Learning to Talk in a Noisy World: Experimental Tests in Immersive Environments

Unfortunately, we cannot accept international applications, unless self-funded, for this PhD.

The Project

A funded PhD position is available to understand why background noise disrupts language interactions between children and their caregivers.

Children learn to talk through back-and-forth exchanges with their caregivers, and these interactions often unfold within environments filled with sounds from television, media devices, and overlapping conversations. Research shows that background noise is associated with reductions in infants’ vocalizations and caregivers’ speech in real time, highlighting how everyday environments can shape social interactions and language learning. However, the underlying mechanisms explaining the association remain poorly understood.

This PhD project aims to move beyond correlational evidence by developing an experimental framework in lab-based immersive environments to investigate how background noise affects:

• Infant–caregiver language interactions
• Infant arousal and attention
• Neural processing of speech

By integrating levels of analysis, the project will provide a mechanistic account of how moment-to-moment disruptions in noisy settings may scale to affect language development, with implications for theories of early learning as well as for optimizing children’s everyday environments.

The University and ISEY

The PhD will be based at The Institute for the Science of Early Years and Youth ISEY, at the Stratford Campus of The University of East London. This research institute is led by Sam Wass, and the PhD will be supervised by Catalina Suarez-Rivera and Ira Marriott Haresign. The successful candidate would be working within a wider team of 20 researchers at ISEY, but would be the only researcher working on this specific project. This means there is some scope for the PhD candidate to contribute to shaping the project focus and design.

Knowledge exchange and dissemination will be a key part of this PhD and the successful candidate will be expected to share project findings and associated research with early years practitioners, as part of the training and development services that ISEY offers. Therefore, this role is especially suitable for someone passionate about bridging the gap between research and practice and translating research for a non-scientific audience. This may involve writing articles for educator-facing publications, attending early years events and running online and face to face training, support will be given in these areas. 

The applicant

The PhD candidate must have a first or upper second-class undergraduate honours degree and preferably a Masters in a discipline relevant to the project. While we expect that this project would suit graduates from a psychology background, we are happy to receive applications from a range of backgrounds that have potential to enhance the project. 

• A demonstrable understanding and passion for psychological research is essential and experience working with children is highly desirable. 
• Familiarity with head-mounted eye-tracking and EEG is also highly desirable, as is experience with programming and data analysis tools. This PhD will involve advanced quantitative data analysis.
• Successful applicants should have an interest in language development, parent-child interactions, multimodal communication, attention, arousal, and EEG.
• Whilst some remote work is possible, the successful candidate will need to be willing to be based at the ISEY lab, in Stratford, London for at least 50% of the time. During data collection periods PhD students may need to be in London every day.

Please note that we are drawing all applicants’ attention to the fact that unfortunately, the funding available for this project does not cover the higher tuition fees required for international students. As a result, we are only able to consider applicants who would be classified as UK/home students (including UK nationals and those with settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme). If you are an international student, unfortunately, we will be unable to proceed with your application unless you are self-funding.

How to apply

Applications must be submitted by email to Dr Catalina Suarez-Rivera (c.suarez-rivera@uel.ac.uk) by the 15th of June 2026. Interviews are likely to take place in July.

Please send your CV along with the names and contact details of two referees who will be contacted directly. At least one of the references must be academic.

Please also include a personal statement/cover letter (no more than 1000 words) which demonstrates your motivation and readiness for undertaking a PhD and for this specific PhD project. 

Funding details and start dates

The PhD will start in September 2026 or January 2027. 

• Funding covers tuition fees (approx. £5-8k per year) and a stipend set at the ESRC/UKRI rate for London Universities (£22,780 p.a) if studying full time. Part time study is based on 0.6FTE and the stipend will be adjusted accordingly (£13,668), lasting for up to 5 years.

Closing Date: 15 Jun 2026

Team: Graduate Placement

Salary: Funding covers tuition fees (approx £5-8k per year) and a stipend set at the ESRC/UKRI rate for London Universities (£22,780 p.a) if studying full time. Part time study is based on 0.6FTE and the stipend will be adjusted accordingly (£13,668)

“How engagement with complex screen media is reshaping early cognitive development and attention systems”

Unfortunately, we cannot accept international applications, unless self-funded, for this PhD.

The Project

A funded PhD position is available to address a fundamental question in developmental science: when it comes to screen media content, what is good and what is bad? and how is engagement with (complex) screen media impacting children's early socio-cognitive development.

Children learn to pay attention in very information rich and potentially noisy settings, partly through the use of screen media devices. Screen media devices can also be used to self-regulate. In particular, the predictability of screen content might be what is driving attention and helping them regulate. Predictability of screen media therefore might be one key differentiator of good vs bad screen media content for young children and infants.

Currently, however, we understand very little about children's choices of screen media content within naturalistic home environments and how this impacts their physiology and attention throughout the day.

The PhD project aims to move beyond questionnaire and coarse grained quantity-based methods. By addressing the following questions:

• What features of children's screen media promote learning and self-regulation? E.g., by exploring measures of developmental outcomes, like long and short term learning from screen content based on their perceived complexity.
• What features of the home environment motivates screen use for regulatory purposes?
• How the moment to moment engagement (ET/EEG) with screen media affects long term information retention, and how is that modulated by content complexity.

We know that screen media is becoming an increasingly prevalent feature of children's early learning environments. By integrating levels of analysis (home recordings, EEG, arousal, eyetracking) the project will provide a mechanistic account of how engagement with (complex) screen media is reshaping early cognitive development and attention systems.

The University and ISEY

The PhD will be based at The Institute for the Science of Early Years and Youth ISEY, at the Stratford Campus of The University of East London. This research institute is led by Prof. Sam Wass, and the PhD will be supervised by Dr Ira Marriott Haresign and Dr Pierre Labendzki. The successful candidate would be working within a wider team of 20 researchers at ISEY, and joining a small team of researchers already working on the project exploring related research questions.

This means there is some scope for the PhD candidate to contribute to shaping the project focus and design, including the age of children studied and the specific outcome measures.

Knowledge exchange and dissemination will be a key part of this PhD and the successful candidate will be expected to share project findings and associated research with teachers and early years practitioners, as part of the training and development services that ISEY offers. Therefore, this role is especially suitable for someone passionate about bridging the gap between research and practice and translating research for a non-scientific audience. This may involve writing articles for educator-facing publications, attending early years events and running online and face to face training, support will be given in these areas.

The applicant

Experience

The PhD candidate must have a first or upper second-class undergraduate honours degree and preferably a Masters in a discipline relevant to the project. While we expect that this project would suit graduates from a psychology background, we are happy to receive applications from a range of backgrounds that have potential to enhance the project (e.g. computer science, education psychology, media analysis...)

• Experience working with children is highly desirable.
• Familiarity with programming and data analysis tools is also preferable as the PhD will involve advanced quantitative data analysis, although support will be given in this area.
• Successful applicants should have an interest in auditory or visual attention, speech and language processing, arousal, and EEG.

Methods

The successful candidates will also potentially use our custom-built wearable devices and be willing to analyse multi-streamed timeseries (physiological and behavioural day-long recordings).

Familiarity with eye-tracking and EEG is also highly desirable, as is experience with associated data analysis tools.

ISEY also has a newly developed virtual reality and motion tracking lab and this project may also consider the use of these methods to address the research questions.

Whilst some remote work is possible, the successful candidate will need to be willing to be based at the ISEY lab, in Stratford, London for at least 50% of the time. During data collection periods PhD students may need to be in London every day.

Please note that we are drawing all applicants’ attention to the fact that unfortunately, the funding available for this project does not cover the higher tuition fees required for international students. As a result, we are only able to consider applicants who would be classified as UK/home students (including UK nationals and those with settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme). If you are an international student, I’m afraid we will be unable to proceed with your application unless you are self-funding.

How to apply

Applications must be submitted by email to I.Marriott-haresign@uel.ac.uk and P.labedzki@uel.ac.uk by the 5th of June 2026. Interviews are likely to take place in June.

Please send your CV along with the names and contact details of two referees who will be contacted directly. At least one of the references must be academic.

Please also include a personal statement/cover letter (no more than 1000 words) which demonstrates your motivation and readiness for undertaking a PhD and for this specific PhD project.

Funding details and start dates

• The PhD can start in September 2026 or January 2027.

Funding covers tuition fees (approx. £5-8k per year) and a stipend set at the ESRC/UKRI rate for London Universities (£22,780 p.a) if studying full time. Part time study is based on 0.6FTE and the stipend will be adjusted accordingly (£13,668), lasting for up to 5 years.

Closing Date: 05 Jun 2026

Team: Graduate Placement

Salary: The PhD can start in September 2026 or January 2027. Funding covers tuition fees (approx £5-8k per year) and a stipend set at the ESRC/UKRI rate for London Universities (£22,780 p.a) if studying full time