric design. This course will cover recent theoretical advances in cognitive and social psychology, especially in human judgment and decision making, that are relevant for engineers and choice architects as they address technical and societal challenges related to sustainability. Such psychological theory (human factors 2.0) can be creatively applied to designs decision environments that help people overcome present bias, loss aversion, and status-quo bias.

Freud is approached as a systematic thinker dedicated to discovering the basic principles of human mental life. For Freud those basic principles concern what impels human thought and behavior. What moves us to think and act? What is it to think and act? Emphasis is placed on the close study and critical analysis of texts, with particular attention to the underlying structure of the arguments.

A crucial part of neuroscience is understanding how function has its foundation in anatomy. This course traces neuroanatomical pathways through the central nervous system. It emphasizes the primate brain, especially the human brain. The course covers how nuclei, ganglia, and layered structures such as cortex are arranged physically in the brain, the fiber pathways by which they connect to each other, and how this connectivity relates to their function. The material will encompass systems within the brain stem, sensory systems, motor systems, higher cognitive systems, and the interconnectivity and interaction of these systems.

An intensive introduction to fundamental topics in neuroscience, including neuronal excitability, synaptic physiology, neural networks, and circuits that mediate perception, action, emotion, and memory. We will examine neuroscience at scales ranging from single neurons, to the activity of small sets of neurons, to the organization of brain and behavior. The course will address broad questions including: How does information enter the brain? What neural pathways transmit these signals? How is information processed and used to construct an internal model of reality? How does the brain choose and execute the correct behavioral response?

Advanced seminar that reflects current research on brain and behavior.

The study of human nature from the viewpoint of psychological science. Topics range from the biological bases of human perception, thought and action to the social-psychological determinants of individual and group behavior. This course can be used to satisfy the science and technology with laboratory general education requirement.

Survey of different types of psychological disorders and different models of explanation. Students will come to understand the conflicting viewpoints and treatment approaches that characterize the clinical field, and will understand what is presently known and unknown about psychopathology.

This sequence is designed to provide Sophomores with an in-lab research experience over two semesters, with PSY 230 in the Fall being the prerequisite for PSY 231 in the Spring. PSY 230 is a non-credit bearing class while PSY 231 carries a full unit of credit (both are graded P/D/F). Students will gain an introduction to research within a Psychology lab. Students are expected to spend a minimum of 6 hours per week engaged in research and attend weekly meetings as outlined by the mentoring faculty. At the end of each semester, students will submit a written report of their research experience (PSY 230) and present their findings (PSY 231).

PSY 252 covers the scientific study of the way ordinary people think about, feel, and behave in social situations. It involves understanding how people influence, and are influenced by, others around them. In the 1st half of the course, we examine how people think and feel about others and about themselves; then we explore how they induce others to conform, to comply, to obey, and occasionally to see the world differently. In the 2nd half of the course, we examine how groups influence individuals and how individuals influence groups, how members of different groups relate to one another, and the seeds of attraction, altruism, and aggression.

Babies, who look like helpless blobs, are capable of impressive feats of learning. 3-year-olds, who can't cross the street alone, know an astounding amount of information about their environments. We will focus on landmark studies that elucidate how children's biology, cognition, language, and social experiences interact to set the stage for what we do and who we are. Is the baby's world a 'blooming, buzzing confusion', or do babies enter the world prepared to make sense of their environments? How can we understand the collaboration between nature and nurture during development?

The course will survey discoveries and progress made over the past 50 years of research, from classic experimental findings and fundamental theoretical principles to the cutting edge of research that lies increasingly at the interface of psychology with neuroscience (neural mechanisms underlying cognitive processes), computer science (artificial intelligence and machine learning), and mathematics (formal models of complex processes). Topics will include perception, attention, memory, decision making, reasoning, problem solving, language, and cognitive control.

This course covers foundations of the research process for experimental Psychology: reviewing and evaluating published journal articles, refining new research questions, conducting pilot studies, creating stimuli, sequencing experiments for optimal control and data quality, analyzing data, and communicating scientific methods and results clearly, effectively, and professionally in APA style. Lectures survey time-tested excellent methods, and labs provide opportunities to recreate interesting experiments and innovate, building toward an original research final project.

