funded PhD position in auditory learning (London, UK)

[Fred Dick <ubjtd13@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear colleagues

We have recently gotten funding for a PhD position that is potentially of
interest for undergrads or masters students in your labs or
undergrad/masters programs. The overall thrust of the project is a series of
cross-sectional and longitudinal studies on emerging auditory expertise in
sound engineers and designers. Full details below - please feel free to
forward on to any potentially interested parties.

very best
Fred

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Testing Models of Auditory Learning in Expert Listeners: Acoustical and
Perceptual Processing in Designers of Novel Sounds

Website:
http://www.bloomsbury.ac.uk/studentships/studentships-2015/dickhallam

Principal Supervisor: Dr Frederic Dick (Birkbeck/UCL Centre for
NeuroImaging, Birkbeck College)

Co-Supervisor: Professor Susan Hallam (Department of Lifelong and
Comparative Education, UCL Institute of Education)

Accurate and efficient perception of complex sounds including speech is
fundamental to everyday life, yet we know relatively little about the
perceptual and cognitive processes underlying complex auditory learning.
Musical instrument training has been used as a means to understand how
long-term and intensive learning in perceiving and producing musical sounds
might benefit other auditory, language, and cognitive domains. However, most
research has focused on classically trained musicians, ignoring popular
music culture, and not taking account of current non-speech auditory
environments, which are almost entirely electronically produced.

By contrast, this project will target the acquisition of perceptual
expertise in students undergoing intensive training in sound design and
engineering at the Academy of Contemporary Music (ACM) in London. The
student heading the project will conduct a series of longitudinal and
cross-sectional investigations of the development and elaboration of
training-relevant temporal and timbral perceptual skills during this period
of training. Importantly, stimulus and experimental design will be informed
by the expert knowledge of ACM faculty and students regarding the specific
technical and perceptual skills that are acquired during the ACM course.

The project will also focus on the neural mechanisms of auditory learning
using cutting edge MRI techniques to understand how auditory representations
form and change with intensive training.

This multi-methodology research is designed to address fundamental questions
in cognition, neuroscience, and education.

Candidate requirements

The recruited student will acquire a high degree of proficiency in
behavioural experimentation and auditory psychophysics, structured
interviewing, and functional and structural neuroimaging. Candidates should
have some background in statistics, basic programming, and neuroscience.
Music performance, composition, or sound design experience, and a  good
knowledge of music and/or sound processing will be advantageous for the
student leading the project.

Key references

• Krishnan S, Leech R, Aydelott J, Dick F (2013) School-age children's
environmental object identification in natural auditory scenes: effects of
masking and contextual congruence. Hear Res 300:46-55.
• Dick F et al. (2012) In Vivo Functional and Myeloarchitectonic Mapping of
Human Primary Auditory Areas. Journal of Neuroscience 32: 16095-16105.
• Hallam, S. (2010) Transitions and the development of expertise. Psychology
Teaching Review, 16(2), 3-32.
• Dick F, Lee HL, Nusbaum H, Price CJ (2011) Auditory-motor expertise alters
"speech selectivity" in professional musicians and actors. Cerebral Cortex
21:938-948.
• Leech R, Holt LL, Devlin JT, Dick F (2009) Expertise with artificial
nonspeech sounds recruits speech-sensitive cortical regions. Journal of
Neuroscience 29:5234-5239.