City University London is a global University committed to academic excellence with a focus on business and the professions and an enviable central London location.

The University attracts over 17,000 students (35% at postgraduate level) from more than 150 countries and academic staff from over 50 countries. Its academic range is broadly-based with world leading strengths in business; law; health sciences; engineering; mathematical sciences; informatics; social sciences; and the arts including journalism and music.

City is in the top 5% of universities in the world according to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2012/13 and in the top 30 UK Universities according to the Times Higher Education Table of Tables 2012. It is ranked in the top 10 in the UK for both graduate-level jobs (The Sunday Times University Guide 2013) and starting salaries (Which University?). Fifteen of its subject areas were identified as undertaking world-leading or internationally-excellent research in the last Research Assessment Exercise.

This three-year postdoctoral research assistant position is funded by the BBSRC. The title of the project is "New methodologies to explain and improve the expert anticipatory advantage in sports decision making." The project will take place in the Department of Psychology, under the supervision of Dr. Kielan Yarrow (Dept. of Psychology) and Professor Joshua Solomon (Dept. of Optometry and Visual Science).Responsibilities

The research aims to make novel use of classification-image techniques from visual psychophysics (e.g. “Bubbles” and/or reverse correlation) in order to better understand how elite racquet-sports players extract information about the shot they are about to receive from their opponent’s movements. In early phases of the grant, psychophysical tasks will be piloted on students, and then developed for use with athletes via collaborative arrangements with Sports U.K. In later phases, bespoke training regimes (based on the information sources athletes are not yet utilising to their full potential) will be designed and evaluated.

Person Specification

We seek a proactive and enthusiastic researcher, with a PhD in, for example, any of the following disciplines: Vision science, cognitive psychology, neuroscience, sports science, computer science, mathematics (candidates with a PhD in a related discipline are welcome to apply too). We particularly seek candidates who already have the technical skills to implement and analyse classification-image approaches in a programming language such as Matlab, but candidates who can show clear potential to implement these kinds of experiments should also apply. Candidates will also require the people skills necessary to liaise with external sports organisations in order to record video stimuli and recruit participants.

Additional Information

In return, we offer a comprehensive package of in-house staff training and development, and benefits that include a final salary pension scheme. City University London works actively to promote equal opportunities and diversity.