We have a fully funded open PhD position in the lab of Constantin Rothkopf (https://www.pip.tu-darmstadt.de/) at the Centre for Cognitive Science @ TU Darmstadt in a joint DFG-AEI project in collaboration with Joan López-Moliner (U. Barcelona) on continuous psychophysics. This exciting new experimental paradigm abandons the rigid trial structure involving binary responses and replaces it with continuous behavioral adjustments to dynamic stimuli: Bonnen, K., Burge, J., Yates, J., Pillow, J., & Cormack, L. K. (2015). Continuous psychophysics: Target-tracking to measure visual sensitivity. Journal of vision, 15(3), 14-14. https://jov.arvojournals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2301260 Together with a computational analysis framework based on Bayesian inverse optimal control it is possible to not only recover the perceptual sensitivity but additionally estimate participants’ action variability, internal behavioral costs, and subjective beliefs about the experimental stimulus dynamics: Straub, D., & Rothkopf, C. A. (2022). Putting perception into action with inverse optimal control for continuous psychophysics. Elife, 11, e76635. https://elifesciences.org/articles/76635 In SHIFT, we want to validate, refine, and extend our analysis method for continuous psychophysics. Our group is part of the Centre for Cognitive Science (http://www.cogsci.tu-darmstadt.de/) and the AI Center at TU Darmstadt, which are home to an internationally outstanding group of PIs and junior researchers working in the areas of computational cognitive science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. We are part of several research consortia including two recently awarded Excellence Clusters (The Adaptive Mind & Reasonable AI), we are part of the Simons Collaboration on Ecological Neuroscience, and engage in multiple fruitful research collaborations. The lab has state of the art equipment for eye and body tracking, VR, naturalistic task monitoring, psychophysics and access to one of the most generous computing infrastructures in Germany. We foster an inclusive, supportive, and collaborative environment driven by scientific curiosity and mutual respect and we maintain close interactions with other research groups including joint lab meetings. Applicants may have a background in cognitive science, computer science, neuroscience, psychology, engineering, or related fields. Don’t hesitate to contact me informally for more details if you have any questions. Please send an application including a CV, a two page cover letter explaining your research interests, motivation for joining the project, and contact information for 2-3 references in a single pdf file. Please include "SHIFT" in the subject of your mail. Applications will be reviewed on a continuing basis. The Frankfurt-Darmstadt metropolitan area is located in the heart of Europe and is one of the most international regions in Germany with a diverse community and rich culture repeatedly earning high rankings in worldwide surveys of quality of living. Frankfurt recently reached 7th place worldwide in a ranking of attractiveness by the Economist and Darmstadt has repeatedly ranked among the top innovation driving cities in Germany. All the best, Constantin Rothkopf -- Prof. Constantin A. Rothkopf, PhD Technical University of Darmstadt, Alexanderstr. 10, 64283 Darmstadt phone: +49 6151 16-23367 https://tu-darmstadt.zoom-x.de/my/crothkopf Psychology of Information Processing Group https://www.pip.tu-darmstadt.de/ Centre for Cognitive Science http://www.cogsci.tu-darmstadt.de/ Hessian Center for Artificial Intelligence https://hessian.ai/ Institute of Psychology https://www.psychologie.tu-darmstadt.de/