The MA in Psychology is a research-intensive program, and students are normally expected to advance to the PhD program after one or two years of study. Most students pursue training in one of our department's four main areas of research: behavioural neuroscience, clinical and health research, cognitive science and human development and developmental processes. Students choose from one of two program options. The Research Option is suitable for those who wish to pursue careers in research, industry, or academia. The Research and Clinical Training Option also provides professional training in the provision of psychological services, and can lead to careers in research, industry, academia, hospital and health care domains, as well as positions involved in public policy. The Research and Clinical Training Option is fully accredited by the Ordre des Psychologues du Quebec, as well as the Canadian Psychological Association. Our department trains the next generation of researchers in world-class laboratories.
The study of sensory, perceptual and cognitive processes and their development, leading to the perception, responding to and comprehension of visual, auditory and verbal stimuli.
Research programs in perception include perception of motion, depth, texture and color, spatial vision, and visual search, with special emphasis given to the role of attention. Research programs in cognition include studies of attention, memory, language, concepts and categorization, reading, skill acquisition, second language skills, and musical performance skills. The developmental aspects of cognition currently investigated include the origins of a theory of mind in infancy and early lexical and conceptual development in monolingual and bilingual children. Research programs in cognitive neuropsychology give special emphasis to the role of attentional strategies, to auditory information in perceptual and cognitive processing, the nature of cognitive deficits, neuropsychological mechanisms and thought disorders, using neuropsychological methods such as brain wave recording and brain imaging. Research is based on normal as well as clinical, neuropsychological and other special populations.
