University of Glasgow

College of Science and Engineering

Institute of Neuroscience & Psychology / School of Psychology

Research Assistant / Associate

Ref: 012552

Salary: Grade 6/7, £27,328-£30,738/£33,574- £37,768 per annum

 The holder of this post will contribute to a three-year project with Professor Lawrence Barsalou on The Neural Bases of Conceptual Processing in Situated Action. Specific issues to be addressed include: How does conceptual knowledge become situated? How does conceptual knowledge produce multi-modal inferences dynamically to support cognition, affect, and behaviour in specific situations? How can individual differences in situated action and conceptual processing be understood within this framework? How can this framework be brought to bear on food concepts, situated eating behaviours, and other affective processes?

The position requires a strong general background in cognitive, social, and/or affective neuroscience, together with excellent fMRI, experimental, and statistical skills. Specifically, the position requires: (1) playing significant roles in the conceptualization and design of fMRI experiments and any related behavioural experiments, (2) playing significant roles in preparing and running these experiments, analysing their results, writing them up for publication, and presenting them at conferences, (3) playing significant roles in developing grant proposals, performing relevant literature reviews, working together with collaborators, and supervising junior lab members.

For more information and to apply online, please refer to:

www.glasgow.ac.uk/jobs (Reference 012552)

The position is also advertised on jobs.ac.uk at:

http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/AUC775/research-assistant-associate/

Barsalou Lab site: www.barsaloulab.org

Closing date: 20 March 2016

The University has recently been awarded the Athena SWAN Institutional Bronze Award.

The University is committed to equality of opportunity in employment.

The University of Glasgow, charity number SC004401.

After 18 wonderful and productive years in the Department of Psychology at Emory University, the Barsalou Lab has moved to the Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology at Glasgow University.  At the moment, we’re still moving in, getting things set up, and becoming oriented to how everything works in a new environment.  We have already begun several projects with Jing Chen, Gillian Jones, and Nils Rickardsson, one being an fMRI project on the neural bases of decentering while processing food cues, and two being behavioral experiments, first, on decentering during disturbing events, and second, on global vs. local processing in abstract and concrete concepts.  A variety of new projects and grant proposals are being developed for research on situated conceptualization, food cognition, affect, the relation between cognition and perception, etc.  We are quite excited to be heading off in new directions related to long-standing themes and interests.

We are finding that The Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology is a rich and supportive environment for developing and performing research.  Not only are there many talented and accomplished world-class researchers here, the infrastructure for performing research is truly impressive and state-of-the art.  Additionaly, a collaborative and helpful spirit is ubiquitous, infusing the Institute’s activities, together with lightness and humor.  Oh yes, and talk about infrastructure, the coffee machine epitomizes the state-of-the-art attitude here.  And the lounge containing it is a continual source of great conversations and ideas.  There are also too many groups to enumerate who meet regularly to discuss reward, MEG, fMRI, sleep, statistics, methods, etc., etc., and also one great talk after another from people passing through.

In the coming months, we plan on recruiting new members to the lab.  If you’re potentially interested, please stay tuned to this announcements page, where any new positions will be posted.  And if you’re an old friend and colleague who happens to be passing through, please stop by and say hello.