POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER London, England
Job description
This is a fixed term, full time appointment for 36 months.
We are looking for a postdoctoral researcher to join a collaborative project between Prof Clare Press, Dr Matthew Davis (Cambridge) and Dr Peter Kok (UCL).
You will be based in the Action and Perception lab, which is part of the Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, and the Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, UCL, funded by a Leverhulme Trust Project Grant. Experiments will be conducted at both centres and you will work closely with both institutes.
The project aims to test a new account of how the oscillatory rhythm of sensory sampling is determined. Specifically, our sensory systems are bombarded with a continuously-changing stream of noisy information.
Given our limited capacity systems, we cannot process every sight and sound perfectly. Organisms thereby face a monumental challenge in determining what to sample from this dynamic signal and generating useful percepts from these sensory inputs. Intriguingly, different perceptual disciplines – vision (action and object perception) and audition (speech perception) – have proposed contrasting accounts of how we achieve this feat.
We believe that these contrasting theories have emerged via a focus on different adaptive functions of perception, that in fact apply equivalently across domains. We therefore propose to establish how we really sample our environment by cross-pollinating these ideas across disciplines and testing a novel idea resulting from the direct comparison.
We seek a highly motivated individual to join our team, for a project combining examination of theta range oscillations using M/EEG with psychophysics and computational modelling.
The lab places high value on the development of robust, testable models of the mind and brain (see Press, Yon, and Heyes, 2022, “Building Better Theories”; and the applicant should exhibit an interest in such development.
You will play a key role in shaping the questions we ask, the approach we take to answering them, and development of the theoretical accounts.
Remuneration:
Grade 7, Spine 34 of the College's London Pay Scale which is £43,707 rising to £46,118 per annum.
The salary quoted is on the College's London Pay Scale which includes a consolidated Weighting/Allowance which applies only to staff whose normal contractual place of work is in the London area.
Enquiries:
If you would like to know more about the role please click on apply below or contact Prof. Clare Press via email: [email protected]
If you have technical issues or difficulties using the recruitment portal please contact [email protected], providing your name and the job reference number of the position.
While we are happy to respond to all informal enquiries, only formal applications through the online system will be considered.
Birkbeck offers a competitive salary and pension scheme, 31 days paid leave, flexible working arrangements and some of the most generous benefits in the HE sector, all while being located right in the heart of Central London.
We welcome applicants from all sections of the community. The College is committed to improving the gender and cultural diversity of its workforce, holding an Athena SWAN award and operating Disability Confident & Mindful Employer schemes.
