Ph.D.Program--Experimental Psychology

• Program Mission
• Areas of Research

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Developmental Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Research Methods

• Experimental Program Handbook
• Admission
• Evaluation of Applications
• Transfer Credit
• Applying to the Program
• Student Financing
• Program Faculty
• Contact us

 Program Mission

The UNLV Experimental Psychology Doctoral Program trains students to become psychological scientists capable of carrying out independent research that lives up to international standards of scientific excellence. Upon completing the degree, students will be qualified to seek careers conducting research in academia and in other institutional and applied settings. Areas of research in which faculty supervise students are: Cognitive Psychology, Neuroscience, Developmental Psychology, Social Psychology, and Research Methods.  The program operates on a mentor model in which students work under the supervision of an identified faculty mentor.  We welcome students from diverse backgrounds and encourage research in topics related to multiculturalism and diversity.

Areas of Research

The program has a number of research areas with multiple faculty members in each area:

Cognitive psychology at UNLV covers the major topics in the field, such as perception, attention, memory, higher-level cognition, and applications to other areas of psychology. Researchers examine specific topics such as auditory and visual perception, cognitive aging, face processing, language comprehension, math cognition, mental models, music perception, and signal detection. These topics are examined using traditional cognitive behavioral methods and analyses, computational modeling, eye-tracking, and event-related potentials.

Faculty: Mark H. Ashcraft, David Copeland, Erin E. Hannon, Marta Meana, Colleen M. Parks, Jennifer L. Rennels, N. Clayton Silver, Joel S. Snyder

Neuroscience within the Department of Psychology at UNLV provides interdisciplinary training for research on the neural basis of behavior. Faculty research includes approaches from neuropsychology, cognitive neuroscience, behavioral neuroscience, and psychopharmacology. Faculty members in the department are also a part of a growing network of neuroscience researchers within UNLV and the Las Vegas area.

Faculty: Daniel N. Allen, Jefferson W. Kinney, Laurel M. Pritchard, Joel S. Snyder

Developmental psychology at UNLV encompasses aspects of physiological, cognitive, and social development. Researchers study how early life experiences affect development of substance use, novelty responses, music perception and knowledge, speech perception, face processing, and appearance-based stereotypes. Methods for studying these topics include use of animal models, visual looking paradigms, eye-tracking and other methods appropriate for research with infants and young children. Efforts are made in much of the developmental research to include members of different cultural groups.

Faculty: Erin E. Hannon, Robert Koettel, Laurel M. Pritchard, Jennifer L. Rennels

Social Psychology

Social psychology is the study of how our thoughts, feelings, and behavior are influenced by other persons. Researchers in the Department of Psychology are actively studying many of the traditional topics in social psychology from both an evolutionary perspective and a sociocultural perspective. These topics include persuasion, attraction, acculturation, and racial identity.

Faculty: Marta Meana, Murray G. Millar, Jennifer L. Rennels, Cortney S. Warren

Psychological research uses a wide variety of data collection and data analysis techniques. The faculty in the Research Methods area provides courses and individual mentoring in advanced data collection techniques and qualitative and quantitative analyses. Some researchers also conduct and mentor research in the development of new data analysis and data collection techniques.

Faculty: Kimberly A. Barchard, N. Clayton Silver, Daniel N. Allen, Marta Meana, Russell T. Hurlburt

NOTE: *Required core courses for the Experimental Ph.D. program are Cognitive, Developmental, Physiological, and Social psychology). See Graduate Catalog for details.; **Experimental Proseminar is a 1-3 cr. course. Students are required to enroll in this course for their first two years in the program. See Graduate Catalog for details.

  Experimental Program Handbook

Click here for the Experimental Program Handbook and Program timeline.

  Admission

The program admits students for matriculation only in the Fall semester of each academic year. The application deadline is January 15th prior to the Fall for which matriculation is being requested. The admission process is typically completed by April 15th.

We anticipate entering classes of approximately eight students each year. Typically, admitted students have GPAs above 3.40 and GRE scores above 550 on each required subtest.

Admission Requirements

• A Bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution or a master’s degree or equivalent from an accredited institution.

• Applicants should have completed at least 18 hours of undergraduate psychology courses including Statistics and Research Methods or their equivalents.

• Scores on the Verbal and Quantitative sections of the Graduate Record Exam (GRE). For the GRE Testing website, click here.  GRE score reporting is cumulative. Current GRE Board policy states that your scores are retained for the 5 testing years following the testing year in which you tested.

Psychology Department Forms

• Three letters of recommendation. Each letter of recommendation written should include a Psychology Department Letter of Recommendation Form (click here) for each recommender.  Original letters and the department form required must be sealed in an envelope addressed to the Psychology Department (link to contact info). The recommenders signature must be written across the back envelope seal. It is best to send all 3 letters of recommendation along with your Psychology Department Graduate Program Application form.

• A Letter of Intent describing your research, educational and professional goals, faculty whom you might be interested in working with, factors that you would want the admissions committee to consider in evaluating your application that are not evident from other materials, and some background information describing how you became interested in these areas.

• A personal interview with members of the program faculty is required for finalists in the selection process. Typically, applicants are notified if they are finalists by late February or early March. If a personal interview is not feasible, a telephone interview may be substituted.

*In unusual circumstances, students who do not meet these admission requirements may be admitted.

