The lab has an open and collaborative culture. We help each other and try to make the lab (and the broader community) better. Weiji tries - not always successfully - to be accessible and to listen well. We talk about problems. We value social life and organize many activities with the lab, including dinners, board game nights, Escape the Rooms, and karaoke. Once a year, we have a lab retreat with a mix of work and fun.

Here is our statement on lab culture and expectations. Before you apply to the lab, we encourage you to check it out.

Weiji is very open about his personal story, including struggles and failures. For example,

• Psych Mic podcast (Jan 2021)
• Growing up in Science Penn MindCORE, Nov 2019

Peipei, who has side aspirations as a documentary film maker, made a short film about a day in her life in the lab and in New York. Prospective trainees can also get a sense of our lab.

Weiji strongly encourages you to be active in the community, for example through outreach (e.g. Neuroscience Outreach Group at NYU) or policy/advocacy (e.g. Scientist Action and Advocacy Network). See the Community page for more information.

The lab does not have a hierarchical structure: it is easy to talk to Weiji one on one. One-on-one meetings can be devoted to discussing research, professional development (such as career planning), or more personal topics, such as how to stay motivated, insecurities, or what it is all for. If you want, you can schedule a weekly meeting with Weiji, or even twice a week, but walk-ins are also encouraged and Weiji will himself come chat regularly. If you are a PhD student, you will be mentored directly by Weiji, although sometimes in collaboration with a postdoc. If you are a Masters-level or undergraduate student, you will be mentored directly by Weiji, although sometimes in collaboration with a postdoc or PhD student. Mentorship is ideally customized for each lab member, and this requires an open, two-way communication about what works and what doesn't work. For example, would you rather have Weiji set deadlines or set your own? How frequently do you want to meet? Weiji is open to receiving feedback on his mentorship, and will make changes in response to feedback.

If you are a PhD student, you will have a committee of other professors, who will listen to and act upon any concerns or disagreements you might have about Weiji's mentorship; the other important resource is the Director of Graduate Studies.

Lab meeting is once a week for 1.5 hours. We usually start with a "stand-up round", in which everyone summarizes what they have done in the past week and what they are struggling with. This is also a moment to ask for help. Then, a lab member might present plans or results from their project. We also do writing workshops and presentation practices. Moreover, we regularly discuss academic practices, habits, and feelings; recent topics have included the role of perfectionism, the role of competition, and the role of creativity in academia. From time to time, we also discuss the evolution of scientific ideas within the lab - to get a bigger picture and identify blind spots. Once or twice a week, we have "working together sessions", because we find them motivating.

Lab members regularly attend the following seminars and journal clubs:

• Concepts and Categories (Fri 15:30-17:00)
• Cognition and Perception Colloquium (Thu 12:30-13:30)
• Decision-making Joint lab meeting
• Neuroeconomics colloquium (Tue 14:40-16:00)
• Swartz Seminar for Computational Neuroscience (Fri 12:00-13:00)
• Center for Neural Science Seminar (Mon 12:30-13:30)
• Social Program Brown Bag (Tue 12:30-14:00)

Weiji's lab accepts PhD students from both the Neuroscience Graduate Program and from the Cognition and Perception Program. The former has a rotation system (so you get admitted by the program, not by a PI), the latter does not (so Weiji would have to accept you). The Application Support Group consists of student volunteers who provide one-on-one mentorship to prospective applicants on how to prepare a strong application. Sign up for the 2024-2025 cycle here. NYU's Social Psychology Program has a Youtube channel with many resources on preparing an application. Dongqi Bao (a lab alumna) and a group of Chinese students wrote a Neuroscience/Cognitive Science PhD Application Guide (in Chinese). It includes experiences about early-stage preparation, finding research positions abroad, networking, choosing programs, preparing material and interviews, etc.

Weiji encourages PhD students and postdocs to explore career options both inside and outside academia. PhD students in the lab often do an internship in industry at some point during their PhD. Everyone in the lab fills out an Individual Development Plan and discusses it with Weiji.

PhD students and postdocs may attend one conference a year (even if they have no work to present). They may attend a second conference if they have work to present and funding allows. Which conferences to attend is a joint decision with Weiji. Conferences that lab members have attended include Cognitive Science Society, Cognitive Computational Neuroscience (CCN), Reinforcement Learning and Decision Making, Computational and Systems Neuroscience (Cosyne), Vision Sciences Society (VSS), Society for Neuroscience (SfN), Society for Neuroeconomics, Psychonomics, and the Society for Mathematical Psychology. PhD students may participate in a summer school at least once during their tenure.

PhD students and postdocs get mentorship opportunities of their own: you can mentor a Masters student, an undergraduate, a high school student, or if you are a postdoc, a PhD student. The lab has so far mentored four students from high schools in the New York City area.

Some students and postdocs write their own grant applications, but Weiji usually does not require this, and some grant opportunities are limited to U.S. citizens and permanent residents.