Three Fully-Funded PhD Positions: Curiosity and Cognitive Development in Young Children

In a large multidisciplinary project, we will examine the role of curiosity – the drive to learn new things – in early child development. There are three fully-funded PhD positions available within this project: Two PhD candidates will examine the working mechanisms of curiosity and why some children are more intrinsically motivated to explore and learn new things than others (PhD positions 1&2). They will use a combined cognitive neuroscience and developmental approach and implement techniques such as fMRI, EEG, or eye-tracking. The third PhD candidate will leverage knowledge on curiosity to investigate how optimal learning environments can be created for all children and develop a training programme for professionals working in childcare and early education (PhD position 3).

The research work will be conducted at the Baby and Child Research Center (BRC) of Radboud University (Nijmegen, Netherlands). The PhD candidates will be supervised by Prof. Sabine Hunnius and Dr Marlene Meyer. They will work in an interdisciplinary team of developmental scientists, cognitive psychologists, and neuroscientists at the Donders Institute, an internationally renowned, state-of-the-art cognitive neuroscience institute with excellent research facilities.

More information can be found here:
https://www.ru.nl/werken-bij/vacature/details-vacature/?recid=1150747&doel=embed&taal=nl

Application deadline: 31 May 2021