Guide_for_supervisors

General Principles

• In the lab, we supervise research projects of master's students in psychology and neuroscience.

• Master's students are usually closely supervised by a doctoral student, postdoc, or senior researcher, with the PI in a “second-line” role—being informed about the topic and progress, ready to help and give input, but less directly involved in the day-to-day work.

• Each member of the lab is expected to supervise a number of master's students depending on their level of seniority.

Typical Timeline for Master's in Psychology (Affective)

• Around August, we propose topics for 5 to 7 students. Typically, we assign two students to one project. We propose projects that can be completed within two years, meaning we already have a clear idea of the experimental design. We don’t expect too much creative input from the students (except for those who approach us with a recherche libre, i.e., their own research idea at the beginning of the semester).

• When the semester starts, we quickly interview the best candidates for the proposed topics. If there is a good fit between the student and the topic, we assign it. The orientation committee must officially validate the assignments. Once validated, we sign the research contracts and the master's thesis officially begins.
  The research contract specifies the topic, the student’s responsibilities, and the deadline for submitting the first version of the thesis. It must be kept up to date and re-signed if there are changes to the timeline.

• During the research, we recommend meeting with each student at least once a month.

• During the first year, we typically expect:

  1. Literature search: A good way to start is to give the student 3 to 5 relevant papers at the first meeting, ask them to read them, and come back with 10 more. This helps assess whether they can identify key literature. You can ask them to prepare a presentation summarizing the literature, ending with the identification of the research question (theoretical hypotheses).

  2. Experiment planning: Finalize the design and discuss what data will be collected, where and how it will be collected, and how it will be analyzed. Have them include the proposed experimental design and operational hypotheses in their M1 presentation. The literature review, research question, and experiment planning will be part of the Rapport Intermédiaire, which must be submitted by February.

  3. Ethics request: This is crucial and can take time. Plan ahead to submit the ethics request by April of the first year at the latest. Without ethical approval, data collection cannot begin. For formatting guidelines, consult the CUREG (University Ethics Commission) website, as requirements change regularly.

  4. Presentation: Colloque M1: At the end of the first year, students present the theoretical background and methodological details of their proposed experiment at the master's colloquium (usually in June). It’s a 15-minute presentation (introduction, theoretical background, hypotheses, design, sequence illustration, analysis plan, sample size justification, expected results), followed by 15 minutes of questions. You are responsible for training your students and ensuring their presentations follow the correct format.

  5. First-year deliverables:
     (a) Rapport Intermédiaire
     (b) Submission of the ethics request
     (c) Presentation at the M1 colloquium

• During the second year, we typically expect:

  6. Experiment programming: Depending on the task complexity and student skills, you can either have them program the experiment (we use PsychoPy and LimeSurvey) or do it for them. Ensure the experiment is well-programmed, data is collected properly, and analysis is feasible. Proper piloting prevents resource waste.

  7. Data collection: Provide thorough training for data collection and documentation. Collect data with them for the first 5 to 10 participants.

  8. Data analysis: Preprocess the data and provide a compiled database for analysis. We typically use RStudio for analysis and visualization. Around June of the second year, we also need to define the jury for each student, which includes you, me, and one member of the affective orientation committee from outside the lab. The jury evaluates the thesis and asks questions at the Colloque M2.

  9. Thesis writing: The required structure is defined on the affective orientation website. Encourage students to write each section as early as possible (e.g., introduction and methods around the colloquium, results and discussion after data analysis). You are expected to give:
     (i) one round of feedback on each section, and
     (ii) one round of feedback on the full manuscript. Then send it to me, I will also give one round of feedback before submission to the jury.
     Note: The thesis must be submitted to the jury three weeks before the colloquium. To allow time for feedback, the first complete version should ideally be ready by April/May of the second year.

  10. Second-year deliverables:
      (a) Thesis manuscript
      (b) Defense at the M2 colloquium (typically in August)

Typical Timeline for Master's in Neuroscience

• Interviews take place in April. We propose topics but are not obliged to accept students if there is no good fit.

• Compared to psychology students, neuroscience students are expected to be more directly involved in the lab. They should be present 3 to 4 days a week, spend significant time collecting data, and be autonomous in preprocessing, analysis, and interpretation.