Post-doc How do the senses affect visual and temporal perception? (1.0 FTE)

This is a fixed-term, two-year post-doctoral position. The research project focuses on the question of how subtle changes to the senses affect visual and temporal perception. For example, if your eyes’ pupils dilate (become larger), the amount of light that enters your eyes increases, while the sharpness of vision decreases. In this way, subtle changes in pupil size fundamentally change how visual information reaches your brain. But it is currently poorly understood how such changes affect subsequent processing of visual and temporal information. For example, if more light enters the eye because your pupils dilate, do visual events also seem to last longer (analogous to the effect of actual brightness increases on time perception)?

During your research, you will focus on fundamental questions related to visual and temporal sensation and perception. Within this general topic, we will encourage you to develop your own line of research. You will use a combination of psychophysical measures, eye tracking, and EEG. You will be responsible for developing and carrying out experiments, analyzing the resulting data, and writing up the results as scientific manuscripts. You will be working in a group, and we are therefore looking for someone who is keen to collaborate with, to support, and to be supported by other members of the research group.

An important part of this project will also be to actively engage with ‘open science’. This means that you will make all experimental scripts and data publicly available (to the extent possible given privacy restrictions), and that you will engage in good scientific practices such as preregistration and transparent reporting. In this spirit, you will be encouraged to also produce non-traditional forms of scientific output, such as data sets and software.

We are looking for candidates who have:

- a PhD in the area of psychology, neuroscience, or artificial intelligence
- a high degree of English proficiency
- experience with conducting research involving human participants
- experience with advanced statistical methods (e.g., in R)
- experience with coding, ideally in Python
- demonstrable competences as conceptual capacity, environmental orientation, presenting and result orientation.

We offer you in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities:

- a salary of minimum € 3,413 till a maximum of € 4,670 gross per month (salary scale 10)
- excellent secondary terms of employment
- a holiday allowance of 8% gross annual income and an 8.3% end-of-year bonus
- 232 holiday hours per calendar year for full time employment
- participation in a pension scheme for employees.

The position is classified in accordance with the University Job Classification (UFO) system: the UFO profile is Researcher 4.

The appointment is temporary for a specified period of 24 months for 1.0 FTE.

Starting date: as soon as possible.

Since its founding in 1614, the University of Groningen has enjoyed an international reputation as a dynamic and innovative center of higher education, offering high-quality teaching and research. We encourage the 36,000 students and researchers to develop their own individual talents. Among the best research universities in Europe, we join forces with prestigious partner universities and networks around the world, the University of Groningen is truly an international place of knowledge.

The Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences is a centre of knowledge focusing on individuals and society. The faculty studies issues relating to human behaviour, and the relationships between people and society as a whole. This includes the study of how people function under normal circumstances, but also of the problems encountered by individuals or groups, and how these can be resolved or prevented. The Department of Psychology is part of the Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences, and offers bachelor’s and master’s programmes in both Dutch and English to over 3,000 students.