Topics for Theses
On this page you will find suggested topics for theses (bachelor and master theses), which can also be researched during research internships. For further information on the topics, please contact the respective contact person or e-mail us. If you are interested, please contact us at any time. If you have a suggestion on your own, we are open to your ideas. We prefer to supervise theses concerning basic and applied cognitive psychology and cognitive aging.
Prof. Dr. Beatrice G. Kuhlmann
Prof. Kuhlmann has had too many supervision requests for theses and can currently not make any further commitments.
Dr. Nikoletta Symeonidou
Due to many already confirmed supervisions for the fall/
Carolin Streitberger
- Storage and retrieval modeling: Previous studies developed multinomial processing tree (MPT) models to separate storage and retrieval processes in long-term memory but have focused on associative memory by giving participants a list of pair words (e.g., knife – fork). We are interested in storage and retrieval for individual items, so for words that are not necessarily clusterable and are therefore less likely to induce strategy use.
- Working memory capacity differences in storage and retrieval: We will replicate research on individual differences in working memory capacity for storage and retrieval parameters in associative memory, but also investigate this in individual item memory.
Hilal Tanyaş
- The Temporal Processes in Source Monitoring: Source monitoring is an everyday cognitive functioning in which we monitor the origins (i.e., the sources) of our memory records. In the published literature, when and how a decision is roughly reached for item (the information itself, e.g., “WHAT we saw” or “WHAT was said?”) and source information (their origins, e.g., “WHERE we saw it” or “WHO said it?”) is still an open question. Put differently, do we first remember an item (e.g., a statement) and then its source (e.g., the agent of that statement) or can the retrieval of both (partially) overlap in time? We are measuring participants’ mouse movements or response times to gain insight into these temporal processes, which are suitable for a Bachelor or Master thesis.
- Assessment of Source Monitoring: (1) Did you see your close friend today? If yes, where? (2) Where did you see your close friend today? Does how we assess individuals’ source judgements (question 1 or 2) affect memory and/
or guessing processes? To test this research question, we are manipulating the way we ask source monitoring questions (i.e., source monitoring test formats) and measuring accuracy. We will learn how we disentangle memory- and guessing-based processes via modeling and test how robust source monitoring is toward these different test formats, which are suitable for a Bachelor or Master thesis.