Fully Funded PhD Scholarship in Psychology: Evolution and the Baldwin Effect

This is one of many projects in competition for the current funding opportunities available within the Department of Psychology

Primary supervisor: Dr JV Stone

Co-supervisor: Dr Stuart Wilson

Project description:  Evolution by Darwinian natural selection is the equivalent of the standard model in physics. However, for over one hundred years, controversy has raged over the extent to which the Baldwin effect contributes to biological evolution. The Baldwin effect relies on the presence of within-lifetime adaptation to increase fitness, which may increase the rate of evolution. To a naive observer, this looks like Lamarckism, but it is not. This project will use computational experiments to investigate the Baldwin effect on uncorrelated fitness functions (where computational studies suggest it is of benefit) and on correlated fitness functions (where little data is available).

Start date: 1 October 2016

Requirements:  Applicants must have, or expect to obtain, a minimum of a first class or high upper second-class honours degree in psychology or a related discipline. In general awards are usually made to applicants with first class undergraduate degrees and/or at least a merit at masters level.

For further details and the application process please visit:

http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/psychology/prospectivepg/funding

Closing date for applications is 5pm Tuesday, 2 February 2016