PhD Position / Doctoral researcher in the Translational Psychology Group

**Paygrade** E13 TV-L **Working Hours** 75% **Institution** Department of Psychology (School VI of Medicine and Health Sciences) **Location** Oldenburg (Oldb) **Application Deadline** 24.11.2026 **First day of work** 01.01.2027 **Limited** for three years **About us** ------------ The School VI of Medicine and Health Sciences comprises the fields of human medicine, medical physics and acoustics, neurosciences, psychology and health services research. Together with the four regional hospitals, School VI forms the University Medicine Oldenburg. Furthermore, the university cooperates closely with the University Medicine of the University of Groningen. The **Translational Psychology Group**, led by Prof. Dr. Martin Bleichner, investigates how the human brain processes information in everyday life. Our research combines cognitive neuroscience, experimental psychology, and mobile neurophysiological methods, with a particular focus on auditory perception, attention, and the dynamics of cognitive states. A central goal of our work is to move beyond traditional laboratory experiments and investigate brain activity over extended periods of time under more naturalistic conditions. To this end, we develop and apply mobile and ear-centered EEG technologies, combining controlled experimental paradigms with recordings in everyday environments. We are looking for a motivated researcher to join our team and contribute to our research programme **"The Everyday Brain: Towards Capturing Temporal Dynamics Beyond the Lab"**, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) through the Heisenberg Programme. **Research project** Our cognitive states are constantly changing. Throughout the day, we fluctuate in our levels of attention, cognitive engagement, and fatigue, influencing how we perceive and respond to our environment. Yet, much of what we know about the neural mechanisms of cognition comes from relatively short experiments conducted under highly controlled laboratory conditions. As a result, we know surprisingly little about how cognitive states evolve over extended periods of time and how these changes are reflected in ongoing brain activity. In this project, we want to address this gap by investigating whether the brain's responses to sounds can serve as indicators of changing cognitive states. Auditory stimuli are particularly promising because sounds are an integral part of everyday life, and their neural processing is influenced by attention, cognitive demands, and other internal and external factors. By measuring auditory brain responses repeatedly over several hours, we aim to determine whether their variability provides reliable and interpretable information about changes in cognitive state. The central challenge is to distinguish changes in neural processing that reflect the person's cognitive state from those caused by variations in the acoustic environment or other external factors. Building on our exis