School VI of Medicine and Health Sciences comprises the fields of human medicine, medical physics and acoustics, neurosciences, psychology and health services research. Together with the four regional hospitals, School VI forms the University Medicine Oldenburg. Furthermore, there is close cooperation with the University Medicine of the University of Groningen.

The Auditory Signal Processing Group at the Department of Medical Physics and Acoustics, Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Germany, seeks a motivated

Research associate (m/f/d) in the field of communication behaviour research in interactive virtual reality
(salary according to TV-L E13, 75 %)

The position is limited to three years and can be used to carry out a Ph.D. project.

Interpersonal communication involves interactive loops of audio cues as well as visual cues such as body movements, gestures, facial expressions and eye blinks. Traditional laboratory experiments that treat subjects as passive listeners fail to capture these dynamics. Interactive virtual environments (VEs) provide reproducible, realistic audiovisual scenarios that enhance the study of interactive communication and its underlying cues. VEs allow specific control over features that balance reproducibility with the complexity of everyday communication. Our goal is to improve the understanding of audiovisual speech processing through VEs that mimic the complexity of natural communication and actively engage listeners.

The aim of this project is to use measures of interpersonal synchrony and communication behavior to assess novel interactive speech communication paradigms in virtual reality. For this, interactive VEs will be further developed, and novel communication tests will be investigated. The findings will be used to improve the ecological validity of virtual reality-based communication tests. In particular, interpersonal synchrony and the underlying behavioral characteristics will be used to predict communication effort.

This project is a collaboration between the Auditory Signal Processing Group (Prof. Dr. Volker Hohmann, Dr. Giso Grimm, Dr. Hendrik Kayser) and the Neuropsychology Lab (Prof. Dr. Stefan Debener). It is part of Priority Program AUDICTIVE - SPP2236: Auditory Cognition in Interactive Virtual Environments, see https://www.spp2236-audictive.de/, funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). The groups offer an international scientific environment as well as access to world-class research facilities. For more information about the groups see https://uol.de/en/auditory-signal-processing and https://uol.de/en/neuropsychology.

Applicants for this position have a Master's degree (or equivalent) in Physics, Engineering, Hearing Technology & Audiology, Psychology or a related discipline or the candidate has to be close to obtaining their academic university degree. In addition, applicants should have a solid background in hearing acoustics, a strong interest in interdisciplinary, application-oriented work, and programming experience with Matlab. Basic experience with 3D modeling and game development as well as audio technology is an advantage. Good written and spoken English and at least basic knowledge of German are required. You are willing to work in a team and with technically complex equipment. A small contribution to the group’s teaching activities is invited.

We offer:

• Payment in accordance with collective bargaining law (special annual payment, company pension scheme, asset-related benefits) incl. 30 days annual leave
• Support and guidance during your onboarding
• A family-friendly environment with flexible working hours (flexitime) and the possibility of working from home on a pro-rata basis
• Benefits from the university's health promotion program
• An extensive free further education program as well as our own scientific promotion of young academics (https://uol.de/en/school6/early-career)

The University of Oldenburg is dedicated to increase the percentage of female employees in the field of science. Therefore, female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply. In accordance to § 21 Section 3 NHG, female candidates with equal qualifications will be preferentially considered. Applicants with disabilities will be given preference in case of equal qualification.

Applications including a CV, a motivation letter, copies of the most important certificates and the name and contact details of at least one person who is willing to give a reference should be sent until 15.05.2024 to .de with a cc to

For further information please contact Prof. Dr. Volker Hohmann.

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