Your Master's Project at the Center for Cognitive and Decision Sciences
Your master's thesis is the most significant and perhaps the most exciting part of your master's studies. The master's project at the Center for Cognitive and Decision Sciences (CDS) will support you on this journey, through individual and group meetings, and joint colloquia. Our goal is to help you develop, conduct, and present your own research project in collaboration with us as part of your master's thesis.
Support and Supervision
The idea of completing your own research project can be fascinating but also a bit daunting. With a structured process and regular group and individual meetings, we help you stay on track from start to finish, ensuring you remain motivated and engaged throughout.
We support you in both primary data collection (e.g., experiments, surveys) and secondary data analysis (e.g., meta-analyses, big data). Feel free to explore the topics offered by our department through the master match. We also welcome your own topic proposals.
Structure of the Master's Project
The figure illustrates the typical timeline of a master's project at CDS. Each semester has various requirements and support offerings to help you structure your project. The figure also provides recommendations on which sections of your master's thesis you should have written at each stage.
Each semester begins with a kickoff meeting where you can exchange ideas with us and other students. The colloquium, scheduled for your second and third master's semesters, focuses on communicating your research. This is an opportunity to sharpen your communication skills and receive constructive feedback on your ongoing research project.
Semester 1 - Orientation
Use your first semester to orient yourself and find a suitable department for your master's project – perhaps it's CDS! By the end of this semester, you should have a rough idea of your topic and have chosen a department. Feel free to contact us [LINK] to see if we are a good match.
Semester 2 – Definition
If you have decided on a master's project with CDS, our joint journey officially begins here. The goal for this semester is to clearly define your research question. We support you through the colloquium and, depending on your needs, in individual meetings.
In the colloquium, which will take place at across two sessions at the end of the semester, you present your research question and discuss those of other students. By the end of the semester, you will settle on a specific research question and study approach, which you will document in a draft preregistration. This preregistration provides guidance for the upcoming data collection and analysis phase and adheres to the principles of open science.
Semester 3 – Data Collection and Analysis
In the third semester, you will conduct data collection (if applicable) and analysis. In the colloquium, held at the end of the semester, you present your analysis strategy and possibly initial findings from your research. Additionally, we will support you in individual meetings if needed. At the end of the semester, you submit your draft analysis script.
We recommend writing the "Methods" and "Results" sections of your thesis during this semester.
Semester 4 – Finalising
The fourth semester is dedicated to completing your master's thesis. Write the discussion section and refine the remaining parts. We support you with individual supervision meetings if needed.
If you wish, you can get feedback on a draft of your thesis (or parts of it) at least one month before the official submission date.
Evaluation
We will evaluate the quality of your master’s project according to clearly defined criteria. You can look into these criteria here [LINK].