PhD Studentship: Neurocomputational Foundations of Cooperative Social Behaviour

Social interactions are an important part of our daily lives. While there are many types of social behavior, cooperation – defined as working towards a shared goal – is one of the foundational forces of collective action. Despite notable progress, we still lack an understanding of the mechanisms underlying the motives behind (non)cooperation and their neural implementation. The project’s main goal is to build and test new models of human cooperation, including the computational mechanisms underlying psychological and economic motives of social behavior.

The project will use an interdisciplinary approach combining new paradigms motivated by economic research, computational models from cognitive psychology (such as learning and evidence accumulation models), and methods of social neuroscience, involving collecting process data such as mouse trajectories, gaze data, and neural signals (using fMRI).

The student will be expected to conduct studies using behavioral and fMRI paradigms and develop strong skills in computational modeling and statistical analysis. The project will be based at the Centre for Human Brain Health at the University of Birmingham, a cutting-edge research facility affiliated with the School of Psychology.

HOW TO APPLY

Interested candidates should contact the main supervisor (Dr. Arkady Konovalov, a.konovalov@bham.ac.uk) and attach their CV and a short statement of research intentions (an informal cover letter) with the subject "PhD studentship FirstNAME LastName", by 28th February 2023.

Only a small number of the most competitive applicants be supported and put forward to submit an application through the internal application process.

Applicants are expected to have strong credentials and a research-oriented background (Master’s degree) in cognitive/social neuroscience and/or behavioral economics.

Informal inquiries should be directed to Dr. Arkady Konovalov.

References:

Konovalov, A., & Ruff, C.C. (2022). Enhancing Models of Social and Strategic Decision Making with Process Tracing and Neural Data. WIREs Cognitive Science, 13:e1559.

Konovalov, A., Hill, C., Daunizeau, J., & Ruff, C.C. (2021). Dissecting Functional Contributions of the Social Brain to Strategic Behavior. Neuron, 109, 3323–333.

Konovalov, A., & Krajbich, I. (2018). Neurocomputational Dynamics of Sequence Learning. Neuron, 98(6), 1282-1293.

Konovalov, A., Hu, J., & Ruff, C.C. (2018). Neurocomputational Approaches to Social Behavior. Current Opinion in Psychology, 24, 41-47.

Funding

The studentship will pay a stipend of £15,285 per annum for three years and cover fees at the home student rate (international students can only get cover at the home rate).

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