Eligible Faculty Sponsors

Sponsors for a CoPsy Honors thesis should be faculty at a Professorial rank (Professor, Teaching Professor, Research Professor, or Professor of the Practice) at any level (assistant, associate, full), whose primary (or secondary) appointment at Brown is in the Department of Cognitive and Psychological Sciences (these faculty members are listed under CoPsy Faculty or Secondary Faculty).

Faculty who hold the position of Research Professor or Affiliate Professor in the  CoPsy department, as well as  Brown faculty members from other departments at certain Professorial ranks (including Professors of the Practice) may also be able to serve as sponsors, if approved by the Departmental Undergraduate Curriculum Committee (DUCC). Clinical professors, Instructors, Postdoctoral Research Associates, Adjunct Faculty and Faculty from other institutions are not eligible to act as sponsors.

Please contact the honors advisor early in the process if you would like a sponsor who is not in the CoPsy department. Please note that this can be a lengthy process and there is no guarantee that individuals outside of the CoPsy department will be approved. 

Please also note that permission must be obtained from the Honors Advisor if the sponsor is on sabbatical or leave during the thesis experience.

Approaching Potential Sponsors

Generally, it is best to call or email a faculty member and make an appointment to discuss the possibility of working with them on a thesis project. Any questions concerning the appropriateness of research for Honors should be addressed to the Honors Advisor.

Because each faculty member can advise only a limited number of students each year, there may be more students interested in working with a sponsor than there are available openings in a research group. Thus, it is important to establish a relationship with potential faculty sponsors by your 6th semester, if not sooner. Depending on the field, you may want to begin your research earlier than senior year. In this case, you should consult with potential sponsors by the fifth semester.

Sponsor guidelinesAccess the Spreadsheet

Prerequisites

Honors candidates in Cognitive Science, Cognitive Neuroscience, and Psychology must have completed the statistics requirement (e.g., CPSY 0900 or equivalent) and at least one lab course (1900 or 1901 is preferred, but other lab courses may be appropriate with permission of the honors advisor). Candidates in Behavioral Decision Sciences should speak with their concentration advisor to determine whether they are eligible to pursue honors.

Application Details

Each prospective honors student should submit a declaration of honors form to the Honors Advisor, which includes the following information:

1. Proposed research topic or project title
2. Faculty advisor
3. Second reader
4. Information on the plan for completing the project
5. Faculty advisor's mentoring plan
6. Signature of approval of the project from faculty advisor

Declaration Due Date

Applications to the honors program need to be submitted to the honors advisor prior to the end of shopping period. 

• Graduating May 2027: application is due Wednesday, September 16th at 5pm
• Students planning to graduate in December 2026 should contact the honors advisor by the start of their 7th semester

Honors Research Courses

Students are required to conduct independent research during semesters 7 and 8 of their Brown undergraduate experience. To document this, students must enroll in a set of courses. 

• Cognitive Science, Cognitive Neuroscience, and Psychology students must take CPSY1980 in semesters 7 and 8.
• Behavioral Decision Sciences students must take CPSY1960 in the Fall semester (typically semester 7) followed by CPSY1980 (or a comparable independent study course) in the Spring semester.
• Students register for the section # of their faculty sponsor. Non-CoPsy faculty will be assigned a section # after the project has been approved by the DUCC.
• If your faculty sponsor is outside of our department, your second reader must have a primary appointment in the CoPsy department. 

Application for Honors

Honors students are expected to complete the following activities below over the course of their senior year. Because the demands of each Honors project vary, students should work out a specific schedule of deliverables with their faculty sponsor. Address further questions to your faculty sponsor and the honors advisor.

Fall Semester

• September 16, 2026: Honors Application Form submission deadline

• December 16, 2026: For Psychology/Cognitive Science/Cognitive Neuroscience students: Submit a draft of your literature review (or literature review plus additional materials) to your sponsor and the honors advisor.

  For BDS Students: Submit your Capstone project to the instructor of the Capstone course and the Honors Advisor. Please remember that a thesis for BDS is a project that moves beyond the Capstone requirement. Please also submit at least a one-page document in addition to the Capstone project that describes your project and how you intend to move beyond the Capstone. Note, for BDS students only – if the Capstone project is due on a date later than December 16, then this requirement is due on that date, not on the 16^th.

  This deadline allows students to receive feedback from their sponsor, particularly before, during, or immediately after the intersession. It also ensures that students are complying with the Brown Academic Code and have made substantial progress on their thesis. Students who do not comply with the Brown Academic Code or who have not demonstrated substantial progress in generating a literature review might not be allowed to continue in the honors program.

Spring Semester

• Monday April 5: Complete Draft of the Thesis is due. This draft is to be submitted to your sponsor and secondary reader. 
• Wednesday April 14: Honors Poster Session
• Wednesday April 21: Final Thesis due. Please submit a copy to your sponsor and secondary reader as well as to the honors advisor.

More information about the poster session and final submission of the written thesis will be provided to students in the honors program during the academic year.

Guidelines for the Student

The decision to conduct an independent research project is a significant commitment on the part of both the student and faculty sponsor. Students should be prepared to devote 10-20 hours/week to their independent research project.

The final honors project must be completed to the satisfaction of the student’s faculty sponsor and the second reader in the CoPsy department. The student must submit a written thesis describing the research project. The thesis must be written independently by the student; theses written by more than one student are not acceptable. The expectation is that all thesis projects meet the requirements of Brown’s Code of Academic Conduct. The final thesis must be read and signed by the faculty sponsor and second reader, and then submitted to the honors advisor for review. A complete draft of the thesis will be submitted approximately three weeks prior to the final due date in order for the sponsor and secondary reader to provide comments and feedback to the student.