Principles of psychology relevant to the theory and practice of education. Through selected readings, discussion, and classroom observations, students study theories of development, learning, cognition (including literacy), and motivation, as well as individual and group differences in these areas; assessment; and the social psychology of the classroom. The course focuses on how learning by children and adolescents at the elementary, middle, and secondary school levels is influenced by their own characteristics and experiences and the various contexts in which they learn: family, school, community and culture.

The cognitive processes underlying the use and understanding of language, and in learning to speak. Topics include speech production and perception, grammar and meaning, knowledge and words, and pragmatic aspects of language.

We will take a modern, integrative view of animal learning phenomena from experimental psychology, analyzing them through the lens of computational models of reinforcement learning and current neuroscientific knowledge. The goal is to explore how theoretical concepts apply to every-day attempts to change people's minds, and demonstrate how computational modeling is a useful framework for understanding human behavior. To maximize learning and skill acquisition, the course will include group work and class presentations, and will use alternative grading (your learning will be motivated by progress towards your own goals, rather than by grades).

Decision-making is ubiquitous to everyday life and crucial to survival. Good choice is subject to evolutionary selection; poor choice accompanies many neurological and psychiatric disorders. But theoretical understanding of a function is needed to manipulate and measure it experimentally. Recently, this has led scientists studying choice to seek insights from economics. This course explores how humans and animals make decisions, focusing on how psychological and neural mechanisms implement, or fail to implement, economic theories of choice. We consider choice in many sorts of tasks; eg, in animal foraging and human competitive interactions.

Adversity is a powerful force in the human experience. From scarcity, to disasters, to marginalization, experiences of adversity play a pivotal role in how people think, feel, and act. This seminar will explore the psychological consequences of adversity, including its effects on beliefs, attitudes, decision-making, morality, self and identity, health and well-being, close relationships, and communities. We will consider not only the deleterious effects of adversity, but also how it can foster resilience, strengthen ties, and spark creativity. The course will balance psychological theories and research with personal and historic narratives.

The objective of this course is to provide advanced students in cognitive science, psychology, and computer science with the skills to develop computational models of human cognition. Computational modeling is one of the central methods in cognitive science research, and can help to provide insight into how people solve the challenging problems posed by everyday life, as well as how to bring computers closer to human performance for some of these problems. The course will explore three ways in which researchers have attempted to formalize cognition-symbolic approaches, neural networks, and probability and statistics.

Introduction to graduate level social psychology for first year graduate students in psychology. This course will serve as the basis for more advanced graduate courses on specific topics in this area.

Cognitive Proseminar: Introduction to graduate level cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience for first year graduate students in psychology. Course serves as the basis for more advanced graduate courses on specific topics in this area.

This graduate-level course covers foundations of statistics in psychological research. It is required of all first-year students in the psychology Ph.D. program. The purpose of this course is to introduce students to statistics with an emphasis on modeling. We cover many of the most widely applied data analysis models in psychology. We focus on data visualization, effect size estimation and interpretation, and using statistical analysis to inform scientific research questions. We develop practical skills related to data management, reproducibility, and statistical programming through the use of R, R Markdown/Quarto, and Github.

Psychological methods keep evolving: psychology researchers constantly adopt new statistical methods, computational tools, and research practices. This course covers the latest advances in research methods in psychological science through a series of lectures, tutorials, and seminars. Lectures are generally given by a guest speaker who introduces methodological and statistical issues relevant to psychology research. Tutorials provide students with the necessary computational skills to build reproducible and transparent research programs. Finally, students discuss timely topics in psychological methods in the context of seminars.

Current research and issues in cognition, perception, and learning. Seminar participants present ongoing research and discuss current topics of interest in the literature.

An advanced seminar that considers current research in social psychology. Contemporary research conducted by the seminar participants is discussed.

Research internship at a host institution to perform scholarly research relevant to student's dissertation work. Research objectives are determined by advisor in conjunction with outside host. A mid-semester progress review and a final paper are required. Enrollment for full-time internships is limited to post-generals students for up to two semesters, contingent on department approval.