Connectionists: PhD positions in psychology of language/music---computational and empirical emphasis

[Tabor, Whitney]

Please circulate as appropriate. Apologies for cross-posting.

PhD positions in UConn’s Language & Cognition Program

The Language & Cognition<https://langcog.psychology.uconn.edu/> faculty at the University of Connecticut’s Department of <https://psych.uconn.edu/>
Psychological Sciences<https://psych.uconn.edu/> are soliciting applications for PhD students to begin in the fall of 2021.

The Language & Cognition group is part of the Perception-Action-Cognition division, one of 6 highly interactive divisions within the department. We have a strong track record in interdisciplinary research with work spanning from theory and computational modeling to empirical cognitive and neuroscience research. Our work is animated by a focus on the interplay between new cognitive science insights and the classical foundation in the computational theory of mind in a broad range of domains (e.g., brain plasticity, embodied cognition, event dynamics, reading, music cognition, dynamical systems methods).  Our group is a core member of three interdisciplinary graduate training programs: Neurobiology of Language (launched with NSF IGERT funding), Science of Learning & Art of Communication (funded by an NSF NRT training grant), and the Cognitive Neuroscience of Communication (funded by an NIH pre- and postdoctoral training grant). Facilities include state-of-the-art MRI, high-density EEG, tDCS, TMS, eyetracking and other behavioral techniques, as well as access to computing clusters, lab space, and a dynamic program of colloquia, internal talk series and interest groups. We have strong collaborative links to researchers outside of UConn as well as our colleagues in Linguistics, Speech, Language, & Hearing Sciences, Philosophy, Biomedical Engineering, Educational Psychology, and UConn Health and the Medical School. Typically, students are funded through a mix of fellowships and Teaching and Research Assistantships, and our students have an excellent recent track record competing for external and internal fellowships. UConn is home to a vibrant community of faculty and students and expects to see major growth in research activity over the next decade.

The Language & Cognition faculty, and their interests, include:

Gerry Altmann<https://psych.uconn.edu/person/gerald-altmann/> (Director, CT Institute for the Brain and Cognitive Sciences). Sentence processing and prediction; the mapping between language and vision; event cognition.

Christian Brodbeck<https://christianbrodbeck.net/> Cognitive neuroscience of language, speech perception, EEG/MEG.

Roeland Hancock<https://psych.uconn.edu/person/roeland-hancock/> (Associate Director, Brain Imaging Research Center). Neurochemistry and neuromodulation; Neurobiology of sentence processing; Auditory Processing.

Fumiko Hoeft<https://psych.uconn.edu/person/fumiko-hoeft/> (Director, Brain Imaging Research Center). Brain development; various neuroimaging methods; machine learning; individual differences; literacy acquisition; dyslexia.

Ed Large<https://musicdynamicslab.uconn.edu/home/dr-edward-large/> Auditory neuroscience; music psychology; dynamical systems.

Jim Magnuson<https://psych.uconn.edu/person/james-magnuson/> (Director, NSF NRT training program in Science of Learning & Art of Communication). Neurobiology and psychology of language; spoken language understanding; computational modeling; language and learning over the lifespan; science communication.

Emily Myers<https://psych.uconn.edu/person/emily-myers/> (Co-Director, NIH training program in the Cognitive Neuroscience of
Communication). Speech perception; cognitive neuroscience of speech and language; aphasia; second language acquisition.

Ken Pugh<https://haskinslabs.org/people/kenneth-pugh> (President, Haskins Laboratories). Reading; reading disorders; neurobiology of language.

Jay Rueckl<https://psych.uconn.edu/person/jay-rueckl/> Neurobiology and psychology of reading; implicit and explicit memory;
statistical learning; computational modeling and dynamical systems.

Whit Tabor<https://psych.uconn.edu/person/whitney-tabor/> Sentence processing; theory of grammar; dynamical systems; neural networks; language change; group coordination.

Eiling Yee<https://psych.uconn.edu/person/eiling-yee/> Semantic memory and the neural representation of concepts; spoken word recognition and situated/embodied language processing.

Next steps: Contact a potential faculty advisor from the list above, explore UConn<https://uconn.edu/> and the application procedure<https://grad.uconn.edu/admissions/apply-to-uconn/>. Application deadline: December 1, 2020.


Whitney Tabor                        (860) 486-4910 (office)
Department of Psychology        (860) 486-2760 (fax)
University of Connecticut          (860) 486-6080 (lab)
Storrs, CT  06269-1020            whitney.tabor at uconn.edu<mailto:whitney.tabor at uconn.edu>
USA                                       BOUS Room 124 (office)

https://wp.solab.uconn.edu/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/pipermail/connectionists/attachments/20200927/2a0f46bf/attachment.html>