Faculty of Arts & Sciences

How do our brains give rise to our minds? Specifically, how are mental processes related to neural activity? This course will explore these questions, as well as the methods by which cognitive neuroscience seeks to answer them. We will focus on processes within perception, attention, memory, language, action, emotion, and social cognition, and methods including neuroimaging, neuropsychology, and electrophysiology.

An introduction to social psychological research and theory regarding everyday behavior, incorporating methods from the life sciences (neuroscience, genetics, evolutionary biology). Topics include: attitudes and social influence; obedience to authority; stereotyping, prejudice, and intergroup relations; emotion; interpersonal attraction; morality and prosocial behavior; and errors of everyday human judgment

Introduction to the study of psychological dysfunction. Focuses on abnormal behavior as it relates to the definition, etiology, and treatment of major symptom domains. This course will emphasize critical evaluation of the causes and mechanisms of mental illness, with special attention paid to recent neuroscientific and genetic research on the neurobiology of psychopathology.

Independent empirical research (laboratory or field) conducted under the supervision of a departmental faculty member. Research report or equivalent paper required. May be taken up to three times for College credit; limits on research courses for concentration credit apply.

Faculty will each lecture about their main area of research: its history, methods, and discoveries, focusing on contemporary research topics including perception, memory, cognitive development, animal cognition, social cognition, moral decision-making, consciousness, language, and psychopathology. Includes a view of methods to study the mind, brain and behavior involving neuroscientific techniques, evolutionary psychology, web-based experimentation, traditional laboratory experiments, and field studies. Emphasis is primarily human, as well as nonhuman primates.

Examines selected issues and phenomena in contemporary psychological research. Special attention to examining topics from a variety of perspectives, to reading primary sources in the field, and to developing thinking, writing, research, and discussion skills. This tutorial, or Psychology 975, is required of concentrators upon entering the concentration, normally in the sophomore year. Letter graded.

Examines selected issues of relevance to social and cognitive neuroscience addressed in contemporary psychological research, and is normally required for students in the Social and Cognitive Neuroscience track of Psychology. Special attention to examining topics from a variety of perspectives, to reading primary sources in the field, and to developing thinking, writing, research, and discussion skills. This tutorial, or Psychology 971, is required of concentrators upon entering the concentration, normally in the sophomore year. Letter-graded.

This course is an introduction to the study of animal cognition and thought processes. Topics include categorization, memory, number concepts, insight, and language-like behavior. The course requires reading and critiquing original journal articles.

Conflicts begin in human minds -therefore understanding conflict requires the understanding of the influence of social-psychological dynamics-. In this course we will focus on social psychological concepts of intergroup conflict, such as identity, collective memory and stereotypes, and inquire how they propel groups towards conflict. We will also consider how understanding these processes can help prevent and resolve conflicts. For example, we will ask, how individuals reform as one identity group. What role does collective memory play in sustaining conflicts? Can contact and dialogue help to overcome conflict? Which specific circumstances are required for a successful conflict resolution?

This seminar will focus on the profound cognitive changes of early childhood and old age. We will be especially interested in what such changes tell us about how the adult mind -- perched between childhood and old age -- is organized. Topics include: theories of development and theories of aging, changes in the neural substrate; the rise and fall of executive functions; conceptual gain and conceptual loss; expertise and wisdom; healthy aging and dementias.

Perception is required to have a mind like yours. How does perceiving work? How are streams of sensory input processed into rich and useful models of the world around you? This course will converge on the 5 senses from many informative angles, explaining how perception tracks and shapes reality, then gives rise to imagination.

This course will review the role social factors (social support, social interactions, social functioning, and the broader social context of communities) relate to the development and maintenance of psychopathology. In the context of disorders such as schizophrenia, depression (including suicide), eating disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorder, this course will look at how social factors might contribute to the development of mental illness, as well as how social factors might be indicators of mental illness, and finally how social factors might mediate the severity of or even prevent the development of mental illness.

Cyborgs are created when biological brains are enhanced with technology. This course will explore a wide range of mind-machine interactions. Are search engines changing the structure of human memory? Is your laptop or smartphone part of your mind? Are human brains flexible enough to update motor and sensory systems, expanding the self to include artificial limbs, exoskeletons, remote-control devices, night vision, wearable computing, etc.? How do experiences in virtual reality impact psychology? As technology advances we are all becoming cyborgs. Now is an exciting time to study the interactive interface of technology and mind.

How do you draw the line between bluish green and greenish blue? A coat and a jacket? Your own race and another race? How can people judge baseball pitches or facial emotions in fractions of a second? How do we boil down complex mixes of emotional information to make binary decisions, like whether to go on a second date? We face a world full of subtle gradations, but effortlessly place people and things into discrete categories. This course will explore how these categories form, as well as the consequences that arise from the ways we categorize objects, people, and ideas.

