The Perception and Active Cognition Lab at New York University Abu Dhabi is looking for a postdoctoral associate for a project looking at visual factors and eye movements in the recognition of Arabic words. These positions could be a good fit to someone with experience running EEG/MEG experiments in visual perception or reading.
The successful applicant will drive a fascinating project on the role of prediction and parafoveal previews across eye movements in the rapid recognition of Arabic words and other visual stimuli. Our laboratory has developed paradigms to study the role of prediction in more naturalistic viewing conditions, in which people move their eyes to look at stimuli of interest, as we do normally while reading or looking around. In particular, we developed a combined behavioral, eye-tracking and EEG/MEG paradigm to study the “preview effect”, in which the fact that we see a stimulus peripherally influences the neural processing of that item when we look directly at it. These neural measures allow us to characterize how prediction and the preview increases the efficiency of neural processing. In this context, the role of previewing a word with peripheral vision while reading in Arabic is a particularly interesting research question, and we will compare the preview effect for Arabic words, English words, faces, oriented gratings and other stimuli.
The candidate will work in a multidisciplinary environment with world-class research infrastructure, consisting of PhD-level scientists, graduate students and undergraduate students, with the project also involving faculty from Psychology, Computer Science and Arabic Language.
For the Postdoctoral Associate position, applicants must have a PhD in Psychology, Linguistics, Neuroscience, Computer Science or related field.
For a Research Assistant position, applicants should have a Master’s Degree in Psychology, Linguistics, Neuroscience, Computer Science or related field.
Required expertise includes strong knowledge of psycho/neuro-linguistics and/or visual perception, as well as experience with eyetracking and with EEG or a similar methodology. Given that the stimuli in these studies will include Arabic words, knowledge of Modern Standard Arabic is desired (but not required).
For consideration, applicants need to submit via interfolio a cover letter, curriculum vitae with full publication list, statement of research interests and the names of three references (or two actual reference letters), all in PDF format. If you have any questions, please email Prof. David Melcher at david.melcher@nyu.edu](http://nyu.edu/).
Perception and Active Cognition Lab - NYU Abu Dhabi
Positions are funded for two years with the possibility of renewal. The terms of employment are extremely competitive and include travel/moving allowance, housing and educational subsidies for children. Collaboration and visits to other campuses in the New York University Global Network is encouraged but not required.
Please visit our website at Postdoctoral and Research - NYU Abu Dhabi for further instructions and information on how to apply via interfolio.
Applications will be accepted immediately and candidates will be considered until the position is filled. Ideal starting dates would be September or October 2022.
Interfolio application links:
Apply - Interfolio - Post-Doctoral Associate position
Apply - Interfolio - Research Assistant position
David Melcher
Professor of Psychology
Division of Science, New York University Abu Dhabi
Global Network Professor of Psychology
Faculty of Arts and Science, NYU
Room 139, Computational Research Building (A2)
Saadiyat campus
UAE: P.O. Box 129188, Abu Dhabi
USA: P.O. Box 903, New York, NY 10276-0903