Like many, the canine behavioral expert Alexandra Horowitz adopted a dog during the pandemic. She had extra incentive: understanding a puppy’s development. Now she’s turned her observations into a book.
Welcome to Barnard Psychology
Our program offers a rigorous exposition of the study of the mind in action. In classroom courses, in instructional laboratories, and in research conducted with the faculty, students explore intellectual perspectives and empirical methods expressed across the discipline of Psychology. The Department also connects our students to many forums in the College and at Columbia University for discussion and refinement of scientific work.
Keep Up to Date on the Psychology Major Requirements
If you entered Barnard in or after Fall 2021, the requirements for completing a
Major in Psychology have changed.
There are now three core introductory psychology courses
- PSYC BC1001, PSYC BC1101, PSYC BC1020 -
which are pre-requisites for all 2000-level PSYC laboratory courses.
Meet our Newest Faculty Member: Michelle Greene
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Originally from Denver, Dr. Michelle R. Greene (they/she) is a cognitive psychologist specializing in high-level visual perception. Dr. Greene received a Bachelor of Science in Psychobiology from the University of Southern California and a Ph.D. in Cognitive Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She completed postdoctoral work in cognitive psychology at Harvard Medical School and computer science at Stanford University. She has held faculty positions at Minerva Schools at KGI (2015-2016) and Bates College (2017-2023).
Dr. Greene’s primary research goal is to understand the mechanisms that enable rapid, intelligent perception of our environment. Towards this end, they use machine learning and computer vision methods to model the information the human brain may use for visual understanding. Dr. Greene’s work addresses three specific questions: (1) What visual information does the world contain? (2) How do we use information from the world? (3) How does visual perception interface with memory and other cognitive processes, including categorization, attention, and memory?
The National Science Foundation has continuously supported this research. In 2019, Greene led a team across three universities to create the Visual Experience Database, one of the largest and most representative egocentric video databases of daily activities, complete with gaze tracking to understand attentional deployment in the real world. She recently received a CAREER award to examine the efficient coding of visual, structural, and semantic scene information.
Dr. Greene is deeply committed to nurturing the next generation of scientists. They have worked one-on-one with over 40 undergraduate students on research projects. In the classroom, Dr. Greene is passionate about open pedagogy and has collaborated with students to create an open-source textbook in computational neuroscience. Dr. Greene is intrigued by the possibility of collaborating with Barnard’s zine library to create additional open educational resources.
Dr. Greene is an associate editor for Attention, Perception, Psychophysics, and Open Mind. Outside of work, Dr. Greene enjoys running long distances (slowly), playing and seeing music, and exploring new cuisines. Dr. Greene is an unapologetic fan of the Boston Red Sox and will never turn down an opportunity to see pictures of your pets.
Featured Stories
Barnard Psychology Faculty in the News
Scott Barry Kaufman, who teaches the course The Science of Living Well here at Barnard, has just released a new book, Choose Growth: A Workbook for Transcending Trauma, Fear, and Self-Doubt, a research-based toolkit for turning challenging times into a springboard for healing, insight, and new beginnings.
Introducing the incoming editor of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Dr. Colin Wayne Leach.
Prof. Ann Senghas Publishes Paper on Language Learning Patterns
In December 2020, research by psychology professor Ann Senghas was published in the third chapter of the Minnesota Symposia on Child Psychology.
Prof. Tara Well gives a TEDxOcala talk entitled “What Mirror Meditation Can Teach You.”
Barnard and Columbia Psychology Colloquium Series
This series features a selection of guest speakers, providing an opportunity for students and faculty to hear from scientists making new discoveries in the psychological and brain sciences.
Department Colloquiums are open to the public and are held on specific Wednesdays during the academic year at 4pm in room 614 Schermerhorn Hall on Columbia's campus.
Visit Columbia Psychology's website for the AY23-24 schedule.
Contact Us
Barnard Psychology Department
415 Milbank Hall
3009 Broadway
New York, NY 10027
psych@barnard.edu
212-854-2069
(voice mail not checked daily)