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Those awarded the Predoctoral Fellowship in Modeling Cognition will be required to satisfy the requirements for the joint Ph.D. in Psychology and Cognitive Science, with the expectation of a five year program (though this may be adjusted upwards or downwards in special cases). The speciality in modeling will be instantiated by asking our trainees to obtain a Certificate in Modeling.
The Ph.D. in Psychology
The Psychology department requires a total of 90 credit hours for the Ph.D., of which 39 must be in the core program, major, or minor areas. A course must be taken in at least four content areas in the Psychology department. However, if pursuing a joint degree in Cognitive Science, a course must be taken in only three content areas.
Requirements also include:
- The course P595 on scientific research and ethics in research, must be taken the first two semesters.
- The two basic statistics courses (P553 and P554) must be completed.
- Written reports on first and second year research projects are required.
- A written qualifying examination must be passed, usually during the summer of the second year.
The joint degree in Cognitive Science
Requirements:
- 32 credit hours must be in courses listed or cross-listed in Cognitive Science.
- These hours must include:
- Q540 - Philosophical Foundations of the Cognitive and Information Sciences
- Q550 - Models in Cognitive Science
- Q530 - Programming Methods in Cognitive Science, or the equivalent
- Q551 - brain and Cognition
- 6 hours of content courses in a department other than Psychology
- The student must take Q733 each semester (the Colloquium Series; usually non-credit, but may be taken once for one credit).
- A qualifying examination must be taken in Cognitive Science; this exam may be combined with the qualifying exam in Psychology, but must include coverage of some topics not usually covered in the psychology exam. The examination committee must include at least two core Cognitive Science faculty members, one outside psychology. The exam must be taken by the summer of the third year.
- The student must give a publically announced colloquium on his of her research (not necessarily the thesis).
- The student's dissertation committee must include a Cognitive Science member not in psychology; the dissertation must lie in the area of Cognitive Science.
It should be noted that most of these requirements overlap with those of Psychology. The additional requirements basically come down to the four required Cognitive Science courses, some additional coverage on the qualifying exam, the Cognitive Science colloquium series, and the public colloquium.
Since the normal program in psychology is four years, the five year program for the joint degree provides more than enough time to satisfy the additional requirements.
The Certificate in Modeling in Cognitive Science
Requirements:
- 18 credit hours of courses in the modeling area:
- Required course: Q550 - Models in Cognitive Science
- At least five additional courses in modeling (15 credits minimum)
- Courses should include at least one course in basic techniques and methods:
- At least one course in applications:
- Q750 - Neural Networks as Models of Cognition
- B651 - Natural Language Processing
- B652 - Computer Models of Symbolic Learning
- L611 - Models of Linguistic Structure
- P648 - Choice Behavior
- Courses must be taken from at least two departments, excluding courses listed only in the Cognitive Science Program. These courses may not include a course whose content consists almost entirely of a research project (such courses and projects are separately covered below)
- Students must demonstrate a grasp of modeling in research, either through course work (Q689 Computer Simulation Project; P556 Independent Computer Project) or through a written report of research involving modeling (includes master's or Ph.D. projects)
- The Ph.D. qualifying examination in the Cognitive Science Program must contain at least one section on a modeling-related topic.
Most of these requirements represent a choice of electives from the requirements for the joint Ph.D., rather than additional hours. Thus the required program will fit comfortably in the proposed five year time span.
For general requirements for certificates or for a more detailed description of the requirements for the Certificate in Modeling, see:
Office of Reasearch and University Graduate School
Cognitive Science
Additional Requirements
- Courses Offered:
Graduate courses in Cognitive Science
Cross-listed courses in Cognitive Science
It should be noted that many modeling courses are given as advanced seminars, listed in the graduate school bulletin as "Seminar". Their content and frequency vary.
- Research Seminars:
An integral part of the current training program in Psychology and Cognitive Science at Indiana is intensive research seminars. These are of many types.
Cognitive Science and Psychology colloquia employ extended question periods allowing students and faculty to interact with the speaker. In addition, students and trainees are always given a separate time to interact with the speaker in the absence of our faculty.
Students and faculty in the general cognition area meet weekly in a research seminar called "Cognitive Lunch" to present and discuss their current research.
