WRIGHT STATE UNIVERSITY
Dayton, Ohio
Department of Psychology

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BACKGROUND:
Title: Human Factors and Industrial/Organizational Psychology (MS, PhD). Contact: Human Factors Area Leader, Wright State University, 335 Fawcett Hall, 3640 Colonel Glenn Hwy., Dayton, OH 45435-0001; 937/775-2391; psych@wright.edu, http://www.psych.wright.edu/. Est: MS 1979, PhD 1992. Quarter. Granted last 3 years: MS 18, PhD 4. Part-time: yes. Program: Focuses on using knowledge of cognitive and perceptual processes to evaluate and design human systems. Students become proficient in research, design, development, and evaluation. Courses focus on human factors with a strong background in statistics, methodology, and applications. Students also minor in industrial/organizational psychology (related to macroergonomics). These two programs are the major foci of departmental graduate activity. Dayton is a major center for human factors R&D, especially aerospace and computer applications. HFES student chapter: yes. Catalog: (free) School of Graduate Studies, E344 Student Union, Wright State University, 3640 Col. Glenn Hwy, Dayton, OH 45435-0001.

APPLICATION:
Deadlines: Jan 1. Fee: $25.

ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS:
GPA: 3.0. GRE: 1100 v + q. Other: Statistics required; cognition, perception, calculus, and physics recommended. Research: high. Work experience: medium. Letters: high. Interview: medium.

ADMISSIONS:
Students applying last year: 22. Accepted: 7. Entered program: 6. Openings/year: 6-12.

TUITION AND FEES:
Resident: $219/quarter up to 10.5 hours, $4042/quarter 11-18 hours. Nonresident: $379/quarter up to 10.5 hours, $3598/quarter 11-18 hours.

FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE:
% receiving: 100. Amount: $10565. Available: TA, RA, scholarship, all tuition exempt. Apply: with application.

DEGREE REQUIREMENTS:
MS: 55 quarter hours, oral defense of proposal, oral defense of thesis, no languages, first-year project, thesis research, first-year apprenticeship, 2-3 years. Nonthesis option: no. PhD: 136 quarter hours, written and oral qualifying exam, oral defense of dissertation, no languages, first-year project, dissertation research, first-year apprenticeship, 4-5 years from BS.

CURRICULUM:
Required courses (units): Engineering Psychology (4), HF in System Development (4), Visual Science and Lab (4), Information Processing and Lab (4), Research Design and Quantitative Methods I, II, III (12). Electives: HCI (4), Aviation Psychology (4), Manual Control & Psychomotor Skills (4), Psychoacoustics (4), Workspace Design & Anthropometry (4), Display Design (4), Ecological Psychology (4), Binaural Hearing (4), Personnel Selection (4), Behavior in Organizations (4), Work Motivation (4), Vestibular Function (4), Cortical Visual Processes (4), Motion Perception (4), Expertise (4), Signal Detection Theory (4), Neural Nets (4), Color Displays (4). Required courses outside department: 0. Recommended courses outside department: 0. Offered: summer. Class size: 6-15.

RESEARCH/TEACHING OPPORTUNITIES:
Research facilities: Human-computer interaction research uses Sun4 and Macintosh computers. Flight simulation and virtual environment research uses Vega simulation software, helmet-mounted displays, acoustic head-related transfer function devices, and a Silicon Graphics ONYX with a reality engine. Attention and multiple-task research uses PC-based real-time control of high-resolution analog joysticks and speech recognizer. Psychoacoustic research uses PCs plus Tucker-Davis equipment and relevant amplifiers, attenuators, and mixers to control acoustic stimuli. Eye movement research employs Scleral Coil Eyetracker. Color display research uses calibrated Barco monitors, special color interface devices, and a microprocessor-controlled Maxwellian viewing system. Other research equipment includes oscilloscopes, gamma radiometer/photometer, Minolta and Pritchard Chronometer/Photometers, automated anomaloscope, B&K artificial ear, sound level meter, and signal analyzer. Several general-purpose labs (including two PC labs, each with 18 PCs on a 3-Com LAN and a 17-station Macintosh lab) and off-campus research facilities are available. Teaching: TAs usually begin by conducting lab sections for introductory courses and progress to greater responsibilities in advanced courses. Current research: Animation in HCI; cognitive aging and pilot time-sharing performance; configural displays for complex dynamic systems; pattern analyses of masking by spatially separated sounds; selection and recognition of auditory displays; critical color differences in visual search; multiple resource theory and the mental workload assessment technique; smooth pursuit eye movements during target tracking; optic flow information used for the regulation of altitude; spatial cognition, distributed decision making.

STUDENT STATISTICS:
Active: 10 men, 23 women. First-year students: 10. Mean scores: MS GRE 533 v, 603 q, GPA 3.42. PhD GRE 560 v, 596 q, GPA 3.46.

FACULTY:
Kevin Bennett, PhD 1984, Catholic U; display design, decision support, virtual reality, cognitive engineering. Herbert A. Colle, PhD 1969, U Washington; mental workload/attention, keyboard design, working memory. John Flach, PhD 1984, Ohio State U; perception-motor skill, ecological psychology, human-machine systems. Robert Gilkey, PhD 1981, Indiana U; audition, binaural processing and localization. Helen Altman Klein, PhD 1969, U Pittsburgh; developmental and applied psychology, naturalistic decision making. Allen Nagy, PhD 1974, Michigan State U; color displays, visual science. Valerie Shalin, PhD 1987, U Pittsburgh; workplace expertise, aiding and training psychology. Wayne Shebilske, PhD 1974, U Wisconsin; computer-based training of complex skills. Pamela Tsang, PhD 1983, U Illinois; attention and time-sharing performance, cognitive aging, aviation psychology. Scott Watamaniuk, PhD 1990, Northwestern U; 2D & 3D visual processing motion, smooth pursuit eye movements. Daniel Weber, PhD 1977, Harvard U; psychoacoustics, auditory warnings.