This seminar will examine research on a wide range of developmental, social, and psychological processes that affect the mental health of adolescents and young adults. We will discuss factors that facilitate resilience during adolescence and the transition to adulthood (such as personality traits and economic resources), as well as risk factors (such as parental maltreatment and exposure to violence). We will also explore questions specific to disorders common during this developmental period, such as whether adolescent mood and anxiety disorders are unidimensional or bideminsional constructs, and how recent social and neurobiological research can enhance our understanding of the unique challenges faced by adolescents and young adults with ADHD. Throughout the course, we will discuss research on emerging trends in media use and Facebook, and the impact of these technologies on depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and cyberbullying.

Supervised reading and research with a faculty supervisor normally resulting in a thesis prospectus. Required, supplemental group meetings to discuss topic and supervisor selection, study methodology, prospectus writing, and the prospectus meeting. Graded SAT/UNS. Full prospectus or term paper required.

Individual supervised thesis research supplemented with occasional group meetings to discuss major aspects of the thesis process (e.g., organizing, conducting, and presenting research). Graded Sat/Unsat. Prospectus meeting required for fall term credit, as well as a paper for students who divide course at mid-year. Submission of thesis required for full year credit.

Individual supervised thesis research supplemented with occasional group meetings to discuss major aspects of the thesis process (e.g., organizing, conducting, and presenting research). Graded Sat/Unsat. Prospectus meeting required for fall term credit, as well as a paper for students who divide course at mid-year. Submission of thesis required for full year credit.

Individual supervised research supplemented with occasional group meetings to discuss major aspects of the thesis process (e.g., organizing, conducting, and presenting research). Graded Sat/Unsat. Prospectus meeting required for fall term credit, as well as a paper for students who divide course at mid-year. Submission of thesis required for full year credit.

A capstone course aimed at an integrated review of the field through seminar discussions, oral reports, field experience, practitioner interviews, and independent research projects. Focus is upon the perspectives and prescriptions in contemporary psychology.

This course will critically examine the nature of well-being, happiness and the good life. This course will cover a range of topics such as: optimal functioning, strengths, values, interests, mindfulness, physical health, and happiness. Through group and class discussions, involved exercises, projects, videos, and review of journal articles, students will: (i) gain an understanding of well-being related concepts, (ii) learn to think critically and analytically about issues related to positive psychology, (iii) experience the effects of applying well-being related principles on your own personal growth, (iv) propose an intervention to bring about change in a well-being related behavior.

This course will examine psychological and physical health from the perspective of Positive Psychology. A major focus will be on mindfulness theory and its relationship to stress/coping; illness/wellness; decision-making; placebos. The medical model, the bio social model, and a unified mind/body model will be compared to examine their relationship to achieving resilience.

This course seeks to understand the physical and psychological behaviors as well as the mental training components necessary to achieve peak sport performance. Students will also gain an understanding of the physical, affective, and cognitive consequences of competitive sport participation. This includes the psychological factors that influence sport performance (e.g., self-confidence, arousal), methods for enhancing sport performance (e.g., goal-setting, imagery), and the negative consequences of becoming an elite athlete (e.g., burnout, concussions).

The purpose of the course is to understand the effects of social threat, ostracism, anxiety, and choking on performance, and how to overcome them. This includes understanding the different types of impediments to excelling, how these impediments influence performance, and ultimately, how understanding these impediments lead to interventions to overcome them. Past and present empirical research and theory will be examined.

How does being a woman or man affect our behavior, our evaluations of ourselves, and our interactions with others? This course examines psychological science on women and girls in western industrialized societies, addressing such topics as gender stereotypes, girlhood, women and work, relationships, pregnancy and motherhood, mental health, violence against women, and women in later adulthood. We will consider these topics through an understanding of gender as a social construction, being mindful of the intersections of gender, sexuality, class, and race. Although focused on women's lives and experiences, this course is also highly relevant to men.

This course will introduce students to the basics of the MATLAB user interface and programming language, for the purpose of using MATLAB to conduct behavioral research. In the first half of the course, you will learn about MATLAB syntax, general programming concepts such as functions, loops, and conditional statements, and how to analyze and visualize data in MATLAB. In the second half of the course, you will learn to program psychology experiments with the Psychophysics toolbox (a set of MATLAB functions), including displaying stimuli (visual and auditory), and collecting responses from participants.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is one of the most widely used methods in cognitive neuroscience research. In this course, students will learn the basics of fMRI research and gain hands-on experience in conducting fMRI experiments. In the first part of the course, students will have an overview of the fMRI methods, including how fMRI works, basic designs of fMRI experiments, fMRI data collection, analysis and interpretation, and current applications of fMRI in cognitive neuroscience research. In the second part of the course, students will design and conduct fMRI experiments and analyze fMRI data.

An introduction to how drugs affect mood, sensation, consciousness, and other psychological and behavioral functions in both healthy and disease states. Introduces concepts in neuroscience and pharmacology to understand how drugs are used to treat drug abuse, psychiatric disorders and why individuals use recreational drugs. Covers all CNS drugs, including antidepressants, antipsychotics, alcohol, and both licit and illicit drugs of abuse. Debates controversial topics such as research with psychiatric populations, diagnosing ADHD, teenage suicide, marijuana legalization, and needle exchange programs.

This class will explore the biology of psychological illness. We will ignore artificial diagnostic labels, examining instead the core symptom domains that have plagued humans since the beginning of recorded history. A strong emphasis will be placed on biological mechanisms. In particular, the class will focus on mapping dysfunction in large-scale brain circuits to cognitive, affective, social, and motivational symptom domains, and on understanding how genes and environments act and interact to predispose these symptoms by shaping brain function and development.

This course will explore the "mismatch" between our ancestral brain and the modern world. After covering the evolution of the human brain, the bulk of the course will focus on case studies including how drugs hijack the normal function of brain systems, how the Facebook age places stresses on social systems that evolved to handle close-knit groups of 25 or so individuals, and how the brain degenerates as we live unexpectedly long.

Examines the patterns of perceptual, motor, cognitive, and linguistic impairments resulting from brain damage. The focus is on the implications of the various types of neuropsychological deficits (such as visual neglect, dyslexia, and aphasia) for theories of the mind and the functional organization of the brain.

The goal of this course is for students to master the foundational logic and theory of evolutionary psychology. Students are exposed to and consider topics covering the range of human experience, including cooperation, mating, friendship, aggression, warfare, collective action, kinship, parenting, social learning, dietary choice, spatial cognition, reasoning, emotions, morality, personality and individual differences, predator avoidance, hazard management, and culture.

Genetics provides a powerful approach for exploring human behavioral variation and learning how dysfunction in neural circuits influences cognition. This course will cover the basics of genetic inheritance and genomic sequencing to understand brain function. Topics include autistic disorders, schizophrenia, and normal cognitive variation. The goals of the class will be (1) to debate the potential of bridging genomics and human neuroscience, and (2) to survey recent successes in brain genomics.

Intended for undergraduates or those with limited background in cognitive neuroscience. Students will attend and participate in laboratory research and in a seminar that includes discussion of active scientific projects, recent important journal articles, and didactic lecture on technical aspects of methods central to cognitive neuroscience research. Readings will be assigned that survey basic principles of system neuroscience, cognitive science, and methods including functional MRI, MEG, and single unit physiology.

Classic articles in memory will be discussed in the context of why they are seminal to the field. Topics will include amnesia, LTP, levels of processing, implicit memory, brain imaging, and prospection. Within each topic, articles that are less seminal, but reported earlier, will also be discussed. A goal will be to debate what specifically allowed the classic articles to change the way we think. What sets them apart?

This course will introduce students to the dynamics of brain development during the second decade of life. This course will examine key changes in structural, functional, connectivity, and neurochemical changes that take place in the brain during adolescence. We will assess how these changes influence several domains of the adolescent mind, including self-control, risky decision making, changes in daily emotions and moods, the onset of psychiatric illnesses (such as mood and anxiety disorders), and sensitivity to social evaluation.

An interdisciplinary comparative study of human, animal, and robot minds. Particular emphasis on philosophical questions that frame the problems, and recent work in psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience that attempt to tackle them empirically. Relation between consciousness and cognition, language and thought, conscious versus unconscious information processing, Manifestations of mental capacities in different underlying substrates: the human brain, nervous systems of non-human animals, and silicon-based computational systems. Additional readings from cognitive ethology and artificial intelligence.

Knowledge of objects and actions encompasses their perceptual and motor properties as well as more abstract properties such as information about their function (e.g., what they are used for, the goal of an action). In this seminar, we will explore the relationship between the sensory-motor processes involved in the perception of objects and the execution of actions and the organization and representation of the conceptual knowledge associated with objects and actions. We will review critically the relevant behavioral, neuroimaging and neuropsychological research.

Surveys current data and theory concerning human memory and amnesia from cognitive, neuroimaging, and neuropsychological perspectives. Topics considered include short-term memory, encoding and retrieval processes, forgetting, memory distortion, implicit memory, drug effects on memory, amnesic syndromes, and aging memory.

Your face contains a hidden code that instantly communicates who you are, how you're feeling, and what your intentions may be. Whether accurate or inaccurate, human brains extract information in a fraction of a second from faces and use it to make simple and complex judgments about people. Perceived facial attractiveness can be hugely consequential in real world encounters. The media surrounds us with images of faces and hidden cameras record our own faces many times a day. We will explore "decoding" the human face from computational, psychological and biological perspectives, providing comprehensive review of this highly interdisciplinary field

In recent decades, the study of consciousness has been pushed to the forefront of scientific investigation. Because of its importance, it provides a unique opportunity for an integrative approach to the study of mind, brain, and behavior. In this course, we will discuss the philosophical debates, the psychological phenomena, and the relevant neurophysiological findings.

Film and television shows often capture the cutting edge of science, and they sometimes even anticipate future scientific advances. We'll use examples from film and television as an introduction to several hot topics in the field of neuroscience, such as Mind Control, Mind Reading, Smart Pills, and Brain Machine Interfaces, which are all getting closer to reality. Will neuroscientists ever be able to control a person's thoughts, or to know what a person is thinking? Can taking a pill really awaken untapped brain power? Will you ever be able to drive a car without touching a steering wheel? In this course, we will cover the state of the art and the future of these exciting areas of neuroscience (and entertainment). Because these are not textbook topics, this is an advanced course that will focus on reading and discussing the primary literature.

