Cost/benefit analysis Profile

Would you like to complete your internship in a prestigious institution - Ecole Normale Supérieure Ulm - and a dynamic and innovative environment? Come and join our LAAC (Language Acquisition Across Cultures) team.

Description of the Lab:

The Cognitive Sciences and Psycholinguistics Lab (LSCP) is a joint research unit of the School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales), the Ecole Normale Supérieure, and the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique). Our laboratory is located in Paris in the Department of Cognitive Studies (DEC) of the Ecole Normale Supérieure. The aim of the research at LSCP is to understand the psychological mechanisms underlying the acquisition and functioning of typical human cognitive functions, such as language, social cognition, and consciousness.

Description of the team:

The aim of our LAAC (Language Acquisition Across Cultures) team is to shed light on the mechanisms and processes involved in early language acquisition in a variety of cultures and language communities. To this end, we use an interdisciplinary approach (ranging from computational modelling to laboratory experiments and advanced data analysis) in the context of open, collaborative and publicly engaged science.

Internship description:

In this project, we are developing measures of language development taken from long-term recordings: the child wears a recorder for one or more days, which records everything the child says and hears. This is a new technique, which we would like to benchmark against other commonly used techniques (such as standardized tests, lab tests, parental questionnaires, and the like). Our goal is to educate people who perform early childhood interventions on the relative advantages and disadvantages of these techniques. These interventions are an excellent societal investment, according to the Heckman equation.

We are currently looking for someone who does:

• Direct cost estimate for different approaches to full day recordings (different equipment, different logistics approaches)
• Estimation of direct benefits for the participating individual and his family, for their community, the scientific project and other relevant actors
• Model positive and negative, direct and indirect externalities
• Calibrate these estimates against alternative measures of child language
• Identify efficiency criteria according to the objectives of the project

Interniship’s objectives:

• Apply your knowledge to a project with societal impact
• Join an interdisciplinary team
• Learn about open and cumulative science (a response to the replication crisis)
• Experience life in the Lab
• Exposure to research methods in cognitive science

Job location:

LSCP - 29, rue d’Ulm - 75005 Paris; teleworking possible (and may be necessary in the context of COVID19). 

Required profil:

We are looking for full-time or part-time, with the following profile:

• Organised, autonomous, rigorous;
• Bachelor's or Master's degree in economics, applied statistics, and other relevant specializations.

Application: 

Submit a motivation letter and a CV to laac.lscp@gmail.com.