Cognitive and Behavioral Science
- Degree Type Bachelor of ArtsBachelor of Science
- Department Cognitive and Behavioral Science
- Academic Division The College
- Offerings Major
Our field lies at an intersection of sciences. Courses and research labs investigate all of the interacting functions — cognitive, affective, behavioral, physiological, social, developmental — that drive and define the human experience.
Cognitive and Behavioral Science
Many students are drawn to the Cognitive and Behavioral Science (CBSC) major because of its multidisciplinary foundations, rich linkages to other sciences, and applications within diverse career paths. Our department has strong connections with the interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program on campus; CBSC and neuroscience majors work side by side in CBSC Department labs.
Our curriculum emphasizes research training because it provides students with durable skills that benefit any future professional path: critical thinking, teamwork, quantitative skills, data management and analysis, and problem solving.
Personalized Education
The W&L CBSC curriculum encourages individualization of the major:
- Join a faculty member’s research team. The team experience provides a close-knit academic home on campus and allows you to spread your wings in a professional research context. Some lab members, especially those who are selected as W&L Summer Research Scholars, become credentialed in research by presenting the lab’s findings at a professional conference and/or earning authorship on a published article.
- Choose an advanced methods course that fits your interests. Design a study or intervention, test participants, analyze data, and create work that could be presented at a conference or submitted for publication.
- Explore applications of psychological science through Community-Based Learning (CBL) courses. For instance, tailor-made internship placements allow students to explore diverse career paths and professional settings (e.g., Blue Ridge Court Services, Woods Creek Montessori School, Western State Hospital, Rockbridge Area Health Center, Thomas Jefferson Coalition for the Homeless).
Megan Fulcher Named Scholar in Residence for the Office of Community-Based Learning
The professor of cognitive and behavioral science will develop and run science enrichment programs.
Office of Community-Based Learning Announces 2026-27 Faculty Collaborative
This year’s collaborative includes 16 faculty members representing a variety of disciplines.
W&L’s DART Fellowship Participants Gain Valuable Experience in Lab Research and Patient Care
Maren Barclay ’27, Beamlak Abebe ’28 and Martha Afoakwa ’27 spent their summer in research labs across the country through the DART Fellowship program.
W&L Announces New Fixed-Term Faculty, Fellows and Assistant Coaches
Twenty-eight new faculty and staff members are joining the university this year.
What’s Next for Devlin Daugherty ’26
Daugherty will be attending graduate school at James Madison University to study occupational therapy.
Net Gain
Seniors Teresa Yoon, Cecelia Schweitzer and Juyoung Kim watched their team grow from seven players to a 20-plus-per-practice community.
W&L’s Elly Dyer ’26 Selected for Teaching Assistant Program in France
Dyer is looking forward to gaining classroom experience in France before pursuing a career in education policy.
W&L’s Dax Citron ’26 Selected for U.S. Teaching Assistantship to Austria
Citron is looking forward to returning to Vienna, where she spent a semester abroad, and further developing her German language skills.
In Memoriam: Holly Shablack, Assistant Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Science
Shablack joined the CBSC Department at Washington and Lee University in 2022.
Meet Elka Prechel ’26
Prechel chose W&L for its high-level academics and the culture of the women’s basketball program.
Meet Toluwalope Bakare ’28
Bakare and her friends started a club on campus to celebrate African culture through dance.
W&L’s DART Internship Program Places Students in Cutting-Edge Research Labs
At prestigious labs around the country, W&L students have pushed themselves and the frontiers of science to help those with a rare disease.
Meet the Faculty
At W&L, students enjoy small classes and close relationships with professors who educate and nurture.
Julie Woodzicka
William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Science and Department Head
Woodzicka’s courses include Stereotyping, Prejudice, and Discrimination, Social Psychology, Psychology of Humor, and Research Design and Analysis. She studies the effects of disparagement humor (specifically sexist and racist humor) and subtle strategies to confront discrimination.
Ryan Brindle
Associate Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Science
- P: 540-458-8835
- E: rbrindle@wlu.edu
Brindle teaches courses related to brain and behavior, statistics, and the impact of mental stress and sleep. His lab researches the connections between mental stress, sleep, and health to improve clinical interventions.
Megan Fulcher
Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Science and WGSS Program Head
- P: 540-458-8107
- E: fulcherm@wlu.edu
Dr. Fulcher teaches courses on child development, the development of gender roles, and socioemotional development. Her research focuses on children’s gender role development, toy play and their visions of their future selves.
Dan Johnson
Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Science
Johnson’s courses include Psychology Mythbusters and Introduction to Data Science: Mind Analytics. His lab uses computational models and empirical data to investigate the mechanisms underlying creativity processes like the generation of novel ideas.
Hye Rin Lee
Visiting Assistant Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Science
- P: 540-458-8839
- E: hlee@wlu.edu
Lee’s courses include Cognition and Motivation Science in Learning. Her Achievement, Identity, and Motivation (A.I.M.) Lab focuses on understanding psychological processes that are foundational to learning but can also become barriers to success. The lab primarily examines motivation, defined as task-related beliefs that energize and direct individuals toward action, and metacognition, defined as the beliefs and processes involved in understanding, monitoring, and regulating one’s own learning.
Nikki Lee
Assistant Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Science
- P: 540-458-8874
- E: nlee@wlu.edu
Dr. Lee’s courses include Brain and Behavior, Hormones and Social Behavior. Her Social Behavior Lab investigates the neural and hormonal mechanisms underlying social behavior in non-human animals, in the lab and field, with a particular interest in the evolution of social behavior.
Heather Macalister
Visiting Assistant Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Science
Dr. Macalister’s courses include Principles of Development, Health Psychology, and Psychology of Women. Her research interests include gender in children’s food choice.
Karla Murdock
Jo M. and James M. Ballengee Sr. Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Science
- P: 540-458-8248
- E: murdockk@wlu.edu
Among Murdock’s courses are Introduction to Clinical Psychology and Developmental Psychopathology. Her research program examines associations between technology use and indicators of health, well-being and cognitive performance.
Bob Stewart
Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Science, Neuroscience Program Head
- P: 540-458-8837
- E: stewartb@wlu.edu
Stewart’s courses include Psychoactive Drugs and Behavior and Neuropharmacology. He has researched salty, sweet and bitter taste development as well as the development and plasticity of taste axon termination patterns.
Ben Valen
Visiting Assistant Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Science
- P: 540-458-5855
- E: bvalen@wlu.edu
Dr. Valen’s courses include Introduction to Social Psychology and Introduction to Data Science: Trends Over Time. His research on intergroup bias examines observers’ perceptions of workplace discrimination and how political ideology and religiosity influence prejudice. He also studies mental and physical health disparities between stigmatized and non-stigmatized communities, and the mechanisms that account for them.
Wythe Whiting
Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Science
- P: 540-458-8210
- E: whitingw@wlu.edu
Whiting teaches courses in cognition, evolutionary psychology and attention. His lab has been researching how increasing neural noise affects declining cognition in older adults as well as how smart phones affect sleep/attention.