Each honors candidate will also present their work to members of the CoPsy department at a poster symposium. The presentation provides the student an opportunity to describe and answer questions about their project and the CoPsy members the opportunity to learn about the exciting research being conducted by our undergraduates within the Department.

Expectations about Academic Code and AI Usage. The CoPsy department expects all students engaged in the honors program to follow the University’s Code for Academic Conduct. We expect all students to be aware of and comply with the Code. 

It is a student’s responsibility to discuss with their sponsor the appropriate usage of AI tools, such as Large Language Models. Some faculty may prohibit any use of such tools in thesis work. Other faculty may permit their use in research or writing under certain circumstances. It is important that students discuss these guidelines with their primary sponsor. 

If students are permitted to use AI in the course of their thesis work, they should do so cautiously, to ensure both scholarly rigor and adherence to Brown’s Code for Academic Conduct. If a student is unsure whether a particular use of AI is acceptable, they must consult with their sponsor. As an example, it is typically unacceptable for students to cut and paste writing generated by a LLM and represent that prose as the student’s original writing. By contrast, it is often acceptable for students to use AI tools to facilitate discussion about research, such as helping to determine flaws in an experimental design or categorize information that might take human beings longer to complete (such as categorizing large amounts of text). 

Although faculty sponsors will have different policies about AI use, a general heuristic is that using AI for writing is less appropriate than using AI for research endeavors. Students must discuss these expectations with their faculty sponsor. Much like in the case of the University Academic Code, not knowing the policies of your faculty sponsor regarding AI usage is not acceptable.

Guidelines for the Faculty Sponsor

Faculty sponsors are responsible for supervising the student to ensure the student logs 180 hours of instructional time per semester. Regular meetings with the student are essential to discuss publications, data collection, and research progress, with at least four face-to-face meeting between the student and sponsor per semester. Note that this is only a minimum (many students and sponsors meet weekly). Faculty sponsors should set specific benchmarks for research activities, including deadlines for drafts, data collection, and lab presentations, and establish end-of-semester benchmarks, such as the required draft of the introduction as well as research progress. Ensuring the student has also completed necessary training and obtained IRB/IACUC approval is a critical responsibility of the sponsor. Faculty sponsors must review and provide feedback on the rough draft of the literature review (due in the Fall),  the penultimate draft (due in early April), and the final written thesis in a timely manner, as well as oversee the creation and timely submission of the student's poster presentation. Faculty sponsors are also required to ensure that the student’s deliverables are compliant with Brown’s Academic Code of Conduct. Faculty sponsors should discuss their expectations for AI usage with the student, in terms of which kinds of use they do and do not allow. They should clearly communicate those expectations at the beginning of the project to the student, and ensure that the student is following those expectations. Finally, faculty sponsors should discuss authorship for any published papers resulting from the project to ensure clarity and proper credit for the student's contributions.

sponsor guidelines

Guidelines for the Written Thesis

Your written thesis will be evaluated on the following components. More detailed guidelines and example theses will be provided by the honors advisor. 

Completeness and Coherence of the Literature Review

• Depth and Breadth: Your literature review should be comprehensive, covering a wide range of empirical sources. This review should be longer and more detailed than what is typically found in a peer-reviewed academic journal article, demonstrating your extensive reading and understanding of the topic. The literature review is an opportunity for the student to demonstrate mastery of the material they have read during the Fall semester. 
• Motivation for the Study: The literature review should include a clear articulation of the motivation for your study. This includes identifying gaps in the current literature and explaining why your research is necessary.
• Clear Hypotheses: The literature review should conclude with a set of clear, testable hypotheses that you have developed based on  the literature reviewed. This set of hypotheses should logically follow from the gaps and motivations you've identified.
• Accessibility: The literature review must be written in a manner that is accessible to  to a broad audience, including those who might not be familiar with the specific papers that you have read. This includes providing sufficient background and context for each study discussed. The thesis should be written such that any member of the department should be able to read it and understand its contents. To that end, we encourage you to partner with other members of the honors program to peer-review each other’s written thesis reports. We also encourage you to avoid jargon in your write up, and define terms appropriately to ensure that a more novice reader understands your terms.

Clarity of Methods and Procedures

• Detailed Description: Provide a detailed description of the methods and procedures used in your research. This should include the design of the study, the participants, materials or instruments used, and the procedure followed.
• Comprehension and Replication: Ensure that the description of your methods is clear enough for another researcher to understand and replicate your study. This includes providing enough detail about each step of your process and justifying the choices you made.
• Ethical Considerations: Address any ethical considerations relevant to your study and describe how they were handled.

Appropriateness of the Analysis

• Statistical Methodology: Use appropriate statistical methods to analyze your data. Clearly explain why these methods were chosen and how they were applied.
• Computational Modeling: If applicable, describe any computational models used, including the rationale for their selection and implementation.
• Clear Presentation: Present your analysis in a clear and understandable way, using tables, figures, and charts where appropriate to enhance comprehension.

Connection Between Literature Review, Research Completed, and Implications of the Results

• Integration with Literature: Ensure that your findings are clearly connected to the literature reviewed. Discuss how your results support, contradict, or extend existing research.
• Discussion of Results: Interpret your results in the context of your research questions and hypotheses. Discuss the implications of your findings for the field and suggest potential areas for future research.
• Clear Implications: Highlight the broader implications of your research. Explain how your study contributes to the understanding of the topic and its practical or theoretical significance.