Experimental Psychology Graduate Program
Washington State University enrolls more than 18,000 students at its Pullman campus, which is located 80 miles south of Spokane. The nearby University of Idaho makes the Pullman-Moscow area a university community of about 50,000 people. Graduate training is also offered at our newer campus in Vancouver, Washington, a city of 150,000 located just north of Portland, Oregon. The Vancouver campus enrolls approximately 1,800 students. Low population density, pleasant climate, and excellent research facilities make for a setting conducive to intensive study and productive research at both campuses.
The Pullman area also offers opportunities for fun, recreation, and relaxation. Many nationally noted musicians, comedians, theater groups, dance companies, and lecturers come to campus. As a member of the Pacific-10 Conference, WSU provides exciting competition for the sports spectator. Athletic and recreational opportunities are abundant on campus. The Student Recreation Center contains a large-scale fitness center, track, swimming pool, and basketball, volleyball, racquetball, and handball courts. There are indoor and outdoor tennis courts, and the university maintains an 9-hole golf course.
South of Pullman is Hells Canyon, the deepest canyon in North America, and the Salmon River, the last wild river in the continental U.S. To the west are the Cascade Mountains, and Mount Rainier and Olympic National Parks. To the east are the Rockies and Glacier National Park, and to the north are the Canadian Rockies. Opportunities abound for some of the best fishing, hunting, hiking, camping, mountain biking, boating, white water rafting, kayaking, and both downhill and cross country skiing in the U.S.
WSU’s Ph.D. Program in Experimental Psychology offers graduate students:
• A stimulating environment for conducting scientific research
Each year our faculty and graduate students publish numerous papers in refereed journals, attend national and international conferences, and attract external grant funding. Many of our faculty serve on editorial boards for premier scientific journals and have been formally recognized by psychological organizations for their research contributions. Several faculty are conducting collaborative research projects within the department and with other departments including Veterinary and Comparative Anatomy, Physiology, and Pharmacology (VCAPP), Neuroscience, Food Science and Human Nutrition, Human Development, Marketing, Management Information Systems, Political Science, Speech & Hearing Sciences, and Communication.
• Opportunity to develop expertise in one or more areas in experimental psychology
Behavior Analysis is a major research focus in the department. Basic research in behavior analysis aims at discovering functional relationships between behavior and environmental variables. Applied behavior analysts extend the information obtained in basic research to treating human behavioral problems.
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Our basic researchers study choice, behavioral contrast (the fact that reinforcers have a relative, rather than an absolute, effect on behavior), and the role of habituation in operant and classical conditioning
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Our applied researchers investigate the application of self-management theory and procedures to reducing personal and societal costs of common self-control problems such as over-consumption of alcohol, high-risk sexual behavior, over-eating, and anger difficulties
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Clinical psychologists within the department apply the principles of behavior analysis to the understanding of attention deficit disorder and reading problems among children
Cognitive Science focuses on our ability to perceive the world around us, solve problems, use language, learn and remember, and act in the world. The study of mental processes and how they relate to brain function are a major focus of human research in the department. Specific interests include:
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How selective attention operates and how attention modulates the visual perception of objects, object features, motion, and general perceptual-motor control
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How factors such as age, affect, diet, menopause, and gender affect cognition, including perception, attention and memory
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How individual differences in working memory ability impact language comprehension and decision processes in young adults, aged adults, as well as populations with Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia, and self-control difficulties (e.g., those with substance abuse problems)
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How decision making and problem solving are affected by the environment, memory, and the strategies people use to (a) gather and evaluate facts for the purpose of making a diagnosis, (b) determine causes of events, and (c) assess their risk and take preventative actions
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How humans and nonhuman animals use statistical information from the environment to categorize complex stimuli, such as speech sounds
Perception is the selection, organization, and interpretation of sensory input. Faculty research interests include:
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Characterizing the functional properties of visual cortical areas that process binocular depth and motion information, which has implications for human factors engineering in terms of the design of synthetic visual displays used in aviation
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Characterizing visual deficits that accompany dyslexia
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Uncovering the roles of general perceptual and cognitive processes in speech perception
