The Ph.D. Program in Cognitive Psychology at Texas A&M University

The Ph.D. program in Cognitive Psychology seeks to educate and train students interested in pursuing research in cognitive psychology at the very highest levels of academic scholarship. The program offers training in a wide range of research areas in cognitive psychology, including categorization and concepts, creativity, humor perception, infant cognition, implicit and explicit memory, memory and aging, visual object recognition, inductive reasoning, metacognition, word recognition, cognitive and neuropsychological aspects of bilingualism, figurative language processing, and cognitive neuroscience. In addition, a number of our faculty and graduate students participate in collaborative professional exchanges with faculty and students in computer science, engineering, human performance, educational psychology, philosophy, linguistics, neuroscience, Hispanic Studies, International Studies, Women's and Gender Studies, and Digital Humanities.

The Cognitive program has an excellent student to faculty ratio of 2:1. Our students typically engage in research from the first year onward and present a first year project. There are numerous other opportunities for students to present research findings, including a weekly cognitive brown bag series, an annual Texas regional conference on cognition (ARMADILLO), which Texas A&M has hosted on three occasions, and annual national and international meetings (such as Psychonomics, Association for Psychological Science, and other, specialized, conferences). Our students are encouraged to publish with faculty in the leading journals in the field. Upon completing their doctorate, our students have secured full-time academic positions involving teaching and research at such institutions as Colorado State University, California State University at Chico, Texas A&M International University at Laredo, Oakland University, National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan, and Keimyung University, South Korea. Others have pursued post-doctoral fellowships before seeking a faculty position, most recently at Harvard University and Rice University.

The faculty in our program have received numerous grants from federal agencies and private foundations. In addition, many serve on editorial boards of journals, including Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, Cognitive Studies: Bulletin of the Japanese Cognitive Science Society, Journal of Creative Behavior, Laterality, Memory & Cognition, and Reading and Writing. One of our faculty (Vaid) is Editor of a new interdisciplinary journal, Writing Systems Research, published by Oxford University Press. Three of the faculty (Ward, Smith & Vaid) co-edited a book on creative cognition based on a national conference held on campus and funded by the American Psychological Association.

The Cognitive program values collaborative interdisciplinary, and international research. Faculty members have ongoing collaborations with faculty at Queensland University of Technology, Australia, National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan, The Center for Behavioral and Cognitive Science, India, Delhi University, India, as well as previous collaborations with faculty at institutions in France, Spain, Korea, and Canada. The area has hosted visiting Fulbright and other scholars from India, Poland, France, Spain, and Israel.

All graduate students admitted to the Department of Psychology are provided a fellowship or assistantship that pays a competitive monthly salary. Almost all students keep their fellowship or assistantship for their entire period of graduate studies, four or five years. Office space, computers, funds to travel to professional conventions, and free health insurance also are provided. The Cognitive program, with support from the Glasscock Center for Humanities Research, organizes an active, weekly seminar series (Cognoscenti) that each year brings to campus faculty members from other departments and other universities. This series provides exposure to different perspectives on the field and the opportunity to network with professors at other institutions.

Cognitive Psychology Faculty

Dr. Terry Barnhardt - Ph.D., University of Arizona (1993)

Dr. Lisa Geraci - Ph.D. Stony Brook University (2001)

Dr. Rachel Hull - Ph.D. (Cognitive) Texas A&M University (2003)

Dr. Steven Smith - Ph.D. University of Wisconsin (1979)

Dr. Jyotsna Vaid - Ph.D. McGill University (1982)

Dr. Teresa Wilcox - Ph.D. University of Arizona (1993)

Dr. Takashi Yamauchi - Ph.D. Columbia University (1997)

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