Research Assistant/Associate (f/m/d) – PhD Position in a Research Project on Language Production, Language Control, and the Neurocognitive Foundations of Multilingualism

Weitere Informationen

The successful candidate will be employed under a regular employment contract.
The position is to be filled by 2/1/2026 and offered for a fixed term of four years.
The fixed-term employment is possible as it constitutes one of the fixed-term options of the Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz (German Act on Fixed-term Scientific Contracts).
This is a part-time position (75 % of the standard weekly hours for full-time employees).
The successful candidate has the opportunity to pursue a doctoral degree in this position.
The salary is based on the German public service salary scale (TV-L).
The position corresponds to a pay grade of EG 13 TV-L.

Unser Profil

At the Chair of Biological Psychology & Social Psychology (LuF) at RWTH Aachen University, we investigate how the brain enables successful social communication. We combine behavioral studies and EEG to analyse language, social cognition, and interpersonal coordination. Our work sits at the intersection of social neuroscience, cognitive psychology, and social psychology.

The position advertised here extends our current research program to include multilingualism. It is part of the DFG‑funded project “ Bilingual Flexibility: The Impact of Background Language on Verbal Performance and Situational Language Balance”, which is embedded in the DFG research group “Bilingual Flexibility — The Psychology of Language Control.” Multilingual individuals frequently operate in environments where several languages they understand coexist (for example at work or in social settings). In such situations, they may perform tasks in one language while background speech in another known language is present.

This is a joint project with the Chair of Work and Engineering Psychology (Prof. Dr. Sabine J. Schlittmeier). The subproject hosted at the Chair of Biological Psychology & Social Psychology (Prof. Dr. Anna K. Kuhlen) investigates how spoken background language affects lexical retrieval during speech production in bilingual individuals. The planned approach includes both behavioural and electrophysiological (EEG) experiments.

Ihr Profil

• You hold an excellent university degree (Master’s or equivalent) in Psychology, Cognitive Science, or a related discipline.
• Experience in programming experimental studies (e.g., with PsychoPy), proficiency in statistical data analysis with R, and experience in recording and/or analyzing EEG data are an advantage.
• You have a solid background in experimental psychology and very good written and spoken English (at least C1) and German language skills (at least B2), since the project will use linguistic stimulus material.

Ihre Aufgaben

• You will plan, conduct, and analyze experimental studies with healthy adult participants as part of the project. In addition, you will present results at scientific conferences and publish them in international peer-reviewed journals.
• You will also regularly participate in meetings and workshops of the research group and contribute actively to the scientific development of the project.

Über uns

RWTH is a certified family-friendly University. We support our employees in maintaining a good work-life balance with a wide range of health, advising, and prevention services, for example university sports. Employees who are covered by collective bargaining agreements and civil servants have access to an extensive range of further training courses and the opportunity to purchase a job ticket.
RWTH is an equal opportunities employer. We therefore welcome and encourage applications from all suitably qualified candidates, particularly from groups that are underrepresented at the University. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against on the basis of national or ethnic origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, disability or age. RWTH is strongly committed to encouraging women in their careers. Female applicants are given preference if they are equally suitable, competent, and professionally qualified, unless a fellow candidate is favored for a specific reason.
As RWTH is committed to equality of opportunity, we ask you not to include a photo in your application.
You can find information on the personal data we collect from applicants in accordance with Articles 13 and 14 of the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) at http://www.rwth-aachen.de/dsgvo-information-bewerbung.

Besoldung / Entgelt

EG 13 TV-L