Three PhD Positions: Curiosity and Cognitive Development in Young Children

Within this multidisciplinary project, you will examine the role of curiosity - the drive to learn new things - in early child development. You will study the cognitive and brain mechanisms underlying curiosity, whether children differ in how curious they are, and how learning environments can be created that foster exploration and curious behaviour in young children.

Two PhD candidates will examine the working mechanisms of curiosity and why some children are more intrinsically motivated to explore and learn new things than others (PhD positions 1&2). The PhD candidates will use a combined cognitive neuroscience and developmental approach and implement techniques such as fMRI, EEG, or eye-tracking. They will also study whether individual differences in curiosity impact young children's long-term cognitive development and academic performance.

The third PhD candidate will leverage knowledge of the role of curiosity in learning to investigate how optimal learning environments can be created for all children and develop a training programme for professionals working in childcare and early education (PhD position 3).