Resources

Rochester Institute of Technology

Location: Rochester, New York
Department: Department of Psychology

Quick links: https://www.rit.edu/liberalarts/study/experimental-psychology-ms

 

Program Background

Admission Requirements

Financial Assistance

Curriculum

Student Statistics

Application Process

Admissions

Degree Requirements

Research/Teaching Opportunities

Faculty


Directory of Graduate Programs


 

PROGRAM BACKGROUND

 

Title of program

Experimental Psychology (MS), Advanced Certificate in Engineering Psychology

Year human factors/ergonomics program was established

2006 as Applied Experimental and Engineering Psychology. The program name was changed to Experimental Psychology and the Advanced Certificate in Engineering Psychology established in 2013.

Accredited by HFES?

No

Contact person for more information, including applications

Esa M. Rantanen, PhD, CPE, Department of Psychology, 01-2353 Eastman Bldg., Rochester Institute of Technology, 18 Lomb Memorial Dr., Rochester, NY 14623, 585/475-4412, fax 585/475-6715, esa.rantanen@rit.edu

Catalog

http://www.rit.edu/cla/psychology/msaep/
studenthandbook.html
 

Academic calendar

Semester

Human factors/ergonomics graduate degrees offered

MS and Advanced Certificate in Engineering Psychology

Goals, objectives, and emphasis of the program

The Master of Science (MS) program in Experimental Psychology is a broad and flexible program that provides students for a solid stepping-stone into careers or continuing education in diverse areas of psychology and human factors/ergonomics. The program has two tracks, Experimental Psychology and Engineering Psychology. Students opting for the Engineering Psychology track will also receive an Advanced Certificate in Engineering Psychology in addition to their MS degree in Experimental Psychology, provided they meet the Advanced Certificate requirements. Faculty from the Department of Psychology, the Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering and the Department of Information Technology all contribute to the teaching of specialty courses in the program. The mission of RIT is to provide technology-based educational programs and to vigorously pursue emerging careers by developing new programs in response to changing technology. This program provides a foundation for further advanced academic study in Engineering Psychology, Human Factors/Ergonomics, or Experimental Psychology. The Advanced Certificate in Engineering Psychology is a post-baccalaureate certificate that provides the students with core knowledge in the key areas of engineering psychology (3 required courses), as well as an opportunity to study particular relevant topics in greater depth through electives (2 open electives). An advanced certificate provides students a formal acknowledgment of their knowledge in engineering psychology and credentials for seeking a career in the human factors/ergonomics field. Teaching and research assistantships are available.

Number of degrees granted during last 3 years

7

Can students attend part-time?

Yes

Are required courses offered through distance learning?

No

Does the university have an HFES student chapter?

No


 

APPLICATION PROCESS

 

Application deadline

February 15 (priority deadline) with rolling admissions

Application fee

$65 for applicants other than RIT alumni and current students within four quarters of completing another RIT program


 

ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS

 

Minimum requirements

GPA: 3.0 

GRE: NOT Required 

Other: Applicants are expected to have at least 15 semester credit hours of course work in undergraduate psychology or related field (e.g., engineering, computer science, information technology), including one course in experimental psychology and another in statistics; in addition, applicants should have a minimum GPA of 3.0 for undergraduate work, two letters of reference from professors or supervisors, a biographical statement describing the applicant's experience and goals regarding the program, and completed application for graduate admission to RIT. Students should identify if they are applying for the thesis option or capstone option of the program in their personal statement.  If students are interested in the thesis option, they must identify one, or more, faculty members to serve as their thesis advisor.  For a list of our faculty members, and their programs of research, see: https://www.rit.edu/liberalarts/psychology-research-areas

Importance of other criteria as admission factors

Research: high

Work experience: A biographical statement describing the applicant's experience and goals regarding the program is required.

Letters: high (minimum of two required)

Interview: high

Tuition and fees

Full time: $28,442/semester

Part time: $2,370/credit hour


 

ADMISSIONS

 

Number of students applying to the human factors/ergonomics program last year

20

Number of students accepted into the program last year

10

Number of students entering the program last year

7

Anticipated number of openings per year for the next two years

15


 

FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE

 

Percentage of students in program receiving financial assistance

100%

Amount received per year

Varies (30% tuition scholarship on average)

Types of assistance available

Teaching and research assistantships 

When should students apply for financial assistance?

With application


 

DEGREE REQUIREMENTS

 

Graduate degrees offered

MS

Number of units required

The program consists of a minimum of 30 semester credits, which include experimental psychology core courses, required engineering psychology courses, two electives, and the completion of a thesis.

Research required

Thesis

Is there a non-thesis option?

