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Michigan State UniversityCognitive Science Program

Affiliated Faculty

Dr. Erik Altmann 
Department of Psychology 
Research: memory, attention, and executive function; computational and mathematical modeling of human performance. 
Ph.D. 1996, Carnegie Mellon University

Dr. Mark Becker 
Department of Psychology 
Research: visual cognition and attention, scene viewing, how emotional stimuli, working memory, and long term memory influence the allocation of attention. 
Ph.D. 2000, University of California, San Diego

Dr. Alan Beretta
Department of Linguistics and Languages 
Research: neurolinguistics.
Ph.D. 1987, University of Edinburgh, Scotland

Dr. Ryan Bowles
Department of Human Development and Family Studies 
Research: working memory, vocabulary ability, cognitive aging, quantitative methodologies for measurement and change.
Ph.D. 2006, University of Virginia

Dr. Tom Carr
Department of Psychology 
Research: attention, knowledge representation, executive control, and performance under stress. 
Ph.D. 1975, George Peabody College at Vanderbilt University

Dr. Michael Casby
Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders 
Research: child language development and disorders, developmental disabilities, language-learning disabilities, emergent literacy.
Ph.D. 1980, University of Kansas

Dr. Joyce Chai
Department of Computer Science and Engineering 
Research: natural Language Processing, Information extraction and retrieval, and intelligent user interfaces.
Ph.D. 1998, Duke University

Dr. Soo-Eun Chang
Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders 
Research: neural bases of speech perception and production, neurophysiology bases of stuttering.
Ph.D. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Dr. Judith Danovitch
Department of Psychology 
Research: cognitive development, reasoning about information and expertise, cognition and emotion.
Ph.D. 2005, Yale University

Dr. Laura Dilley
Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders
Research: spoken language processing, word segmentation, perception and cognitive representation of intonational and lexical tone systems.
Ph.D. 2005, MIT

Dr. Laura Dillon
Department of Computer Science 
Research: formal notations and analysis techniques supporting software specification, design, modeling, and verification.
Ph.D. 1984, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Dr. Fred C. Dyer
Department of Zoology 
Research: mechanisms and evolution of visual behavior in insects; Ecology and evolution of social behavior in insects.
Ph.D. 1984, Princeton University

Dr. Heather Eisthen
Department of Zoology 
Research: neuroethology, evolutionary and developmental neurobiology 
Ph.D. 1992, Indiana University

Dr. Kimberly Fenn
Department of Psychology 
Research: acquisition and consolidation of memory and skill learning, attention in learning and auditory perception, complex syntactical rule learning.
Ph.D. 2006, University of Chicago

Dr. Thomas Getty
Department of Zoology and Kellogg Biological Station 
Research: the role of information in various aspects of animal behavior.
Ph.D. 1980, University of Michigan

Dr. Aline Godfroid
Second Language Studies Program
Research: attention, awareness and 'noticing'; implicit and explicit learning / memory; incidental vocabulary acquisition; eye tracking
Ph.D. 2010, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium

Dr. Jeremy Gray
Department of Psychology
Research: emotion and cognition, executive control
Ph.D. 1999, Harvard University

Dr. D. Zach Hambrick
Department of Psychology 
Research: effects of working memory, age, and domain-specific knowledge on cognition.
Ph.D. 2000, Georgia Institute of Technology

Dr. Lauren Harris
Department of Psychology 
Research: neuropsychological analysis of human cognition, individual differences in spatial ability, lateralization (infants and children), history of psychology.
Ph.D. 1965, University of Minnesota

Dr. William M. Hartmann
Department of Physics and Astronomy 
Research: theoretical and experimental psychoacoustics.
Ph.D. 1965, Oxford University

Dr. Florian Kagerer
Department of Kinesiology 
Research: motor development of children and youth, motor control and learning.
Ph.D. 1991, Institute of Medical Psychology in Munich

Dr. Julie Libarkin
Department of Geological Sciences 
Research: geocognition.
Ph.D.

