Job Radboud University Nijmegen - PhD student for ‘Learning and memory of multimodal information’

As a PhD student you will work on the project ‘Learning and memory of multimodal information by teachers and students’. This project is part of the FES Programme Brain & Cognition (see http://www.hersenenencognitie.nl). The focus of this project is on the processes of learning and memory of multimodal information by (student) teachers and school children in various instructional multimedia platforms. Multimedia comprehension involves the parallel processing of auditory-verbal and visual-pictorial channels within working memory. By integrating multimodal information, students are able to acquire new knowledge. However, the processes of knowledge construction may be dependent on the load a task imposes on the learner’s cognitive system. Such cognitive load is determined by the learner’s prior knowledge, motivation, and processing strategies as well as by task demands. The present study will examine how children and teachers learn, consolidate and store information across modalities. Moreover, it will be explored which learner and task characteristics explain the individual variation in text comprehension in order to optimize teacher learning processes..

You should have: - a Master's degree in Research Master Cognitive (Neuro)science or Behavioural Science, Education, or another relevant study; - broad experience with quantitative research, outstanding methodological and analytical qualities, and experience with collecting and analysing data; - excellent writing skills in Dutch and English; - an organizational talent, accompanied by independence and perseverance.

The starting salary is €2,042 per month on a full-time base; the salary will increase to €2,612 per month on a full-time base in the fourth year.

Strategically located in Europe, Radboud University Nijmegen is one of the leading academic communities in the Netherlands. A place with a personal touch, where top-flight education and research take place on a beautiful green campus in modern buildings with state-of-art facilities.

With its six Bachelor’s and seven Master’s programmea, three Research Master’s programmes, three educational institutes with a total of 4,500 students, three research institutes and the Academic Centre for Social Sciences, the Faculty of Social Sciences is one of the largest faculties at Radboud University Nijmegen. The faculty currently employs about 650 employees. The faculty’s ambition is to become one of the top social science institutes in Europe, providing high-quality research programmes and study programmes that rank among the best in the Netherlands. The project will be embedded in the priority programme ‘Learning and plasticity’ of the Behavioural Science Institute (BSI, http://www.ru.nl/socialewetenschappen/bsi/). This programme deals with the micro-analysis of learning processes. The BSI is a KNAW-acknowledged research school that provides excellent research facilities and high-quality training to PhD students. There are also plans for close collaboration with the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour.

prof. dr. L. Verhoeven
+31 24 3612822
L.Verhoeven@pwo.ru.nl
dr. E. Segers
+31 24 3612822
E.Segers@pwo.ru.nl
http://www.ru.nl/fsw
Radboud University Nijmegen