Author Archives: Roy de Kleijn

One Doctoral (PhD) Position (70%, 4 years), with flexible starting date (between April and September 2019)

One Doctoral (PhD) Position (70%, 4 years), with flexible starting date (between April and September 2019)

The successful applicant will work with Prof. Evie Vergauwe on a research project funded by an Eccellenza fellowship of the Swiss National Science Foundation. The project’s goal is tobetter understand human working memory. The student will study the development of working memory through behavioral experiments in children and young adults.

We offer:

  • Work in a friendly, open, and supportive international research team
  • Opportunity for a PhD dissertation, and support for pursuing a career in research
  • Excellent lab infrastructure
  • Opportunity to collaborate with other working memory labs (in Switzerland, Cyprus, and the United States of America)
  • Opportunity to participate in large-scale international collaborations (e.g., Psychological Science Accelerator, and Registered Replication Reports)
  • Training in Open Science techniques and procedures
  • Opportunity to be involved in neuroimaging studies, if interested
  • Salary according to SNSF regulations (approx. CHF 47,000-50,000 per year) for up to 4 years

    Desired profile:

  • Master’s degree or equivalent in Psychology or a related discipline
  • Experience with experimental psychology research
  • Background in cognitive psychology and/or developmental psychology
  • Very good research methods knowledge and skills
  • Interest in pursuing an academic career
  • Very good command of English (written and oral)
  • Basic knowledge of French, or willingness to learn some basic French (to interact with participants)
  • Willingness to travel (for conferences and/or international collaborations)
  • Programming skills (e.g., Matlab, R, OpenSesame, Python) will be considered an advantage.

Application

Please send your application in English, as a single PDF (including your CV, copy of highest academic diploma, a cover letter describing your research interests, previous experience, and motivation to apply for this position, and the contact of, at least, one reference) per email to: evie.vergauwe@unige.ch

Deadline: January 31, 2019, but applications will continue to be considered until the position is filled.

Information/Questions

Questions can be addressed to evie.vergauwe@unige.ch
Applications from women and underrepresented groups are highly encouraged.

Sensory systems – PhD course 2018

Sensory systems – PhD course 2018

Helmholtz Institute (GS Social and Behavioral Sciences, Cognition and Behavior)

Although our senses operate in different domains, with different reference frames, there is a
striking resemblance between these systems on computational, algorithmic as well as
implementation levels. This course will focus on these similarities as well as differences at
these levels.

Format

Sensory systems is a 5-day course that includes lectures & discussions by
national experts in the field, literature study and practical experimentation.
Confirmed speakers are:
Prof. Dr. S.O. Dumoulin (Utrecht University)
Prof. Dr. R.J.A. van Wezel (Radboud University)
Prof. Dr. J.H.A. Kroeze (Utrecht University)
Dr. K. Overvliet (Utrecht University)
Dr. M.J. Van der Smagt (Utrecht University)
Prof. Dr. J.H.M. Vroomen (Tilburg University)

Dates: 10 – 14 December, 2018
Location: Israëlslaan 118
*note that this is not at “de Uithof” campus of Utrecht University
Credits: 2 EC

Application

Please apply no later than 28 November, 2018, by sending an email to
m.j.mulder@uu.nl. The course is free for members of the Helmholtz Institute
& Affiliates, as well as for PhD students of Utrecht University. For other
students, a fee of €250,- will be charged.

Information

Contact Dr. M.J. Mulder for information (m.j.mulder@uu.nl)

Winter school on inhibition held December 5-7, 2018

The Dutch Experimental Psychological Graduate Research School (EPOS) and the Helmholtz institute are happy to announce the winter school on “inhibition” held December 5-7, 2018.

The goal of this year’s meeting is to give EPOS and Helmholtz members and other researchers alike an introduction to and an overview of recent advances in the study of inhibition.

On the first day of the meeting we offer beginner workshops on how EEG and fMRI methods can be used to study inhibition. On the two following days, experts from the field of attention, perception etc. will present their recent work on inhibition. We also invite attendees to present their own work during our poster session or to join one of our experts during lunch in our “Meet the experts lunch” session!

