The Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences (FMG) is the largest educational and research institution in the social sciences in the Netherlands. The Faculty serves 7,500 students in numerous Bachelor’s and Master’s programmes in Political Science, Sociology, Anthropology, Communication Science, Psychology, Social Geography, Planning and International Development Studies, and Educational Sciences. The academic staff is employed in education as well as research. There are over 1,100 employees at the Faculty department, which resides in a number of buildings in the centre of Amsterdam.

The PhD project (4 years full time) and the post-doc project (4 years 0.8 fte) are being funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and will be in the context of the NWO VIDI project ‘The dynamics of simple-rule learning in infants and preschoolers’. We will focus on two issues in the early development of simple rule learning, for which at present adequate explanations are lacking: a) all-or-none learning; b) categorical individual differences in the development of simple rule learning. We will evaluate results by the application of mathematical learning models. The PhD and the postdoc are expected to collaborate with Maartje Raijmakers. The projects will focus on, respectively: PhD - The development of rule learning in preschool children. Postdoc - Rule-learning in preverbal infants.

Requirements
(Research) master (or “doctoraal”) in Psychology (graduation not later than autumn 2007), preferably developmental psychology or psychological methods. Excellent knowledge of statistical methodology and/or mathematical models. Excellent writing skills; fluency in English. For the postdoc project: PhD in cognitive psychology (developmental psychology preferred). Experience with experimental research with infants is preferred.

More information
More detailed project descriptions and further information can be obtained from Maartje Raijmakers (M.E.J.Raijmakers@uva.nl, tel +31-205257014).