Courses

The minimum course requirements for the PhD set by the Graduate School is 9 quarters of full-time course registration (a minimum of 3 courses per quarter). To achieve some degree of familiarity with the whole field of psychology, each graduate student in the Department of Psychology enrolls in a proseminar the first two quarters of their first year, as well as two introductory statistics courses (450 and 451-1). Students in the Cognitive Psychology Program also take courses designed to serve as a foundation for later specialization within the area. The course requirements are fulfilled by any 6 courses taught by the program faculty that are either 400-level or are on the list of approved 300-level courses. (460 courses must be taken with separate faculty members.)

Approved 300-level Courses

  • 314-Special Topics (within the cognitive area)
  • 324-Perception

  • 334-Psychology of Language
  • 358-Left Brain, Right Brain
  • 361-Brain Damage and the Mind
  • 362-Images of cognition

400-level Courses

  • 446-Human Memory and Cognition

  • 461-Reasoning and Representation

  • 466-Analogy and Similarity

  • 460-Special Topics in Cognition

Note: Students can petition to make substitutions and variations. 
Core courses are to be taken in the first two years.

Beyond these core courses, no particular course is required of all students in the program. Each student is free to develop a program that will combine breadth and depth, in and outside the Psychology Department, to meet his or her objectives.

Because of the great importance of methodology, particularly of a quantitative sort, in all branches of psychology, every student is required at some time while at Northwestern to take six courses with a quantitative or formal emphasis. Specific courses which currently satisfy this requirement will be indicated. Which six are most appropriate for a given student will depend both on career objectives and on courses previously taken.

Since research training is a vital function of the program, students are also encouraged to engage in "Independent Study" even in their first year. Each unit of independent study counts as one course credit. Few formal courses at the graduate level are given during the summer session. Summers are used for independent work and research.

Advanced students (2nd year and higher) must present their research findings or plans at least once a year in the cognitive brownbag series.