The Cognition, Neuroscience, & Social (CNS) program conducts cutting edge research on human behavior that ranges from the level of cells to society, exploring the mechanisms of brain and behavior within social contexts. To explore many of the fascinating questions in these areas, faculty members and graduate students use a variety of experimental approaches such as behavioral studies, psychophysics, computational models, eye-tracking and motion tracking in virtual reality, electroencephalography (EEG), functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), as well as developmental, genetic, and animal research approaches. CNS graduate students receive interdisciplinary training across the three areas, and participate and lead ongoing and novel research projects. Generally, students are mentored by a faculty member with expertise in either cognition, neuroscience, or social psychology, although across discipline research and mentorship is available. The CNS program is comprised of faculty members conducting research in the following areas:
Cognition: Human cognition spans a wide array of topics, including basic cognitive mechanisms such as perception, attention, memory, thought, and reasoning, as well as both the development of human cognition and how it might be modulated by social interactions. Our current research focuses on exploring the cognitive and neurological mechanisms that support human and non-human animal cognition, with emphasis placed on mechanisms of attention, perception, and memory, both within and across sensory modalities, and measured in both neurotypical and atypical populations.