Undergraduates are encouraged to take advantage of all the exciting and groundbreaking research taking place in the Cognitive Science program at UC Davis.

Graduating with Honors requires a qualifying GPA, set by the College of Letters and Sciences. Cognitive Science majors that meet this GPA requirement and wish to write an honors thesis can follow these steps:

1) Identify a Faculty Sponsor who is willing to mentor an Honors Thesis. 

Ideally this individual will be a member of the faculty whose home department is providing substantial coursework for the Cognitive Science Major. This currently includes: Psychology, Philosophy, Linguistics, Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior (NPB), Communications and Computer Science.  In most cases, the student will have worked closely with the faculty mentor for at least a year prior to beginning the thesis.

2) Form a Committee. 

The Honors Thesis Evaluation Committee will be a two-person committee. This committee will evaluate and grade the honor thesis (i.e. highest honors, high honors, honors). The evaluation committee will be made up of the faculty mentor and one additional faculty member from a Cognitive Science affiliated department.  

3) Propose a project. 

The student should meet with the faculty mentor and develop a written proposal that clearly:  

• Reflects significant original research.
• Articulates the research to be conducted.
• Motivates the project, citing relevant theoretical background.
• Addresses how this project embraces/derives from a cross-disciplinary perspective.

4) Submit the Undergraduate Thesis Application.

The Undergraduate Thesis Application should be filled out with the chosen Faculty Sponsor and the Cognitive Science Faculty Advisor. Submit completed and signed form to cogsciadvising@ucdavis.edu.

5) Complete two quarters of independent study coursework (CGS 194HA & HB, 3 units/quarter, graded) with the faculty mentor while working on the project and thesis.

The written proposal must be approved by the student’s Honors Evaluation Committee by the end of the first quarter of the students 194HA coursework. Note, this coursework must be taken with a grading option (i.e. not P/No Pass).

6) The final thesis will document the student’s efforts and products (research findings, website, computer program, etc.).

The written project should re-articulate the goals outlined in (3). It should be submitted to the Honor’s Evaluation Committee prior to the last day of instruction. Students will be awarded High Honors for a satisfactory thesis and Highest Honors for an ambitious and extremely well executed thesis.