  Evaluation of Applications

The Admission Requirements represent the minimum standards. Meeting these minimum standards does not guarantee admission. Admission is a competitive process in which the faculty judge each applicant’s credentials with the goal of selecting those who are most qualified and represent the best fit with our Experimental Psychology program. Consideration of fit includes factors such as the applicant’s goals and the program’s goals.

 Transfer Credit

A maximum of 24 credits from another graduate program may be approved for transfer into the doctoral program. Transfer credits reduce the number of credits required for graduation to less than 72 credits taken while matriculated in the Program. The Experimental Program Committee evaluates requests for transfer credit only after students have been accepted into the program.

  Applying to the Program

Students are admitted only for the fall semester of each academic year. Applications must be complete by January 15th for full consideration of admission into the Experimental Graduate Program. Applicants are encouraged to submit their materials as early as possible. The admission process is typically completed by April 15th.

To apply to the program, you will need to send materials to both the UNLV Graduate College and to the UNLV Department of Psychology. Use the checklist to ensure you have sent all the necessary materials to the proper place. Numbers on the checklist correspond to the numbered items listed below.

The UNLV Graduate College Application Packet is completed online.

There are also other graduate education financing options.

Material to be submitted DIRECTLY to the UNLV Graduate College:


1. A Graduate College Application for Admission form (which includes the Graduate Assistant Application and is submitted online)
2. An Application for Fellowships and Scholarships (if desired)
3. One official transcript from EACH university/college attended
4. An Application fee of $60.00, made payable to “The Board of Regents, UNLV”

Send the above materials along with $60 application fee to:

Graduate College Admissions
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Box 451017
4505 Maryland Parkway
Las Vegas, NV 89154-1017

Material to be Sent to the UNLV Department of Psychology:

5.  A Department of Psychology Graduate Program Application Form.
6.  Three letters of recommendation evaluating the student’s potential for doctoral studies. Each written letter of recommendation should include a Psychology Department Letter of Recommendation Form for each recommender. Original letters and the department form required must be sealed in an envelope addressed to the Psychology Department. The recommender’s signature must be written across the back envelope seal. It is best to send all 3 letters of recommendation along with your Psychology Department Graduate Program Application form.
7.  One official transcript from EACH university/college attended
8. A Letter of Intent describing: (a) your research interests; (b) educational and professional goals; (c) 1-3 faculty whom you might be interested in working with; (d) factors that you would want the admissions committee to consider in evaluating your application that are not evident from other materials, and (e) some background information describing how you became interested in these areas
9. Official scores on the verbal, quantitative, and analytical writing sections of the Graduate Record Exam (GRE). For the GRE Testing website, click here.  GRE score reporting is cumulative. Current GRE Board policy states that your scores are retained for the 5 testing years following the testing year in which you tested.

When requesting to have your GRE scores sent to UNLV, please use the following GRE Codes:

     Institution: 4861 for the University of Nevada-Las Vegas

     Department: 2001 for the UNLV Dept. of Psychology

Send the above materials to:

Experimental Admissions Committee
Department of Psychology
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
4505 Maryland Parkway MS 5030
Las Vegas, NV 89154-5030

  Student Financing

UNLV strives to provide competitive funding offers with reasonable tuition and fees to doctoral students. Our program attempts to provide funding to all students that request it. The most common source of funding for first and second year graduate students is a Graduate Assistantship. Students in years three and beyond are often funded through Assistantships which involve teaching two sections of introductory psychology or a similar course. Some students are funded on faculty research or service grants. In past years nearly all students that have requested funding have received some form of funding similar to a Graduate Assistantship. For additional information regarding financial aid and other possible sources of funding, click here.

  Contact Us

If you have additional questions, you can contact Angeline Garbett-Marcotte in the the Department of Psychology’s Office of Doctoral Studies at (702) 895-0176 or via e-mail (psyunlv@unlv.nevada.edu).

  Program Faculty

Daniel N. Allen, Ph.D.
• Neuropsychology
• Schizophrenia
• Substance abuse

Mark H. Ashcraft, Ph.D.
Department Chair
• Mathematical cognition
• Math expertise, math anxiety, and working memory capacity in solving advanced arithmetic
• Federal regulation of human subjects research

Kimberly A.Barchard, Ph.D.
• Test development and evaluation
• Data quality
• On-line data collection
• Emotional intelligence

David Copeland, Ph.D.
• Text Processing
• Reasoning

Erin E. Hannon, Ph.D.
• Auditory cognition and development
• Music perception
• Enculturation processes

Jefferson W. Kinney, Ph.D.
• Behavioral neuroscience
• Neurobiology of learning and memory
• Alzheimer’s disease
• Schizophrenia
• Mood disorders

Robert C. Koettel, Ph.D.
• Human development
• Jung's analytical principle of individuation

Murray Millar, Ph.D.
Director, Experimental Ph.D. Program
• Persuasion processes
• Social cognition
• Health behavior

Laurel M. Pritchard, Ph.D.
• Behavioral neuroscience
• Psychopharmacology
• Substance Abuse

Jennifer L. Rennels (formerly Ramsey), Ph.D.
• Origins and Development of Appearance-based Stereotypes (e.g., stereotypes based
on masculinity/femininity, attractiveness, gender, and race)

N. Clayton Silver, Ph.D.
• Statistics
• Measurement
• Warning salience and compliance
• Human factors

Joel S. Snyder, Ph.D.
• Neuroscience
• Auditory perception and cognition
• Aging and schizophrenia
• Event-related brain potentials
• Magnetoencephalography
• Structural MRI

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