Dr. Yen-Hwei Lin
Department of Linguistics and Languages 
Research: phonology, phonology-morphology interface, phonology-phonetics interface.
Ph.D. 1989, University of Texas at Austin

Dr. Taosheng Liu
Department of Psychology 
Research: brain mechanisms of perception and attention, object recognition, neuroimaging.
Ph.D. 2001, Columbia University

Dr. Devin McAuley
Department of Psychology 
Research: time and rhythm, auditory perception, attention.
Ph.D. 1995, Indiana University at Bloomington

Dr. Kelly Mix
College of Education 
Research: cognitive development, early childhood number and math concepts, language and cognition.
Ph.D. 1995, University of Chicago

Dr. Marcin Morzycki
Department of Linguistics and Languages 
Research: formal semantics, syntax-semantics interface, grammar of modification.
Ph.D. 2005, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Dr. Alan Munn
Department of Linguistics and Languages 
Research: syntax, semantics, psycholinguistics.
Ph.D. 1993, University of Maryland

Dr. Charles Owen
Department of Computer Science and Engineering 
Research: virtual and augmented reality; realistic embodied agents; computer game design and development.  
Ph.D. 1998, Dartmouth College

Dr. Robert Pennock
Lyman Briggs College 
Research: evolution in action in both biological and digital environments
Ph.D. 1991, University of Pittsburgh

Dr. Natalie Phillips
Department of English 
Research: eighteenth-century British literature, cognitive approaches to fiction, and the history of mind
Ph.D. 2010, Stanford University

Dr. Timothy Pleskac
Department of Psychology 
Research: cognitive decision theory, sequential risk taking and decision making, cognitive models, diffusion/random walk models, learning and memory.
Ph.D. 2004, University of Maryland

Dr. Matthew Pontifex
Department of Kinesiology 
Research: ERP, behavioral, and neuropsychological investigations of the relation between physical health and cognitive control during maturation.
Ph.D. 2011, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Dr. Brad Rakerd
Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders 
Research: sound localization, speech perception, and hearing impairment.
Ph.D. 1982, University of Connecticut

Dr. Susan Ravizza
Department of Psychology 
Research: fMRI, behavioral, and neuropsychological studies of cognitive control, language, and motor coordination.
Ph.D. 2000, University of California, Berkeley

Dr. Cristina Schmitt
Department of Linguistics and Languages 
Research: syntax, syntax/semantics interface, aphasia.
Ph.D. 1996, University of Maryland

Dr. John Sherry
Department of Communication
Ph.D. 1998, Michigan State Unversity

Dr. Rahul Shrivastav
Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders
Ph.D., Indiana Unversity, Bloomington

Dr. Jon Sticklen
Department of Computer Science 
Research: knowledge-based systems, task specific architectures for expert level decision making, computation-based problem solving.
Ph.D. 1987, Ohio State University

Dr. George Stockman
Department of Computer Science< br/> Research: computer vision, knowledge representation and artificial intelligence.
Ph.D. 1977, University of Maryland

Dr. Laura Symonds
Department of Psychiatry, Department of Radiology 
Research: cognitive and emotional modification of pain.
Ph.D. 1982, University of Pennsylvania

Dr. Leigh VanHandel
College of Music 
Research: music, language, music perception and cognition, computer-assisted research in music theory.
Ph.D. 2005, Stanford University

Dr. Bill VanPatten
Program in Second Language Studies
Research: second language input processing and parsing; linguistic and psycholinguistic approaches to second language acquisition; instructed second language acquisition
Ph.D. 1983, The University of Texas at Austin

Dr. John J. Weng
Department of Computer Science
Research: computer vision, speech, robotics, machine learning and machine mental development.
Ph.D. 1989, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Dr. Rose T. Zacks
Department of Psychology
Research: attention, memory, and cognitive aging.
Ph.D. 1967, University of California at Berkeley

Dr. David Zhu
Department of Psychology, Department of Radiology 
Research: MR imaging technique development and functional MRI applications.
Ph.D. 1999, University of California, Davis

 

MSU CogSci in the News

4.22.13
Professors Devin McAuley, Soo-Eun Chang, Laura Dilley, and Juli Wade were awarded a grant for their project "Rhythm Processing Deficits in Developmental Stuttering" from the GRAMMY Foundation.

4.22.13
Professors Judith Danovitch, Jason Moser, and Zach Hambrick were awarded a grant for their project "Neural, Cognitive, and Social Contributions to the Development of Intellectual Humility" from the Templeton Foundation/Fuller Theological Seminary.

4.22.13
Professor Susan Ravizza received an NSF Career Award.

2.21.13
Professor Natalie Phillips is interviewed on BBC radio. (Starts at 12:40)

1.11.13
Professors Erik Altmann and Zachary Hambrick's research is on Lifehacker and MSU news.

9.19.12
Professor Natalie Phillips's research is in the Stanford and MSU news.

5.6.12
Professor Zach Hambrick's research is in the New York Times.
[Read the article here.]