Research Field Guide

How to Get a Cognitive Science Research Position

To get a Cognitive Science research position, find professors who are actively publishing in Cognitive Science, read what they actually work on, and email one of them a short, specific note. The work mixes in-person and computational tasks, so there is a way to help either on-site or remotely.

Below are 12 professors publishing in Cognitive Science right now, what each is working on, and how to reach out. Every name and topic is pulled from real, recent publication data, not a generic list.

Cognitive Science professors who are actively publishing

ProfessorInstitutionRecent research focus
James J. GrossPalo Alto UniversityMental Health Research Topics
Dan J. SteinSouth African Medical Research CouncilAnxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
Nicholas G. MartinUniversity of WollongongCognitive Abilities and Testing
James ThomasLahey Hospital and Medical CenterMental Health Research Topics
Brenda W.J.H. PenninxGGD AmsterdamMental Health Research Topics
Jaakko KaprioUniversity of HelsinkiCognitive Abilities and Testing
Terrie E. MoffittDuke UniversityCognitive Abilities and Testing
Dorret I. BoomsmaCognitive Research (United States)Cognitive Abilities and Testing
Ian J. DearyUniversity of EdinburghCognitive Abilities and Testing
Jim van OsKing's College LondonMental Health Research Topics
Avshalom CaspiUniversity of LondonCognitive Abilities and Testing
Edward L. DeciUniversity of South-Eastern NorwayEducation, Achievement, and Giftedness

Sourced from OpenAlex publication records. Click a name to see their full profile and recent papers.

What Cognitive Science research involves

Cognitive science studies the mind, how people learn, reason, remember, and differ from one another. Active areas include cognitive abilities and testing, learning and achievement, the psychometrics of anxiety and depression, and broader mental health research. The work is mixed. Behavioral experiments and testing often happen in person, while designing tasks, cleaning data, and running statistical or computational models can be done remotely. Because the field sits between psychology, neuroscience, and computer science, labs vary widely: some run human experiments, others build computational models of cognition. For a student, that means there is usually a way to contribute whether your strength is working with people or working with data.

How to email a Cognitive Science professor

Cognitive science labs typically need help running studies or modeling data, so offer whichever fits. If you can code or do statistics (R, Python, experiment software like PsychoPy), offer to help build tasks or analyze data remotely. If you are local, offer to help run participant sessions and score data on-site. Reference one recent paper, on cognitive testing or a modeling result, for instance, and ask a specific question about the design or analysis. Mention any research-methods, statistics, or programming coursework. Keep it short and concrete, and instead of praising the work, show that you read it and understood the question it asked.

Cognitive Science overlaps with nearby fields. If you are casting a wider net, look at research positions in Psychology, Neuroscience, and Machine Learning.

Reach out with confidence

Find more Cognitive Science professors and check your email.

Search by interest to surface more Cognitive Science labs, read plain-English summaries of their work, and run your draft through the email checker before you hit send.

Find Cognitive Science professorsCheck your email before you send

Questions students ask about Cognitive Science research

What background helps for cognitive science research?

It is interdisciplinary, so psychology, neuroscience, computer science, or linguistics all fit. Useful skills include statistics, programming for experiments or modeling, and an understanding of research methods. Labs differ widely, so match your strength, working with people or with data, to what a group actually does.

Can cognitive science research be done remotely?

Partly. Designing tasks, analyzing data, and building computational models of cognition can be done remotely. Running behavioral experiments with participants usually needs you on campus. Many labs split the work, so ask which part you would take on when you email.

What should I say when emailing a cognitive science professor?

Offer a concrete contribution, help running studies, or coding and analysis, and name relevant skills like statistics or experiment software. Reference a recent paper and ask a specific question about the design or model. Note any methods or programming coursework you have.

How is cognitive science different from psychology?

Cognitive science is broader and more interdisciplinary, drawing on computer science, linguistics, and neuroscience alongside psychology, and it leans toward computational models of the mind. Psychology is one of its parent fields. In practice, what matters for a position is whether the lab runs experiments, builds models, or both.

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