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BACKGROUND:
Title: Engineering Psychology (MA, PhD). Contact: Douglas J. Gillan, NMSU, Department of Psychology, Las Cruces, NM 88003; 505/646-1408; gillan@crl.nmsu.edu, http://www.psych.nmsu.edu/. Est: 1969. Semester. Granted last 3 years: MA 18, PhD 7. Part-time: yes. Program: Emphases are (1) the application of models, theories, and principles pf perception, cognition, social psychology, and other areas of psychology; (2) training in quantitative and research methods; and (3) hands-on training in usability design and evaluation, with a major focus on HCI and aviation psychology. Courses include a mix of basic and applied experimental psychology with a strong statistical component. All faculty have interests in measuring mental models and user knowledge. Other specific faculty research interests include information visualization, team cognition, information retrieval, instructional technology, and assistive technologies. In addition to classroom- and lab-based training, most students participate in internships to enhance their graduate training. Accredited by: HFES. HFES student chapter: yes. Catalog: (free) Graduate School, Box 3G, NMSU, MSC 3G, Las Cruces, NM 88003-8001.

APPLICATION:
Deadlines: Fall: 2/15 for assistantships; otherwise 3/1. Spring: 11/1. Fee: $15.

ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS:
GPA: 3.0. GRE: 1000 v + q. Other: research methods and statistics. Research: medium. Work experience: medium. Letters: medium. Interview: low.

ADMISSIONS:
Students applying last year: 65. Accepted: 24. Entered program: 9. Openings/year: 10.

TUITION AND FEES:
Resident: 1-11 credits $104.75/ credit; 12-15 credits $1257/semester. Nonresident: 1-6 credits $104.75/credit; 7-11 credits $327.00/credit; 12-15 credits $3924/semester.

FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE:
% receiving: 100. Amount: $10000/$10200/$10400. Available: fellowship, TA, RA, scholarship, all tuition exempt. Apply: with application, or by 2/15 for fall semester.

DEGREE REQUIREMENTS:
MA: 31 units, thesis defense, research required, no languages or practical experience, 2-3 years. Nonthesis option: no. PhD: 48 units beyond MA, qualifying exam for admission into PhD, comprehensive exam for admission to candidacy, dissertation defense, research and internship required, no languages, 5 years.

CURRICULUM:
Required courses (units): Quantitative Methods: Basic Statistics (3), Quantitative Methods: Experimental Design/ANOVA (3), Quantitative Methods: Regression (3); Engineering Psychology (3), plus selection from the following (6 units for MA, 9 for PhD, plus 6 additional units of statistics for PhD): Cognitive (3), Perception (3), Learning (3), Biopsychology (3), Developmental (3), Social (3). Required courses outside department: 0. Recommended courses outside department: Depends on student's program of study as determined with the committee. Offered: none. Class size: 10-20.

RESEARCH/TEACHING OPPORTUNITIES:
Research facilities: Students do research with a faculty adviser and have access to that faculty member's lab facilities (total available lab space is approximately 11,000 square feet). Lab resources include 60 microcomputers, visual research equipment (e.g., tachistoscopes and eye movement recorders), aviation simulation equipment, and EEG and ERP recording systems. Nancy Cooke has developed a state-of-the-art lab for studying team performance and cognition as team members perform various synthetic tasks (the Lab for Cognitive Engineering Research on Team Tasks). The Psychology Department has developed two computer-based labs for (a) developing multimedia applications (including Web-based applications) to be used as class projects or for teaching, (b) performing statistical analyses, (c) conducting usability tests and analyzing video data from the tests, and (d) developing experiments. In addition, the Psychology Department works in collaboration with other departments and labs on campus, including the Computer Science Department and the Computing Research Lab, resulting in research, development, and evaluation opportunities in human-computer interaction. Teaching: TAs lead recitation sections in Introductory Psychology and teach lab sections in Methods and Perception courses. PhD students are required to teach at least one course, but the more skilled teachers will have opportunities to teach several courses over their graduate careers. Advanced graduate students can teach in the weekend college, at the Dona Ana Branch Community College, or at branch campuses of NMSU. Current research: Research spans the breadth of applied cognitive psychology, with strong applications to the design and evaluation of various user interfaces. Specific research projects include developing measures of team cognition, automated grading of essays using latent semantic analysis, comprehension of graphical displays, components of multimedia-based instructional systems, the Stroop effect, perceptual and cognitive processes in reading, cultural and individual differences in cognition, and the role of monitoring in prospective memory.

STUDENT STATISTICS:
Active: 8 men, 27 women. First-year students: 11. Mean scores: MA: GRE 551 v, 584 q, 612 a, GPA 3.59. PhD: GRE 614 v, 627 q, 686 a, GPA 3.40.

FACULTY:
Nancy Cooke, PhD 1987, New Mexico State U; measuring mental models, team cognition, cognitive engineering. Peter Foltz, PhD 1993, U Colorado; latent semantic analysis, information retrieval, discourse processing. Douglas Gillan, PhD 1978, U Texas (Austin); perceptual and cognitive components of graph reading, spatial and object perception, assistive technologies. Melissa Guynn, PhD 2001, University of New Mexico; prospective memory, retrieval processes in human memory. Adrienne Lee, PhD 1993, U Colorado; instructional technologies, learning and transfer, expertise. James McDonald, PhD 1981, New Mexico State U; information retrieval, HCI. Ken Paap, PhD 1975, U Wisconsin; reading, HCI.