cognitive psychology

The graduate faculty in Cognitive Psychology offer an area of specialization within the department's M.A. program. Faculty members have expertise in the areas of memory, concept formation, problem solving, decision making, language processing, skilled performance, and visual and auditory perception. Students completing this program should have a very strong foundation for work as research associates in university and government laboratories and as applied cognitive/human factors psychologists in business and industry. Graduates of this program would also be very competitive for admission to doctoral programs in cognitive psychology, where the career goal is college teaching and research or a higher entry-level position as a researcher in industry or government.

 

admission criteria

Minimum criteria for admission to the M.A. program in cognitive psychology are a score of 8.00 on the department's admission index and satisfactory letters of recommendation from at least two undergraduate psychology professors. The closer an applicant's score is to 8.00, the stronger the letters of recommendation must be and/or the greater his or her aptitude for research must be. As this degree places a strong emphasis on research, applicants should make certain to document their research aptitude as part of their application packet.

 

curriculum

Graduate students in cognitive psychology are required to take 6 proseminars:

9210   Perception

9230   Behavioral Neuroscience

9070   Cognitive Psychology

9560   Developmental Psychology

9010   Statistical Methods I

9020   Statistical Methods II

In addition to these 18 hours, at least two of the following courses must be taken as part of the 30 hours required for the M.A.:

8526   Psycholinguistics

8000   The Profession of Psychology

9530   Cognitive Development

9520   Language Development

9040   Proseminar: Learning

9910   Topical Seminar (cognitive topic)

9120   Multivariate Statistical Analysis 

 

faculty

Joseph S. Brown (Ph.D., Michigan State University) Research Interests: Skilled Performance, particularly practice effects in readingand writing, early visual processing

Michael Cortese (Ph.D., University of Kansas) Resesarch Interests: Word processing, memory, attention and language throughout the life span and in those with distinct neuropsychological profiles.

Kenneth Deffenbacher (Ph.D., University of Washington) Research Interests: Visual perception and memory, particularly for human faces, performance of eye-and-earwitnesses, history of psychology

 

adjunct and courtesy faculty

Walt Jesteadt (Ph.D. University of Pittsburgh) Primary appointment at Boys Town National Research Institute. Research Interests: Auditory perception 

Thomas Lorsbach (Ph.D., University of Missouri-Columbia) Primary appointment in Special Education/UNO. Research Interests: Cognition in learning disabilities 

Donna Neff (Ph.D., Michigan State University) Primary appointment at Boys Town National Research Institute. Research Interests: Auditory perception 

Roni Reiter-Palmon (Ph.D., Indiana University) Primary appointment in Industrial/Organizational Psychology, UNO. Research Interests: Creativity and problem solving, applied cognition

Brigette O. Ryalls (Ph.D., Indiana University) Primary appointment in Developmental Psychology, UNO. Research Interests: Cognitive and linguistic development, interactions between language and cognition. 

Lisa L. Scherer (Ph.D., Ohio State University) Primary appointment in Industrial/Organizational Psychology UNO. Research Interests: Problem solving, decision making, leadership, motivation, women and minority issues in the work place.