Post-doctoral position in cognitive and social psychology

Applications are invited for a two-years full-time post-doctoral research position at the Faculty of Psychology of Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Belgium. The position is covered by an Advanced Concerted Research Actions project (ACR) titled “The Socio-Cognitive Impact of Literacy”, coordinated by Régine Kolinsky (Research Unit in Cognitive Neurosciences) and Olivier Klein (Center for Social and Cultural Psychology).

We offer onsite laboratory facilities and a highly interdisciplinary and active research environment. The position will be funded and renewable on a yearly basis for up to two years.

 

Starting date: January 2022 at the latest (but can be earlier). The project runs until end September 2024

 

Project

Combining cognitive psychology, psycholinguistics, and social psychology approaches, we examine whether and how it is possible to improve critical and argumentative thinking as well as information validation endowing resistance to misinformation in low literate adults and adolescents. Another more general aim of the project is to look at the possible impact of literacy (reading-writing) on critical and argumentative thinking, as well as the role of possible supportive capacities such as oral language proficiency, reasoning, memory, executive and mindreading abilities. For this purpose, we train people with poor reading skills (adolescents attending vocational education and functional illiterate adults), tracking their progress through behavioral measures, including eye-movement recording.

 

Candidate requirements

We seek candidates with a strong background in cognitive psychology and/or social psychology and a very good knowledge of French, for being involved in the testing of low literate French-speaking adolescents and adults. Other aspects that will be considered are good field management skills (at schools and adult institutions, as well as with PhD students), strong statistical analysis skills (including of longitudinal/intervention data), and if possible, experience in working with disadvantaged populations and/or in a school context.

 

Eligibility criteria

• Applicants of any age and of any nationality are eligible
• Eligible applicants are Experienced Researchers, i.e. holders of a PhD degree, with maximum 7 years postdoctoral experience at the date of 1 October 2021.
• Eligible applicants must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Belgium for more than 12 months during the 3 years preceding the call deadline.
• Eligible applicants should not have benefited from another postdoctoral fellowship in Belgium for more than 6 months by the date of 1 October 2021.

Benefits

• EU Citizens and citizens from countries that have a bilateral social security agreement with Belgium: social security coverage including medical insurance, unemployment benefit, retirement pension, maternity leave and child benefit
• Non-EU Citizens from countries that have NO bilateral social security agreement with Belgium: social security coverage including medical insurance, maternity leave and child benefit
• Insurance against accidents in the workplace
• Tax exemption
• Low-cost private hospitalization insurance
• On-site services at the ULB: medical centre, university hospital, sports centre, subsidized restaurants, cultural centre, crèche, activities for children…

How to apply

Applications should be sent by email to Régine Kolinsky and should include:

• a C.V. including a list of publications
• two letters of recommendation
• a short cover letter describing research interests

Please, mention that you are applying to the “POSTDOCTORAL position ACR” in the email subject.

Feel free to contact Régine Kolinsky or Olivier Klein should you have any questions.

Applications must be sent by October 31, 2021.