Language and Visual Cognition

The studentship is linked to a project entitled “From language-mediated eye movements to goal-directed action: Mapping language onto perception and action”. The studentship will support research on the relationship between visual scene interpretation and language comprehension, and will seek to establish the nature of the cognitive representations that are constructed during the earliest moments of visual scene interpretation.

Funding Notes
Depending on prior qualifications, the successful student will either take a 1-year MSc in Readin and Language, or a 1-year MRes, followed by a 3-year PhD (1+3 route), or will move straight into the PhD programme (+3 route). This studentship is available from October 2008 and covers student fees, plus a postgraduate stipend of roughly £12,600 per annum.

http://www.findaphd.com/search/showproject.asp?projectid=16675

Context effects in food preference conditioning

Context effects in food preference conditioning: Cognitive, affective and physiological factors

The Cognition and Cognitive Neurosciences Research Group invites applications for a distinguished four-year BBSRC Industrial CASE PhD studentship commencing October 2008.

This project will examine the role of context in human food preferences and result in a better understanding of the processes through which food preferences are acquired.

Food choices are complex behaviours, not well understood, and have serious repercussions in terms of public health. This project will use the Evaluative Conditioning paradigm (EC) to examine the effect of context on food preference. EC refers to a change in the affective response to a conditioned stimulus based in its pairing with an unconditioned stimulus. It is a general mechanism that determines how humans establish likes and dislikes, and may be qualitatively distinct from other forms of non-affective learning.

Animal studies show the existence of context effects in food preference. This may be an important factor in human food choices (i.e. cereals are not eaten for dessert, coffee is not served as a celebratory drink etc). Being able to alter these associations may help promote healthier food choices. However, little empirical research has examined context effects in humans, using either behavioural or physiological studies. For instance, we do not know whether unconditioned rewards (i.e. foods that are naturally liked such as sugary tastes) are more or less susceptible to the effect of context compared to conditioned rewards (i.e. foods that one learns to like). It is also not known whether associations between food and context can be altered.
The successful applicant will use an evaluative conditioning paradigm in which a target food will be positively or neutrally conditioned. As part of this conditioning, an association between the target food and a context will be induced either explicitly (through verbal information) or implicitly (through exposure).

The project will use behavioural as well as physiological measures such as measures of autonomic arousal and EEG/ERP.

Applicants should hold a minimum 2:1 (or equivalent) degree in psychology, neuroscience, or a related discipline. The project would be ideally suited to a candidate seeking to establish a research career in experimental psychology or industrial R&D.

Interested candidates should submit a CV and detailed covering letter outlining their suitability for the project to Dr Isabelle Blanchette at: isabelle.blanchette@manchester.ac.uk.

Contact details for two referees should also be provided.

For further information on the project please contact Dr Blanchette at the address provided.

http://www.psych-sci.manchester.ac.uk/research/groups/cognitionandcognitive/

Funding Notes
The studentship is open to UK/EU nationals only due to the nature of the funding and will attract a minimum annual stipend of £15, 440 in addition to tuition fees. The PhD will involve a research placement at Unilever R&D.

http://www.findaphd.com/search/showproject.asp?projectid=16421

Research Assistant

Hiring Organization: PhD candidate


Position Description:
This position will involve assisting the primary researcher catching, radio-collaring and collecting behavioral data of pygmy lorises in eastern Cambodia. The work is at night and the applicant will be required to work throughout the night. Researchers will sleep in the forest. Animals will be followed all night and information on their habitat use, diet and social organisation will be collected. The position will work 10 days on, 4 days off. Training in data collection will be provided by the primary researcher.

Qualifications/Experience:
•- B. Sc. Or environmental sciences
•- Hard working and able to work for long hours in the forest
•- Good English, written and spoken
•- Keen interest in working with wildlife
•- Able to learn new skills quickly
•- Experience in excel, word and arcview

Salary/funding:
NA. Due to limited funding the researcher cannot provide funding for the assistant.
Support provided for internship/volunteer positions (travel, meals, lodging): It is cheap in the field. Costs when in camp are $5 per night for accommodations and food and less in the forest.

Term of Appointment:
starting as soon as possible - June.

