Senior Research Associate

The Department of Psychology at Lancaster University is seeking to appoint a full time Senior Research Associateto investigate the role of curiosity in early communicative development.

In this project, which is part of the ESRC International Centre for Language and Communicative Development (LuCiD), you will use head mounted eye tracking with infants and adults to investigate the role of social interactions in word learning. You will recruit and test infants and parents to attend our lab facilities and design and run studies of word learning while tracking the interactions between the child and their caregiver, as well as analyse existing data sets and prepare them for publication. There is potential to then develop computational (artificial neural network) models of this process to investigate the mechanisms at play. As such, this work will suggest mechanisms underlying successful lexical development and potential impairments in this process.

ABOUT YOU

We are looking for a highly motivated and independent researcher with experience in head-mounted eye tracking and an interest in computational modelling using artificial neural networks. You must have a PhD (or equivalent) or have submitted your dissertation for a PhD in psychology or a cognate discipline before the start date. An understanding of early word learning is desirable. You must also have excellent statistical analysis (using R) and academic writing abilities. We are expecting you to contribute to scientific network and impact activities within the ESRC Centre (e.g., attending seminars and workshops, contributing to the webpage, disseminating results of the project widely to non-academic partners).

THE BENEFITS OF THE ROLE

• Generous holiday leave - 25 days (pro-rata) annual leave plus University closure days and bank holidays.
• Access to employee pension scheme, and annual flexible benefits scheme.
• We are committed to promoting Equality, Diversity and Inclusion across the Faculty, and supporting family-friendly and flexible working policies on an individual basis. The Department holds an Athena Swan Bronze Award, which recognises and celebrates good employment practice undertaken to address gender equality in Higher Education and research.

The Psychology Department at Lancaster University is a busy teaching and research active Department. It is home to a friendly group of over 40 Academic staff, with teams of Research and Professional Services and Technical staff. The Department supports a large cohort of Undergraduate students; a thriving group of Masters and Postgraduate research students; and a wide range of research projects including several cross-institution grants.

Further information about the Department is available at https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/psychology/

Please upload a cover letter with your application.

We welcome applications from people in all diversity groups, and for this full-time post, we expect a start date in early May 2023.

This role is indefinite, subject to funding, which is currently only available for 12 months.

Informal enquiries are welcome and should be addressed to Gert Westermann, lead of the work package, g.westermann@lancater.ac.uk.