Brown University is home to four distinct, interdisciplinary concentrations that study the cognitive and psychological sciences. The programs in Psychology, Cognitive Science, Cognitive Neuroscience, and Behavioral Decision Sciences (BDS) each offer different ways for students to study the mind, brain, and behavior, and each has unique styles of engagement, community-building, and mentorship.
A key part of each of these concentrations are the three CoPsy Departmental Undergraduate Groups (DUGs), in Psychology, Cognition, and BDS, which provide support to students at all steps along their academic journeys. DUG Leaders answer questions and give advice, connect students to professors and research opportunities, host and advertise a diverse slate of events, and create spaces for students on the Brown campus to connect, unwind, and even study.
Four current DUG leaders volunteered their insights into the undergraduate CoPsy experience, representing many different paths to the department, within it, and from it into their future endeavors.
Concentration Definitions
Sarah Crawford ’26 and Mara Durán-Clark ’27, Psychology DUG leaders, shared features of their concentration. “Psych at Brown is very interesting,” Durán-Clark shared. “The professors here are really, really dedicated to the work they’re doing…and they’re applying their own research [to the classes they teach].”
“It’s pretty interdisciplinary,” added Crawford, “Because human behavior can be studied from so many angles, students at Brown with varied interests find entry points to psychology that engage them in completely unique and distinct ways from other students.
Phoebe Hong ’26 is a leader of CogDUG, the group that includes both Cognitive Neuroscience and Cognitive Science concentrations. She explained CogNeuro as “get[ting] at the root of different cognitive systems in humans, like how we think, learn, memorize, conceptualize and also more physically, perceiving and actions and also relating to others. That's all looked at, not just from a higher conceptual level, but also underlying neural frameworks behind them. It takes the level and scale from both psychology and cognitive science as well as neuroscience.”
Cognitive Science, framed as “the interdisciplinary study of the mind,” takes a similar approach, merging aspects of different disciplines including psychology, anthropology, sociology, linguistics, and programming.
Ariella Reynolds ’27, BDS DUG leader, defined her concentration as “all of the social sciences rolled into one, with a bit of computer science thrown in if you so choose. [It falls] under this umbrella of understanding how and why we make decisions and how to improve them for our purposes: For example, that could entail making them more aligned with ethical standards or even more profitable.”
“I see it as really almost like the epitome of the Open Curriculum within Brown,” she added. “It is a concentration that allows you to explore everything that you can possibly want, but also investigate your chosen focus areas within that.” In BDS, students choose a specialization in a specific, interdisciplinary subject that ranges from philosophy (like Reynolds) to human-centered design to race, crime, and policy.
Academic Experiences
Though now all fixtures of CoPsy, each DUG Leader had a unique journey of arriving at the department. Reynolds began working in a CoPsy lab before her senior year of high school and came in pursuing BDS, while Hong began in Linguistics and tried out Cognitive Science before choosing Cognitive Neuroscience.
Crawford, too, did not intend on studying Psychology. “I initially came into college wanting to study English because I very much appreciate using storytelling to connect with and understand the human condition better,” she said. “But I found my academic interests leaning more and more toward understanding people through a behavioral lens. I think interrogating how mental and emotional processes vary based on individual genetics and experience fascinates me.” The daughter of a therapist, Crawford “felt like the world of psychology did always have a certain presence in my life.”
Durán-Clark, who studies Africana Studies and Psychology, was originally intimidated by the field of psychology when she came to Brown. She recalled that, “entering a research-heavy field felt daunting as someone who has spent most of my academic career in the humanities.” CPSY 0702: Introduction to Clinical Psychology—and the interactions with Professor Elizabeth Thompson in her Clinical Psych Panel—made her realize that there are “countless paths to explore in psychology, and that the best way to dive into the field is to explore the things that initially intimidated you.”
Hong, who has TAed CPSY 0010, now works in CPSY 0450. “When you're taking intro classes, don't be afraid to lean into certain subfields and talk to the professors!” she advised. “All of them here are really nice and enthusiastic.” Crawford has also TAed (CPSY 0100), and Reynolds will be TAing in the spring.
