How does a waiter at a restaurant know what we mean when we point to an empty glass, and how did we learn to select that particular gesture? As a research assistant, you will help organise a longitudinal study in pre-school children to help understand human communication and how it develops.

This project builds on the notion that social experiences early in life are crucial for the development of human communication skills. The project uses natural variability in early life social experiences as a tool to understand how different sociocultural environments guide the development of human communicative capacities. We plan to test long-lasting effects of those experiences on the human ability to communicate. The specific goal of the project is to identify which features of children's sociocultural environment influence their ability to coordinate with other people later in development. We are looking for a MSc interested in organising an ambitious real-life longitudinal study involving pre-school children. The study will use wearable audio-recording devices to measure the interactions of 3- to 4-year-old children during their time in day care (e.g. over the course of a week). The project is embedded in the research groups of Prof. Ivan Toni, Prof. Sabine Hunnius, and Dr Marlene Meyer at the Donders Institute, combining expertise in social neurocognition, experimental semiotics, and developmental neurocognition.

• You have an MSc degree in psychology, educational sciences, or (cognitive) neuroscience, with hands-on experience in experimental testing of young children.
• Fluency in written/spoken Dutch is required.
• Given the interdisciplinary of the research setting, you should have a strong collaborative attitude and a proven ability to work in a team.
• You will be responsible for planning and implementing a project quantifying children's interactions in a naturalistic setting. The position also involves supervision of a dedicated student assistant.
• You will take the lead in coordinating the implementation of the research project in collaboration with the PIs.

The Donders Institute values a diverse workforce. Female candidates are therefore particularly encouraged to apply.

Fixed-term contract: 18 months.

• It concerns an employment for 0.8 FTE.
• The gross monthly salary amounts to a minimum of €2,471 and a maximum of €3,336 based on a 38-hour working week, depending on previous education and number of years of relevant work experience (salary scale 7).
• You will receive 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus.
• It concerns a temporary employment for 18 months.
• You will be able to use our Dual Career and Family Care Services. Our Dual Career and Family Care Officer can assist you with family-related support, help your partner or spouse prepare for the local labour market, provide customized support in their search for employment and help your family settle in Nijmegen.
• Working for us means getting extra days off. In case of full-time employment, you can choose between 30 or 41 days of annual leave instead of the legally allotted 20.

Work and science require good employment practices. This is reflected in Radboud University's primary and secondary employment conditions. You can make arrangements for the best possible work-life balance with flexible working hours, various leave arrangements and working from home. You are also able to compose part of your employment conditions yourself, for example, exchange income for extra leave days and receive a reimbursement for your sports subscription. And of course, we offer a good pension plan. You are given plenty of room and responsibility to develop your talents and realise your ambitions. Therefore, we provide various training and development schemes.

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.

Radboud University
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