Scientific collaborator in psychophysiology

The MIDI Research Group (“Multimodality, Interaction & Discourse”) at KU Leuven, Department of Linguistics is looking for 1 scientific collaborator for a new research project about cognitive and emotional responses to online consumer feedback.
The candidate will collaborate with Nicolas Ruytenbeek, assistant professor in digital and multilingual communication at KU Leuven (Sint-Jacobs campus in Antwerp). The MIDI research group (Multimodality, Interaction & Discourse: https://www.arts.kuleuven.be/midi) unites researchers with an interest in the study of language in interaction, with a specific focus on the social, cognitive and multimodal dimension of language use. The research group applies different methodological approaches across paradigms such as Pragmatics, Cognitive & Interactional (Socio)Linguistics and Conversation Analysis using corpus, experimental and observational studies.
For this function, the candidate will be based at the Sint-Jacobs campus of KU Leuven in Antwerp.

Project summary
In the current era of digitalization, online public platforms enable (and, sometimes, explicitly request) hotel guests to share their feedback about their stay with the hotel and other consumers in the form of online reviews. Large amounts of online hotel reviews have already been written (Booking.com comprises more than 25 million reviews, for example), and their influence is unquestionable: Consumers’ purchasing decisions are known to be influenced to a large extent by other customers’ reviews.
The emotions expressed in online reviews easily spread from reviewers to other consumers. These reviews can therefore affect consumers’ perceptions of the quality of a product or service in a positive or negative way. To this day, the effects of the linguistic content of consumer feedback on the spread of emotions from the messages to the readers of these messages (a mechanism called “emotional contagion”) remain relatively unexplored. In collaboration with Prof. Ruytenbeek, the candidate will collect psychophysiological data for an experiment devoted to the impact of derogatory language use on readers’ emotional responses.

Responsibilities

• In collaboration with prof. Ruytenbeek, you will draw up a Biopac user guide for colleagues (research unit in Linguistics);
• You will be responsible for recruiting participants in Antwerp and planning the testing sessions;
• You will test participants at a rate of 5 to 10 subjects per week (short reading task), including following-up data collection and data backups.

Profile

• A completed Bachelor or Master in (applied) linguistics, clinical/experimental/cognitive psychology, psycholinguistics, experimental psychiatry or related areas;
• Previous experience (e.g., during the BA/MA dissertation or internship) with psychophysiological methods involving, for instance, the collection of skin conductance, heart rate variability and eye-tracking data;
• A strong interest in language and communication research is considered a plus;
• An excellent mastery of Dutch (or English);
• Further assets are strong organizational abilities and a collegial attitude.

Offer

We offer a 6-month part-time contract as a research assistant (18h/week, flexible schedule). The candidate will be part of a dynamic team of senior and junior researchers, providing ample opportunities for collaboration, discussion and development. For example, the MIDI lab sessions (twice a month) are an opportunity for the applicant to connect with linguists.

The salary will be in accordance with the university salary scales for scientific collaborators, taking into account past experience and available budget. The starting date will be mutually agreed upon, but preferably around September 15, 2024. The candidate will be based in Antwerp (Sint-Jacob campus).

Interested?

For more information please contact Prof. dr. Nicolas Ruytenbeek, mail: nicolas.ruytenbeek@kuleuven.be.

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