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Student-assistant in language/communication with experience in programming (Python/R)

Radboud University
Faculty of Arts - Department of Language and Communication
Application deadline: 31-03-2026

Responsibilities

We are interested in how people in a conversation come to understand each other by negotiating the way to describe novel concepts. To this end, we aim to automatically analyze a rich dataset of interactive communication about novel objects in terms of amount of effort (speech, gestures, turn-taking, prosody; see Bögels et al., 2026) and content (shared linguistic constructions used by both speakers; see Ghaleb et al., 2024). These analyses should also ultimately inform chatbot design for the purpose of aligning with humans.

Tasks: programming (in Python and/or R) of automated analyses of transcripts, audio, Kinect (movement tracking) data and/or video and programming of statistical analyses.

References:
o Bögels, S., Li, T., Rasenberg, M., Eijk, L., Toni, I., & Pouw, W. (2026). There is a power law of joint communicative effort and it reflects communicative work. Cognition, 268, 106370.
o Ghaleb, E., Rasenberg, M., Pouw, W., Toni, I., Holler, J., Özyürek, A., & Fernández, R. (2024). Analysing cross-speaker convergence through the lens of automatically detected shared linguistic constructions. In the 46th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (CogSci 2024) (pp. 1717-1723).

What we expect from you

  • Being a student at Radboud University in a relevant program (e.g., AI, Computer Science, Linguistics).
  • An Interest in language and communication.
  • Good knowledge of programming (preferably Python and/or R).
  • At least passive knowledge of Dutch is an advantage.
  • Knowledge of advanced statistical models such as LMER and Bayesian modelling is an advantage.
  • Working well individually and in a team.

Notes about the conditions of employment

Salary scale SA: minimum of €18,69 euro gross per hour (excl. holiday allowance, holiday money, public holidays and end-of-year bonus). This position lasts from 15-04-2026 until 30-11-2026.You’ll work at least 8 hours per week until 30-11-2026. The working hours are flexible.

Applications

Are you interested? Email your application (including cv + motivational letter) before 31-03-2026– citing Student-assistant in language/communication with experience in programming (Python/R) – to sara.boegels@ru.nl attn. Sara Boegels.

This is vacancy applies only within the Radboud University. To qualify for the application, you must be registered as a student at the Radboud University.

Don't wait to apply, some vacancies are very popular. This vacancy may close early if an adequate number of applications are received.

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