Our sensory world is filled with people and other creatures and we learn much about them from observation. Animals do similar things with their conspecifics, their prey and enemies. In this seminar course, we probe the psychological and specialized neural mechanisms that underlie these often hidden and remarkable abilities.

How does your nationally, social class, race/ethnicity, gender, faith and politics change the way you think, feel and behave? This course explores how your cultural background shapes your sense of self, emotions, motivation, decision-making and relationships. We will talk about God, sex, politics, violence and how our culture impacts the names we give our children. The goal of this course is to help you gain a better understanding of the ways in which human culture and the human psyche interact while enhancing your ability to promote greater intercultural harmony and to thrive in our increasingly multicultural and globalized world.

This course is an in-depth exploration of close relationships. Examples of topics to be covered include the biological bases of attraction; relationship formation; the end of relationships through break-up, divorce, or death; relationship satisfaction; deception; gender roles; same-sex relationships; loneliness; relationships and well-being; and public perceptions about relationships. You will have an opportunity to explore these topics primarily through critical examination of the empirical literature as well as through popular press.

As a social species, a significant proportion of our everyday thoughts are devoted to social cognition - thinking about other people and comprehending what they are thinking about us. In this course we will merge theories from social and cognitive psychology to examine how people make sense of each other, social groups, and the surrounding social world. Throughout the course, we will draw on neuroscientific findings to uncover the neural basis of these abilities, as well as examine deficits in these social skills in autism and related disorders.

How do you get people to waste less energy, save more money, and eat healthier? How do you encourage people to vote, stay in school, and drive safer? In this course you will learn relevant social psychology and decision science, as well as a promising new methodology useful for motivating and nudging people's behaviors to reduce or solve specific problems in organizations and society. By succeeding in this class you will gain identifiable skills that are applicable beyond the classroom (e.g., to improve programs, policies, organizational practices), in a variety of settings (e.g., health, education, law, public policy, business, and the environment).

This course seeks to understand the psychological dynamics of groups in work settings. This includes understanding the cohesion and development of groups (e.g., learning, satisfaction, commitment), interpersonal processes and relationships that occur between group members as they work together (e.g., information sharing, competition and conflict, conformity) and motivational factors that influence group performance (e.g., groupthink, social facilitation). Past and present empirical research and theory will be examined.

As social beings, humans have a fundamental need to affiliate and bond with each other. In this course, we will trace social relationships across the human lifespan, from parent-infant attachment to adolescent peer relationships to pair bonding in adulthood. In doing so, we will discuss the evolutionary benefits of this social motive and the dissolution of social bonds. We will also examine current issues in psychological science especially relevant to social bonds, including online relationships and the role of oxytocin.

An introduction to research on implicit social cognition, with special focus on attitudes, beliefs, and identity and in some cases its applications to law, business, medicine, and government. Students will be paired with individual researchers to work on ongoing projects that can turn into more independent projects. In addition to weekly work in the laboratory, students are expected to attend biweekly discussion groups focusing on current issues and directions in the laboratory as a whole.

What are the origins of the culture war between the political Left and Right? How do psychobiology, upbringing, temperament and moral values shape this difference in political orientations? In this course, we will explore the psychological factors underlying political divisions as well as the role of our social networks and desire for group identity in maintaining and widening the divide. The goal of this course is to develop your empirical, theoretical and methodological understandings of psychological research underlying the Left-Right conflict while providing you with tools to detect partisanship and to promote the cooperation and connection necessary for a well-functioning democracy.

Many believe that the human brain evolved to support the complex demands of interacting with other people. In this class, we will explore how our brains are wired to allow us to know ourselves, to know what other people are thinking, and predict what they might do, and to regulate our actions to most effectively interact with others. We will combine theories and findings from social psychology, evolutionary psychology, and neuroscience to work towards an understanding of the brainin a social context.

As many strive for the American Dream, the gap between the rich and poor continues to widen. Although economic inequality affects us all, resulting in greater societal dysfunction and lower national happiness, the consequences vary greatly depending on your social class. In this course, we will examine how being rich or poor differentially impacts our sense of self, our morality, our ways of thinking, our sense of being in control, our achievements, the biases that we face, and our health and well-being. We will also consider psychological interventions for reducing the consequences of this wealth gap and for promoting mutual understanding across the divide.

This course is designed to heighten your understanding of social and economic inequality using a psychological perspective. We will discuss psychological processes and theories related to inequality, as well as relevant programs and policies. We will also discuss perceptions and consequences of social, gender, and race inequalities, and how economic inequality divides us and undermines our well-being. Promising interventions and strategies to assuage the negative effects of inequality will also be explored.

An introduction to developmental disorders from the perspective of psychology and cognitive neuroscience. We will focus on the most commonly diagnosed developmental difficulties such as autism, ADHD, and specific impairments in language and math. We will take an integrative approach and consider the clinical presentation of each disorder, theoretical frameworks, research on the causes and consequences, and issues in education and treatment.

How do we develop as social beings from infancy to adulthood? What are the biological, cultural, and individual factors that influence this development? How does human social development differ from that of other primates? In exploring these and other questions, this course will take a developmental and evolutionary approach to topics that include: attachment; cultural learning; cooperation and competition; theory of mind; social categorization; moral reasoning; friendship; peers; parent-child interaction.

How do children manage to learn the sounds, the words and the grammar of their native language in three years or less? Does the language that we speak change how we think? What happens in the mind (and brain) that allows us to convert sound into meaning during language comprehension (and meaning into motor movements during language production)? Why are human languages similar to each other in some ways, and what allows them to vary in others? We will explore these questions integrating the perspectives of linguistics, psychology and cognitive neuroscience.

Students participate in research on language acquisition, language comprehension, and language production. Each student has responsibility for a project. Weekly meeting to discuss student projects and readings that are relevant to them. Ten hours a week commitment (includes lab meeting).

This is a laboratory methods course that provides students with hands-on experience in a cognitive development lab. The aim of the course is for students to engage in all aspects of the scientific process - from experimental design to data collection and interpretation - by working in a lab, and by participating in weekly meetings where key questions and findings in the field are discussed.

Students participate in research on conceptual development and language acquisition. Each student has responsibility for a project. Weekly lab meeting to discuss student projects and readings relevant to them. Ten hours a week commitment (includes lab meeting).

Not only do emotions permeate our everyday lives, they have aided in the survival of the human species. But what are emotions, and what are they good for? What causes us to experience an emotion? And how do emotional responses, in turn, influence our perception, memory, decision-making, and psychological well-being? This course will address these questions by drawing on key advances from historical, philosophical, psychological, and neuroscientific perspectives.

Examines the issues of free will and responsibility from philosophical, psychological, and neuroscientific perspectives, with special attention paid to potential legal applications.

Concerns current theory and research on the etiology and treatment of anxiety disorders (e.g., panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, social phobia, post-traumatic stress disorder). Cognitive, behavioral, and biological approaches are emphasized.

Extends the material covered in Psychology 18 in a more clinical direction. Provides students with an opportunity to approach issues in clinical psychology from a scientist-practitioner perspective. Focuses on how research-based approaches to the study and treatment of psychopathology can translate into high quality ethical care for patients with major psychiatric problems.

This course is designed to give you exposure to the types of evidence-based psychological interventions available for many clinical and non-clinical conditions, such as sadness, anxiety, substance use, insomnia, pain-management, weight-loss, and why your roommate can't stop interrupting you. While the seminar emphasizes intervention research in the context of children and adolescents, the principles are often applicable across age groups. The seminar is not a self-help program or a training program for providing therapeutic services to others. Instead, the weekly discussions, exercises, and assignments will help you view the world through the lens of a scientist-practitioner - and apply those insights to everyday life in a scientific manner.

Why do some individuals intentionally engage in behaviors that cause themselves direct bodily harm, such as suicide and self-mutilation? We explore past and current models for understanding self-harm behaviors. We consider the classification, etiology, assessment, and treatment of self-harm behaviors from psychological, developmental, contextual, and biological perspectives.

Examines schizophrenia and schizophrenia-spectrum disorders from biological, psychological, and psychosocial perspectives. Focuses on early (e.g., Kraepelin) and modern (e.g., DSM-IV) perspectives, clinical case descriptions of the disorder, and recent theoretical and empirical developments in understanding etiology, phenomenology, and treatment.

The goal of this course is to give an overview of the major research findings across mood disorders such as major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and social anxiety disorder. Every class will involve classic and cutting edge research from the literature on mood disorders. The class will also involve discussion of psychological (i.e., therapeutic) and psychiatric (i.e., medical) perspectives on etiology and treatment. By the end of the course, students will understand the etiology, course, and treatment of a variety of mood disorders.

The goal of this course is to give an in-depth understanding of the role of cognition in psychopathology. This includes a major focus on cognitive vulnerability theories of depression, anxiety, and suicide as well as exploration of the role of cognition in other psychopathology such as schizophrenia and eating disorders. By the end of the course, students will understand the major cognitive components of depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, eating disorders, and suicide.

The goal of this course is to give an in-depth understanding of the theoretical and empirical work on stress (e.g., negative life events, psychological and physiological stress), coping, and resilience. Theories of stress will be discussed from social, cognitive, and biological perspectives. Major focus will be given to the study of resilience to stress and related topics (e.g., psychopathology, self-injury) through the lens of positive psychology. By the end of the course, students will understand the causes, course, and consequences of stress and resilience to stress.

An overview of psychological problems and mental disorders in childhood and adolescence. Topics include internalizing conditions (e.g., anxiety, depression), externalizing conditions (e.g., conduct disorder and ADHD), eating disorders, autism, and child responses to maltreatment and other forms of trauma. Theoretical perspectives, diagnostic criteria, etiology, and treatment approaches are examined.

Provides a conceptual and practical introduction to statistics used in psychology and other behavioral sciences. Covers basic topics in statistics including: measures of central tendency and variability; probability and distributions, correlations and regression, hypothesis testing, t-tests, analysis of variance, and chi-square tests. Includes a lab section with instruction in statistical analysis using a computer program.

Theoretical and practical introduction to planning, conducting, reporting, and evaluating psychological research. Topics include experimental design, hypothesis generation and testing, experimental artifacts, and analysis of published research.

