Post-Doctoral Openings

[James L. McClelland]

I have an opening in my laboratory for at least one post-doctoral fellow and
possibly two.  These would be two-year post-doctoral fellowships, with the
possibility of extension if the applicant can raise additional funding for
additional years.  The default start date is September 1 1993, but other dates
may be possible.

I'm looking for individuals with strengths in the mathematical analysis of
neural networks who wish to apply these strengths to the development of 
a computational framework for modeling human cognition.  Prior work
demonstrating these strengths and interests will be given considerable
weight.

Two specific areas of interest in my laboratory are:

1. Dynamics of information processing.  The goal here has been to develop
mathematical analyses of stochastic, symmetric, diffusion networks and apply
these in an effort to understand the time-course of human information
processing as this is exhibited in information processing tasks studied
extensively in the human cognitive psychology literature.  We are also
interested in further studies of learning in stochastic networks, building on
recent work in my laboratory (with Javier Movellan, a departing postdoc) and
elsewhere. 

2. Learning and memory.  One goal here is to understand from a computational
point of view why humans have two memory systems.  Neuropsychological evidence
suggests that one may loose the ability to acquire new memories for specific
facts and experiences, while at the same time showing completely normal
acquisition of various cognitive, perceptuo-motor, and language processing
skills.  The questions in this area are, Why should there be two different
kinds of learning in the human brain, What are the essential properties of
each, and how do they work together.

Basically, I am looking for individuals who are interested in working on some
aspect of either of these broad problems.  My style in working with post-docs
is to find a specific problem of mutual interest and develop a collaboration
around that.

Please do not reply by email.

If you are interested please send me a letter along with a CV, your
publications or preprints, and the names, addresses and phone numbers of two
individuals who can comment on your work.  Send your materials by December 20
to:

James L. McClelland
Department of Psychology
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213

Upon receipt of these materials I will reciprocate with recent papers from my
laboratory as a way of beginning a discussion of whether we can find a fit
between our interests.