Research Assistant/Associate

Job Purpose

To contribute to a MRC-funded project entitled “Lifelong changes in the cerebral processing of social signals”. Specifically, the job requires a review of current literature in relevant fields, development of stimuli and experimental procedures, contributing to the design and programming of the behavioural, fMRI and EEG experiments, recruiting and running the participants, assisting in analysing the results, and participating in the writing up of the results.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

1. To review the current literature on lifelong changes in the perception of social signals, and to summarise this in a written report, early in the project.

2. To generate, in each of the three stimulus types examined (face, voice, body) a range of candidate stimulus sets that can be parametrically manipulated in adaptive experiments in which stimuli are selected based on subject’s responses.

3. To conduct pilot experiments on the candidate stimulus sets and adaptive tasks, in order to determine an optimal set of tasks for the remaining experimental programme.

4. To work with the PIs to develop the experimental protocol to be used in the final experimental programme.

5. To recruit all experimental subjects, and to run the agreed behavioural, fMRI and EEG experiments, dealing with all aspects of testing the participants and storing data.

6. To perform statistical analyses of the experiments and to produce experimental reports describing these results.

7. To liaise with the project funder on experimental progress and to draft reports to the funder as required by the PIs.

For Appointment at Grade 7
8. Lead or participate in the supervision and training of junior research staff, undergraduate or postgraduate students, and/or technical staff.

Standard Terms & Conditions

Salary will be on the University’s Research and Teaching Grade 6, £26,264 - £29,541 per annum Or Grade 7 £32,267 - £36,298