CENTRAL MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY
Mt. Pleasant, Michigan
Department of Psychology

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BACKGROUND:
Title: Applied Experimental Psychology (MS, PhD)
Est: 1998
Semester
Granted last 3 years: MS 13, PhD 8
Part-time: MS yes, PhD no
Distance learning available: no
HFES student chapter: no
Program: The objective of the PhD in Applied Experimental Psychology is to develop individuals with strong applied experimental research skills for research positions in business, industry, applied health, government agencies, and in academia. The program is designed to provide advanced training in psychological processes (e.g., biological, cognitive, behavioral, social, personality) and quantitative-methodological procedures (e.g., statistics, experimental design, computer applications) and their utilization in applied settings. The program will provide students with specialized applied training, including a pre-doctoral internship. The program uses a mentor system, matching students with faculty members who have interest in closely related areas. The current areas of training include: human factors (ergonomics, psychophysiology, attention and perceptual processes); behavioral medicine (with emphasis on developmental disabilities and infant disorders); applied cognitive science (with special emphasis on memory, cognitive modeling, decision making, forensic psychology); applied social psychology (social cognition, personality judgments, individual differences, and attitudes); applied developmental psychology (with emphasis on adjustment in adolescent and aged individuals); and applied behavioral neuroscience (with special emphasis on testing potential pharmacothearapies for neurodegenerative diseases, such as Huntington's and Parkinson's diseases); and behavior analysis(with special emphasis on applied behavior analysis, behavioral pharmacology, behavioral pediatrics, organizational behavior management, and the experimental analysis of behavior.
Contact: Applied Experimental Psychology Program, Central Michigan University, Department of Psychology, Mt. Pleasant, MI 48859, 989/774-3001; http://www.cmich.edu/chsbs/x20719.xml.
Catalog: available online at https://bulletins.cmich.edu/

APPLICATION:
Deadline: 2/1
Fee: $35. Materials and applications can be downloaded from http://www.cmich.edu/chsbs/x20719.xml. Separate applications to university and department required for international students.

ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS:
GPA: 3.0
GRE: no minimum
Other: TOEFL 500, bachelor's degree, and minimum 15 hours in psychology (required) including statistics (recommended) and research methods (recommended).
Research: high
Work experience: low
Letters: high
Interview: low

ADMISSIONS:
Students applying last year: MS 19, PhD 25
Accepted: MS 4, PhD 2
Entered program: MS 4, PhD 2
Openings/year: MS 10, PhD 3

TUITION AND FEES:
Resident: MS $456/credit hour, PhD $525/credit hour
Nonresident: MS $766/credit hour, PhD $850/credit hour

FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE:
% receiving: MS 58%, PhD 90%
Amount: $10,300, PhD $12,600
Available: fellowships for MS and PhD are tuition exempt; TA for MS is partial tuition exempt; RA for MS and PhD is partial tuition exempt
Apply: with application

DEGREE REQUIREMENTS:
MS: 36 units, oral defense of thesis, research required, no languages or practical experience required, 2-3 years
Nonthesis option: no
PhD: 54 units beyond MS, oral defense of dissertation, MS and research experience beyond the degree is required, practical experience required (students must complete 6 credit hours of internship), no languages required, 2-3 years beyond MS

CURRICULUM:
Required courses (units): Statistics in Psychology (3), History and Systems of Psychology (3), Research Seminar in Psychology (2), Seminar in Applied Experimental Psychology (3)
Electives: Research Design (3), Applied Multiple Regression and Correlation (3), Multivariate and Correlational Methods (3), Principles of Psychological Measurement (3), Engineering Psychology (3), Environmental Psychology (3), Cognitive Psychology (3), Sensation and Perception (3), Advanced Developmental Psychology (3), Advanced Social Psychology (3), Physiological Psychology (3)
Required courses outside department: 0
Recommended courses outside department: 0
Class size: 5-10

RESEARCH/TEACHING OPPORTUNITIES:
Research facilities: Computer-supported labs for perception and cognition research, psychophysiology lab and driving simulator, and an audiovisual research lab for multimedia research, auditory and visual signal processing, recording, and data collection are available. All labs are networked to the university computing facilities and to the Internet. Offices are provided for students in faculty laboratories.
Teaching: Graduate assistantships may involve supporting faculty teaching. Senior students also have opportunities to assume sole responsibility for teaching courses.
Current research: Research projects include psychophysiological measures of attention and human performance in transportation; assessment of the pedagogical efficacy of multimodal, computer-based learning programs; role of working memory in complex skill performance; cross-cultural study of risk aversiveness; age differences in prospective memory; and mock jury decision making.

STUDENT STATISTICS:
Active: 19 men, 8 women
First-year students: MS 4, PhD 2
Mean scores: MS: GRE 545 v, 635 q, GPA 3.36; PhD: GRE 625 v, 770 q, GPA 3.54

FACULTY:
Jane Ashby, PhD 2006, U. of Massachusetts; cognitive psychology
Renee L. Babcock, PhD 1992, Georgia Tech; cognitive aging, computer usage in older adults, experience of worry in older and younger adults in different cultures
Richard W. Backs, PhD 1984, U. of Southern California; human factors, psychophysiology, aging, attention, emotion
Nicholas D. Cassavaugh, PhD 2007, U. of Illinois; human factors, psychophysiology
Gary Dunbar, PhD 1987, Clark U.; behavioral neuroscience, stem cell and pharmacological treatment of brain damage and neurodegenerative diseases
Bryan Gibson, PhD 1991, U. of Utah; self presentation, smoker-nonsmoker interaction, psychology of gambling
Kyunghee Han, PhD 1993, U. of Minnesota; scientific study of culture, quantitative methods, psychological test/scale development and evaluation
Carl Johnson, PhD 1979, Michigan State U.; sleep disorders, applied behavior analysis, organizational behavior management
Jessica Marcon, PhD 2009, U. of Texas at El Paso; legal psychology, fingerprint identification, face identification
John S. Monahan, PhD 1971, Duke U.; perception, word and pattern perception, perceptual structure, attention, illusions
Justin Oh-Lee, PhD 1995, U. of California, Los Angeles; behavioral neuroscience, neuropharmacology, molecular genetics in neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's
Hajime Otani, PhD 1989, U. of Georgia; human memory and cognition
Debra Ann Poole, PhD 1980, U. of Iowa; basic language/cognitive/social development in children related to social issues, forensic psychology
Mark Reilly, PhD 1996, West Virginia U.; experimental analysis of behavior, operant/respondent conditioning, animal learning, quantitative models, behavioral pharmacology, substance abuse
Michael Sandstrom, PhD 1998, Ohio State U.; assessing brain plasticity, compensatory neuronal activity, or neurochemical control during active behavior at various stages of deteriorative brain diseases such as Parkinson's and Huntington's using animal models

[Updated March 2011]