Psychology Graduate Program
The Department of Psychology offers graduate work leading to the Master of Arts and Doctors of Philosophy degrees. We offer training in cognitive, engineering, and social psychology. Our faculty conducts research on a wide variety of topics within psychology.
The engineering psychology program emphasis is within the realm of human factors and usability. The research conducted by the engineering psychology analyzing how trust affects operator responses to automation recommendations, how operators monitor and control multiple unmanned aerial vehicles, visual search during luggage screening tasks, perceptual and cognitive processes in reading, simulation of human auditory perception, biases in the perception of moving objects, and selective attention. Students completing a degree in engineering psychology typically take positions in the computer industry working in the design and evaluation of user interfaces.
The cognitive psychology program has a joint emphasis on basic and applied research. As a consequence of the applied focus, several faculty members hold joint appointments in both cognitive and engineering psychology. In addition, students completing their masters and Ph.D.'s in cognitive psychology at NMSU often take applied jobs in usability engineering in the computer and telecommunications industries. Faculty interests in cognitive psychology include language processing, cognitive and perceptual development, and prospective memory.
Like the cognitive program, the social psychology program has a focus on both basic and applied research. Social faculty research interests include social cognition, evolutionary psychology, close relationships, attitude formation, emotions, sexuality, and gender. Recent social graduates have taken positions in both academia and industry.
All baccalaureate level students who enter the PhD program enroll initially as master's students. Upon completion of the master's degree, a student may be admitted into the Ph.D. program, contingent on the recommendation of the student's master's committee and the vote of the whole faculty. In addition, students who have completed their master's degrees at another institution can be admitted directly into the Ph.D. program.
The number of department graduate students has been maintained at approximately 50 students over the past decade. About two-thirds of those students are working towards a Master's degree and the one-third is working towards a doctorate.
Graduate Faculty:
• D. A. Simon, Ph.D. department head, (California-Los Angeles) - cognition, learning and performance.
• J. R. Cowie, Ph.D. (Strathclyde University, Glasgow, Scotland) - automatic language processing, psycholinguistics.
• I. Dolgov, Ph.D. (Arizona State University)- perception and action, natural user interfaces, embodied cognition, human factors.
• M. J. Guynn, Ph.D. (New Mexico) - human memory.
• T. Ketelaar, Ph.D. (Michigan)-social psychology, emotion.
• J. K. Kroger, Ph.D. (California-Los Angeles) - biopsychology, cognitive neuropsychology.
• J. MacDonald Ph. D. (Purdue) - engineering psychology, auditory perception.
• L. J. Madson, Ph.D. (Iowa State) - gender, sexuality.
• M. J. Marks, Ph.D. (Illinois, Urbana- Champaign)- social psychology, sexual behaviors, relationships.
• S. Rice, Ph.D. (Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) - engineering psychology, applied cognition.
• L. A. Thompson, Ph.D.(California-Santa Cruz) -developmental psychology, cognitive psychology.
• D.Trafimow, Ph.D. (Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) - social cognition.
Support Faculty:
• P. Foltz, Ph.D. (Colorado) - cognition, human-computer interaction.
• D. Gillan Ph. D. (Texas) - human-computer interaction, perception.
• D. Hunt (Emeritus) Ph.D. (Ohio State) - human factors.
• V. S. Johnston (Emeritus), Ph.D. (Edinburgh) - biopsychology, comparative, psychopharmacology, neuropsychology.
• Y. Lee, Ph.D. (Colorado) - cognition, learning, human-computer interaction.
• J. E. McDonald, (Emeritus) Ph.D. (New Mexico State)- cognitive psychology, engineering psychology.
• W. C. Ogden, Ph.D. (New Mexico State) - human computer interaction, natural language processing.
• K. Paap (Emeritus) Ph.D. (Wisconsin) - psycholinguistics.
• R. Schvaneveldt (Emeritus) Ph.D. (Wisconsin) engineering psychology, aviation.
• W. Stephan (Emeritus) Ph.D. (Minnesota) - stereotyping and prejudice, cross-cultural psychology.
Minor in Psychology at the Master's or Ph.D. level
Any master's or doctoral student can declare a minor in Psychology in addition to their major area of study. All minors must be approved by the minor department head and dean of the Graduate School. Students may earn a minor in psychology at the M.A. or Ph.D. level by completing three of the nine core courses (perception, learning, biopsychology, cognitive neuroscience, cognitive, development, engineering or human performance, history & systems, or social), at least one which must be the basic course from one of our three programs, viz. cognitive, engineering, or social psychology. Students will be required to declare the Psychology minor on a Program of Study and Committee Form for the Master's and doctoral level. Demonstration of competency in the minor area will be required at both comprehensive and final examinations.
Students will also need to include someone from the Psychology department on their thesis, comprehensive, and/or dissertation committees. Additionally, the representative from the minor department can also serve as the Dean's Representative on the committee.
All Graduate Student Services Forms are available at their web site.
Financial Assistance
Financial aid for graduate students is awarded on the basis of potential for research and teaching in the form of an assistantship. Up to 20 hrs. may be awarded for each of the fall and spring semesters. Up to 40 hrs. may be awarded over the summer. To request more information contact Dr. Laura Madson.