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We are looking for a motivated PhD candidate with an interest in multisensory perception, art and artificial intelligence.
When looking at a painting we often have an immediate impression, which determines whether we like it or not. This aesthetic appreciation likely involves the visual characteristics of the painting as well as the personal characteristics of the observer. Past research on aesthetic appreciation has largely taken a unimodal approach (e.g. concerning only visual aspects). However, modern society has an abundance of multisensory input in art, as well as in games, movies, and virtual-reality applications. Our aesthetic appreciation of these applications is therefore likely to depend on different types of, not yet fully understood, cross-modal influences. At the same time, it is expected that the impact of such multisensory input will only increase in the near future. The current project aims at a better understanding of multimodal processing involved in aesthetic appreciation. The collected data serve as input for the development of a 'synesthesiser', a neural network that can connect images and sound.
As a PhD candidate you will perform multimodal experiments to investigate the role of factors such as complexity, emotion and cross-modal congruency on aesthetic appreciation. Data will be gathered by experiments in the lab (behavioural, eye tracking) and online, but occasionally also at art academies, museums or public events. You will perform data analyses that comprise computational techniques to optimally account for individual differences. The project also includes building and analysing deep learning models to associate visual images and auditory patterns based on the above-mentioned factors, such as complexity and emotional valence. Your work will involve close collaboration with fellow members of the team. You will write papers for scientific journals, visit conferences and complete a PhD thesis. Project management, mentoring BSc and MSc students, and teaching-related tasks will also be part of your responsibilities.
Fixed-term contract: 4 years.
The Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour is a world-class interfaculty research centre that houses more than 700 researchers devoted to understanding the mechanistic underpinnings of the human mind. Research at the Donders Institute is focused around four themes: 1. Language and communication, 2. Perception, action and control, 3. Plasticity and memory, 4. Neural computation and neurotechnology. Excellent, state-of-the-art research facilities are available for the broad range of neuroscience research that is being conducted at the Donders Institute. The Donders Institute has been assessed by an international evaluation committee as 'excellent' and recognised as a 'very stimulating environment for top researchers, as well as for young talent'. The Donders Institute fosters a collaborative, multidisciplinary, supportive research environment with a diverse international staff. English is the lingua franca at the Institute. You will be a member of the following labs at the Donders Centre for Cognition: Perception and Awareness (Prof. R. van Lier), Neural Coding (Dr U. Güçlü) and Neural Engineering (Dr Y. Güçlütürk).
You will attend the Donders Graduate School for Cognitive Neuroscience.
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