JOB: Funded PhD Studentship at Lancaster University. Deadline 15th February

Funded PhD Studentship Deadline 15th February at Lancaster University!

Professor Vincent Reid (Psychology, http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/psychology/about-us/people/vincent-reid) and Dr Benjamin Taylor (Centre for Health Informatics, Computing and Statistics (CHICAS), http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/staff/taylorb1/) are looking for an enthusiastic MSc student in Statistics or Data Science to undertake a PhD studentship at the interface of infant developmental research and spatiotemporal statistical methods.

Movement of the human body conveys social signals that often require immediate recognition. Human movement comprises an exceedingly complex set of stimuli, yet infants appear to be able to process and interpret this information to at least some degree. Even infants at 3 months are able to discriminate aspects of this complex information. Despite these quite impressive early competencies, understanding of the inherent physical limitations of the human body continues to develop into toddlerhood. This project will look at how biological motion is detected and interpreted in early development, using EEG and/or behavioural/eye tracking techniques. Are these capacities related to motor competence by the infant or are other factors involved in these abilities? Much is unknown in this area, making it a strong topic for a PhD student.

A well as being a fascinating scientific area of research, the data for this project are located in both space and in time and are repeated longitudinally. Thus this is an exceptionally rich area in which to conduct statistical research: developing models and methods to identify important features in the EEG/behavioural/eye tracking data and relating them to the principles of childhood development. A background in Psychology is not necessary if the candidate would like to focus on improving methodologies from a statistical perspective.

These Lancaster Univeristy-based Leverhulme funded PhD studentships (http://wp.lancs.ac.uk/leverhulme-dsp/) provide a tax-free stipend of £14,296 and generous training and research allowance for three years.

Due to the tight deadline, interested students should contact Dr Taylor (b.taylor1@lancaster.ac.uk) without further delay!

The Lancaster University campus occupies a beautiful 560-acre parkland site at Bailrigg, just three miles from Lancaster City Centre. You can find out more about the construction of the campus on our history pages or watch early videos from the 1960s on our YouTube channel. Since then, Lancaster University has risen to become one of Britain’s top universities, with over 12,000 students and 2,500 employees within the Bailrigg campus that is now almost a small town in its own right.
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Benjamin Taylor, MSci MSc PhD
Lecturer in Biostatistics
Faculty of Health and Medicine
B05a Furness Building
Lancaster University
Lancaster
LA1 4YF
UK

Telephone: +44 (0)1524 593499

Email: b.taylor1@lancaster.ac.uk
Website: http://www.lancs.ac.uk/staff/taylorb1/