Department of Psychology

Applied Relevance of Basic Research

While the primary thrust of the graduate program will be towards basic research issues, it is noteworthy that much of the current basic research being carried out by faculty has some reasonably direct application to health or social issues. For example, basic research into the various processes associated with sleep can have application to sleep disorders and to the effects of sleep deprivation on daytime functioning, e.g. scholastic and work-related performance, driving safety and so on.

Through a number of years of active research links have been forged between the department and community that will facilitate students having supervised access to special populations. These include children with learning disabilities, adolescents and adults with traumatic brain injury, individuals with Alzheimer-type dementia and other forms of cognitive decline of mixed etiology. We also have the enthusiastic support of high functioning older adults in the community who take part as controls and as subjects in studies of normative age-related cognitive change. As well, the department has well-established links to community resources and agencies, including hospitals, rehabilitation programs and centres, social and addiction treatment agencies, senior care homes, and school boards. Thus, while pursuing basic research questions, students will have the option of gaining hands-on experience with specific populations and with the institutional settings dealing with these populations.