A PhD position is available in the Speech & Bilingualism research group at the BCBL, San Sebastian, Spain. The successful candidate will perform research on foreign-accented speech processing. Research methods include acoustic and behavioral measures, optionally EEG/MEG and eye-tracking.
The Doctoral Candidate (DC) will be part of an international network of 13 research labs located throughout Europe who work on the EU funded HUM.AI.N-ACCENT project. The full consortium count with a total of 24 academic and non-academic partners in Europe, Canada and the USA. As part of the training, the DC will attend regular events across Europe and will realise short stays (secondments) to at least two Beneficiary/Partner Organizations.
HUM.AI.N-ACCENT is an interdisciplinary research project that explores the neurocognitive and social impacts of foreign-accented speech in human-human and human-AI interactions. With millions of new arrivals to the European Union each year, there is an urgent need to understand how foreign accents influence communication, decision-making, and social dynamics. Research has shown that foreign-accented speech can generate biases and increase cognitive load, yet the origins and consequences of these effects are still poorly understood. The HUM.AI.N-ACCENT project aims to fill this gap by combining insights from cognitive psychology, neuroscience, AI engineering, human-computer interaction, and social science, with lifespan perspectives. Using advanced methodologies like neuroimaging, eye-tracking, virtual reality, and neural tracking, the project will investigate how foreign-accented speech affects neural responses, attention allocation, and social judgments. By studying both human-human and human-AI interactions, the project will provide critical insights into how accents shape communication and behaviour in diverse contexts.
Job description:
The successful candidate will receive interdisciplinary training in theories and methods for the study of language and cognition, more specifically native- and foreign-accented speech perception and production. This includes many network-wide events and other (international) training opportunities.
The Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language is a world class interdisciplinary research center for the study of cognition, brain and language. BCBL provides a rich research environment with access to many neuroimaging techniques (EEG, MEG, MRI, NIRS, eye-tracking) and different labs to test babies, children, adults and elders. More information about the BCBL can be found at: https://www.bcbl.eu/en
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