Experimental Program
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Experimental Psychology Program
The Doctoral Program in Experimental Psychology (Cognitive and Behavioral Sciences) provides a firm foundation in psychological processes that underlie behavior in a number of domains including: applied cognitive psychology, associative learning, behavioral neuroscience, behavioral pharmacology, comparative psychology, computational psychology, developmental disabilities, judgment and decision making, language, and text comprehension.
As Program Director I would be happy to answer other questions you might have. You may e-mail me at katzjef@auburn.edu.
Dr. Jeff Katz, Director, Ph.D. Program in Experimental Psychology
Experimental Program Areas
Behavior Analysis
Highly complex behavior is often the outcome of a long history of shaping and molding by consequences. Behavior analysis encompasses the study of fundamental processes of how consequences select and maintain behavior, and how this process is expressed in choice, variability in behavior, reinforcement and punishment, self control, and perception. In application, behavior analysis has made significant contributions in a diverse range of clinical conditions, including developmental disabilities and substance abuse.
Cognitive Psychology
Cognitive Psychology. Our diverse faculty interests explore cognitive processes (the scientific examination of the mind and brain) in basic and applied research. Areas of interest include: visual attention, concept learning, causal reasoning, cross-cultural language processes and reading, decision making, instructional techniques to enhance learning, long-term memory and its application to classroom settings, virtual environments, and working memory.
Comparative Cognition and Animal Learning
This area draws from two classical areas of experimental psychology. From the behaviorist tradition it incorporates conditioning processes that are applicable to human and nonhuman species. From cognitive psychology it incorporates such areas as memory, categorization, causal reasoning, and higher order processes. The thrust is to identify those processes that are consistent, i.e., that are conserved across species and to determine how species differ in their expression of these processes.
Quantitative methods
This area includes statistics but is much broader than that. All areas of statistics, ranging from simple inferential methods to more advanced time series or multivariate techniques are included here. However, auantitative methods also includes the quantification of behavior, the communication of the results, and the scholarly study of the methods required to quantify behavioral phenomena. Mathematical models of choice or quantification of the molecular structure of behavior, graphical techniques and the communication of risk have been of interest.
Biological Bases of Behavior
At Auburn, this includes the study of comparative and evolutionary influences over behavior, as well as behavioral pharmacology and toxicology. In behavioral pharmacology we examine the interaction between psychopharmaceuticals and ongoing behavior. In behavioral toxicology we examine the role played by environmental contaminants in disrupting development, so it includes experimental models of developmental disabilities and aging. These are highly interdisciplinary areas and draws from collaborations within the department and from other scientists in other areas.