Cognitive Sciences
The Cognitive Sciences (CGS) Program blends traditional areas of cognitive and social psychology. The program deals with human and animal cognition, emotional responsivity, personality, and social thought and action. Faculty research deals broadly with processes that underlie decisions and action in real-life contexts. Specific faculty interests include learning and memory, aggression and violence, vocal, gestural and language communication, attention, skilled task performance, metacognition, false memories, eyewitness accuracy, decision making, inequity perception and response, comparative cognition, individual differences, emotion, issues of sex and gender, cross-cultural similarities in social perception and social behavior, cognitive aging, affective forecasting, cooperation and prosocial behavior. The research conducted utilizes a variety of apparatus and techniques, including psychophysiology, eye-tracking, implicit association testing, sound analysis and synthesis, electroencephalography (EEG), neuroimaging (fMRI), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), psychometric methods, transcranial Doppler (TCD) sonography, virtual reality/virtual environment testing, and a host of others.
The CGS program typically accepts 2 to 4 students per year and prospective applicants should contact individual faculty for more information about opportunities for admission. The CGS program specifically seeks students who wish to pursue careers in cognitive psychology, social psychology, evolution of behavior, cognitive, social, and affective neuroscience, comparative cognition, social cognition, applied cognition/human factors, and general experimental psychology. Each CGS student importantly shapes their own program of study in consultation with their doctoral advisor. Program-specific coursework includes core classes in two cognitive psychology and three electives in areas most relevant to student interests. A principal aim is to help students develop an integrative view of cognitive science, often addressing issues that bridge traditional areas of psychology. Recent graduates have become faculty in college and university psychology departments, taken up postdoctoral positions within research laboratories, or entered human-factors positions in industry.
Stipends and Financial Assistance
Students receive an annual stipend of $12,000 to $27,500, including a full tuition waiver. Some CGS students are funded through departmental research assistantships, teaching assistantships, and instructor positions. Others receive funding through ongoing grants and research contracts, fellowships from NSF, the Fulbright Program, GSU’s Brains and Behavior, Language and Literacy (RCALL), and Second Century Initiative programs, as well as through human-factors internships in local business.
Hard Data Café
A bi-weekly colloquium series called the Hard Data Café (HDC) provides a venue for students and faculty to present and discuss their research and to hear invited speakers. CGS students are required to present their research to the HDC audience in their first and second years in the program, as well as when approaching completion of their doctoral dissertation. Other speakers include CGS faculty, researchers from other programs within the department, across the university, and from neighboring institutions such as Georgia Tech, Emory University, and the University of Georgia. The HDC also features nationally recognized scholars with research interests in cognitive sciences whenever possible.
Faculty and Faculty Interests
Faculty members include Sarah Brosnan, Kim Darnell, Gwen Frishkoff, Yuki Fujioka, Heather Kleider, Marika Lamoreaux, Michael Owren, Şeyda Özçalışkan, Dominic Parrott, Ann Pearman, Kevin Swartout, David Washburn, and Rebecca Williamson---plus Emeritus faculty. For further information about the interests of the program faculty, see Faculty Interests (Cognitive Sciences).
Resources, Laboratories, and Centers
Behavioral Science Laboratory
Brain Electrophysiology of Language & Literacy Systems Lab (BELLS)
Center for Advanced Brain Imaging (CABI)
CGS Virtual Reality Laboratory (CGS/VR)
Comparative Economics and Behavioral Studies Laboratory (CEBUS)
Geropsychology Laboratory
Individual Differences in Executive Attention Laboratory (IDEA)
Language Research Center (LRC)
The Learning and Development Lab
Memory and Eye-Witness Accuracy Laboratory
Psychology of Voice and Sound Lab (PsyVoSo)
Sonny Carter Life Sciences Laboratory