Confirmed Speakers

Leonardo Chelazzi, Lotte van Dillen, Simon van Gaal, Bernhard Hommel, Leon Kenemans, Tomas Knapen, Pieter Roelfsema, Heleen Slagter, Jan Theeuwes, Matthijs Vink, and Sanne de Wit.

More information and registration (before Nov. 21!) via www.eposinhibition.nl

Free for EPOS and Helmholtz PhD students*

*a fee applies to all other researchers. See the website for more details

7 December 2018: Perception Day

Perception Day – 2018

On Friday December 7th we organise the seventh edition of the “Dag van de Perceptie”, since the previous edition in 2016 referred to as PERCEPTION DAY. Similar to the sixth edition, the seventh edition is organised by members of the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour of the Radboud University.

The venue will be in the Elinor Ostrom building (a.k.a. Gymnasion) at the Radboud University campus (Heyendaalseweg 141, Nijmegen), which can easily be reached by public transport. See more information on the Location page.

As in previous years we have an informal meeting for all perception researchers in the Netherlands and Belgium. Of course, researchers from other countries, or working in other countries are welcome as well!

Like previous years we will have a full one-day programme of talks and poster presentations. Similar to the last installment, we have completely switched to English, just to exclude nobody from this event.

We invite all kinds of perception researchers, investigating all sensory modalities, unimodal or multimodal. Obviously, there are many subdisciplines in perception (ranging from psychophysics to neurocognition, ergonomics, or clinical neuropsychology, just to mention a few). On PERCEPTION DAY we aim at a lively exchange of information between all subdisciplines and groups.

The programme is expected to go online late October and can then be found at the programme page.

Rob van Lier
Arno Koning
Richard van Wezel
Judith Fontaine

Exploring Curiosity: Call for submissions & registrations

Call for submissions & registrations

Exploring Curiosity

November 22-23, Amsterdam

On 22 & 23 November the conference “Exploring Curiosity” will take place in Hotel Casa, Amsterdam, https://hotelcasa.nl/. The two-day program includes 11 invited talks from leading scientists who study curiosity within different disciplines, including social, cognitive and developmental psychology, neuroscience, robotics, experimental economics, art and product design.

Confirmed speakers

Flash-talk submissions

We invite researchers of all levels to share their most recent or exciting finding on curiosity or a related theme (e.g., openness to experience, exploratory behavior/learning, epistemic motivation, interest, sensation seeking) in a 5-minute “flash-talk”. The deadline for flash-talk submissions is October 1st at midnight (CET). For more information, please visit our website: www.exploringcuriosity.org

Registration

​The “Exploring Curiosity” conference is open to everybody interested in research on curiosity. The conference has room for 100 participants. Because of this limitation, please secure your spot by registering before November 1st! If you would like to register for the conference, please visit our website: www.exploringcuriosity.org

In case you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at exploringcuriosity2018@gmail.com

Hope to see you in Amsterdam!

Suzanne Oosterwijk (University of Amsterdam)

Marret Noordewier (Leiden University)

Three-day course on eye-tracking at Utrecht University

From 22-24th of October, a three-day course on eye-tracking is taught at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. The course is taught by Ignace Hooge, Roy Hessels, and Richard Andersson.

Target audience:
Individuals who are (one of) the first in their group, company, or research field to use eye tracking. Previous attendees have come academia and (non-)commercial institutions.

More information: https://www.utrechtsummerschool.nl/courses/social-sciences/eye-tracking-research-toolbox

A short description of the content of the course is found below.

—————————————————————————-

Eye tracking is a powerful method to study the human mind and behavior. This course will allow you to explore key concepts in eye tracking research and help you integrate it in your study. The course is divided into two main components: The first one provides a conceptual framework to help you make better decisions when planning and executing a study, allowing you to turn eye tracking data into valuable insights. The second is a practical introduction to the challenges and trade-offs you will encounter during a study, helping you to establish a set of “good practices” that you can easily transfer to your research.

