MSc in Visual Cognition

The MSc Programme in Visual Cognition based in Psychology at the University of Edinburgh is currently accepting applicants for 2008-2009. This full-time one-year taught programme provides intensive, advanced graduate-level study in the field of visual cognition and psychological research methods, and forms a strong basis for further (typically PhD) study. The programme is intended for postgraduate students in psychology or related cognitive science disciplines who wish to pursue a research-oriented career, or for students who need to retrain in experimental psychology prior to applying to a related PhD programme.

The Visual Cognition MSc Programme draws on many disciplines within the University, including Psychology, Philosophy, Computer Science and Neuroscience. A central focus of the programme is a treatment of human vision as an active process engaging sensory, cognitive, and motor/action systems. The MSc programme at Edinburgh has special strengths in real-world scene perception, vision and action, vision and language, and the role and eye movements and attention in human vision.

Teaching in the Visual Cognition MSc Programme includes core courses in Visual Attention, Visual Memory, Perception and Action, Research Design and Methods, and Statistics. In addition students are given the opportunity to specialise via optional courses such as Language and the Visual World, Visual Word Recognition, and Working Memory in the Healthy & Damaged Brain; and from a range of courses in computational vision and visual neuroscience. The programme culminates in a supervised MSc research project.

The University of Edinburgh is home to a top-ranked Psychology department and a vibrant Cognitive Science community both within the School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences and in the neighbouring School of Informatics. There is a lively research and teaching culture, with a busy stream of visiting speakers, reading groups, workshops, conferences and student initiatives. Edinburgh faculty include world leaders in the study of mind, of brain, and of human vision. For all these reasons, plus the undoubted charms of the city and the surrounding countryside, the University of Edinburgh is the ideal base from which to pursue the study of Visual Cognition.

For information about Visual Cognition staff at Edinburgh University, including current research projects and laboratories, please see: http://www.psy.ed.ac.uk/research/vc/

More details of the course content can be found here.

For information on how to apply, please contact the Programme Secretary, Toni Noble. For information about the programme, please contact the Programme Director, Prof John M. Henderson.

Application and funding information