The project aims to determine the plasticity of the predictive mind using meditation. It starts from the notion that our brain is fundamentally an organ of prediction, continuously predicting or constructing a view of the world based on past experiences and statistical regularities in the environment in service of (future) action. It builds on the proposal (Laukkonen & Slagter, 2021) that certain meditation practices can reduce predictive processing through physical and mental in-action: by bringing the practitioner in the present moment, unaffected by what just happened or may happen in the future. Adopting this perspective of meditation not only inspires a new understanding of the effects of meditation on brain, mind (e.g., attention, the sense of self, awareness), and well-being, but also opens many interesting research questions about the plasticity and automaticity of predictive processing. The postdoc would uniquely contribute and drive research on this topic.

In the Cognition and Plasticity lab, we take an integrative focus, aiming to bring together research on perception, consciousness, and attention with that on action and active inference. We use multiple methodologies, with a current focus on EEG, eye-tracking, and virtual reality, but also some fMRI. More details are available on request from Prof Heleen Slagter, h.a.slagter@vu.nl.

Your duties

• map out existing literature and generate new ideas
• co-design and implement new experiments and collect data
• analyze, and curate (existing) data
• report on the findings in local meetings and inter(national) conferences
• write several scientific articles
• assist in (minor) teaching activities within the department
• contribute to the team spirit and help others achieve their goals

• You successfully completed a PhD in experimental psychology, cognitive neuroscience or a related field. If you have not quite finished yet, you may still apply.
• You have clear affinity with the topic of the postdoc project. Prior experience with meditation and/or conducting meditation research is considered a plus.
• You have demonstrable experience in designing and interpreting cognitive experiments and with quantitative research methods, such as EEG or fMRI.
• You have excellent programming skills in Python, Matlab, or equivalent.
• You have excellent verbal and written English language skills
• You are a team player with good communicative abilities

Fixed-term contract: 18 months.

A challenging position in a socially engaged organisation. At VU Amsterdam, you contribute to education, research and service for a better world. And that is valuable. So in return for your efforts, we offer you:

• a salary of minimum € 3.345,00 (Scale 10) and maximum € 5.278,00 (Scale 10) gross per month, on a full-time basis. This is based on UFO profile Researcher 4. The exact salary depends on your education and experience.
• a position for 1 FTE. Your employment contract will last 18 months.

We also offer you attractive fringe benefits and regulations. Some examples:

• A full-time 38-hour working week comes with a holiday leave entitlement of 232 hours per year. If you choose to work 40 hours, you have 96 extra holiday leave hours on an annual basis. For part-timers, this is calculated pro rata.
• 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus
• contribution to commuting expenses
• optional model for designing a personalized benefits package
• discounts on collective insurances (healthcare- and car insurance)

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

About the team
The ERC project is led by Prof Heleen Slagter and is part of the Cognitive Psychology group at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. The group is world-leading in its work on perception, attention, working memory, consciousness and learning in the visual domain. Other scientific staff members include Prof Jan Theeuwes, Prof Chris Olivers, Dr Mieke Donk, Dr Freek van Ede, Dr Sander Los, Dr Tomas Knapen, Dr Joshua Snell, Dr Johannes Fahrenfort, and Dr Mattias Nau. The research group has expertise in psychophysics, eye tracking, VR, EEG, and fMRI, and has extensive corresponding lab facilities. The group values quality research, personal development, and social cohesion within an international atmosphere. We currently advise about 20 PhD students from all over the world. We have a bi-weekly lab meeting, a weekly colloquium followed by drinks, as well as regular social events. The Lingua Franca is English.

Faculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences
Developing knowledge for an active, healthy and meaningful life: that is our mission at the Faculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences at VU Amsterdam. We maintain a broad focus on the fields of behaviour and health. Our teaching and research programmes are devoted to current developments in society. From healthy aging to e-health, and from training top athletes to social media as a teaching tool. We combine three academic disciplines: psychology, movement sciences and education. A multidisciplinary approach allows us to arrive at a better understanding of human behaviour and movement. Our aims are to help people live healthier lives, learn better and function better.

Are you interested in joining Behavioural and Movement Sciences? You are the kind of person who feels at home working in an ambitious faculty, with an informal atmosphere and short lines of communication. We offer you all the space you need for personal development. Together with your 630 colleagues, you will take care of about 4,200 students.

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam stands for values-driven education and research. We are open-minded experts with the ability to think freely. - a broader mind. Maintaining an entrepreneurial perspective and concentrating on diversity, significance and humanity, we work on sustainable solutions with social impact. By joining forces, across the boundaries of disciplines, we work towards a better world for people and planet. Together we create a safe and respectful working and study climate, and an inspiring environment for education and research. Learn more about our codes of conduct

We are located on one physical campus, in the heart of Amsterdam's Zuidas business district, with excellent location and accessibility. Over 6,150 staff work at the VU and over 31,000 students attend academic education.

Diversity
Diversity is the driving force of the VU. The VU wants to be accessible and receptive to diversity in disciplines, cultures, ideas, nationalities, beliefs, preferences and worldviews. We believe that trust, respect, interest and differences lead to new insights and innovation, to sharpness and clarity, to excellence and a broader understanding.

We stand for an inclusive community and believe that diversity and internationalisation contribute to the quality of education, research and our services.

Therefore, we are always searching for people whose backgrounds and experience contribute to the diversity of the VU community.