Key concepts:

  • Choosing your eye tracker: what do different types of eye trackers measure?
  • The ideal eye-tracking experiment
  • Designing your study: the data-quality and data-analysis perspectives
  • Working with Areas of Interest
  • Eye tracking with difficult participants
  • Reading and reporting eye-tracking data

In covering these concepts, the focus will be on the trade-offs, not the “right” answer. Usually, in eye-tracking research, absolute right answers do not exist. In this course, we will stress that context is important for the implementation of eye tracking.

Three Positions for Dutch Research Consortium ‘Language in Interaction’ (1.0 FTE)

Responsibilities

We are looking for highly motivated candidates to enrich a unique consortium of researchers aiming to unravel the neurocognitive mechanisms of language at multiple levels. The goal is to understand both the universality and variability of the human language faculty from genes to behaviour.

Currently, our consortium advertises one postdoctoral position and two PhD positions. These positions provide the opportunity for conducting world-class research as a member of an interdisciplinary team. Each position has its own requirements and profile.

Click here for more information on the positions.

Work environment

The Netherlands has an outstanding track record in the language sciences. The Language in Interaction research consortium, sponsored by a large grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), brings together a large number of the excellent research groups in the Netherlands in one research programme on the foundations of language.
In addition to excellence in the domain of language and related relevant fields of cognition, our consortium provides state-of-the-art research facilities and a research team with ample experience in the complex research methods that will be invoked to address the scientific questions at the highest level of methodological sophistication, including methods from genetics, neuroimaging, computational modelling, and patient-related research. This consortium realises both quality and critical mass for studying human language at a scale not easily found anywhere else.

We have identified five Big Questions (BQ) that are central to our understanding of the human language faculty. These questions are interrelated at multiple levels. Teams of researchers will collaborate to collectively address these key questions in our field.

Our five Big Questions are:
BQ1: The nature of the mental lexicon: How to bridge neurobiology and psycholinguistic theory by computational modelling?
BQ2: What are the characteristics and consequences of internal brain organisation for language?
BQ3: Creating a shared cognitive space: How is language grounded in and shaped by communicative settings of interacting people?
BQ4: Variability in language processing and in language learning: Why does the ability to learn language change with age? How can we characterise and map individual language skills in relation to the population distribution?
BQ5: How are other cognitive systems shaped by the presence of a language system in humans?

More information on our Big Questions: www.languageininteraction.nl/Bigquestions.html

Successful candidates will be appointed at one of the consortium’s home institutions, depending on the position applied for. All successful candidates will become members of our Big Question teams. The research is being conducted at the participating institutions in an international setting. English is the lingua franca.

What we expect from you

Each position has its own requirements and profile.
More information on: www.languageininteraction.nl/jobs/bqfifth.html

General requirements for all positions are:
• a degree in the field indicated;
• strong motivation;
• excellent proficiency in written and spoken English.

What we have to offer

  • employment: 1.0 FTE;
  • you will be appointed at one of the consortium’s home institutions, depending on the position applied for;
  • terms of employment depend on the position applied for;
  • the institutes involved have regulations in place that enable their staff to create a good work life balance.

Other Information

Both institutes involved are equal opportunity employers, committed to building a culturally diverse intellectual community, and as such encourage applications from women and minorities.

Would you like to know more?

Further information on: the Language in Interaction Consortium
Further information on: the different positions

For more information about this vacancy, please contact:
additional information can be obtained from the contacts for the different positions.

Are you interested?

You should upload your application (attn. of Prof. dr. P. Hagoort) exclusively using the button ‘Apply’ below. Your application should include (and be limited to) the following attachment(s):

  • a cover letter; please state at the top the reference number(s) of the position(s) you apply for;
  • your curriculum vitae, including a list of publications and the names of at least two persons who can provide references.

Please apply before 16 September 2018, 23:59 CET.
Applicants are welcome to apply for more than one position.

APPLY

No commercial propositions please.

 

2 Postdoc Positions available

Big Question 4

Scientific summary

We aim to characterise variation in language processing and learning skills and to determine how these variations relate to those in the underlying biology of individual participants. The project has two strands: Strand A focuses on language processing skills in young adults, and Strand B on language learning skills in children and adults.