“As someone who was initially apprehensive about pursuing psychology,” Durán-Clark said, “keep an open mind. Shop a bunch of classes, even if it's just for 30 minutes [on] the first day. Find what you like—a professor that you like, or a class—and that can change your overall perception of the concentration!”
Durán-Clark shared an experience in CPSY 0100 of connecting with Professor Ruth Colwill after a stressful exam. She later found herself trying to solve a question about one of the concepts—the R. Wagner model—in front of the class. “It was the first time I had spoken in a large lecture class at Brown,” she recalled, “and when I answered the question correctly, the whole class clapped. It was one of the first times that I felt that I belonged in and was supported by the psychology concentration at Brown–I had the sense that this was something I could thrive in.”
The DUG leaders emphasized the importance of reaching out, even via cold email, to learn from professors and potentially get involved in research.
Lab Experiences
All four work in labs through CoPsy: the Causality and Mind, Computational Cognitive Development, and Sloman labs.
Crawford shared, “I’m almost certain I want to work supporting children in some capacity, so it's really cool to be able to leverage my work in the lab to gain insight into the ways that children understand the things happening around them at different stages of development. I really enjoy working in the [Causality and Mind] lab, and I think there’s a great culture in the lab too.”
Hong, who is in the same lab, had initially been interested in linguistics, so the Causality and Mind lab, she shared, allows her to “to be around that literature, learn from those in the lab [from the PI, post-docs, PhD students, to the lab manager], and build skills that support that research.”
Reynolds, who has been in the Sloman lab for just over three years, stated, “Within the department, the research that I've had has been just so incredibly fruitful. I've loved just being part of lab meetings and soaking in that culture.”
Durán-Clark, now part of the Computational Cognitive Development Lab, added, “From being someone who came to Brown initially thinking that I wouldn’t do formal research, it’s amazing to see how things have changed with time. Now, I’m incredibly grateful to be part of such meaningful work, and I am excited to learn more from the other researchers in my lab.”
External and Future Opportunities
DUG Leaders often bring lessons from their class and lab experiences into work external to CoPsy. Hong used psychology and data analysis practices while working at the Baseball Hall of Fame. Durán-Clark worked at a residential psychiatric facility for children. Crawford has worked at a pediatric inpatient psychiatric hospital and completed a coveted UTRA Fellowship in Providence doing clinical child assessments at the Brown Center for the Study of Children at Risk. “That was a time when I felt really welcomed by the [Providence] community,” she reflected. “It was really special to be trusted with so many people’s stories, especially in a clinical setting, and I certainly don’t take that responsibility for granted.
Like many CoPsy students, all four DUG Leaders are considering graduate school to some capacity, including clinical social work and psychology PhDs, along with teaching and applied industry work. They all emphasized, however, the flexibility of CoPsy concentrations in supporting their career paths and the importance of taking advantage of the freedom to learn and experiment in college.
Reynolds shared, “Don't be afraid to change your mind in regards to what you think you're interested in. That's going to shift a lot. [Find] people that you trust and that you think will make you better, that really uplift and support you, because college is not an easy thing. Being able to find people, whether that's within your concentration or outside of it, that really make you feel like you can keep going, is critical.”
Durán-Clark added, “It wasn’t a straight path to get here, but now I absolutely love it. When I look back, all of my jobs have in some way been related to psychology. It's an intersection of all of the things that I am passionate about. If I'm doing psychology, it's somehow related to black populations. Finding the niche that I really love about psychology, I think, is what really made me start to fully appreciate the field.”
Getting Involved
As can be seen by the stories and interests of these DUG leaders, there are a multitude of ways to be involved in—and learn from—the Cognitive and Psychological Sciences department.
On Wednesday, September 17, there was a CoPsy DUG event on the Quiet Green for people interested in learning more about the department, whether about concentrations, research, participant volunteering, or other programming. All of the DUG leaders were present to give advice, perspective, and welcome students back into the year.
To learn more about the CoPsy DUG groups, join their email lists or read more about them on our website.