CODE has openings for PhD students!

10 PhD Positions on Decision Confidence

Welcome to CODE! We are a network of 9 research labs located throughout Europe. We aim to unravel the mechanisms of decision confidence. Please see our new website for more information about our labs, the network and our research focus.

Virtually every decision people make comes with a sense of confidence – a subjective estimate of decision accuracy. Confidence enables us to monitor and judge the quality of our own decisions and sometimes even changes our behavior. For example, we reduce speed when driving in bad weather because we are less confident about our estimates of distance to surrounding traffic. But what makes us feel less confident under such circumstances? What brain mechanisms underlie this ability?

The human capacity for confidence has tremendous social, clinical, and industrial impact. Children who can correctly judge their own level of confidence perform better academically. In the elderly, confidence declines faster than other cognitive functions. Clinically, confidence plays a key role in our understanding of various brain-related disorders, including dementia, anxiety, addiction, and depression. In industry, confidence helps people trust algorithms and automated systems, and creates more natural interactions with smartphones and self-driving cars.

While the past decade has seen major advances in our scientific understanding of decision confidence, its mechanisms remain poorly understood. This lack of understanding significantly hampers the translation to real-world applications, such as educational programs and clinical interventions. Our multidisciplinary network aims to address this issue. CODE is a collaborative effort to advance current understanding of decision confidence and involves 9 research labs throughout Europe. By reaching across domains that usually work in silos, we aim to provide critical new insights into decision confidence, and pave the way for important confidence-based applications. 

CODE has openings for 10 PhD students to work on studies of decision confidence. The successful candidates will receive interdisciplinary training in theories and methods for the study of decision confidence. This includes many network-wide events, collaborations, and other international training opportunities.

Our Principal Investigators (PIs) are listed below. Interested candidates are invited to contact the PI(s) whose research focus and techniques best match their area of interest.

Janneke Jehee (Donders Institute)

Neural and computational basis of sensory uncertainty and decision confidence, fMRI, MEG, computational modeling, psychophysics.

https://www.jeheelab.org

Please apply for a position in Janneke's lab via this website.

Uta Noppeney (Donders Institute)

Computational and neural mechanisms of decision confidence, metacognition and information seeking, psychophysics, computational modeling, MEG, fMRI.

https://www.multisensorybrain.com

Please apply for the position in Uta's lab via this website.

Pascal Mamassian (École Normale Supérieure)

Sensory and confidence uncertainty, probabilistic models of confidence, visual psychophysics.

https://lsp.dec.ens.fr/en/member/647/pascal-mamassian

Please see here for more information about this position.

Kobe Desender (KU Leuven)

Computational modeling of decision confidence, drift diffusion model, reinforcement learning, EEG.

https://desenderlab.com

Please apply for the position in Kobe's lab via this website.

Steve Fleming (University College London)

Neural and computational basis of metacognition, confidence and information seeking, MEG, fMRI, computational modeling, psychophysics, individual differences.

http://metacoglab.org

Please apply for the position in Steve's lab via this website.

David Soto (Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language)

Developmental studies of decision confidence, psychophysics, machine learning, computational modeling.

https://bit.ly/3xpCReu

Please apply for the position in David's lab via this website.

Ruth van Holst (Amsterdam University Medical Centers)

Decision confidence in impulsive and compulsive disorders, cognitive (online) tests, computational modeling.

https://www.ruthvanholst.nl

Please see here for more information about this position.

Elisa Filevich (University of Tübingen)

Malleability of confidence and metacognition, psychophysics, EEG, movement analysis, computational modeling, machine learning.

https://metamotorlab.filevich.com

Please apply for the position in Elisa's lab via this website.

Andrea Desantis (The French Aerospace Lab – ONERA)

Neural basis of perceptual confidence, psychophysics, pupillary response, EEG, machine learning, BCI.

https://andreadesantis.net

Please see here for more information about this position.

We explicitly encourage women and other underrepresented groups to apply. Additional financial support for researchers with families is available. Candidates must comply with the Marie Curie Actions rule for mobility, which holds that they have spent no more than 12 months of the past 3 years in the country of the PI’s lab. Moving expenses for relocating to a new country will be covered.