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Understanding complex auditory perception with an emphasis on ecological acoustics, and the examination of behavioral and neuroanatomical differences in auditory processing between sighted and blind individuals
Physiological psychology focuses on neural mechanisms of sensation, perception, cognition, emotion and behavior. Faculty research interests include:
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Understanding behavioral and neurochemical bases of learning and memory (especially as they relate to synaptic plasticity in hippocampus and neocortex)
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Development of animal models of Alzheimer's disease and stroke-induced memory dysfunction
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Characterizing sex differences in the psychopharmacology of opiates, cannabinoids, and stimulants
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Sex steroid hormone modulation of pain and mood
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Electrophysiological, pharmacological, and behavioral correlates of the neural basis of pain and opiate analgesia
Social and Industrial-Organizational (I/O). Social psychology is the study of how individuals think about, influence, and relate to one another in everyday life. I/O psychology is the study of the causes and consequences of workplace attitudes and behaviors. Faculty research interests include:
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Individual differences, cognitive influences (e.g., attribution and affective states), and interpersonal factors in cooperative choice as well as group member attributions for noncooperative individual performance and poor collective performance
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Individual differences in the consideration of future consequences, prosocial behavior, and aggression
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Workplace diversity & cross cultural I/O
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Antecedents and consequences of job stress
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Occupational health psychology
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Environmental risk perception, cross-cultural differences in self-efficacy and the desire to regulate risks
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Evaluation of specialty courts such as drug, mental health, and domestic violence courts
• Modern research facilities
Research facilities include laboratories with upto- date technology, internet access, and access to both human and animal populations for research. Special facilities in the department include a Human Psychophysiological Laboratory (available to all faculty and students), the Self-Control Unit (a research and service center committed to applied behavior analysis), and the Psychology Clinic (a teaching clinic which provides opportunities for clinical practice and research). Students at our Vancouver campus have access to many major companies in which data on work-related attitudes and behaviors can be collected. The department also has research arrangements with major medical centers in Spokane, Washington.
•Competitive stipend and health insurance
All of our graduate students are fully funded during their first year of study. This includes a complete tuition waiver; partial fee waiver (typical per-semester out-of-pocket expenses are approximately $400); half-time assistantship for the academic (9-month) year, which provides a monthly salary in exchange for 20 hours of work per week within the department under the supervision of a faculty member or in an instructional capacity; and basic health insurance for a 12-month period. In subsequent years, full support is provided contingent upon sufficient progress toward completion of the degree, as judged by the Experimental faculty. It is the policy of the department to provide complete support to students who are in good standing for a minimum of four years of study. Students are also eligible to earn summer support on faculty grants or as a summer session instructor.
• Option for graduate training at both the Pullman and Vancouver Washington campuses
The experimental graduate program offers graduate training at both the Pullman and Vancouver campuses. Students who would like to pursue graduate training at the Vancouver campus are required to complete their first year of study at the Pullman campus. Thereafter, a decision regarding relocation to the Vancouver campus is made by the student, the student’s mentor (at the Vancouver campus), and the Director of Experimental Training.
• A great living environment
Washington State University campuses at both Pullman and Vancouver offer an upbeat, intellectual atmosphere within exceptionally friendly college towns. Both campuses are ideally located for a variety of intellectual and recreational activities.
• Graduates of the experimental program
In recent years, graduates of the program have obtained positions in teaching and research at colleges and universities, in applied research, in private industry, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies, in administration and research in municipal and state agencies, and in basic research in federal agencies.
• Specific Faculty Research Interests.
A list of the Experimental faculty, and a brief description of their research interests are attached. More detailed information regarding faculty interests can be found on the Psychology department website.
For more information, please see the WSU Psychology website at:
http://www.wsu.edu/psychology/
and the Washington State University website at:
http://www.wsu.edu/
Contact Information:
Pullman campus, Psychology Department: (509) 335-2632
Vancouver campus, Psychology Department: (360) 546-9720
Experimental Faculty Research Descriptions
Tom Brigham, Ph.D. (Child Psychology, Univ. of Kansas). Behavior analysis: Self-management theory and procedures that reduce the personal and societal costs of common self-control problems such as over consumption of alcohol, high-risk sexual behavior over eating, and anger difficulties.
