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BACKGROUND:
Title: Experimental Psychology with specialized courses and research opportunities in applied cognitive and engineering psychology (MS, PhD). Contact: Melody Carswell, University of Kentucky, Dept. of Psychology, 125 Kastle Hall, Lexington, KY 40506-0044; 606/257-4468; cmcars00@pop.uky.edu. Est: 1991. Semester. Granted last 3 years: MS 1, PhD 3. Part-time: no. Program: The HF curriculum is part of an integrative experimental psychology program. Although students are expected to develop a broad understanding of a variety of experimental approaches, the HF curriculum allows students to gain depth in several aspects of applied cognitive psychology relevant to product, system, and information design. Faculty interests focus on memory and comprehension of textual, graphical, geographical, and televised information. Opportunities exist for research involving special user populations, including children and older adults. HFES student chapter: no. Catalog: (free) University of Kentucky Graduate School, 351 Patterson Office Tower, Lexington, KY 40506-0027.

APPLICATION:
Deadline: 2/1. Fees: $30 domestic, $35 international. Separate applications required for university and department.

ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS:
GPA: 3.0. GRE: 1500 v + q + a. Other: Undergraduate degree in psychology or undergraduate coursework including cognitive processes, learning, and sensation/perception required. Course in statistics required. Research: high. Work experience: medium. Letters: high. Interview: high.

ADMISSIONS:
Students applying last year: 3. Accepted: 0. Entered program: 0. Openings/year: 1-2.

TUITION AND FEES:
Resident: $2037.25/semester. Nonresident: $5647.25/semester.

FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE:
% receiving: 100. Amount: $9000/$9275/$10000. Available: fellowships, TA tuition exempt; RA tuition exemption varies. Apply: with application.

DEGREE REQUIREMENTS:
PhD: (MA/MS completed as part of requirements for PhD) Number of units required is determined by student's advisory committee. Oral defense of MA/MS thesis, written and oral qualifying examination prior to beginning PhD thesis, and oral defense of PhD thesis required, continuous research activity expected, practical experience highly recommended but not required, no languages, 6 years, including practical experience. Nonthesis option: no.

CURRICULUM:
Required courses (hours): Foundations of Inferential Statistics (3), Design and Analysis of Experiments (3), choice of three proseminars from the following list (3 each): Cognitive Processes, Sensation and Perception, Learning Development, Behavioral Neuroscience. Electives: Applied Cognitive Psychology: Human Factors (3), Text Comprehension (3), Ergonomics and Work Hardening (3), Human Error (3), Multimedia Research and Design (3). Required courses outside department: determined by student’s advisory committee. Recommended courses outside department: typically 2. Offered: night, occasionally. Class size: 10.

RESEARCH/TEACHING OPPORTUNITIES:
Research facilities: Kastle Hall includes research and office space for students in all graduate psychology programs. Facilities include several research suites with rooms for individual and group testing, videotaping and editing facilities, and a dedicated graduate student computer lab. Teaching: Teaching assistantships are readily available and frequently involve responsibility for introductory and advanced laboratories. Many students take special courses on college teaching. Advanced students with strong teaching records may be awarded independent teaching assignments. Current research: Current topics include visualization support for decision making, participatory design with older users, visual search and error monitoring, mental workload assessments during television viewing, individual differences in graph comprehension strategies, design of text signals for enhanced comprehension and recall, and relationships between interface preference and human-system performance.

STUDENT STATISTICS:
Active: 1 man, 2 women. First-year students in program: 0. Mean scores: n/a.

FACULTY:
Melody Carswell, PhD 1988, U Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; visual display design, graph comprehension and communication, interface preference. Jonathan M. Golding, PhD 1986, U Denver; question answering, memory, reading. Elizabeth P. Lorch, PhD 1981, U Massachusetts; television viewing, attention, reading. Robert F. Lorch, PhD 1980, U Massachusetts; reading, memory, statistics.