This course offers intense, foundational exposure to psychological statistics, focusing heavily on analysis of variance (one-way, factorial, repeated-measures, mixed-model). Other topics include: exploratory data analysis, sampling distributions, null hypothesis significance testing, t-tests, fixed versus random effects, post hoc and planned comparisons, correlation, simple regression, the general linear model, chi-square tests, nonparametric statistics, confidence intervals, and meta-analysis.

This course introduces the empirical measurement of abstract constructs and multivariate analysis. Topics include: reliability and validity, multiple regression, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, discriminant function analysis and structural equation modeling.

Advanced survey of research topics in cognition/brain/behavior, development, experimental psychopathology, clinical and social psychology.

Advanced survey of research topics in cognition, brain, and behavior.

Advanced survey of current topics in experimental psychopathology.

Covers major issues, theories, schools of thought, and controversies integral to the development of psychology from the late 19th century to the middle of the 20th century. Readings include classic articles exemplifying these themes.

What's stopping you from doing absolutely everything that your devious heart desires? The ability to flexibly control our behavior - particularly when it comes to rewarding things like food, sex, and drugs - has huge consequences for our long-term happiness and success. Though we are reasonably good at this as a species, dramatic individual differences in the capacity for self-control are readily apparent. In this class, we will examine the cognitive construct of self-control, its neurobiological underpinnings and sources of individual variation, and relationships to psychopathology.

This course uses neuroscience methods to study the cognitive development of human infants and children. Case studies draw from research on face recognition, language, executive function, representations of objects, number and theory of mind.

Year-long lab course on children's social-cognitive development and the study of cooperation. Students develop and pilot experiments with children or participate in ongoing projects. In addition, students read and discuss papers on social cognition, understanding of norms, and cooperation from developmental and evolutionary psychology.

This seminar, organized in coordination with the Center for Brains, Minds and Machines, will focus on the development of knowledge in the first five years. Drawing on behavioral research on infants and young children, as well as research in cognitive neuroscience, research using controlled rearing methods with animal models, and research developing and testing computational models, we consider both the starting points for human cognitive development and the ways in which early knowledge grows. Topics will be chosen in accord with student interests and likely will include early developing knowledge of objects and their mechanical interactions, of animate beings and their behavior and intentions, of social beings and their communication and relationships, as well as the development of abstract concepts (e.g., causal concepts, mathematical concepts) that apply to all these entities. In addition, we will look at how infants and children learn to represent their own abilities and utilities and how these emerging self-representations support and constrain their learning about the world.

Conduct research on emotion processing and/or adolescent socioemotional development, incorporating methods of cognitive neuroscience including functional brain imaging (fMRI). Read and discuss current issues in the fields of affective, cognitive, and developmental neuroscience.

Proseminar in conceptual development and language acquisition.

Seminar examining alternate theories of language acquisition and assessing their empirical validity. Focuses on speech perception, word learning, semantic and early syntactic development, interactions between language acquisition and cognitive development, and children's online language comprehension.

Read and discuss papers to understand how the primate frontal cortex supports a wide range of cognitive operations, including attention, working memory, executive control functions, and decision making.

Discussion of current research on the organization of conceptual and lexical knowledge. We will also discuss ongoing research by participants in the seminar.

What is memory for? We examine issues of memory structure in light of questions concerning memory function, including errors and distortions and the ways memory informs decisions about future reactions.

Provides instruction and experience in conducting research on social cognition via the methods of cognitive neuroscience. Special focus on issues of mental state inference, stereotyping, and the self.

What makes a successful cognitive or neural model? In this seminar, we will do a series of in depth case studies to address this question, exploring several of the more successful cognitive and neural models. While many examples will be drawn from the literature on human vision, the course will also draw on examples from language, development, and higher-level reasoning.

Students work directly on a research project and get hands-on experience with neuroimaging and cognitive neuroscience techniques, including functional MRI. MRI laboratory training consists of safety, instruction on running the scanner, and paradigm design. In addition to laboratory work, students attend a weekly research seminar where ongoing and proposed research projects are discusses.

Discussion of current research on visual cognition (how we perceive, attend to, and remember visual information). We will also discuss ongoing research by participants in the seminar.

Seminar on current research on the evolution of human cooperation and its cognitive basis. Includes readings, seminar discussion, and training in relevant research methodologies.

Topic to be announced.

Research and theory on the application of cognitive psychology methods applied to the understanding of anxiety and mood disorders.

Involves readings, seminar discussion, and research on emotional disorders conducted in the instructor's laboratory (e.g., social anxiety disorder, complicated grief, obsessive-compulsive disorder).

Covers current cognitive-behavioral approaches to the treatment of common psychological disorders in adults. Emphasis is on the practical aspects of treatment, and on treatment outcome research. Includes theoretical underpinnings of cognitive-behavioral therapy.

Examines cultural, racial, ethnic, and other individual differences in human behavior which affect the practice of psychology. Reviews current science examining the relations between these factors and human behavior, psychopathology, and provision of psychological services.

Provides instruction and experience in conducting research on social cognitive processes as they relate to psychopathology. Cognitive neuroscience methods, such as fMRI, are emphasized.

