Post-doctoral position in social cognition, evolution and psychopathology

A two-years post-doctoral position in social cognition, evolution and psychopathology is currently open at the Département d’Etudes Cognitives (DEC) of the Ecole normale supérieure in Paris, France.

This project will be conducted within a department of the DEC, the Institut Jean Nicod (IJN), in collaboration with the departments of Child and Adolescent psychiatry of the Pitié-Salpêtrière and Versailles hospitals, under the joint supervision of Valérian Chambon (IJN), Axel Baptista and Pierre O. Jacquet (Centre de recherche en Épidémiologie et Santé des Populations, Developmental psychiatry team, INSERM U1018).

Project summary:

The project aims to investigate individual variability, as well as inter-individual variability between healthy adolescents and patients suffering from Borderline Personality Disorder, in agency and social learning. For this, we will draw on recent advances in evolutionary psychology, social neuroscience and psychiatry.

Specifically, the goal of the project is to test whether within- and between-individual variability in the weighting of social information for sense of agency can be explained by variations in life history parameters, and whether these variations correlate with borderline personality traits.

A substantive part of the project will be dedicated to the development and gamification of an online version of an experimental task.

Skills/Qualifications

- The candidate should have a PhD in Cognitive Science, Evolutionary Biology or related areas.

- Ample experience designing psychology experiments is also required (mastery of several methods is a plus) along with strong programming and statistical skills (matlab, R).

- Experience with gamification and development of online version of cognitive tests/experiments will be particularly valued. Knowledge of standard game development packages (e.g. Unity) is a plus.  

- A research background in social learning, life history theory and social neuroscience will also be appreciated.

- Strong language and writing skills in English are required (note: speaking French is not required).

Funding and salary:

The position is funded by a Fondation de France grant. The salary will be adjusted to the candidate’s post-doctoral experience (start salary for a 1st year post doc: 26,000 euros).

Start date:

The start date will be determined with the candidate but will need to fall within the following range: september 2022 to november 2022.

Please send a complete CV, a 2-page cover letter, your most representative publication and contact information of two references to: valerian.chambon@ens.fr , axel.baptista@gmail.com ,pierre.ol.jacquet@gmail.com