PhD Studentship: Public Communication and Private Confidence

Are you looking to take your first steps towards a career in psychology and cognitive neuroscience? We are recruiting a new fully-funded PhD student to join Dr Daniel Yon’s Uncertainty Lab at the School of Psychological Sciences at Birkbeck, University of London.

This post is attached to a recent four-year grant awarded to Dr Yon from the Leverhulme Trust entitled Public Communication and Private Confidence. Psychologists and neuroscientists know that metacognitive feelings of uncertainty play an important role in controlling our behaviour as individuals, and coordinating our behaviour in groups – but we don’t know how interaction with others changes our own metacognitive states of mind, and how these mental processes can vary and go awry. This project aims to find out how social communication shapes private metacognition  – and is a collaborative partnerships between Daniel Yon and Chris Frith (Institute of Philosophy),  Cecilia Heyes (Oxford) and Phil Corlett (Yale).

In this PhD studentship, you will lead on experimental and computational work looking at how social interaction biases feelings of confidence, and how these biases could be transmitted from one person to another. You will also support brain imaging experiments (i.e., fMRI studies) in collaboration with a postdoc on the project, understanding how these biases might emerge in the brain.

You will join the project at its earliest stages, with ample opportunity to contribute to the design and direction of planned studies, and will work independently and in collaboration with other members of the Uncertainty Lab. You will also join a thriving research community in Psychology at Birkbeck, and will be encouraged to take part in research networks within the department and at other institutions nearby.

We are looking for candidates with a strong academic background in psychology, cognitive neuroscience or a related field (i.e., a strong Bachelor’s degree and/or a distinction at postgraduate level). Experience conducting research with human volunteers is desirable, as is experience with quantitative data analysis or experience with coding/programming. Experience with any particular experimental technique (e.g., brain imaging) is not a requirement, as these skills will be taught during the PhD.

This studentship covers PhD tuition fees (at Home level) and provides a tax-free living stipend of  £22,780 per year. It is a requirement of the funder that the post go to a ‘Home’ student – which includes UK nationals, EU nationals with Settled Status or Pre-Settled Status, and refugees. A full list of requirements for ‘Home’ students can be found here.

Applications will be accepted until Sunday 6^th July.

Interviews will take place in the week commencing Monday 21^st July. 

The PhD position is available from 1^st October 2025.

To apply, please email a cover letter describing your motivation for applying, and how your background and experience prepares you for a PhD. Please also include a CV, with details of your academic background (i.e., degrees studied, grades obtained), research experience, along with contact details for two academic references. Please email all these materials to Dr Daniel Yon at d.yon@bbk.ac.uk with the subject line “Leverhulme PhD Application – YOUR NAME” before the close of applications on 6^th July.

Any informal questions about the project or post can also be sent to Dr Yon, and you can also learn about some of the preliminary idea motivating this project in this paper.

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