Postdoctoral Research Associate in Psychology

This is a 36-month post on the Leverhulme Trust-funded project, “Auditory Verbal Hallucinations:
Pushing the Boundaries of Voice Perception”, led by Dr Nadine Lavan.

The project starts on the 1st of April and investigates how people who experience auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs) perceive external voices. The project asks whether and how experiencing AVHs alters the way external voices are perceived, exploring, for example, whether individuals with AVHs extract information about who a person is faster and more saliently from voices.

The successful candidate will lead behavioural and EEG experiments examining person perception from voices across clinical voice hearers, non-clinical voice hearers, and typical listeners. Responsibilities include experimental design, participant recruitment and testing, data analysis, and manuscript preparation.

The successful candidate will be part of the Vo Co Lab , while being based at Queen Mary University of London, in the Centre for Brain and Behaviour.

For questions or further information about the project, please contact Dr Nadine Lavan at

You will hold (or be near to completing) a PhD in psychology, psychiatry, speech science or a related discipline and have demonstrable interest in voice perception or hallucinations research. You already have hands‑on experience in behavioural research methods and EEG data collection and analysis. Specifically, you may already have relevant experience designing and conducting experiments on voice perception and/or hallucinations, and you are familiar with advanced statistical methods, such as representational similarity analysis (RSA), for behavioural and EEG data.

You may furthermore have experience recruiting and working with special or clinical populations.

The role sits within the School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, one of the largest Schools within Queen Mary University of London. The school has a strong research output and demanding educational standards for its students, but all members benefit from a high level of academic and social integration. In addition, the school is committed to equality of opportunity and holds a Silver Athena SWAN Award.

At Queen Mary University of London, we believe that a diversity of ideas helps us achieve the previously unthinkable.

Throughout our history, we’ve fostered social justice and improved lives through academic excellence. And we continue to live and breathe this spirit today, not because it’s simply ‘the right thing to do’ but for what it helps us achieve and the intellectual brilliance it delivers.

We continue to embrace diversity of thought and opinion in everything we do, in the belief that when views collide, disciplines interact, and perspectives intersect, truly original thought takes form.

We offer competitive salaries, access to a generous pension scheme, 30 days’ leave per annum (pro-rata for part-time/fixed-term), a season ticket loan scheme and access to a comprehensive range of personal and professional development opportunities. In addition, we offer a range of work life balance and family friendly, inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements, and campus facilities.

Queen Mary’s commitment to our diverse and inclusive community is embedded in our appointments processes. Reasonable adjustments will be made at each stage of the recruitment process for any candidate with a disability. We are open to considering applications from candidates wishing to work flexibly.

£39,187 to £42,933 per annum