You will carry out fundamental research leading to a PhD on human speech recognition. You will be responsible for the design of novel experiments using eye-tracking and EEG measures, for the preparation of spoken language (and other experimental) materials for data collection and analysis, for writing the research up for publication in international journals and for writing your PhD thesis.

The project tackles the variability problem in speech recognition: that listeners must be able to recognise spoken words in spite of the fact that spoken utterances are physically hugely variable (due e.g. to substantial differences among talkers in the ways they say words). Four cognitive processes help listeners deal with variability: normalisation, learning, abstraction, and prediction. It is unknown how these four processes work together. The goal of the project is therefore to investigate all four of them and how they interact. The role of prosody in speech recognition has been understudied; the project will hence focus on how prosodic information allows listeners to recognise words spoken by different talkers.
 
Word learning will be used as an experimental tool throughout the project. By asking what listeners learn (or do not learn) about new words, and how that learning affects the recognition of subsequent speech, one can gain valuable insights into mental representations and processes. Word learning will thus be used as a lens to scrutinise how listeners solve the variability problem.

You will have the opportunity to join the International Max Planck Research School (IMPRS) for Language Sciences.

• a Master's degree in Cognitive Neuroscience, Cognitive Science, Psychology, Linguistics or a related field;
• excellent analytic and quantitative skills (e.g. experience with Matlab or R);
• first-rate phonetic skills in the measurement and manipulation of the acoustic speech signal (e.g. experience with Praat);
• demonstrable interest in human speech recognition;
• excellent communication skills in spoken and written English;
• experience in running and analysing experiments on speech recognition, ideally using EEG and/or eye-tracking;
• since the experiments will be conducted using Dutch materials and Dutch participants, it would be ideal if you speak Dutch.

• employment: 1.0 FTE
• the gross starting salary amounts to €2,325 per month, and will increase to €2,972 in the fourth year (P scale)
• in addition to the salary: an 8% holiday allowance and an 8.3% end-of-year bonus
• term of contract: you will be appointed as a PhD student for an initial period of one and a half years, after which your performance will be evaluated. If the evaluation is positive, the contract will be extended by another 2.5 years
• UFO job profile: PhD Candidate
• you will be able to make use of our Dual Career Service where our Dual Career Officer will assist with family related support, such as child care, and help your partner prepare for the local labour market and with finding an occupation

Are you interested in our excellent employment conditions?

FSW/Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour
You will be part of the Donders Graduate School for Cognitive Neuroscience: www.ru.nl/donders/graduate-school/.
 
The Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour is a world-class interfaculty research centre that houses more than 600 researchers devoted to understanding the mechanistic underpinnings of the human mind. Research at the Institute is focused on four themes:
1. Language and communication:
2. Perception, action and control;
3. Plasticity and memory;
4. Brain networks and neuronal communication.
 
Excellent, state-of-the-art research facilities are available. Recently, the Donders Institute was assessed by an international evaluation committee as excellent and recognized as a ‘very stimulating environment for top researchers, as well as for young talent’. The Institute fosters a collaborative, multidisciplinary, supportive research environment with a diverse international staff. The Institute is an equal opportunity employer committed to building a culturally diverse intellectual community, and as such encourages applications from women and minorities. English is the lingua franca at the Institute.
 
The project will be embedded in the Donders Centre for Cognition and will contribute to the Donders research theme ‘Language and Communication’. It will be supervised by Prof. James McQueen in collaboration with Dr Hans Rutger Bosker (PI for Psycholinguistics) and Dr Ashley Lewis (Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging).
 
Further information on Theme 1: Language and Communication
Further information on Sound Learning