Master Thesis
Manuscript guidelines
Format and length: The maximum length is 25 pages, including cover page and main text (with figures). The sections Statement of contribution, Bibliography and the appendices are excluded from the count and can have any length. Please use font size 12-dpi, and line spacing 1.5 lines.
Structure: I will upload a template for the master thesis in Aula Global T1 Research Project. You may use the template to structure your manuscript, but it is not mandatory to follow exactly that template. In any case, the thesis is expected to have the following sections (feel free to adapt the order or structure to present your research work best):
- Cover page: Title, author, supervisor/s (and any other additional information). In the final submitted version, the cover page must include your signature and the signature of your supervisor.
- Abstract: Summary of the work (intro, method, results, conclusions) with max length =350 words.
- Introduction: Review of the state of the art, scope of the research and main question/s, hypothesis and predictions.
- Materials and Methods (actual or planned): Describe the stimuli and/or datasets used, experimental procedure and participants if applicable; Model description in the case of modelling would be included here.
- Results and/or data analyses: If you have collected, simulated and/or analysed a dataset, report the results with descriptive / summary statistics, the analylsis pipeline / data processing you performed, and the statistical tests ran on the data along with the resulting outcomes.
- Discussion and Conclusions: Summarise what you found, explain how it fits your predictions and whether it supports your initial hypothesis or not. Explain the relevance of the findings with respect to the literature discussed in the introduction. You may also discuss all or some of these aspects: How does your work connects with other findings, whether you found something unexpected and what it could mean, what additional problems/questions arise from your work, what are the limitations of the study, and what future questions you think it would be important to address. You are free to speculate but make it clear what parts of the discussion are speculative and which ones you can conclude from the data.
- Bibliography: Include a list of references to the works cited in the manuscript. Be consistent in your reference style (there are several different options, but in case of doubt the reference style is APA).
- Statement of Contribution (see below).
- Appendix/ces: The thesis should be self-contained and understandable from the main text. So, make sure all essential information is there. However, you can opt to include further information in appendix/ces. For example, supplementary results, extended discussion, additional descriptions of the materials and lists of stimuli, detailed descriptions of algorithms or statistical procedures can go in appendices.
Delivery: Works must be uploaded on Aula Global, just go into the course called Treball de Recerca Fi de Màster and follow instructions. The TFM documents must be submitted in one file, in their final version, by deadline corresponding to your defence date. The front page must be signed by you and your supervisor (digital signature is ok).
File format: Please submit your work in PDF format. It is your responsibility that the docs can be correctly rendered for viewing and printing.
Template: A Word template of the thesis is here.
Statement of contribution
Because there is a lot of variability in terms of methods, approach, and type of projects you are involved, the committee will need clear information about what was your specific contribution to the work presented. In order to do so, I would ask you to include a statement with the contributions specific to each of the following parts of the work you presented. Use the list below. You just need to write the name/s or initials of the researcher/s (or research groups) that have performed each specific aspect of the work you are presenting.
- Conceptualization Ideas; formulation or evolution of overarching research goals and aims.
- Methodology Development or design of methodology; creation of models
- Software Programming, software development; designing computer programs; implementation of the computer code and supporting algorithms; testing of existing code components.
- Investigation Conducting a research and investigation process, specifically performing the experiments, or data/evidence collection.
- Formal Analysis Application of statistical, mathematical, computational, or other formal techniques to analyze or synthesize study data.
- Visualization Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work, specifically visualization/data presentation.
- Writing
- Original Draft Preparation Creation and/or presentation of the published work, specifically writing the initial draft.
- Additional comments: You can also include additional commentaries to qualify your contribution to the work.
Plagiarism
“Plagiarism can be defined as the appropriation of another person’s ideas, words, works, etc. As far as universities are concerned, the term applies to any situation in which someone appropriates something that someone else has created and fails to explicitly acknowledge its source. " (quote from the Code of Ethics, UPF). From the Master of Brain and Cognition we note that plagiarism is damaging to the original authors (as it is a form of misappropriation), to the reputation of the masters and the University as a whole, and it leads to unfair advantage amongst students. For these reasons, we are resolved to prevent plagiarism in essays and TFMs. Please note that plagiarism can lead to disciplinary action from the University, above and beyond any measures taken within the Master itself. We will systematically screen your TMFs using the turn-it-in application from Aula Global. In case of possible doubts, we will check with the student and the student’s supervisor/s for further clarification. You can find more precise definitions and information about what and what is not plagiarism from these resources.
UPF Library. Copyright and ethical use of information: Plagiarism
Defence date
There are two calls for the TFM defence. The regular call, in mid-July, and an extraordinary call at the beginning of September. It is recommended to complete your defence in July.
Dates to be specified during the course.
Please, talk with your supervisor about the most convenient call and let me know in a separate (individual) email which call you choose to defend in, July or September. Let me know by the third week of April. I will send you a reminder closer to the date.
Note that the deadline for submitting your written thesis (the manuscript) is 2 weeks before the chosen defence date.
