giovedì 30 luglio 2009

Postdoctoral positions in vision and auditory research

Two newly created positions, one in vision and one in audition, are available in the lab of Dale Purves, which has now moved to the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore.

Research in the laboratory concerns visual and auditory perception and the neurobiological underpinnings of perceptual phenomena. Ongoing investigations in vision include understanding the perception of brightness, color, orientation, motion, and depth; the interest in audition concerns understanding the tonal relationships in music arising from the similarity of musical dyads and voiced speech spectra. The unifying theme of these projects is the hypothesis that visual and auditory percepts are generated according to a wholly empirical strategy that represents in perception the empirical significance of sensory stimuli rather than their physical properties. These issues are being explored by psychophysics, analyses of natural image and sound databases, and the emerging properties of virtual organisms evolving in defined environments. See purveslab.net for details.

Applicants should have a PhD in neuroscience, psychology, computer science or a related discipline. Applications must include a CV with the names and contact information of three references, preferably sent by email to purves@duke.edu. Applications by regular mail to should be addressed to Dale Purves, M.D., Director, Neuroscience and Behavioral Disorders Program, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, 8 College Road, Singapore 169857.

martedì 14 luglio 2009

3.5 year PhD studentship in multimodal interaction, University of Edinburgh

Multimodal Reminders in the Home

3.5 year PhD studentship
at the School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh

The project will investigate the effects of ageing and hearing loss on the usability and intelligibility of auditory reminders in the home environment. Speech and non-speech audio reminders will be compared systematically under a variety of realistic conditions. Experiments will be based on a dual-task paradigm, where participants perform a distractor task while attending to and/or acting on auditory reminders.

The project is a collaboration with the Department of Computer Science, Glasgow (Prof. Brewster, Dr. McGee-Lennon), and the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, Queen Margaret University (Pauline Campbell, Christine DePlacido). The successful candidate will be working closely with a PhD candidate at Glasgow who will be specialising in multimodal reminders, in particular tactile and olfactory reminders. Both candidates will collaborate on a pilot reminder system that will be trialled in users' homes.

This project would suit candidates from a variety of backgrounds, including human-computer interaction, speech science, audiology, medical physics, rehabilitation engineering, ergonomics, phonetics, or cognitive psychology.

All applicants should have completed their first degree before taking up the post. Applicants should have at least basic programming skills (at least one of Java, C++, Python). Skills in experimental design and statistics are highly desirable. Familiarity with software such as SPSS, matlab, or R is a bonus. Applicants should also be open to qualitative approaches to research.

The position is fully funded for 3.5 years through a stipend from the UK Engineering Physical Sciences and Research Council. The stipend is currently around £12900 per annum. In addition, fees for UK and European students are covered.

The School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, came top in the last UK Research Assessment Exercise. The School offers a wide range of support and courses for post-graduate students.
For further information about the Informatics PhD programme, see
http://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/postgraduate/phd.html
For further information about the Centre for Speech Technology Reseach, Edinburgh, see
http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk
For more information about the Multimodal Interaction Group, Glasgow, see
http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~stephen/
For more information about Speech and Hearing Sciences , QMU, see
http://www.qmu.ac.uk/sls

The successful candidate will start on October 1, 2009. Provisionally, the supervisors
will be Prof Steve Renals, Dr Maria Wolters, and Dr Marilyn McGee-Lennon (Glasgow).

The deadline for receiving applications is July 31, 2009.
More information about the application process can be found here:
http://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/postgraduate/apply.html

For further information, please contact

Dr Maria Wolters, maria.wolters@ed.ac.uk
http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/mwolters

"Quel che par non xe'. La luce , l'occhio e le illusioni ottiche" Lusiana (VI) - 18 Luglio - 23 agosto 2009


Cari colleghi ed amici,

dal 18 Luglio al 23 Agosto si terrà a Lusiana (Altipiano di Asiago) una mostra, con la sponsorizzazione del Dipartimento di Psicologia di Padova, sulla luce e le illusioni ottiche da disegni ed oggetti comuni. Vi allego locandina.
In occasione della mostra il 31 Luglio si terrà un convegno sulla “Rilevanza delle illusioni nello studio della percezione visiva” con interventi di: Vicario, Agostini, Luccio, Stucchi, Da Pos, Zavagno, Gori.
Sperando che la cosa vi interessi e avete occasione di passare da queste parti o voglia di fare una gita, vi mando i miei più cordiali saluti.

Mario Zanforlin

PhD position: Temporal aspects of auditory intensity processing

A PhD position in psychoacoustics / experimental psychology is available in the lab of Dr. Daniel Oberfeld (Dept. of Psychology, University of Mainz, Germany), in the project "Temporal aspects of auditory intensity processing" funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.
The position (“wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter”, TV-L 13 50%, part time 20 hours/week) is available for 2 years. Earliest starting date is Aug. 1, 2009.

In the project, auditory intensity discrimination under non-simultaneous masking will be studied. Maskers presented in temporal proximity to the target stimulus can cause strong impairment in intensity resolution. Previous studies indicated that these effects can not be fully explained by mechanisms in the auditory periphery but suggested a role of more centrally located processes. The project will combine different methods in order to gain a better understanding of the underlying processes, with a focus on auditory attention. In one series of experiments, the hypothesis will be tested that auditory object perception provides a framework for understanding the psychoacoustic effects. In other experiments, the decision process in an intensity discrimination task will be studied by means of "molecular" analyses of the behavioral data. Mathematical and physiological models will be considered in the data analysis.

Duties and responsibilities:
* Planning and realization of the experiments
* Data collection
* Statistical analyses and interpretation of the data
* Modeling of the results (where applicable)
* Communication of the results at conferences and in scientific papers


Requirements:
* Strong interest in human auditory perception
* University Diploma or Master in psychoacoustics, experimental psychology, computer science, electrical engineering, physics, mathematics, biology, or cognitive neuroscience
* Previous experience and skills in at least one of the following fields: psychoacoustics, psychophysics, programming (e.g., Matlab), experimental psychology, modeling
* Good statistical and methodological skills
* Excellent speaking and writing skills in English

Besides access to a well-equipped psychoacoustics lab, interested candidates will have the opportunity to use the Department's EEG lab. It is also possible to conduct fMRI experiments in cooperation with the University Hospital.

Informal enquiries should be addressed to Dr. Daniel Oberfeld, oberfeld@uni-mainz.de.

Please send applications (including CV, certificates, documentation of skills relevant to the project, and a short description of your research interests) by Aug. 10, 2009 per email (PDF preferred) to oberfeld@uni-mainz.de.

The University of Mainz is an equal opportunity employer. Women are encouraged to apply. Disabled applicants will receive priority in case they have equal qualifications.

Best,

Daniel

--
Dr. Daniel Oberfeld-Twistel
Johannes Gutenberg - Universitaet Mainz
Department of Psychology
Experimental Psychology