Review theories of behavior change, methods of studying such change (single-case research designs, randomized clinical trials, etc.), and current evidence-based approaches to assessing and treating psychopathology. Examines historical, ethical, and cultural issues.

Provides instruction and experience conducting clinical research in laboratory and clinical settings, with a special focus on severe psychopathology. Topics will include: Self-Injurious behaviors, depression, and adult attachment patterns in close relationships.

Reviews two emerging fields in neuroscience, affective and social neuroscience. Through integration of human and animal data, the course focuses on mapping affect, motivation, and social cognition to brain function.

Students develop clinical interviewing and diagnostic skills using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R and other instruments. Examines issues in diagnosis and assessment; provides exposure to psychopathology syndromes via tapes and clinical interviews.

Provides instruction and experience in conducting clinical research in laboratory and clinical settings, with a special focus on developmental psychopathology.

Advanced laboratory methods seminar on designing and conducting research related to child and adolescent mental health problems and interventions, especially in school and mental health care settings. Problem areas include depression, anxiety, and disruptive conduct.

Research seminar examines the neurobiology of disinhibitory psychopathology (aggression, antisocial behavior, substance abuse). Students participate first-hand in personality/behavioral testing and brain imaging, and in weekly discussions of the genetics and cellular/systems/cognitive neuroscience of disinhibitory psychopathology.

Introduction to the anatomical structure of the human brain. Emphasis on neuropsychological correlates and cortical representation of higher cognitive functions. Gross brain dissection laboratory and discussions of descriptive and theoretical aspects of clinical neuropsychological phenomena.

Advanced survey of classic and current research and theory in social psychology, including self, social cognition, attitudes, social influence, altruism and aggression, prejudice and discrimination, close relationships, and group dynamics.

As the pedagogical paradigms and practices of higher education are innovated at Harvard and beyond, what claims or assumptions about cognitive and social psychology are being tested? How can concepts, principles, and evidence from the psychological sciences inform university-level learning and teaching, and how can applied educational research inform our basic understanding of mental and social processes? In this seminar, the varied phenomena of higher education today–from MOOCs and flipped classrooms to grading and procrastination–will be used as a proving ground for understanding and evaluating major ideas and evidence from psychology.

This seminar provides lab experience in behavioral approaches to decision making and negotiation.

Year-long lab course for students engaged in research on moral cognition.

Laboratory methods and research seminar on social cognition, with emphasis on moral judgment and attributional processes. Provides experience with behavioral, formal and neuroscientific research methods.

The seminar provides students with research experience concerning different forms of intergroup relations, including the social psychology of interracial and interethnic conflict and prejudice. Graduate and undergraduate students meet on a weekly basis to discuss ongoing research on psychological mechanisms involved in power, stereotyping, inequality, identity, and ideology. Undergraduate enrollees will work under the supervision of a graduate student in the design and conduct of lab-based and survey experiments, and the input, coding and early analysis of empirical data. Undergraduate enrollees will also attend biweekly critical discussions of research articles in the field, and will have the opportunity to develop and receive feedback on their own research ideas.

Topic to be announced.

Year-long lab course exploring how cognition, affect, neural responses, and behavior change when social relations shift from "me and you" to "us and them." Students will participate in experiment development and data collection employing methods ranging from standard laboratory experiments, implicit and explicit self-reports, and behavioral measures, to fMRI and psychophysiology. Students will also read and discuss papers on intergroup relations in our weekly meetings.

Topic to be announced.

Research overview of behavioral decision making and decision analytic perspectives to negotiation. Explores bounded rationality, decision biases, human decision making. Develops a behavioral decision perspective to negotiation, and examines how the field is currently evolving.

The course addresses traditional questions about the role of social cognition in human evolution and development, integrating the newest findings from comparative and developmental psychology. The course is structured around three themes (cultural learning, cooperation, and competition), corresponding to the three main theoretical approaches that have given rise to the study of social cognition from an evolutionary perspective. This course is discussion-based, bringing some new ideas (your ideas!) to bear on tricky questions that are still unresolved in the field.

Why and how do humans cooperate? What are the origins of these behaviors in human development and evolution? In this course we discuss how research in psychology, behavioral economics and primatology can provide insight into the foundation of human cooperation. This includes the study of empathy, altruism, fairness, and collaboration.

This course is aimed at doctoral students who intend to conduct experimental and quasi-experimental research for the study of individuals' behavior in business (e.g., marketing, organizational behavior) and related disciplines (e.g., psychology). The primary objective of the course is to provide students with the concepts and tools needed for planning and designing laboratory experiments, and for collecting and analyzing behavioral data. The course will also discuss other methodologies that may be helpful when working with field sites (namely, field experiments and surveys). A secondary objective is to provide students the foundations for the methodological evaluation of other behavioral researchers' work - a skill that will be helpful in their role as future academic reviewers. The course thus covers the designs and analyses that are most often used by experimental researchers in psychology, organizational behavior, and also marketing. The course will be hands-on and oriented towards providing technical skills for the design and implementation of laboratory experiments, including overcoming possible pitfalls and common barriers. The course assignment will be for students to write a proposal outlining the theory, design, power analyses, and proposed analysis for a laboratory experiment. Our hope is that the students will conduct the research during the course or afterwards, and that this course will help design and conduct impactful and rigorous behavioral research. Overall goal The overall goal of the course is for students to understand that how they design their experiment (all aspects of it) has a large role in whether they can answer their research questions. Please note that the course will begin on Monday, September 8th.

