What Makes the Human Mind Special? Fully Funded PhD Studentship in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience

About the project

We seek candidates interested in completing a PhD at the intersection of developmental and computational human neuroscience. We will support the selected candidate to apply for a fully funded 4-year PhD position with a teaching component (~1 year of full-time teaching spread across the 4 years) at the Centre for Developmental Science and Centre for Human Brain Health and, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham. The project will be supervised by Dr Barbara Pomiechowska, Dr Paul Muhle-Karbe, and Prof. Sarah Beck. The expected start date is September 2024. The project is only open to home students.

Project details

Have you ever wondered how is it possible that humans are the only species on the planet that practices medicine and science, writes books, invented social media, travelled to the moon, and more? What makes human cognition special? Classic theories have suggested that humans are special thanks to cognitive abilities such as language, tool use or theory of mind. Recent evidence suggests, however, that human singularity may be due to a human-specific special mode of thought that allows people to use discrete symbols and their combinations to mentally represent experience, in language (e.g. “I found a cat by my fridge”) and beyond (e.g. in maths, a2 + b2 = c2), and create brand new ideas. Symbolic thought allows us to easily compress and transfer information, thus supporting learning and prediction. This project will use behavioural and state-of-the-art neuroscience methods with infants and adults to explore cognitive and neural mechanisms underpinning symbolic representation and symbol manipulation. You will have the opportunity to acquire cutting edge research skills and use these to develop your own research studies. In addition to conducting research, you will be required to deliver teaching (equivalent to ~1 year full time, including e.g. tutorials, seminars). You will also be supported to get a teaching certification (PGCHE). Apply to work in a friendly and exciting research environment.

Entry requirements

Applicants must have a Bachelor's degree (high 2.1 minimum, or equivalent). A Master’s in Psychology, Neuroscience, Computer Science or a related discipline (merit minimum, or equivalent) is desirable. Experience in conducting experiments and analyses is desirable. Experience with working with infants is not required, as training will be provided. The successful candidate will need to undertake an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check. The deadline to submit the stage 1 application form is Friday 24th May, 5 pm BST. Shortlisted candidates will be interviewed between 29th-31st May 2024. The selected candidate will be supported to submit a full application by the 7th June 2024.

How to apply

Applicants should fill in the stage 1 application form: https://forms.gle/Sfce1m2q2J8fYwM77 and submit a 2-page (max) CV by Friday, 24th of May, 6 pm BST. Informal enquiries can be addressed to Dr Barbara Pomiechowska (b.pomiechowska@bham.ac.uk) and Dr Paul Muhle-Karbe (p.muhle-karbe@bham.ac.uk).

Funding Details

Additional Funding Information

This is a fully funded 4-year PhD position with a teaching component (~1 year of full-time teaching spread across the 4 years) at the Centre for Developmental Science and Centre for Human Brain Health and, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham. The project is only open to home students.

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