Contact Information:
Carly Starr
Phnom Penh N/A
Cambodia
Telephone Number:
+85592 745971
E-mail Address:
bengalensis@hotmail.com

PhD: Chemical ecology and genetics in mammals

A PhD position will be available on "Chemical ecology and genetics in mammals" from August 1st 2008 (for 3-4 years). This is an exciting interdisciplinary project that brings together chemistry, biochemistry and ecology to allow novel insight into sociality and communication in mammals. The project will focus on Eurasian beavers (Castor fiber), brown bears (Ursus arctos) and yellow-bellied marmots (Marmota flaviventris) as model species.

The student will be enrolled at the Norwegian University of Life Science, Ås, Norway but work daily at Telemark University College, Bø, Telemark, Norway.

Assoc. Prof. Frank Rosell will be main supervisor; Professor Jon Swenson (http://www.umb.no/ina/ansatte/jsw_e.htm), Dr. Andreas Zedrosser (http://www.umb.no/ina/ansatte/arz_e.htm), and Assoc. Prof. Dan Blumstein, UCLA, USA (see http://www.eeb.ucla.edu/Faculty/Blumstein/) will be co-supervisors.

The majority of field work will be carried out in Telemark on beavers with additional field work on bears in Sweden, and on yellow-bellied marmots at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (http:// www.rmbl.org), Colorado, USA.

Please contact Frank Rosell (Frank.Rosell@hit.no) for further details.

MSc in Animal Behaviour

MSc in Animal Behaviour at the University of Exeter is now accepting applications for October 2008.

The MSc programme in Animal Behaviour is a unique course in the United Kingdom, allowing both psychology and biology students to investigate questions in the area of animal behaviour.

The programme is designed to provide students with a strong background in a broad cross section of research methods used by animal behaviourists and behavioural ecologists. The research skills will be backed up by a strong theoretical grounding. The purpose of the programme is to give students the opportunity to advance and expand their knowledge in the field of animal behaviour and to gain expertise in the research and statistical methods generally used in Psychology. Students will have the opportunity to learn how to formulate and test relevant research questions, as well as learning to critically evaluate the research carried out by others in the field. The programme will enable students to get an insight into the varied means of doing animal behaviour research in a wide array of locations - zoo, laboratory and in the wild. Students will be well suited to continue in academia to pursue PhDs at Exeter and elsewhere. They will also have the necessary training to work in such places as zoos, wildlife offices, research centres and the expanding field of eco-tourism. This is a full 12 month course comprising taught courses, practical courses and a research placement. The teaching and learning methods are a mix of lectures, seminars, practicals and field courses. Overall there is a strong practical and demonstration element to the programme utilising innovative teaching practices. For full-time students course work should occupy about four days a week, leaving you a fifth day for preparatory work on your research placement.

For further details please contact the Fiona Neligan, Postgraduate Secretary F.C.Neligan@ex.ac.uk, or browse our web pages at:

http://www.psychology.ex.ac.uk/pgtaught/mscab.shtml

Dr Lisa Leaver
Senior Lecturer
Director of the MSc in Animal Behaviour
School of Psychology
University of Exeter
EX4 4QG
UK

Volunteer Opportunity

We are looking for volunteers on a project examining the evolution of dispersal and sociality. The themes of this work are centered on the evolution of sociality (cooperation), condition-dependent dispersal, and meta-population dynamics. This project seeks to experimentally manipulate parameters of dispersal behavior and social aggregations to understand trade-offs and key determinants of the evolution of these behaviors. The project is lab based, using Tetrahymena thermophila, a unicellular ciliated protist, as a model organism. Our recent work has shown genetic variation in dispersal and cooperative behavior among clonal lines and has investigated some elements of condition-dependent dispersal (information use, dispersal phenotypes).
Future work will examine evolutionary processes affecting dispersal and the stability of social strategies to build on previous findings. Volunteers are expected to participate in maintenance of cultures, experimental manipulations, and the best candidates will also be capable of helping to plan experiments and process data.

This project is run in Dr. Jean Clobert's lab and students will work with both Dr. Clobert and Dr. Alexis Chaine. The lab is situated in the foothills of the French Pyrenees Mountains at a CNRS field station (Moulis / Saint Girons). Students will be provided with housing but will be expected to cover their other expenses. Work is ongoing and volunteers can begin at a negotiated date. Duration of work is flexible, and while volunteers are expected to commit to a minimum of 4 weeks, priority will be given to those who can commit to longer periods.

For more information, please contact Alexis Chaine at alexis.chaine@ecoex-moulis.cnrs.fr