Mindlessness/mindfulness theory is compared/contrasted to relevant theories in social psychology, psychopathology, and cognitive psychology.

Students will gain human subject research skills and experience in the lab and online. We will cover a range of topics in social psychology, including but not limited to: nonverbal behavior, social perception, personal power, hormones, emotions, and performance in stressful situations. In biweekly meetings, students will have the opportunity to provide and receive feedback on the work of the lab as well as discuss relevant papers. In addition, monthly trainings will be held covering research tools such as eye-trackers, physiological measures, Qualtrics, and Mechanical Turk.

Topics in decision making such as rationality, risk-taking, helplessness, and health are examined through the lens of mindfulness theory. Special emphasis given to the psychology of possibility in applied settings.

A deeper exploration into the theoretical and experimental issues pertaining to decision making and the psychology of possibility, raised in Psychology 2670a.

Students work in clinical settings locally and, under supervision, are directly involved in the treatment and clinical care of patients.

Faculty interview psychiatric inpatients to demonstrate establishing treatment alliances, gathering histories, and initial assessment. Group discussion will consider how theoretical principles are applied to clinical work.

Provides a forum for presenting and discussing current research in experimental psychopathology/clinical psychology. Presenters include graduate students, faculty, and outside speakers.

Research seminar open to graduate students conducting research in cognitive development.

This weekly seminar for graduate students in clinical psychology is designed to provide basic skills in administering and interpreting standardized tests in the areas of intellectual assessment and personality assessment.

Covers research methods for the study of conceptual development throughout the life span. All students must be currently engaged in experimental research.

Covers research methods for language acquisition and language comprehension throughout the life span. All students must be currently engaged in experimental research.

Researchers in CBB, including graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty, present and discuss current research in cognitive science. Topics include memory, language, vision, mental imagery, concepts, animal and infant cognition, and related areas.

Provides a forum for the presentation, discussion, and critique of current research in social psychology. Presenters include graduate students and faculty in social psychology plus visitors.

This course is all about Statistical Learning techniques in Psychology and related fields. Statistical Learning is a modern discipline of Statistics which involves developments from the fields of Statistics (obviously), Machine Learning, Computer and Data Science. Overall it refers to a vast set of tools for understanding complex data. The first series of lectures covers basic regression techniques for categorical data (ordinal and multinomial logit models) as well as advanced techniques such as causal models (propensity score matching), spatial regression, censored regression (tobit), nonlinear regression (generalized additive models), regularization and shrinkage methods (Ridge, LASSO), and generalized estimation equation (GEE) for longitudinal/correlational data. Another lecture series deals with clustering techniques such as hierarchical clustering, k-means, BIRCH, and mixture models (e.g. latent class analysis). The mixture model approach will then be embedded into a regression context in order to estimate regression models with unobserved heterogeneity (latent class regression). Finally, there will be a unit on functional data analysis (FDA) where each single observation is described by a function (e.g. eye tracking data, brain imaging data).

This course introduces advanced statistical and modern psychometric methods such as Bayesian approaches (inference, predictions, MCMC), causal modeling (inference, moderator/mediator, graphical models), social network analysis (SNA measures, subgroups, visualization), multivariate exploratory methods (biplots, correspondence analysis, multidimensional scaling), item response theory, meta analysis, and machine/statistical learning (clustering, discriminant analysis support vector machines). All topics covered will be supported by corresponding computations in R. Lab sections will focus on Web Scraping, Text Mining, and data visualization.

A graduate companion course to "Psychological Science," which explores the theories and controversies in greater depth. Topics include genetics, evolution, cognitive neuroscience, perception, development, consciousness, social psychology, personality, psychopathology, violence, sex, and morality.

This seminar is intended to help graduate students develop the professional skills needed to navigate life during*and especially after*graduate school. We will discuss basic career skills not typically covered in other parts of the curriculum, including: tips for writing and publishing; how to prepare a research and teaching statement; advice for interviewing and negotiating the terms of your first job; tips for grant-writing; strategies for balancing competing academic and personal demands; how to be a good departmental citizen; and other topics. The presenters in this seminar series will be departmental faculty, graduate students, and departmental alumni who have recently (and successfully!) navigated these topics. This seminar series is open to all current graduate students.

Graduate companion course to Origins of Knowledge, which explores the theories and controversies in greater depth. Topics include the evolutionary, cultural, and ontogenetic origins of representational capacities, including space, number, objects, agents, language, and intuitive theories.

Covers basic psychometric theory and methods essential for reliable and valid measurement. Also covers conceptual issues in the assessment of individual differences (e.g., intelligence, personality).

Examines ethical principles and legal issues involved in the practice of psychology, with an emphasis on clinical psychology. Covers ethical principles and code of conduct; uses case examples to highlight the application of these principles.