About the Project
This fully funded, 4-year PhD project is part of a competition funded by the BBSRC EASTBIO Doctoral Training Partnership.
Humans continuously learn statistical regularities in their environment and use them to guide attention and behavior. However, these regularities are often context-dependent: information that is useful in one situation may be irrelevant or misleading in another. An adaptive attentional system must therefore solve a fundamental problem – when should experience be generalized across contexts, and when should separate context-specific representations be formed and expressed?
This PhD will investigate how contextual signals acquire control over learned attentional priorities. Our recent behavioral work shows that people can learn different spatial regularities for salient distracting information depending on the current visual context. Critically, however, some contextual signals appear to influence behavior only when they receive sufficient attentional processing. This suggests that attention may determine whether statistical experience is generalized across situations or used flexibly in a context-specific manner.
The student will first use behavioral experiments and eye tracking to determine what makes a contextual signal effective. Studies will examine how factors such as task relevance, perceptual distinctiveness, predictive reliability, and timing influence context-specific learning. Eye movements will provide a sensitive measure of how contextual information changes attentional selection and distractor processing, and how these effects develop over the course of learning. These experiments will also ask whether attention influences the formation of separate context-specific mappings, their subsequent expression, or both.
The project will then use electroencephalography (EEG) and steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs) to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying these effects. By frequency-tagging contextual visual signals, the student will be able to index the strength of their cortical representation and test whether stronger neural processing of predictive contextual information accompanies greater context-specific control over learned attentional priorities.
Finally, the project will ask whether the same mechanisms operate across different forms of attentional learning, comparing learning about locations associated with distracting information with learning about locations where behaviorally relevant targets are likely to appear. This will establish whether attentional gating of contextual information represents a general mechanism through which the visual system flexibly adapts to changing environmental statistics.
The student will receive training in experimental psychology, eye tracking, EEG/SSVEP methods, programming, signal processing, and advanced statistical analysis, while developing an independent research program in attention and statistical learning.
This project is available for part-time study (Home/UK students only).
Interested applicants should contact the lead supervisor to discuss the project prior to applying. You can do this by selecting the first listed name at the top of this advert and sending your enquiry. Alternatively, you can search for the supervisor through the University of Aberdeen staff directory and email them directly.
Eligibility
Applicants should hold a minimum of a 2:1 UK Honours degree (or international equivalent) in a relevant subject. Those with a 2:2 UK Honours degree (or international equivalent) may be considered, provided they have (or are expected to achieve) a Distinction or Commendation at master’s level.
We encourage applications from all backgrounds and communities, and are committed to having a diverse, inclusive team.
All students must meet the eligibility criteria as outlined in the UKRI guidance on funding for postgraduate training and development. This guidance should be read in conjunction with the Terms and conditions for training funding – UKRI.
Application Procedure
For full details and to download the application form, visit: https://biology.ed.ac.uk/eastbio/how-to-apply
Please note that you may only apply for one EASTBIO project.
1. Application submission
Submit your complete application by 23:59 GMT on 16th November 2026 to [contact details available in the full listing].
Send your application as a single email with the subject line: “EASTBIO Application – [Your Name]”
2. Required documents
Your application email must include the following:
- Completed EASTBIO application form
- Academic certificates and transcripts (University education only)
- Two references (one reference may be non-academic)
3. References
All references must be provided using the official EASTBIO reference form (available here).
References can be either:
- Included with your application, or
- Sent directly by referees to [contact details available in the full listing] with the subject line: “EASTBIO Reference – [Your Name]”
All references must be received by 23:59 GMT on 16th November 2026.
It is the applicant’s responsibility to ensure both references are submitted by the deadline, as we cannot request them on your behalf.
Important notes
- You may only apply for one EastBio Project.
- No research proposal is required.
- Do not include any additional documents (for example, school certificates, conference papers, or dissertations).
- Incomplete applications or those including superfluous unnecessary documents will not be considered.
- Due to workload constraints, we are unable to follow up on missing documents or process incomplete applications.
- All candidates will be notified of the outcome of their application.
- We will confirm receipt of your applications upon processing. Due to the high volume of applications, this may not be until after the deadline. We ask that you please refrain from contacting us regarding updates or to see if your application has been received.
- For any questions or assistance with the application process, please contact [contact details available in the full listing].
Funding Notes
This fully funded, four-year PhD project is offered as part of a competition within the EASTBIO BBSRC Doctoral Training Partnership. The opportunity is open to both UK and international applicants, although the proportion of international students recruited through the EASTBIO DTP is capped at 30% by UKRI BBSRC.
EASTBIO studentships provide a tax-free UKRI doctoral stipend (estimated at £22,437 for the 2027/28 academic year), a training grant of £5,000 per year for the first three years (and £1,500 in the fourth year), and a travel and conference allowance of £230 per year.
Please note that EASTBIO is unable to fund visa costs or associated healthcare surcharges for international students.
