Course Descriptions

PSYC 502 – Advanced Psychological Statistics I - Introduction to inferential statistics, with emphasis on analysis of variance.

PSYC 503 – Advanced Psychological Statistics II - A continuation of PSYC 502, focusing on multiple regressions. Other multivariate techniques and distribution-free statistics are also covered.

PSYC 504 – Computer Applications in Psychology - The use of computers in psychological research and in usability engineering. The emphasis will be on dynamic HTML and JavaScript. Topics will include designing and running web-based psychology experiments and the use of web-based video.

PSYC 520 – Foundations of Cognitive Psychology – An introduction to the basic topics in cognitive psychology, including perception, memory, psycholinguistics, concept formation, problem solving, and decision making.

PSYC 522 – Information Processing and Attention - An exploration of topics in attention, including information overload, selective attention, response conflict, and automatic/unconscious and controlled/conscious processes. The neural mechanisms underlying these processes will also be discussed.

PSYC 524 – Memory - Overview of issues and research in remembering and forgetting.

PSYC 525 – Psycholinguistics - Study of the psychology of language. Includes the study of speech production, reading, syntax, meaning, bilingualism, language and thought, and language errors and disorders.

PSYC 527 – Reasoning, Decision Making, and Problem Solving – The coverage of “high-level” cognition, with topics of reasoning, decision-making, judgment, and problem solving.

PSYC 530 – Foundations of I/O Psychology - Graduate-level introduction to the study of human behavior in the work setting.

PSYC 531 – Human Factors/Human-Computer Interaction Seminar - A weekly student-staff seminar on various human factors and human-computer interaction topics. Repeatable for Credit.

PSYC 535 – Human Factors/Ergonomics - Broad overview of the science and profession of human factors/ergonomics. Emphasis is on discussion of literature and presentations of recommendations to applied problems.

PSYC 540 – Foundations of Engineering Psychology - This is an advanced human factors course aimed at students who have taken a basic course in human factors or human-computer interaction and are looking for greater depth. Credit cannot be earned for PSYC 540 and PSYC 470.

PSYC 541 – Human-Computer Interaction – Course covers topics of usability of interactive systems, universal usability, guidelines, principles and theories of HCI, interaction styles, and design issues in HCI.

PSYC 543 – Computational Modeling – Concepts underlying the methodology of computational modeling of human cognition, issues in the use of models and modeling.

PSYC 561 – Teaching in Psychology - Assistance in the teaching of undergraduate and occasionally graduate courses in psychology. Repeatable for Credit.

PSYC 581 – Vision Science - Advanced graduate seminar in the psychology of vision, covering the neural, psychophysical, and phenomenological approaches to visual perception.

PSYC 595 – Summer Internship in Human Factors and Human-Computer Interaction -

PSYC 600 – HCI & HF Master’s Capstone Project -

PSYC 601 – Multivariate Statistics - An overview of a wide range of concepts and skills for conducting data analysis on multivariate data sets encountered in psychology. Issues involve preparing the data set, selecting and conducting the appropriate analysis, interpreting the output from statistical programs, and presenting complex analyses and results in a clear manner.

PSYC 602 – Psychometrics - Test theory, including reliability, validity, item response theory, and generalizability theory. In addition, the course offers hands-on experience with analysis software and discussion of practical issues such as test bias, item writing, and scale construction.

PSYC 609 – Methods in Human-Computer Interaction - Introduction to methods for developing and testing user interfaces to computer systems. The focus is on web-based applications.

PSYC 630 – Training -

PSYC 634 – Personnel Selection - Examination of the theory, research, and applications in personnel selection, including job analysis, job performance, evaluation of performance, validation of selection methods, and training.

PSYC 640 – Special Topics in HCI & HF – Topics will vary. Repeatable for credit.

PSYC 662 – Non-Traditional Interfaces - Advanced coverage of human computer interfaces that are not necessarily graphical in nature. The course covers haptic, gesture, locomotion, auditory, voice olfactory, taste interfaces. Impoverished GUIs (small screen) are investigated, as are interactive voice response systems and complex interfaces that are multi-model.

PSYC 663 – Medical Human Factors - Advanced coverage of the human factors that are specific to medical systems. Topics include medical decision making and diagnosis errors, surgical human factors, medical robots, surgical simulators, and general medical equipment design. Macro-ergonomics of hospital systems, electronic medical records and computerized physician order entry systems are also covered.

PSYC 664 – Usability Assessment - This course covers all of the aspects of specifying, planning, executing, and reporting usability assessments on products, services and systems. Formative and summative assessments are covered, as are "discount" usability methods. This course is project based, with students performing usability assessments as part of an engineering team that is developing products for deployment.

COMP 557 – Artificial Intelligence - This is a foundational course in artificial intelligence, the discipline of designing intelligent agents. The course will cover the design and analysis of agents that do the right thing in the face of limited information and computational resources. The course revolves around two main questions: how agents decide what to do, and how they learn from experience. Tools from computer science, probability theory, and game theory will be used. Interesting examples of intelligent agents will be covered, including poker playing programs, bots for various games (e.g. WoW), DS1 -- the spacecraft that performed an autonomous flyby of Comet Borrely in 2001, Stanley -- the Stanford robot car that won the Darpa Grand Challenge, Google Maps and how it calculates driving directions, face and handwriting recognizers, FedEx package delivery planners, airline fare prediction sites, and fraud detectors in financial transactions.