Project description

The research assistant will join a multidisciplinary project team led by Nuria Sebastian, director of the Speech Acquisition and Perception lab, https://www.upf.edu/web/sap, Center for Brain and Cognition, https://www.upf.edu/web/cbc, Pompeu Fabra Univeristy. The project aims at understanding how exposure to language uniquely shapes how humans process speech.

The project bridges two different lines of research: Neural Models of Language Entrainment and Psycholinguistic models of the perception of prosody. The project explores the research questions:

Q1. How does language-specific sensitivity to prosodic knowledge emerge? The ITL law

Q2. How does articulatory/motor information affect entrainment? Processing of audiovisual speech The position is part of the Spanish national project “Learning the sound of language (LESOLA) (Aprendiendo el sonido de la lengua), ref: PID2021-123416NB I00/MICIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/FEDER, UE, financed by the Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICIN) and the State Research Agency (AEI) and the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, la Agencia Estatal de Investigación y el Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional).

Main research field: Psychology

Tasks to be performed

The research assistant will

- Assist with EEG data collection (adults and infants).

- Assure EEG studies with infants are efficiently run, which will help minimize the attrition rate.

- Assist with fNIRS or fDCS data collection. Experience with data from infant populations will be a plus.

- Preliminary data analysis.

- Assist with article writing.

Group and complement: Group 3 Level u

Dedication and working hours:



Part time (22,5h/week).

Planned remuneration approx: 18.434,56 € gross per year

Line of research: Line of research of the Research Group SAP.

Financing fund

Initial project: Projecte PRESP04122 - PID2021-123416NB-I00/MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/FEDER, UE, “Aprendiendo el sonido de la lengua”, finançat pel Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, la Agencia Estatal de Investigación y el Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional, projecte que finalitza el 31/08/2025./ Grant PID2021-123416NB-I00 funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by “ERDF A way of making Europe”, project that ends on 31/08/2025.

Requirements

- High school-FP2.

The expected start date is February 24th 2025, the job is in Barcelona.

Selection criteria: The selection of the candidates will be made through evaluation of the curriculum and, where appropriate, with the carrying out a test and/or interview. Valuation will be as follows:

1- Academic Training (0-20 points).

- Undergraduate degree in Physics or Mathematics or similar.

- Master in Cognitive Neuroscience or similar.

2- Other professional training and experience, adequacy to the proposed profile (0-60 points):
- Experience in a Cognitive Neuroscience Lab.

- Experience with EEG data collection and analysis (adults and infants).

- Experience with data analysis of fNIRS or fDCS data. Experience with data with infant populations will be a plus.

3- Other merits (0-20 points):
- Good knowledge of MATLAB and Python.

- High level of English.

The minimum score to pass the selection process is 70 points. The candidate with the highest score in the selection process will be offered the job.

📌 DTIC--01 - Specialist support technician: Research Support LESOLA project, Nuria Sebastian Lab (Barcelona)
🏢 Pompeu Fabra University
📍 Barcelona