This web page is under construction and may undergo changes during the Academic Year 2011/12
The course structure is outlined in a handbook which also contains basic information about assessment. This page outlines requirements for placements and projects, including forms to be filled in when supervisor and student agree on placement/project topics and when they meet for the two obligatory supervisory meetings.
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Please notice that neither placement nor project are related to the C84LCN research proposal that students develop for the purposes of C84LCN assessment (to be presented in seminar end of January). The C84LCN research proposal is not meant to result in actual experiments. For assessment purposes, the C84LCN research proposal has to be developed independently by the student, i.e. it has to be different from the exact topic of subsequent PhD work.
| MSc 1-year students | MSc/PhD 1+3 students |
| MSc 1-year students choose a topic for placement and project from a project catalogue or define a topic in discussion with a supervisor | MSc/PhD 1+3 students would normally choose a placement and project that is related to the their future PhD topics as long as the topic falls into cognitive neuroscience (broadly defined**). So normally the placement and project topics would be defined by the PhD supervisor in discussion with the student. Such topics are not listed in the project catalogue |
| Depending on agreement with the supervisor, MSc 1-year students can either use research equipment in the School of Psychology (for behavioural measurements, TMS, EEG) or in the MR centre (extra funds are available for several MSc 1-year students to run either a 10-subject (f)MRI study or a 10-subject MEG study***) | MSc/PhD 1+3 students' project are to be funded by PhD supervisor. Where fMRI or MEG are planned, the supervisor can enquire about modalities for free pilot scans after approval by the Human Scanning Committee, please ask Kay Head, kay.head@nottingham.ac.uk (fMRI) or matthew.brookes@nottingham.ac.uk (MEG) |
| MSc 1-year students (regardless of supervisor's affiliation, within or outside School of Psychology) can claim up to £ 100 in subjects' inconvenience allowances or other scientific purposes (congress fees, books ...)**** | MSc/PhD students can claim up to £ 100 in subjects' inconvenience allowances or other scientific purposes (congress fees, books ...)****. Different rules apply in PhD years |
** Placement and project can be in any area of cognitive neuroscience (broadly defined). Where projects do not use one of the laboratory-based neuroscience methods like (f)MRI, MEG/EEG, or TMS, the student may be required to analyze an fMRI/MEG example dataset instead of writing an essay for C84RPL assessment (to be discussed on an individual basis, depending on project topic).
***this funding from the Msc budget is limited to MSc-1-year students whose projects are supervised (or co-supervised) by a staff member of School of Psychology; please ask Martin Schürmann, martin.schuermann@nottingham.ac.uk
****with supervisor's or MSc course director's authorization; for procedure please see Psychology Research Support Office webpages
No written project proposal is required for MSc course purposes but please notice that proposals for (f)MRI and MEG studies have to be submitted to the Human Scanning Committee and to the Medical School Ethics Committee (unless students contribute to study with existing approval from both committees). Because most students choose placement and project on the same topic (see below), the assessment for the placement (seminar presentation and essay) also shows the stage of preparations for the project.
The placement can be a preparatory stage for the later project, for example the student could develop an experimental setup and run pilot experiments in the placement (during term time, February to May) and then run a study with 10 subjects in the project (over the summer). Alternatively, MSc students can choose placement and project topic independent of each other -- for broader experience -- but so far students have never done so (in any case, this option is mainly for the 1-year MSc students because for 1+3 MSc/PhD students normally both placement and project would be related to the topic of subsequent PhD work).
Placement work is assessed on the basis of seminar presentation and essay (marks from DJS/MS).
Project work is assessed on the basis of the project report. The closing date for submission of the project report is Mon 06 September 2010. Examimers are kindly requested to return comments and suggested marks to reach the Psychology School Office by Mon 20 September 2010 on a cover sheet which will be distributed with the paper copies of the reports. In case you prefer to fill in the cover sheet electronically, please find it here
Examiners are the first and second PhD supervisors (in the case of MSc/PhD 1+3 students) OR the MSc project supervisor and DJS/MS (for MSc 1-year students). Marking criteria are outlined here and here.
The C84PRO mark will be calculated by averaging the two examiners' marks except where marks are in different categories (e.g. A- vs B) in which case examiners will be contacted and asked to agree a mark well before the exam board meets.
Students will be informed that they can ask the supervisor for feedback on a draft of the report.
Two formal meetings between MSc student and project supervisors are required during research project work. Normally the first meeting is held at the beginning of the project period and the second meeting when the student is half-way through the project. For each of these meetings a Supervision Record must be completed. No other formal meetings are required during the MSc year. (Students on a 1+3 MSc/PhD programme please note that different regulations apply to PhD years.) Students are free to ask the supervisor for additional meetings if needed. It is advisable for students to keep their own records of such extra meetings.