Strand A will develop a comprehensive battery of language tasks targeting sound, meaning, and grammatical processing of words and longer utterances during speaking and listening. In addition, tasks will be selected or developed assessing general cognitive skills that are likely to affect performance in language tasks. The battery will be normed on a demographically representative sample of 1000 young adults (aged 18-30 years). Strand B uses variability in learning ability to investigate why second-language acquisition can become harder in adulthood. It will consist of two sub-projects, one on grammar learning and one on word learning. In each sub-project, a large number of child, adolescent and adult Dutch participants (aged 8-30 years) will be tested using behavioural and neuroimaging techniques.

Two four-year full-time positions are currently open. The preferred starting date for both positions is September 1st 2018.

Position specific information

Please find descriptions of the available positions below.

 

Interested?
Information
on the application procedure or Apply directly

 

Postdoc Position 1

Determining neurobiological underpinnings of linguistic skills

Content Description
This postdoc will manage the sub-project on the neurobiology of language processing within Strand A. In this subproject we use structural MRI, resting state and task-based fMRI and Diffusion Weighted Imaging to determine the individual arrangements of the language connectome. Neuroimaging data will be acquired from about a third of the sample recruited for norming of the test battery (i.e. ~360 people). The task of the postdoctoral fellow will be to develop appropriate test paradigms, pilot them, organize the assessment of the main sample, and take the lead in the data analyses and reporting.

Requirements
Candidates should have a PhD degree (or equivalent) in the neurobiology of language or a closely related field of study. They should be familiar, ideally, with running and analysing MRI data (including DTI data), with carrying out psycholinguistic experiments, and with research on individual differences. They should also have excellent organizational and communicative skills, and programming abilities and they should have knowledge and experience in current data analysis techniques. They should have demonstrable interest in language processing and in the cognitive neuroscience of language.

Applications from excellent candidates with a less than ideal profile will also be considered. Women and members of minority groups are especially encouraged to apply.

Embedding and Terms of employment
This position will be held at the Donders Institute, Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.

  • Employment: 1.0 FTE;
  • in addition to the salary: an 8% holiday allowance and an 8.3% end-of-year bonus;
  • a maximum gross monthly salary of €4,757 based on a 38-hour working week (salary scale 11);
  • you will be appointed for an initial period of 18 months, after which your performance will be evaluated. If the evaluation is positive, the contract will be extended by 30 months.
  • the Collective Labour Agreement (CAO) of Dutch Universities is applicable to this position;
  • you will be classified as a Researcher, Level 3 in the Dutch university job-ranking system (UFO);

Further information about Postdoc Position 1
Please contact: Prof. dr. Peter Hagoort or Prof. dr. Antje Meyer

Postdoc Position 2

Individual differences in word learning

Content Description
This postdoc will manage the sub-project within Strand B on word learning. In this sub-project, a large number of child, adolescent, and adult (age 8-30 years) Dutch participants will be tested using behavioural and neuroimaging techniques. Behavioural tasks will include a battery of cognitive tests, the battery of language tasks generated by Strand A, measures of English and Dutch proficiency, and critically, a training task on learning new words. Neuroimaging will include functional MRI, and Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI). The goal is to characterize variability in word learning abilities by linking performance on the training task to the other behavioural data and to the functional and structural neural measures. Why do some individuals find it easier to learn language, and why do aspects of language learning change with age?

Requirements
Candidates should have a PhD degree (or equivalent) in the cognitive neuroscience of language learning, memory, or a closely related field of study. They should be familiar, ideally, with running and analyzing MRI data (including DTI data), with carrying out psycholinguistic experiments, with research on individual differences, and with testing children, although the actual data acquisition will be performed primarily by research assistants. They should also have excellent organizational and communicative skills and programming abilities and they should have knowledge and experience in current data analysis techniques. They should have demonstrable interest in language acquisition (prior work on word learning would be especially welcome) and in the cognitive neuroscience of language and/or memory. They should ideally be a proficient speaker of Dutch.

Applications from excellent candidates with a less than ideal profile will also be considered. Women and members of minority groups are especially encouraged to apply.

Embedding and Terms of employment
This position will be held at the Donders Institute, Centre for Medical Neuroscience, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.

