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:
Social: This is the branch of psychology that studies individuals in the social context. It explores how and why people think, feel, and do the things they do depending upon the situation they are in. Our current research focuses on generating and testing theories of social behavior that aim to illuminate many aspects of the human experience, including interpersonal relationships, prejudice and stereotyping, person perception, biases in judgment, emotion, cultural influences in thinking, helping and aggression, identity and the self, and attitudes and persuasion.