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MINOR
IN COGNITIVE AND NEURAL SYSTEMS AND THEIR DEVELOPMENT
To provide training in basic research on perceptual, cognitive,
and neural processes and their development (CNSD), the Department
of Psychology at the University of Maryland has created a new minor.
The minor enables students admitted as regular graduate students
to the Department to take advantage of new interdisciplinary approaches
to the study of brain, behavior and development. In addition to
standard graduate training in Psychology, students will be required
to become expert in at least one additional cognate area, such as
Neuroscience, Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Science, Linguistics,
and Human/Computer Interaction.
Unlike the Specialty
areas in the Department of Psychology, the CNSD program does not
offer a fixed set of required academic courses. Rather, the CNSD
Minor is specifically tailored to meet each student's individual
needs with regard to basic research in the selected area of training.
This training involves the student in collaborative research with
one (or more) CNSD faculty member(s), and the training may or may
not entail additional course work depending upon the specific focus
of the student's training plan.
In addition
to a strong Department of Psychology, the University of Maryland
has strong Departments of Computer Science, Linguistics, Mathematics,
Philosophy and Zoology; as well as strong interdisciplinary Centers
for Neuroscience and Automation Research (including the Computer
Vision Laboratory and Human/Computer Interaction), and a Committee
on the History and Philosophy of Science.
Psychology Faculty
in CNSD:
Nancy Anderson (Professor Emeritus): Cognition; Memory and Pattern Perception;
Human/Computer Interaction
Steven Brauth (Professor): Comparative and Evolutionary Approach
to Study of Brain-Behavior Interactions
Robert Dooling (Professor): Comparative Aspects of Hearing and Vocal
Learning
William Hall (Professor): Language Acquisition in Humans; Neuroanatomy
of Avian Vocal Control pathways
Paul Hanges (Associate Professor): Modeling Discontinuous Phenomena
William Hodos (Professor): Avian Vision and Visual Information Processing
in Central Nervous System
Willard Larkin (Associate Professor Emeritus): Mathematical Models of Sensory
and Perceptual Processes
James Martin (Professor Emeritus): Expectancy Models of Continuous Speech
Communication
Cynthia Moss (Associate Professor): Sensory Coding and Integration
with Bat Echolocation as a Animal Model
Thomas Nelson (Professor): Metacognition
Kent Norman (Associate Professor): Models of Human Judgment and
Decision Making; Problem Solving
Merrilyn Penner (Professor Emerita): Mathematical Models of Auditory System;
Temporal Processing of Auditory Stimuli
Ellin Scholnick (Professor): Cognitive and Linguistic Development;
Computer Learning
Barry Smith (Professor): Psychophysiology
Charles Stangor (Associate Professor): Social Cognition
Robert Steinman (Professor): Coordinated Action in 3-D Space; Role
of Eye Movements in Cognitive Process
Charles Sternheim (Professor): Color and Spatial Specificity in
Human Vision
David Yager (Associate Professor): Neuroethology of Hearing; Motor
Processes
Faculty from other disciplines include: Azriel Rosenfeld (Distinguished
Professor Emeritus, Computer Science), Donald Perlis (Professor,
Computer Science), Ben Shneiderman (Professor, Computer Science),
Catherine Carr (Professor, Biology), Avis Cohen (Professor, Biology), and Arthur Popper (Professor,
Biology).
TRAINING
PROGRAM IN NEUROETHOLOGY
The University of Maryland offers a Training Program in Neuroethology,
which is directed by Professors Cynthia Moss and Catherine Carr
and includes faculty from Psychology, Biology, Engineering and Animal
and Avian Sciences. Neuroethology involves a multidisciplinary approach
that combines analysis at the behavioral, systems and cellular leves.
It starts with the premise that the brain of an animal has evolved
to process biologically relevant stimuli and control behavior that
is important for survival and reproduction. This powerful idea underlies
all neuroethological studies and shapes the choice of animals and
behavior, methods of study and interpretation of results. Because
the field concentrates upon species-specific behavior, neuroethological
studies can inform studies of brain evolution. In parallel, the
comparative neurobiological approach can reveal remarkable similarities
of organization among vertebrate or invertebrate brains; these may
result either from design constraints or from homology. Detailed
knowledge of the brains of different species, and their degree of
relatedness, is essential if we are to understand the evolution
of the nervous system. Similarly, differences between neural systems
are equally as instructive, in that they may reflect the action
of evolution upon different substrates, and the different requirements
of each system. Modern comparative neurobiology must be accompanied
by studies of evolution and embryology so that our trainees acquire
a good understanding of how brains are transformed among vertebrate
classes.
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