Connectionists: Postdoc position

[Bernhard Hommel]

The Cognitive Psychology Section, Department of Psychology at the Leiden
University, and the Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition invites
applications for a Postdoc position. 

The position is embedded into a large-scale four-year project (PACO+,
http://www.paco-plus.org/) funded by the European Union and carried out in
cooperation with 7 partner labs in Europe (DE, DK, ES, SE, SI, UK). The
project aims at developing a neurophysiologically inspired computational
model of the acquisition and representation of object-action complexes
(OACs, event files), and the subsequent use of such OACs for the selection
and control of contextually adapted actions in a behaving humanoid robot
(Armar III). 

A basic tenet of the project is that objects and actions are inseparably
intertwined, and that OACs can only emerge through interaction with the
environment. Behavioral, anatomical, and physiological knowledge about the
human brain will be exploited to build a restricted but biologically
plausible cognitive system that will be implemented in real robotic systems.
Experimental studies will be conducted to evaluate the models by comparing
human and robot behavior.

The research will be carried out at the Department of Psychology, Leiden
University, and supervised by Prof. Dr. Bernhard Hommel. The project group
also comprises of two PhD students who just started. Leiden University is
the oldest and most prestigious university in the Netherlands and the group
of Dr. Hommel has an excellent international reputation in the area of
attention and action control. Leiden is a beautiful historical university
city in the vicinity of Den Haag, Amsterdam and Schiphol airport and only 5
km from the North Sea beach.

A PhD in cognitive psychology, neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience,
computer science, or other related discipline is a prerequisite. Experience
in programming (e.g., C++, Matlab) and neural modeling is also required.
General knowledge in the areas of visual perception and action selection,
visual attention, cognition, or cognitive neuroscience is recommended.

The position is for four years, starting as soon as possible. There is no
deadline, applications will be continuously evaluated on a first come first
served basis. Please send applications and CVs to Prof. Dr. Bernhard Hommel
(hommel at fsw.leidenuniv.nl). 


===================================
Bernhard Hommel
Leiden University
Department of Psychology
Cognitive Psychology Unit
& Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition
Wassenaarseweg 52, Room 2B05
P.O. Box 9555
2300 RB Leiden, The Netherlands
Phone: +(0)629023062
http://home.planet.nl/~homme247/bh.htm