August 13, 2026
I have a confession to make: I don't like writing papers. No. Actually, that's completely false - I don't like EDITING papers. Writing is great. I love to put words on a page. EDITING - fixing those words so that they make sense to other scientists. Hate it.
So, I'm procrastinating by writing a blog entry about the honors program. Just thought you would like to know.
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Disclaimer: This is specifically for the Psychology, Cognitive Science, and Cognitive Neuroscience Honors Students.
BDS students should check in with David Levari, who is the BDS concentration advisor as well as submit their application for honors, as you will also be required to take the 1960 class.
In the next week, the CPSY Website's honors page is going to be updated with the requirements for the 2026-2027 academic year (it's what I'm going to do next). Before I do the official updating, I want to translate the page so that students (and faculty) know what's happening.
By this point, you should have an advisor and know a little about the program. Read this entry (Part 1) and this one, if you haven't gotten that far. Hopefully, you also have a topic and what your project will be about. So, what's next: You have to fill out an application for the honors program. For the 26-27 AY, that application is due on Wednesday, September 16, 2026.
You'll be notified of the results of that application on Tuesday the 22nd. Please note, you will NOT be notified on Monday the 21st. Please do not email me on the 21st or over that weekend. I will not respond. I will not even read your email. Please respect this boundary.
So, you'll be notified on the 22nd.
After that, here are some expectations.
1) You should register for 1980 with your advisor (or 1960 if you are a BDS student). That Tuesday will be the last day to do so without a fee. If your advisor already has a 1980 section number, you can do this ahead of time. If not, they will be given a section number on that Tuesday, so this is time sensitive.
2) 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 in both semesters.
3) You should schedule a weekly meeting with your advisor throughout the Fall semester. That meeting should be used for project design and completion, as well as to help you write your literature review. Advisors, please remember that this is a necessary step - you should be meeting with your honors students regularly. And they should be meeting with you, not your graduate student or postdoc.
4) You should create a reading list of approximately 20 to 60 publications that you plan on reading throughout the academic year to help you situate the research that you're doing. Most of this reading will be done during the Fall semester. The literature review that you will write (due at the end of the Fall semester) should reflect mastery of the majority of the readings on that list.
5) The honors project is a written report of a research project that 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 use of AI The thesis is read and signed by the faculty sponsor and second reader, and also submitted to the honors advisor for review.
3) 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.
5) At the end of the Fall semester, you should submit your literature review (plus anything else you have written) to your advisor and to the honors advisor (i.e., me). This is due on Monday December 21, 2026. The hope is that during the intersession, you advisor will give you feedback, but that is not always possible, and sometimes will happen very early in the Spring semester. The honors advisor, however, will evaluate what you submit and also give you feedback. The feedback will not be on the research or the quality of your writing, but on your standing in the program. There are two evaluations given by the honors advisor: Good and Warning.
What do these mean?
Good means that in the Spring, you should register for 1980 with your advisor and continue your honors journey. Everything is fine. Keep up the good work.
Warning means there is a problem. For example, if you turn in a literature review that says "chicken chicken chicken" 1000 times, you will be placed on warning status. The honors advisor will talk with you and your advisor about the exact nature of the problem and whether the problem can be corrected by Feb 1, 2027. If it can be, great, correct the problem and then you'll be placed back onto Good status and allowed to continue on the honors journey. If not, then you will be removed from the honors program. You can still do a CPSY1980 with your advisor in the Spring, but you no longer can be part of the honors program.
OK. Don't panic. The bar here is pretty low. We want to see that you have made progress, and more importantly, that you have written things down in a coherent manner, so you can articulate what you are doing to a novel (and probably naive reader). Remember, in the Fall, your literature review is still a DRAFT - it is not the final document. It is going to be edited in the Spring semester. (In fact, editing is a requirement!). However, if you have not written anything down - and particularly words that begin to demonstrate that you understand what you are doing and why - you cannot be allowed to continue in the program. Think about it this way: 1980 in the Fall is a CLASS. Classes usually have finals or final papers. This is the final paper for that class. Would you write "chicken chicken chicken" 1000 times on a paper for a class and expect to pass the class? (Gosh, I hope not. Otherwise, what are we doing here?)
Disclaimer, again, for BDS, there will be a little bit of a different process, which I'll discuss in a separate post.
5) Assuming everything is Good, in the Spring, we will ask you to present your research close to the end of the term. This will come in three forms.
a) Presenting a penultimate draft of your written thesis to your advisor, second reader, and the honors advisor, due on Monday April 5. You should receive feedback from your advisor and secondary reader by Friday, April 16.
b) Presenting a poster at our honors poster session. Date TBD, but right now, I'm thinking Wednesday April 14
c) Submitting the final version of your written thesis on Friday, April 23.