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Research Postgraduate Students (M.Phil./Ph.D.)

The Social and Cognitive Neuroscience Lab is open to new MPhil/PhD applications in the 2024-2025 application season for commencement in Summer/Fall 2025.

We are looking for highly motivated students who are interested in conducting research in following topics:
1. Memory dynamics through multiple perspective, including sleep, emotion, forgetting, social learning;
2. Editing and forgetting maladaptive memories (sleep and/or awake);
3. Memory-based interventions for mental health promotion.

For application, please send your CV and short description of research interests to Dr. Xiaoqing Hu (xiaoqinghu@hku.hk).
Interviews may be scheduled for shortlisted candidates, during which you will have the opportunity to discuss your research interests and learn more about the lab.

Research Assistants

Applications open until positions filled.

Requirements:
1. Bachelor's degree or above, preferably in Psychology, Neuroscience, Biomedical Engineering, or related fields;
2. Keen interest in sleep and memory research; desire to pursue advanced degrees;
3. A strong motivation to pursue advanced degrees;
4. Prior experience in awake and/or sleep EEG/PSG or other neuroimaging techniques is a plus.

Job Duties:
1. Data collection, task programming, data analyses for ongoing behavioral, EEG, neuromodulation experiments;
2. Overnight/sleep data collection;
3. Admin-related duties.

Benefits:
1. Competitive salary (>18,000HKD/month) and annual leave;
2. Research training;
3. Ph.D. opportunities based on outstanding performance.

Priority will be given to students who can commit to working for at least one year.

For application, please send your CV and short description of research interests to Dr. Xiaoqing Hu (xiaoqinghu@hku.hk).
Interviews may be scheduled for shortlisted candidates, during which you will have the opportunity to discuss your research interests and learn more about the lab.

Research Internship Opportunities

(by Windy Shengzi Zeng)

The Social and Cognitive Neuroscience Lab is looking for research interns to work on a range of research projects including but not limited to memory control, motivated forgetting, sleep and memory consolidation, ethical decision making, attitude formation and change, prejudice and stereotyping, implicit social cognition.

Some of the research questions we are currently investigating are:
1. how to help people better control unwanted thoughts and memories
2. how to leverage sleep to manipulate memories
3. how people form new attitudes or change their existing attitudes
4. how psychological distress influences ethical decision makings, how to reduce unintentional prejudice and stereotyping, etc.

Research interns are expected to work closely with Dr. Hu and other lab members on these projects, assisting in literature review, task programming, behavioral and EEG data collection, data analyses and manuscript preparation. Depending on specific project, research interns will gain experience in computer-based behavioral testing, EEG/PSG set up and testing, as well as eye-tracking.

Intern Selection:
1. Academic excellence
2. Highly motivated to gain hands-on experiences in behavioral neuroscience and sleep research
3. Knowledge of, or eager to learn programming/data analytical software including R, Python, E-prime, SPSS, Matlab.

Students from majors other than Psychology, including but not limited to Biology, Statistics, Mathematics, Physics, Computer Science, Biomedical Science/Engineering etc. are also highly welcomed if you would like to gain interdisciplinary research experience. Because one main focus of the lab research concerns sleep’s role in emotion and memory processes, the Interns are expected to be flexible with schedule, such as monitoring EEGs/PSGs during evenings. Students who are interested in working in the lab please send an email with CV to the lab director: xiaoqinghu@hku.hk