Connectionists: Postdoc at NYU in human planning and reinforcement learning

[Weiji Ma]

Postdoc in the lab of Wei Ji Ma at NYU: human planning in tasks with large
decision trees


My lab, in the Center for Neural Science and the Department of Psychology
at New York University (http://www.cns.nyu.edu/malab), is looking for a
postdoc to study human planning in tasks with large decision trees. The
appointment is for two years with the possibility of extension; funding is
guaranteed but grantwriting is encouraged. Salary will be NIH scale or
higher.


Who we are: We work primarily in computational cognitive science and a bit
in computational neuroscience. We have previously worked extensively on
perceptual decision-making, suboptimality, working memory limitations, and
neural population coding, but recent work has focused on approximate
inference, resource rationality, planning, and social decision-making. For
more details, see http://www.cns.nyu.edu/malab/projects.html. Questions on
human planning that we are interested in include how the mind searches a
decision tree, how depth of planning depends on the complexity of the
environment, and how people arbitrate between model-free and model-based
strategies. We are particularly interested in planning in cooperative
social contexts.


Job description: As a postdoc in the lab, you will be involved in
conceptual development, theoretical development, experimental design, data
collection, data analysis, data interpretation, manuscript writing, and
dissemination of results. You will co-mentor and collaborate with Ph.D.
students. You will be part of the lab community and the broader NYU/NYC
psychology/neuroscience community, with connections to data science and
economics.


Qualifications: We are looking for someone who (1) is open-minded,
resilient, and motivated to work on relatively narrow problems with
potentially broad implications; (2) has experience in theoretical or
computational approaches, in particular in reinforcement learning,
artificial intelligence/machine learning, or approximate inference; (3) has
experience in theoretically driven human behavioral experiments; (4) is
interested in the connections between computational cognitive science and
artificial intelligence/machine learning (not necessarily deep neural
networks).


Lab culture: We care a lot about mentorship quality, a positive lab
culture, diversity, and work-life balance. For more details, see
http://www.cns.nyu.edu/malab/lablife.html. We are looking for someone who
is kind, helpful, and cares about making the lab environment and the
broader community better for everyone, and who is interested in mentoring
scientists more junior than themselves. Moreover, many lab members have
been involved in science policy, mentorship through personal narratives,
advocating for diversity and inclusion, science advocacy, science outreach,
and mentoring high school students. For more details, see
http://www.cns.nyu.edu/malab/community.html.



To apply, please email a detailed statement of interest and your CV to me
at weijima at nyu.edu, with subject line “Postdoc in planning”. The position
will be open until filled.


NYU is an Equal Opportunity Employer and is committed to a policy of equal
treatment and opportunity in every aspect of its recruitment and hiring
process without regard to age, alienage, caregiver status, childbirth,
citizenship status, color, creed, disability, domestic violence victim
status, ethnicity, familial status, gender and/or gender identity or
expression, marital status, military status, national origin, parental
status, partnership status, predisposing genetic characteristics,
pregnancy, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, unemployment status,
veteran status, or any other legally protected basis. Women, racial and
ethnic minorities, persons of minority sexual orientation or gender
identity, individuals with disabilities, and veterans are encouraged to
apply for vacant positions at all levels.
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