2 PhD Positions in the cognitive neuroscience of proactive visual working memory at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Two PhD positions are available within an exciting ERC-funded project on “Preparing memories for action: how visual working memories are sculpted by their anticipated use”, headed by Principal Investigator Freek van Ede. Successful candidates will be at the forefront of a promising new research group at the Institute for Brain and Behavior Amsterdam (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands). Positions will be for 4 years, and are fully funded. Intended starting date is 1 Sept 2020 (with some flexibility).

Projects are at the intersection of cognition, brain, and behavior – targeting the proactive, dynamic, and action-oriented nature of human working memory. Advertised positions will specifically address the anticipatory cognitive and neural mechanisms that prepare past vision for guiding future action – starting from the perspective that the primary purpose of visual working memory is not to “hold onto the past” but to “prepare for the future”. More detailed project descriptions will be made available to shortlisted candidates.

The PhD positions provide the opportunity to develop and conduct creative and rigorous research on underexplored aspects of the human mind, within a stimulating and committed research group. You will (learn to) innovate laboratory tasks to study and integrate central topics in human cognition, and you will (learn to) employ and develop state-of-the-art human electrophysiology (M/EEG, brain oscillations) and eye-tracking (micro-saccadic attentional biases) methods. Potential extensions to virtual-reality experiments are also envisioned. Resources for attending overseas conferences, and other training opportunities, will be available.

Further details:
2 PhD Positions in the cognitive neuroscience of proactive visual working memory at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam