Doctoral Researcher (75% TV-L 13) in Cognitive Psychology

The Chair of Psychology III (Cognition & Behavior Unit) at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU), Germany, is inviting applications for a

Doctoral Researcher Position/Project Staff Position (m/f/d)

The contract will start on November 1, 2026, and will be fixed term for an initial period of three years. The position is part time (75% of the regular weekly working hours). Remuneration will be based on the collective agreement for the public service of German federal states (Tarifvertrag für den öffentlichen
Dienst der Länder, TV-L).

This position is part of the DFG-funded project “Representing Action-Effect Relations” (Project No. 584221152). A short description of the project can be found on the following page. The project aims at improving our understanding of the memory systems enabling us to represent relations between actions
and the effects in the environment they cause, of interactions between these systems, and of memory-related constraints these representations are subjected to. We offer a friendly and appreciative working environment with excellent working conditions and outstanding facilities (modern laboratories, computing
resources, psychophysiological equipment) in the center of Würzburg.

Responsibilities of the candidate:

Planning, preparation, and execution of behavioral experiments (laboratory and online)
Data analysis
Publication in international peerâreviewed journals
Presentations at national and international conferences

Requirements/Qualifications

Master’s degree in Psychology or a related field
Practical experience in experimental psychology
Experience in statistics and data analysis (especially with R)
(Initial) experience in programming behavioral experiments (e.g., with lab.js, PsychoPy, OpenSesame)
(Initial) experience with statistical modeling of cognitive processes (especially multinomial processing tree modeling) is an advantage

The JMU aims to reduce the underrepresentation of women and therefore explicitly encourages qualified women to apply. Severely handicapped applicants will be given preferential consideration in the case of broadly equal suitability, ability and professional achievements.

Please send your application documents (CV, motivation letter, publication list if applicable, relevant certificates, transcript of records, etc.) in German or English, preferably by e-mail as a single PDF file, no
later than July 12, 2026 to:

Dr. Marcel Schreiner
Department of Psychology III
Röntgenring 11, 97070 Würzburg
E-Mail: marcel.schreiner@uni-wuerzburg.de

mailto:marcel.schreiner@uni-wuerzburg.de

Short Project Description

Goal-directed interactions with our environment require linking perceptual environmental changes (effects) to motor activities that caused these changes (actions). Such action-effect (A-E) relations must be stored in a sustainable manner to enable goal-directed action, that is, they need to be represented in long- term memory. However, these long-term memory representations of A-E relations are so far poorly understood, as the storage of A-E relations has mostly been investigated for only short time scales and linkages have been assumed to decay rapidly. This project, encompassing three work packages and nine
experiments, bridges the gap between research on action control and research on long-term memory. It serves the investigation of long-term memory systems (explicit and implicit memory, and subsystems) enabling the learning of A-E relations and possible interactions between these systems. It further serves
the identification of memory-related constraints A-E representations may be subjected to, specifically, if and to what extent representations of A-E relations are subject to different types of interference and blocking. In doing so, this project will advance our understanding of the representational nature of A-Erelat ions in long-term memory, a question that has so far been largely neglected, albeit being crucial for understanding the machinery behind our everyday interactions with our environment.

Please do not send any original documents to us; only send photocopies. As we need to save costs, we will not be able to return your documents
to you. They will be shredded shortly after a hiring decision has been made. If you enclose a postage-paid return envelope, we will return your
application documents to you three months after a hiring decision has been made.