Yes


 

CURRICULUM

 

Required courses (units)

Required experimental core courses: Graduate Statistics (3), Graduate Research Methods (3), Graduate Seminar (0), Thesis Proposal (3) (thesis option), Thesis (3) (thesis option), Graduate Psychology Capstone (3) (capstone option)

Required engineering psychology courses: Graduate Cognition (3), Graduate Engineering Psychology (3), Graduate Perception (3)

Electives (units)

Graduate Biopsychology (3), Graduate Developmental Psychology (3), Graduate Social Psychology (3), Advanced Graduate Statistics (3), Biomechanics (3), Systems Safety Engineering (3), Foundations of Human-Computer Interaction (3), Information and Interaction Design (3), Usability Testing (3), Topics in HCI for Biomedical Informatics (3), Agent-Based and Cognitive Modeling (3), User-Centered Design Methods (3), Collaboration, Technology, and the Human Experience (3), Natural Language Processing I (3), Natural Language Processing II (3), Graduate Speech Processing (3), Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology (3), Advanced Research in Psychology (3)

Number of courses outside department that are required

2

Number of courses outside department that are recommended

2

Average or typical class size in a required course

10


 

RESEARCH/TEACHING OPPORTUNITIES

 

Research and support facilities available to students in the program: 

Psychology lab spaces for testing individuals and groups up to 20; a variety of visual-motor testing devices, color vision tests, depth perception tests etc. IE Human Performance Lab with electromyography and electrogoniometry instruments, energy expenditure cart, and a work simulator for measurement of human strength. IT multimedia lab, sound recording studio, usability testing lab, and eye tracking lab. RIT has a strategic alliance with the Rochester General Health System that provides access to the medical community.

Teaching opportunities available to students in the program:
Mentoring (of undergraduate students) appointments available

Current research activities and projects being carried out by program faculty and/or students:

Temporal awareness, visual multiple identity tracking, human error and reliability in health care

 

STUDENT STATISTICS

 

Current number of active students in program

11

Current number of first-year students in program

7

 


 

FACULTY

 

Reynold Bailey, PhD Washington University in St. Louis: computer graphics, applied perception in graphics and visualization 

Suzanne Bamonto, Associate Professor, PhD University of Oregon: Curriculum based measurement and academic outcomes

Joseph Baschnagel, Associate Professor, PhD University at Buffalo: Attention, Smoking Behavior, Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, Psychophysiological Measurement 

Kirsten Condry, Associate Professor, PhD University of Minnesota: Child Development, Perceptual & Cognitive Development, Media Influences on Children 

Caroline DeLong, Professor. PhD University of Hawaii: Human & Animal Cognition, Perception, Animal Bioacoustics 

Matthew Dye, Professor, PhD University of Southhampton: Brain reorganization in the face of altered sensory input, asking what happens with visual and multi-sensory processing when auditory input is missing

 

John Edlund, Professor, PhD, Northern Illinois University: Evolutionary, Social, & Forensic Psychology 

Allison Fitch, Assistant Professor, PhD University of Massachusetts: Developmental cognitive neuroscience with a focus on the interrelationships between the developing visual cognitive system and language acquisition

Stephanie Godleski, Associate Professor, PhD University of Buffalo: Clinical and developmental psychology with a focus on development pathways to risk and resilience

Anne Haake, PhD 1985, University of South Carolina; developmental biology, biomedical informatics and image retrieval, human-centered, adaptive computing cognitive models of perceptual expertise, multimodal user interfaces 

Dustin Haraden, Assistant Professor: Investigates developmental psychopathology focusing on sleep and circadian rhythms as risk factors for psychopathology in youth

Andrew Herbert, Professor, PhD 1996, University of Western Ontario: Perception, Cognitive Neuroscience 

Rebecca Houston, Associate Professor, PhD University of New Orleans: Psychophysiological and neuropsychological underpinnings of impulsivity and aggression in the context of substance abuse risk and treatment

Matthew Marshall, PhD 2002, University of Michigan: Industrial Engineering, human factors/ergonomics, upper extremity biomechanics 

Cecilia Ovesdotter Alm, Professor, PhD 2008, University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign, computational linguistics, linguistics, human-computer interaction involving language, knowledge inference in natural language, subjectivity and affect, (multimodal) semantics, language and cognition 

Marjorie Prokosch, Assistant Professor, PhD Texas Christian University: Studies motivated social cognition and the manner in which aspects of our environment impact perceptions, attitudes, and decision-making

Esa Rantanen, Associate Professor, PhD Pennsylvania State University: Human Factors in Complex Systems, Human Performance Measurement & Modeling, Mental Workload, Decision Making, Human Error & Reliability 

Lilia Rissman, Assistant Professor, PhD John Hopkins University: Investigates how cross-linguistic diversity reflects cultural and cognitive diversity

Lindsay Schenkel, Associate Professor, PhD University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Developmental Psychopathology, Serious Mental Illness, Social Cognition 

Audrey Smerbeck, Associate Professor, PhD University at Buffalo: Autism Spectrum Disorders, Testing & Psychometrics 

Tina Sutton, Associate Professor, PhD University at Albany: Psychology of Language, Cognition & Emotion, Emotion Word Representation Within & Across Languages, Hemispheric Specialization 

 

[Updated February 2024]