PhD Studentship: Infant Adaptations to Bilingual Environments: A Longitudinal OPM-MEG/EEG/fNIRS/Computational Modelling Study

Evidence is mounting that mere exposure to a bilingual environment can affect an infant’s development: infants from bilingual homes demonstrate greater novelty preference (Singh et al., 2015) and switch visual attention faster and more frequently (D’Souza et al., 2020) than infants from monolingual homes. However, the causes of these effects are unknown. The purpose of this PhD studentship is to advance our understanding of infant adaptations to bilingual environments.

The Project

The PhD candidate would join a large-scale longitudinal study of infants in their first year of life, funded by a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship awarded to Dr Dean D’Souza.

To ascertain how, why, and when early adaptations to bilingual environments emerge, dynamic infant-environment interactions will be measured and data from across levels (brain, cognition, behaviour, environment) will be integrated. These will include both observational data (head-mounted cameras, LENA technology) and experimental data (eye-tracking, OPM-MEG/EEG/fNIRS).

The candidate will have the opportunity to contribute to this longitudinal project by relating some of the environmental measures with some of the experimental and observational data in the same infants across cultures and over developmental time. For example, we have argued that infants adapt to more complex language environments by developing weaker prior expectations (greater neural plasticity) and placing more weight on gathering sensory information (exploration) (D’Souza & D’Souza, 2021). The candidate could test this and/or other hypotheses using eye-tracking, neuroimaging, and/or computational modelling. The candidate will have space to shape the specific focus of their PhD project in a way that suits their interests and expertise.

Research Environment

The successful candidate will be based at the Cardiff University Centre for Human Developmental Science (CUCHDS). This houses some of the most advanced equipment for infant research, including state-of-the-art eye tracking, functional near infrared spectroscopy, and magnetoencephalography with optically pumped magnetometers. The PhD candidate would also be affiliated with the Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC), which is one of the largest and technologically most advanced imaging centres in Europe. Both CUCHDS and CUBRIC are part of the School of Psychology at Cardiff. This School is one of the strongest in the UK for world-leading research in psychology, psychiatry, and neuroscience – e.g., it is ranked 6^th in the UK for research power (REF 2021).

The research team will include Dr Dean D’Souza (PI), Professor Krish Singh, two postdoctoral researchers, a research assistant, several placement students and interns, and national and international collaborators based at the University of Cambridge; Imperial College London; City, University of London; National University of Singapore; Basque Center on Cognition, Brain, and Language; University of Padua; University of Washington; and the University of Chicago.

For any queries or an informal discussion about this studentship, please contact Dr Dean D’Souza via babylab@cardiff.ac.uk (write “PhD application: infant adaptations” in the subject line).

Applicants from all backgrounds are encouraged to apply.

Home students are UK Nationals and EU students who can satisfy UK residency requirements (students must have been in the UK for >3 years before start of course).

Funding Comment

The studentship commences in October 2024, covers 3 years tuition fees and maintenance, with submission deadline of 4 years. The 2023/4 full-time maintenance grant was £18,662 p.a. Psychology students receive conference and participant money (~£2,250), computer, office space, access to courses and become members of the Doctoral Academy.

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