Please see below for a list of currently advertised research opportunities:
Project Title: Taking the next step to understand how walking modulates perception and attention
Project Description:
Our lives are characterized by movement, yet most psychology and neuroscience research has traditionally focused on highly restrained, static experimental settings. Fundamentally, this limits the transfer of knowledge gained in experimental psychology to the real-world and may miss key features of cognitive and neural function linked to action.
This project will address this deficit by investigating how walking modulates our perception of the environment, with a focus on movement in immersive wireless virtual-reality (VR) environments.
Representative publications:
1) Davidson, M. J., Verstraten, F. A., & Alais, D. (2024). Walking modulates visual detection performance according to stride cycle phase. Nature communications, 15(1), 2027. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-45780-4
2) Davidson, M. J., Keys, R. T., Szekely, B., MacNeilage, P., Verstraten, F., & Alais, D. (2023). Continuous peripersonal tracking accuracy is limited by the speed and phase of locomotion. Scientific reports, 13(1),14864. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-40655-y
3) Barnes, L., Davidson, M. J., & Alais, D. (2024). The speed and phase of locomotion dictate saccade probability and simultaneous low-frequency power spectra. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 1-16.
https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-024-02932-4
PhD Scholarship
This project is part of an Australian Research Council fellowship awarded to Dr. Matthew Davidson. The project includes funding for a living stipend scholarship valued at 35,000 to 37,000 per annum (depending on experience). The duration of this stipend is for 3 years. Please note that domestic-student tuition fees are waived. However, international applicants are liable for tuition fees. International applicants will only be considered under exceptional circumstances, due to the desired timeline of the project.
Candidate Requirements:
Essential:
Honours or Masters degree in: Psychology, Cognitive science, Neuroscience, OR Sport and Exercise Science/Physiology OR Engineering or Computer Science OR other related and relevant disciplines with an interest in psychological science
Willingness to learn programming/coding skills for experimentation and statistical analysis
Excellent academic writing skills
Desirable:
A record of contributing to academic publications
Experience with electroencephalography (EEG), OR with virtual reality (VR), OR with kinematic analysis (including (3D motion capture and force plate analysis), OR with physiological signals (including eye-movements and cardiorespiratory signals)
Supervision
Primary: Dr Matthew Davidson, Lecturer, Discipline of Psychology, Graduate School of Health, UTS.
This project includes collaboration/co-supervision with the School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation (UTS), Faculty of Engineering and IT (UTS), School of Psychology (University of Sydney).
Contact and Expression of Interest
Contact Dr Matt Davidson (matthew.davidson@uts.edu.au) to discuss your interest and/or submit your application.
If interested, please forward your CV and cover letter to matthew.davidson@uts.edu.au
In your cover letter, please include:
Your personal interest in applying
Your relevant skills and research expertise,
Contact information for 1-2 academic referees.
Deadline
This position is open until filled. More information regarding the UTS Phd in Psychology, and potential scholarships are available below: