Applied Cognitive Neuroscience

After I arrived, I took an intensive Dutch course for a month, only to find out afterwards that this was not necessary since everyone here speaks good English.What motivated me to study psychology was a book by Daniel Kahneman called ‘Thinking, Fast and Slow’. I was so intrigued about finding out more about psychology that I dropped my computer science programme and switched to the UG. Kahneman’s main research field in psychology is cognitive psychology. My favourite course unit in the Bachelor’s programme was also cognitive psychology. These factors inspired me to choose the Cognitive Psychology and Psychophysiology (CPP) track; I think it is the most interesting topic in psychology.The CPP programme is very practical. You learn how to conduct research by using different instruments. There are many course units where you learn how to use tools such as eye-trackers and EEGs, or understand the principles underlying fMRI and TMS. In the field of cognitive psychology, it is essential that you are able to work with these tools.The structure of this programme is a bit different to the other programmes. You follow all your course units during the first semester, and during the second you only write your thesis. I think this structure is very beneficial for students, since you have all the theoretical knowledge before writing your thesis.Robin Hake, 24, masterstudent in Cognitive Psychology and Psychophysiology

The group of students is smaller than in the Bachelor’s, which makes it very personal. There is a lot more contact with the lecturers and with fellow students, which I find very motivating. We organize drinks parties so that you can meet the staff and where you can discuss which subject you would like to tackle in your Master’s thesis.The Master’s programme concentrates on research focusing on application in practice. In the first semester you follow course units and in the second you write your Master’s thesis. This means that you can use and expand the knowledge and skills you acquired in the first semester in writing your thesis.

This makes it very different from other programmes in this field, which in most cases focus exclusively on research. In this UG Master’s you will not only learn how cognitive processes work but also how you can apply this knowledge in practice and in the business world. Think of the role attention plays in how drivers experience traffic situations for example, or doctors look at scans, and how we all experience advertisements. Stefan van der Stigchel has written an interesting book about attention (Zo werkt aandacht), which provides a good overview of our field and how we deal with this in our Master’s programme.

In this programme, students can thus expect to learn fundamental knowledge as well as practical skills in course units such as statistics and methodology. In addition, we offer an extensive research placement, where students learn to apply this knowledge in practice.