Defence format
Defences will be organized in morning/early pm sessions. Each defence will last for about 25m, distributed in 15m presentation +10m questions, and will be evaluated by a committee of three members.
Your final grade for the research project will be calculated on this basis:
- 50% The committee's evaluation of your dissertation and oral defence.
- 50% Your supervisor/s
pending consultation between the committee and the advisor for serious disagreements. Remote defences: Please bear in mind that we can (and perhaps must) organize defences via video-conference. We will discuss the application to use and other details this in future communications.
Past theses examples
We include some of the top theses from the past years as a reference of topics and correctness in executing and reporting the master thesis project (in chronologic order, hence not grade order).
| Title | Student | Year | Doc |
| Exploring the Universality in Personally Impressions from Brief, Novel Voices Thesis Director: Albert Costa |
Katherine Marcoux | 2014-15 |  |
| The Effects of Regional Accents on Memory and Credibility Thesis Director: Albert Costa |
Candice Frances | 2015-16 | |
| Investigating Visual, Proprioceptive and Tactile Interaction through Sensorimotor Adaptation Thesis Director: Salvador Soto-Faraco |
Martina Maier | 2014-15 | |
| The cooler you are, the more I learn: the role of social hierachies on learning Thesis Director: Núria Sebastián Gallés |
Roser Cañigueral | 2014-15 | |
| Triggering Linguistic Representation Over Sine-wave Speech Thesis Director: Juan Manuel Toro Soto |
Jasna Cakarun | 2014-15 | |
| Eye tracking measure for inferential processes in adults Thesis Director: Luca L. Bonnati |
Ryszard Cetnarski | 2014-15 | |
| The dynamics of perceptual bistability Thesis Director: Nava Rubin / Luca Bonatti |
Mara Rolke | 2015-16 | |
| Generalizing rules over clicks Thesis Director: Luca Bonatti / Juan Manuel Toro |
Pedro Tiago Martins | 2015-16 | |
|
The social sense of belief-based action prediction in adults |
Andrea Riquelme | 2015-16 |
|
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Speech perception: A comparative study of audiovisual matchinf in four and ten month-old infants |
Lena Kevran | 2015-16 | |
| Categorical Perception in Catalan Sign Language Thesis Director: Albert Costa |
Marc Gimeno | 2015-16 | |
| Disjunctive Syllogism in Infants: a Multimodal Study Thesis Director: Luca L. Bonatti |
Kinga Anna Bohus | 2015-16 | |
| The role of phonotactics and pauses in the acquisition of morphosyntactic dependencies Thesis Director: Luca L. Bonatti |
Irene Canudas Grabolosa | 2016-17 | |
| Exploring the Underlying Representations of Infant Cognition using Connectionist Networks Thesis Director: Luca L. Bonatti |
Mark McGuill | 2017-18 | |
| A directional view of the Default Mode Network during fMRI resting state and its relation to Episodic Memory Thesis Director: Gustavo Deco |
María del Rocío Cabello Toscano | 2019-20 | |
| Neural entrainment to native and non-native linguistic rhythms in 4 to 5 month old infants Thesis Director: Núria Sebastián Gallés |
Haley Medeiros | 2019-20 | |
|
Association Between Action Video Game Playing Experience and Visual Search in Real Life Multisensory scenes |
Mohammad Hamzeloo | 2020-21 | |
|
A New Modeling Framework for Laminal Neuronal Activity |
Roser Sánchez-Todo | 2020-21 | |
| Adressing the correlation between binocular rivalry and visual temporal resolution: An indirect test of Alpha oscillations in visual perception Thesis Director: Mireia Torralba Cuello |
Carla Morante Alberti | 2020-21 | |
| Sense of agency for motor and mental actions Thesis Director: Rubén Moreno Bote |
Edmundo López Solà | 2020-21 | |
| Investigating the cognitive mechanisms underlying apathy in Huntington's Disease using an fMRI gambling task Thesis Director: Estela Càmara Mancha |
Iñigo De Vicente | 2020-21 | |
FAQ's
Will the committees be chosen as a function of the subject of the TFM?
We cannot ensure a perfect match between the area of research of your work and the expertise of all the committee members. However, we will try to have a wide enough range of expertise within any given committee. Therefore, although the referees of your work will be all professors from the master or CBC researchers, not all may be completely familiar with your line of work.
Will the statistical significance of my results have an impact on the grade?
No. The work in the TFMs should/will be graded in terms of the value and quality of the scientific work done (and eventually the amount of it). P-values by themselves do not reflect the quality of the work. However, relevant, original and convincing rationale; clear and precise formulation of hypotheses and predictions; sound experimental designs; appropriate data processing and statistical pipeline; sound interpretations that derive logically from the results… All these aspects count toward the quality of the work. For example, an experiment or a model can have equal merit if it ends on a significant p-value or a non-significant p-value.
Must the results of the project be conclusive in order to achieve a high grade?
No. It is understandable that the results of the projects might not be completely conclusive in all cases, especially those projects that started from scratch, given the amount of time available. A good example of this is when the student has decided to present a registered report (RR). In that case, the work is by definition inconclusive, but can obtain maximum grade.