What is an experimental psychologist?
Experimental psychologists are scientists who have studied human behavior and have learned to design, perform and analyze scientific research2. They initially learn topics such as experimental design and statistics as well as gain a general background in topics such a perception, cognitive psychology and learning. They specialize in one of these area or more of these area perform a master’s thesis research project. (Mine, for example, was reaction time and learning). They then continue to take more specialized courses in their area of concentration and perform a doctoral thesis. (I switched to vision for my Ph. D.) After gaining a Ph. D., experimental psychologists who want to continue with a research career will further their education with postdoctoral study. (I did that at Brown University and the University of California at Berkeley.
