Cognitive & Informational Sciences

Innovative Research Secures Coveted Fellowships for Ph.D. Students

January 14, 2026

graphic with five individuals higlighted; three females and two males with UC Merced and ARCS logos on blue background

The ARCS Foundation Northern California awarded five UC Merced graduate students with 2025-26 fellowships. ARCS advances science and technology in the United States by providing financial awards to exceptional graduate-level scholars in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. In...

Graduate students Alauna Wheeler, Arabi Seshappan, Zunaira Iqbal and Hope Hauptman received a prestigious fellowship from the Northern California Chapter of the Achievement Rewards for College Scientists Foundation.

ARCS Scholars Work to Advance STEM Research

Four UC Merced graduate students can focus fully on their research and academic studies this year thanks to a generous gift from the Northern California Chapter of the Achievement Rewards for College...

An Exploration of Music's Role in Children's Brain Development

Music can be entertaining, moving and, when played too loud, infuriating. It also plays a vital role in the development of children's brains, one researchers are just beginning to understand....

Cognitive Science Professor’s First Book Released by Princeton University Press

Cognitive science Professor Paul Smaldino has astronomically high hopes for his first book. “I hope literally everyone reads this book,” Smaldino said. “Modeling Social...

Aguirre-Muñoz Brings Biliteracy Education Resources to Livingston

Cognitive Science Professor Zenaida Aguirre-Muñoz has a passion for biliteracy that has driven her to improve the quality of learning in both English and Spanish at schools in Texas and Central...

CogSci Undergraduate Students Can Now Earn Honors for Research

Starting this fall, the Department of Cognitive and Information Sciences is offering an honors program for undergraduate students. Each student who is majoring in cognitive science and enrolled...

Chancellor Juan Sánchez Muñoz and Professor Teenie Matlock at the dedication of Toloma Grove.

Matlock Retires After Stellar UC Career

In the early days of building UC Merced, founding faculty member Teenie Matlock took on lots of tasks that were well outside her job description. Over the years, she expanded her service to the...

Outdoor Experience Program staff and participants at Mariposa grove in Yosemite.

Adventures Abound at UC Merced’s Outdoor Experience Program

Zayd Andre doesn’t consider himself outdoorsy, but the second-year computer science and engineering major from Fullerton caught the exploring bug in elementary school. “I believe my...

One of the 2020 Black Lives Matter marches.

Group Conflict Inspires People to Feel Morally Elevated — for Their Side — Study Shows

You know that warm, uplifting feeling you get when you see someone going out of their way to help other people? You might get goosebumps or even a tear in your eye, and something inside you might...

Cognitive and Information Sciences Ph.D. student Ben Nguyen

CIS Ph.D. Student Gains Confidence at NIH Internship

Cognitive and Information Sciences (CIS) Ph.D. student Ben Nguyen spent last summer working as a data analyst at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Nguyen was selected for the competitive...