Rebecca Craft, Ph.D. (Experimental and Biological Psychology, Univ. of North Carolina): Physiological psychology: Sex differences in psychopharmacology of drugs of abuse, and sex steroid hormone modulation of pain and mood.
Armando Estrada, Ph.D. (Industrial/Organizational Psychology, University of Texas El Paso). Culture and gender influences on workplace harassment; Prejudice and discrimination; Models of sexual prejudice across cultures; Role of individual differences in predicting sexual prejudice.
Lisa Fournier, Ph.D. (Experimental Psychology, Univ. of Illinois, Champaign). Cognitive science/Perception: Human selective attention, attentional modulation of feature, object, motion (luminance, cyclopean and 3-D optical flow) perception, and general perceptual-motor control (closed-loop and open-loop control). Affects of hormones and diet on human, cognitive performance.
John Hinson, Ph.D. (Experimental Psychology, Duke Univ.). Cognitive science: Relation between working memory processes and decision making and how working memory limitations may lead to sub-optimal decision making. Decision making in populations that may have intrinsic working memory problems, including Parkinson's disease patients, and people with impulsivity and self-control difficulties (e.g., substance abuse problems).
Randy Kleinhesselink, Ph.D. (Experimental Psychology, Univ. of Iowa). Social psychology: Environmental risk perception, cross-cultural differences in self-efficacy and the desire to regulate risks. Evaluation of specialty courts including drug, mental health, and domestic violence courts.
Steven Lakatos, Ph.D. (Cognitive Psychology, Stanford Univ.). Perception: Complex auditory perception, with emphasis on ecological acoustics. Psychometric measures of auditory realism. Behavioral and neuroanatomical differences in auditory processing between sighted and blind individuals.
Frances McSweeney, Ph.D. (Experimental Psychology, Harvard Univ.). Behavior analysis: Basic behavioral processes such as choice (the Matching Law), behavioral contrast (reinforcers have a relative, rather than an absolute, effect on behavior), within-session changes in conditioned responding, role of habituation in operant and classical conditioning.
Mike Morgan, Ph.D. (Physiological Psychology, Univ. of California, Los Angeles). Physiological psychology: Utilization of electrophysiological, pharmacological, and behavioral techniques to study the neural basis of tolerance to the pain inhibitory effects of opiates such as morphine.
Craig Parks, Ph.D. (Social Psychology, Univ. of Illinois, Champaign). Social psychology: Individual-level influences on cooperative choice, with an emphasis on individual differences, behavioral strategies, outcome comparisons, and affective states. Attributional explanations for and errors in perceiving, sub-optimal collective and group member performance, and the influence of those attributions and errors on one’s own subsequent performance.
Robert Patterson, Ph.D. (Visual Perception, Vanderbilt Univ.). Perception: Functional properties of visual mechanisms that process binocular depth and motion information. Human factors engineering and dyslexia.
Tahira Probst, Ph.D. (Industrial-Organizational Psychology, Univ. of Illinois, Champaign). Industrial/organizational: Psychological, behavioral, and health-related effects of today's increasing job insecurity, changing organization of work, and organizational downsizing. Workplace diversity and cross-cultural industrial/organizational psychology. Occupational health psychology.
Sarah Tragesser, Ph.D. (Social Psychology, Colorado State University). Affective instability, impulsivity, and drinking motives as risk factors in the development and persistence of alcohol problems; Risk factors for alcohol problems among youth; Cross-cultural research in alcohol use; Alcohol use and emotion regulation; Affective instability and interpersonal problems; Experimental studies of affective instability and impulsivity.
Jay Wright, Ph.D. (Physiological Psychology, Michigan State Univ.). Physiological psychology: Behavioral and neurochemical bases of the synaptic plasticity that mediates learning and memory. Development of animal models of Alzheimer's disease and stroke-induced memory dysfunction. A number of peptide-based drugs have been synthesized that can improve memory in these animal models thus compensating for the disease-induced neural damage that occurs primarily in the hippocampus.
Paul Whitney, Ph.D. (Experimental Psychology, Univ. of Kansas). Cognitive science: Language and memory, how individual differences in working memory ability impact other cognitive processes; working memory and decision making in people with Parkinson’s disease and people with schizophrenia.