Description du sujet de thèse

We are seeking a graduate student in comparative cognition to work on a ERC-funded project (to Isabelle Dautriche) to investigate the format of thought in the absence of a language in two populations: baboons (Papio papio) and bees (Apis Mellifera). In particular we are interested in what types of operations these populations can do in their minds: Do baboons and bees have compositional thought? Can they mentally represent logical operators (such as NOT), quantifiers or modals? Does the way they represent events in the world bear some resemblance with how humans see the world?

Contexte de travail

The student will work with Isabelle Dautriche (language and the mind, infant cognition, comparative cognition) and Aurore Avarguès-Weber (bee cognition, comparative cognition, cognitive ethology) and in collaboration with Nicolas Claidière (baboon cognition, comparative cognition, cultural evolution) to develop their own project along this line of research.

The PhD position is fully-funded for 3 years (extendable to 4) with an approximate annual salary of 25 620,00€ (i.e., before tax deduction), which is sufficient to live in the south of France. The start date is flexible but is expected to be no later than October 2025. The position comes with a generous conference and travel budget for training opportunities.

Our labs, the Centre de Recherche en Psychologie et Neuroscience (CRPN) in Marseille (France) and the Centre de Recherche sur la Cognition Animale (CRCA) in Toulouse (France) will provide you access to a long-established primate center and an experimental apiary. These labs belong to numerous institutes (Institute of Language and the Brain, NeuroMarseille, Center of Integrative Biology, Toulouse Mind & Brain Institute) that offer plenty of opportunities for further collaborations.

The student will be based in the CRPN in Marseille with travels to Toulouse during summers for testing bees. Because bees can only be tested seasonally (during summers), the student should be ready to travel to Melbourne, Australia during North-Hemisphere winters.

Contraintes et risques

Essential requirements
- A Master's degree or equivalent in a relevant field such as linguistics, psychology, ethology, biology, cognitive sciences, neurosciences, computer sciences or mathematics.
- A demonstrable interest in conducting research on cognitive processes.
- Experience in carrying out empirical research (e.g., experimental design, quantitative data analysis, report writing).
- Excellent written and spoken English and experience in scientific communication.
- No allergy to bee venom

Desirable:
- Experience in conducting empirical research in animals
- Some basic knowledge using statistical packages and/or programming languages to analyse data
- Rigour and patience to carry out demanding experimental protocols to test animal's cognitive capacities.

Constraints
- The successful candidate should have no allergy to bee venom
- Because bees can only be tested seasonally (during summers), the student should be ready to travel to Melbourne, Australia during North-Hemisphere winters.

Informations complémentaires

Please check the link for the relevant institutions here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hkxwg74il9t4-n_DRgAUexgjoDu9z2H4_eM8sraK_Cs/edit?tab=t.0