Are you currently accepting students?
- I am accepting graduate students.
How do I apply?
- See this page to start the application process.
What is expected of graduate students?
- See this page for coursework and research requirements.
- You will jump right into research.
- Early on you will probably work on an on-going project.
- Once you’ve learned the basic skills and literature, you will start formulating your own research projects.
- I expect students to be self-motivated, to be good independent learners, and to take charge of the direction of their education.
What can you expect from the program and me?
- Our goal is to train a well-rounded researcher and teacher.
- Research training – Literature, tools, skills, research guidance.
- Communication training – Writing and presentation skills.
- Publications and conference presentations.
- Teaching experience – TAs and/or independent classes.
What kind of research do you do?
- See this page for details.
What kind of background and interests should I have?
- Interest in issues relating to basic research in human reasoning, judgment, and decision making.
- Have no fear of math and programming.
- A strong commitment to the scientific process and a search for truth.
Is there much collaboration within the department and across campus?
- Collaboration with other cognitive faculty, other departmental faculty, and even faculty from other departments (e.g., computer science) is strongly encouraged.
What is the program’s focus and major direction?
- The program is strong in higher-level cognition (memory, language, decision-making), attention, computational modeling, and cognitive neuroscience.
Is there an opportunity to do imaging work?
- I am happy to do imaging work where it is appropriate, advances theory, and funding is available.
- The department has multiple ERP/EEG machines.
- The university has an fMRI scanner.
- Imaging work would be done in conjunction with another faculty member.
What other facilities are available?
- Most of the work in the lab is done on computers.
- Most experiments are programmed in Psychophysics toolbox under Octave.
- Most of the modeling is done in Octave or R.
- Most data analyses are done in R.
- Through the Eyetracking Lab, we have access to a number of eye trackers.
How can I learn more?
- Please feel free to contact me via email or phone.
- Current research areas can be found here.
How would I be supported?
- The department is very careful to only admit students they can support.
- Although no department can guarantee funding, we have always been able to fund our students for 5 years.
- This page summarizes TA and RA support.
What is Amherst like?
- The Amherst area is a great attraction for many students.
- Amherst is a medium-sized New England town of about 30,000.
- The area is a mix of residential areas, woods, and farmland.
- We are 2 hours from Boston and 1 hour from the nearest airport (Hartford, CT).
- The thriving town of Northampton is just across the river.
- The fall here is beautiful. The winter is snowy.
- There are 5 colleges nearby (Amherst, Hampshire, Smith, Mt. Holyoke, and UMass), so something is always going on.
- Housing is addressed here.