Interdisciplinary Graduate Training in Visual Perception and Language This proposal for an Institutional NRSA is being submitted by the Rutgers Center for Cognitive Science (RuCCS) to support a unique interdisciplinary training program in Visual Perception and Language. Central to the structure of the program is the recently established Certificate in Cognitive Science, managed by RuCCS faculty (all of whom have joint appointments with one of the participating academic departments). This Certificate program provides a well-defined structure for recruiting, selecting, training and monitoring students, and for creating a cross-departmental research community of students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty. This training program focuses on the twin areas of Visual Perception and Language, but adds to it our special interdisciplinary strength in theory, foundations, and computational modeling. Certificate students must enroll in a doctoral program in one of the participating departments, but they are advised and monitored by the Center faculty as they progress through a sequence of extra-departmental course- and research-requirements. We sketch the research themes that characterize the program's strength and describe the unique tradition of cross-disciplinary collaboration and training that are the hallmark of Rutgers' approach to Cognitive Science. We also document the physical and human resources at Rutgers - New Brunswick, and the strong commitment that the university has made to the Center and to Cognitive Science, which will allow the NRSA training funds to be well used and highly leveraged. The proposal requests funding for three five-year and one three-year predoctoral fellowships. Rutgers University would then more than triple the number of student-years of support (to a total of 60) by providing additional University Excellence Fellowships, TA's and RA's, to allow a total of 12 students to be supported over a period of 9 years. The proposal also calls for 2 postdoctoral fellowships for the duration of the period of the training grant, to be matched by Rutgers. The training plan provides for an intimate mix of junior and senior predoctoral trainees and postdoctoral fellows to work closely together, as well as a rigorous structure that will mentor and monitor students through their highly interdisciplinary training.
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