  • Employment: 1.0 FTE;
  • a maximum gross monthly salary of €4,917 based on a 36-hour working week (salary scale 11);
  • in addition to the salary: an 8% holiday allowance and an 8.3% end-of-year bonus;
  • you will be appointed for an initial period of 18 months, after which your performance will be evaluated. If the evaluation is positive, the contract will be extended by 30 months;
  • the Collective Labour Agreement (CAO) of Dutch University Medical Centres is applicable to this position.

Further information about Postdoc Position 2
Please contact: Prof. dr. Guillén Fernández or Prof. dr. James McQueen

Postdoctoral Position in Dutch Research Consortium ‘Language in Interaction’ (1.0 FTE)

Postdoctoral Position in Dutch Research Consortium ‘Language in Interaction’ (1.0 FTE)

Application deadline: 22 April 2018, 23:59 CET.

 Responsibilities

We are currently recruiting for a 3.5-year postdoctoral researcher position in the field of machine learning.

The goal of this project “New Advances in Neural Networks for Coding of Neural Representations” is to advance the state of the art in both encoding and decoding of linguistic and semantic representations using advanced neural network architectures. To this end, we build on and significantly expand on research in this field conducted in the Artificial Cognitive Systems lab (see artcogsys.com/). You will be part of our “Big Question 1” (see www.languageininteraction.nl/BigQuestion1.html), a team science endeavour within the Language in Interaction Research Consortium to develop computational models of the mental lexicon from linguistic, psychological and neuroscience perspectives.

Your responsibility will be to develop a general computational framework for encoding and decoding neural representations. The framework will make extensive use of state-of-the-art neural networks and other machine-learning techniques, which you will develop throughout this project. The models to be developed will be based on novel and efficient deep, generative and/or recurrent neural network architectures that aim to capture biologically plausible human cognitive processing at an unprecedented level of detail. You will help develop this new research line and assist in teaching and supervising Master’s and PhD students in the ACS lab. The position also includes a small number of organisational and administrative tasks within Big Question 1 and the larger consortium.

This position provides an opportunity to conduct world-class research as a key member of an interdisciplinary team operating at the interface between artificial intelligence and cognitive neuroscience.

Work environment

The Netherlands has an outstanding track record in the language sciences. The Language in Interaction research consortium, which is sponsored by a large grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific research (NWO), brings together many of the excellent research groups in the Netherlands in a research programme on the foundations of language. In addition to excellence in the domain of language and related relevant fields of cognition, our consortium provides state-of-the-art research facilities and a research team with ample experience in the complex research methods that will be invoked to address the scientific questions at the highest level of methodological sophistication. These include methods from genetics, neuroimaging, computational modelling, and patient-related research. This consortium realises both quality and critical mass for studying human language at a scale not easily found anywhere else.

We have identified five Big Questions (BQ) that are central to our understanding of the human language faculty. These questions are interrelated at multiple levels. Teams of researchers will collaborate to collectively address these key questions of our field.

Our five Big Questions are:

BQ1: The nature of the mental lexicon: How to bridge neurobiology and psycholinguistic theory by computational modelling?

BQ2: What are the characteristics and consequences of internal brain organisation for language?

BQ3: Creating a shared cognitive space: How is language grounded in and shaped by communicative settings of interacting people?

BQ4: Variability in language processing and in language learning: Why does the ability to learn language change with age? How can we characterise and map individual language skills in relation to the population distribution?

BQ5: How are other cognitive systems shaped by the presence of a language system in humans?

You will be appointed at the Donders Institute, Centre for Cognition (Radboud University, Nijmegen). The project is embedded in the Donders Institute’s research theme ‘Brain Networks and Neuronal Communication’ and will be supervised by Prof. Marcel van Gerven. The research is conducted in an international setting at all participating institutions. English is the lingua franca.

What we expect from you

We are looking for a highly motivated candidate with a PhD degree in Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science, Applied Mathematics, Computational Neuroscience, or a related field of study.

