Overview

The Independent Study (COGS 3999) and Seniors/Honors Thesis (COGS 3998) are designed to provide you with first-hand experience conducting research in cognitive science. Through this intensive research experience, you will gain a deeper understanding of the scientific method, develop essential skills for conducting research in cognitive science, and contribute to the body of scientific knowledge.

Both COGS 3999 and COGS 3998 emphasize the independence of your research experience, although there are several differences. COGS 3999 is usually a one-semester project that can be carried out during any time of your time at Penn. COGS 3998 is typically a year-long project in the senior year, although there have also been one-semester projects. COGS 3999 can be a research project suggested by your supervisor (e.g., a component of an existing project), as long as your independent role in the project is made clear. By contrast, COGS 3998 needs to be a topic of your own initiative, which can of course be developed jointly with your supervisor. In other words, you should have a bigger share of the project “ownership” for COGS 3998 than for COGS 3999. It is often the case that the COGS 3998 project evolves out of a prior COGS 3999 project. COGS 3998 is required, along with a major GPA of at least 3.5, to graduate with honors in the major.

You may use up to two research credits towards your concentration.

Your independent study — like the ordinary classes we emphasize — must have a basic science component. It must speak to theories about fundamental issues in cognition; it can not be purely clinical or applied. However, there are sometimes ways to frame more applied or clinical work in basic science terms; faculty advisors can often help you figure out this framing. For example, a past 3999 in the Wharton Neuroscience Initiative investigated online article reading behavior. The initial motivation of this study was purely business — how can websites keep readers around (and therefore maximize their ad revenue, subscriptions, etc.). However, it turned out the study also had implications for a theory of how people navigate exploration-exploitation tradeoffs, a fundamental and widespread problem in cognition and behavior.

Course Structure

During COGS 3999 or 3998 you will read relevant research, formulate a hypothesis, collect data investigating this hypothesis, then analyze and report these data.

You must have a faculty member as the supervisor, with whom you develop the project together, including a research plan. It is of course allowed, and in fact encouraged, to work with other members of your research group, including graduate students and post-doctoral researchers. But the faculty member is ultimately responsible for your research project and evaluation.

A course worth one credit unit at Penn, on average, is expected to demand 10 hours per week of a student’s time. You are thus expected to spend a total of 10 hours per week on activities related to research. How you spend these 10 hours will vary week to week according to the needs of the project, but may include time spent in the laboratory (e.g., collecting and analyzing data) or out of the laboratory (e.g., library work, writing, programming).

You are expected to stay in contact with your research supervisor on a regular basis. It is typical to hold weekly meetings with the supervising faculty member, for both COGS 3999 and COGS 3998.

Steps for pursuing COGS 3999 or 3998

1. Identify the semester you intend to pursue a research project (COGS 3999 or 3998). Start investigating research options during advance registration in the prior semester. This advance planning will give you the time to devise a well-thought out project (cf deciding to do a project on the first day of the semester).
2. Identify a potential faculty mentor. We recommend reviewing the list of MindCORE faculty affiliates, but remember that your project must still have a strong basic cognitive science component, and must relate to your concentration. We encourage – but do not require – you to speak with your COGS advisor if you are unsure which projects and faculty are in scope.
3. Arrange a meeting with your potential mentor to identify the suitability of completing your research project with them. During this meeting, identify if you will complete a one- or two-semester project. Discuss the intended research project to ensure you have similar expectations, and develop a research plan that follows the guidelines below.
4. To ensure that your project is suitable for COGS before you devote more time to a full research plan, you must email your COGS advisor with a brief overview (<5 sentences) of your project no later than the last day of classes of the semester prior to your independent study. Note that this is not the full research plan, which you must also submit (see next step).
5. Email the research plan to your COGS advisor, and CC your mentor. Your advisor will review the plan and approve it, or ask you for specific revisions. You must email the full plan at least 5 days before the “add” deadline at the beginning of the semester in which you are completing the project.
6. Upon advisor approval for your project, you will receive a dedicated Course Reference Number (CRN) so that you can register for the course in PATH.

NOTE: We are only able to register students for courses one semester at a time. If you pursue a two-semester project please make sure to contact your CogSci advisor at the end of the first semester, and request approval to continue the project for a second semester.

Research Plan

A research plan (3-4 pages) must be developed in collaboration with your supervisor and will consist of:

• A statement of the research project. This is the most important part and includes these sub-parts:
  • A brief title for your project
  • A brief review of the literature on your topic, complete with in-text citations (which should be in your references section later in the proposal)
  • Identification of the gap in this literature that your proposed project will fill
  • Statement of the specific research questions/hypotheses you wish to study
  • Explanation of how your study(s) will answer/test those questions/hypotheses
  • The project’s relevance to the study of cognition
  • The expected outcome of the project
• The required skill sets and experience for the project and the student’s qualification
• The role of the student in the project, focusing on his/her independent efforts
• References cited in your proposal, and any other reading materials required for your research
• A timeline of the project (by month or ideally week)
• For COGS 3998 only: an indication of whether the project will last one or two semesters, which influences reporting requirements at the end of the first semester (see below)

Bear in mind that the Program and Associate Directors might not be experts in the subfield of cognitive science that you propose studying. This means you should explain unconventional tasks, analyses, concepts, etc., so that we can better evaluate your proposal.

Below are examples of plans that were approved:

• Sample COGS 3999 (Independent Study) Research Plan
• Sample COGS 3998 (Thesis) Research Plan

Evaluation

For COGS 3999, a research report is required. A letter grade will be assigned at the end of the semester by your faculty supervisor.

For COGS 3998, a thesis must be approved by the supervisor and then submitted to the Program Director and Associate Director at its conclusion. A letter grade will be determined by the supervisor. For year-long project, a report is not required for the first semester, although that is at the discretion of the supervisor. A letter grade is still required to assess the progress of the project.

In both cases, you should send your report to your faculty supervisor by a date of their choosing, and the research report should have the following structure:

• a 150-300 word abstract summarizing your paper
• literature review
• statement of hypothesis
• description of data collection methods
• presentation of results with descriptive and inferential statistical analyses (with supporting tables and/or graphs as needed)
• discussion of the interpretation and implications of findings
• a list of cited works
• an appendix with supplementary materials (if appropriate)

Below are examples of final reports:

• Honors Thesis
• Honors Thesis

COGS 398/3998 theses are eligible for the annual College Alumni Society Prize for Research in Cognitive Science. Because the deadline of the competition is early April in order for the winner’s name to be printed on the commencement program, those who wish to be considered for this Prize need to submit a preliminary draft of the thesis to the Program Director and Associate Director by the end of March.

Work-study and Double-counting Issues

A student cannot receive course credit for work done for pay. If a student is employed in a lab (including work-study positions), there must be a clear distinction between work that is being done to earn money and research that is part of an independent study project.

Some students complete two related majors, each of which has a research/thesis requirement. If a student is in this situation, s/he cannot have a single project count for both requirements. The student is allowed to complete both projects in the same lab, but there must be two distinct projects.