The School of Psychology at Plymouth University is offering three full-time three-year PhD studentships including a stipend of £14,553, starting in September 2017, as well as two five-year part-time PhD studentships (in conjunction with part-time Teaching and Research Associate positions).

Deadline: Sunday 7th May 2017.
https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/schools/psychology/phd-studentships

Applications are encouraged for projects on the broad theme of prosody in speech perception and production, under the supervision of Laurence White (https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/staff/laurence-white).

Overview:
Prosody, the melody and timing of speech, tells us about not only the structure and content of spoken interactions, but also the emotional state, attitudes and social origins of conversation partners. We know that our linguistic background can affect our interpretation of prosody, but how far are such perceptual biases determined by experience? Are there prosodic codes that are interpreted consistently by listeners whatever their linguistic background? What could universal cues tell us
about the evolutionary origin and historical development of languages? Conversely, how is our use of prosody in talking and listening affected by individual differences in perception and cognition? Research projects addressing these and related themes lend themselves to a range of experimental approaches including: behavioural research, with adults and infants; articulatory analysis; computational modelling and evolutionary simulations; neuroscientific studies using electroencephalography (EEG)
and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS).

Students with an interest in spoken language, relevant degree qualifications and experience in any of the above techniques are encouraged to contact Laurence White (laurence.white@plymouth.ac.uk) for further information.