Goal Setting (Ph.D. student/postdoc)

The newly established Max Planck Research Group for Rationality Enhancement, headed by Dr. Falk Lieder at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Tübingen, Germany, is looking for a postdoc or Ph.D. student (m/f) for a project at the intersection of computational cognitive science and applied psychology.

The project

Our mission is to lay the cognitive and technological foundations for helping people become more effective. Goals are essential to human effectiveness. But which goals should we set, and how should we go about setting them? The goal of this project is to develop a theoretical foundation for helping people set better goals. Our approach will combine behavioral experiments, computational modeling, and intervention studies.

What we are looking for

Applicants should have prior experience with experimental and computational approaches to studying human cognition, strong programming skills, and at least a basic knowledge of artificial intelligence (planning as search, and Markov decision processes) and cognitive psychology. Familiarity with research on goal setting and decision-making and experience with intervention studies would also be a plus.

How to apply

For the PhD position, please submit a complete application to the Ph.D. program of the International Max Planck Research School for Intelligent Systems (www.imprs.is.mpg.de) by November 15. To express your interest for this specific project please list Dr. Falk Lieder as one of the faculty members you are interested in working with and mention the project in your motivational letter. Please start your application as early as possible so that you will have enough time to submit all of the required documents (see https://imprs.is.mpg.de/application) on time. If you are planning to apply, please let me know and don't hesitate to ask me any questions you might have about the project, the lab, or anything else.

To apply for the postdoc position, please email your CV, a cover letter describing your motivation and relevant skills and research experience, selected publications or transcripts and your thesis/theses to re-jobs@tuebingen.mpg.de and arrange for 2-3 reference letters to be sent to the same address. Please submit your application by November 30 if possible.