There is also a weekly research seminar within the Cognitive Science Program termed "MAIC" (Models in Artificial Intelligence and Connectionism).
In addition to these weekly research forums to which students are invited generally, there are many smaller research forums for smaller groups with special research interests. Typically these are organized around particular research projects (e.g. connectionist models of parsing; recurrent models of temporal patterning; stochastic constraints on elementary processes; etc. etc.), and involve several faculty and students.
Finally, a number of faculty (for example Professors Shiffrin and Townsend) have weekly lab meetings attended by all users and trainees in that laboratory.
We expect and require trainees to take part in such research forums. We have found the intense interactions and critical evaluation of research that occur in such forums to be an extremely valuable part of the learning experience at Indiana. These meetings have also led on occasion to the synergistic development of joint research projects between several faculty and students. Although we have enough research seminars at present that any one individual cannot attend all those that are relevant, we feel it is important for the training program that a weekly modeling seminar be added, to be attended by the core faculty and trainees, and by any other interested faculty and students.
- Laboratory Research:
A substantial portion of the time of each graduate student, starting from the date of arrival at Indiana, and an even larger proportion of time for the post-doctoral visitors, is spent on laboratory research (including both empirical studies involving data collection and analysis, and various types of modeling efforts).
We have at Indiana impressive computer based experimental laboratories and powerful and accessible computational facilities for model development, simulation, testing, and parameter estimation. Each student and visitor in the program will be expected to carry out research involving modeling each semester in one or more laboratories, under the supervision of one of the core faculty.
Once each semester, a written evaluation of the research progress will be placed on file with the directors. This and a similar report on academic progress for the pre-doctoral trainees will form the basis of a discussion each semester between the director, the research advisor, and the trainee for the purpose of evaluating the trainee's progress. Note that Psychology already requires a written report on the research carried out after each of the first two year's in the program.
- Summer Research:
Research during summers is an integral and crucial part of the training program. This is especially true of the pre-doctoral trainees in their first few years due to the relatively heavy course requirements during the academic year.
In order to insure that each trainee is able to carry out research during summers, the university has pledged to provide $3000 of summer research support for each trainee for each year of training. In other years in the program, trainees have access to Cognitive Science summer research fellowships, at a similar level of support.
- Colloquia:
It is important to give the student practice presenting research results in public forums, at meetings, and so forth. We have designed our program to give great emphasis to such research presentations.
Our trainees will be presenting their research once a year at Cognitive Lunch, once a semester at the Models Seminar, once a year at the Indiana/Purdue Cognitive/Mathematical Models Conference, and once a year at the Annual Meetings of a scientific society (such as the Society for Mathematical Society). Funding for travel to the last named meetings is requested as part of this proposal.
- Teaching:
All trainees will be given experience teaching a course, usually an undergraduate course in cognition, typically in the third or fourth year. Such teaching provides useful skills even should the trainee pursue a career not requiring the teaching of regular courses. (This is also a requirement for the Ph.D. in Psychology).
- Selection of Research Topic and Advisor:
During the process of recruiting the trainee will have visited with the core faculty and become acquainted with the research of each. Upon arrival the trainee will again meet with the core faculty. The choice of advisor is left to the student's discretion, subject only to the agreement of the faculty member to serve as advisor (such agreement is almost always granted, except in a few cases where one faculty member temporarily has too many students and trainees to take on additional responsibilities). We do not normally expect beginning students to have well developed research plans. Thus new students are generally provided research projects by the chosen advisor after mutual consultation. As training continues over the years, the trainee is expected to play a more and more independent role in the research conception and execution.
We think it desirable that the trainees become exposed to a variety of research techniques and topics. Thus all trainees will be encouraged to carry out research with at least two different faculty members during their five year training period. We will also encourage research in which two or more faculty will serve as co-advisors; we have had good experience with such arrangements in recent years.
- Evaluation and Feedback:
Each semester each student will receive written feedback concerning academic and research progress and will meet with her or his research advisor and one of the co-directors to evaluate the progress and discuss future research plans and future coursework.
Contact Information
James Townsend
jtownsen@indiana.edu
Department of Psychology
Indiana University
Bloomington, IN 47405
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