  • Excellent math and Python programming skills as well as research experience in modern neural networks and probabilistic machine learning approaches are required.
  • Experience in cognitive neuroscience, computational neuroscience and natural language processing is desirable but not a prerequisite.
  • You are committed to the development of new advanced neural network architectures and their dissemination via high-quality Python code.
  • You should have an excellent scientific track record, excellent organisational, and communication skills, a strong motivation, and high proficiency in written and spoken English.

Applications from excellent candidates with a less than ideal profile will be equally considered.

What we have to offer

  • employment: 1.0 FTE;
  • a maximum gross monthly salary of € 4,757 based on a 38-hour working week (salary scale 11);
  • in addition to the salary: an 8% holiday allowance and an 8.3% end-of-year bonus;
  • the starting salary depends on qualifications and experience;
  • you will be appointed for an initial period of 18 months, after which your performance will be evaluated. If the evaluation is positive, the contract will be extended by 24 months;
  • the Collective Labour Agreement (CAO) of Dutch Universities is applicable to this position;
  • you will be classified as a Researcher, level 3, as described in the Dutch university job-ranking system (UFO);
  • the institute involved has regulations in place that enable its staff to create a good work-life balance;
  • you will be able to make use of our Dual Career Service where our Dual Career Officer will assist with family related support, such as child care, and help your partner prepare for the local labour market and with finding an occupation.

Other Information

The institute involved is an equal opportunity employer, committed to building a culturally diverse intellectual community, and as such encourages applications from women and minorities.

Would you like to know more?

Further information on: the Language in Interaction Consortium
Further information on: Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour

For more information about this vacancy, please contact:
Prof. dr. M.A.J. van Gerven, Principal Investigator Artificial Cognitive Systems
Telephone: +31 24 3655931
E-mail: m.vangerven@donders.ru.nl

Dr. S.L. Frank; Assistant Professor, Big Question 1 coordinator
Telephone: +31 24 3615491
E-mail: s.frank@let.ru.nl

Are you interested?

You should upload your application (attn. of dr. M.A.J. van Gerven) exclusively using ‘Apply Directly‘. Your application should include (and be limited to) the following attachment(s):

  • a cover letter
  • your curriculum vitae, including a list of publications and the names of at least two people who can provide references

Tenure Track Assistant Professor Experimental Psychology (1.0 fte)

Job description

The Department of Psychology at the University of Groningen invites applications for an Assistant Professorship (Tenure Track) in the field of Cognitive Neuroscience. You will work in the dynamic, enthusiastic and growing Experimental Psychology group. Research within this group centres around understanding, explaining and predicting human perception and the role of attention. The department has excellent research facilities, including dedicated labs for EEG research, a TMS setup, and access to the fMRI, PET and NIRS scanning facilities at the university’s Neuroimaging Center.

Qualifications

The successful candidate is expected to do research, teach, and supervise graduate and PhD students in the field of Cognitive Neuroscience. (S)he is expected to develop new ideas in research and education, and acquire funding (independently or jointly with other colleagues) for future research. (S)he is expected to develop a conceptually consistent research programme that may gravitate towards fundamental as well as applied topics, thereby contributing to the focus area of Experimental Psychology.

We are looking for candidates who:

  • hold a PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience, Experimental Psychology, or relevant other field with appropriate experience (preferably international)
  • have demonstrable mastery of state-of-the-art methods and techniques, preferably multivariate EEG or other neuroimaging techniques
  • are fluent in English (required); fluency in Dutch at the time of appointment is desirable but not required.

Candidates are expected to be able to communicate with staff and students in Dutch within three years of appointment. The search is targeted at the assistant professor level but qualified candidates with more experience are also encouraged to apply. You will be appointed for a period of seven years, on the condition of a positive mid-term evaluation in the third year of employment. After a positive final evaluation in the fifth year of employment, you will be granted tenure to Associate Professor. We expect candidates to start as soon as possible, preferably before 1 September 2018.

Application and more information

You may apply for this position before 16 April 2018 by means of the application form (click on “Apply” below on the advertisement on the university website) at goo.gl/8wnt7N .
For information contact: Prof. M. (Monicque) M. Lorist, +31 50 3636376, m.m.lorist@rug.nl Please do not use this e-mail address for applications.