PhD Studentship: The emotional basis of behaviour

Overview

The University of Exeter Department of Psychology offers a PhD studentship focused on exploring the emotional basis of behaviour. While researchers have made progress in studying emotions and mood states in non-human animals, the fundamental question of why evolution favours an emotion-guided decision-making system over a cold, rational mapping remains unaddressed. This project investigates the hypothesis that internal state variables act as a physiological memory of past experiences and serve as the evolutionary precursor of emotions and mood states.

What you get

The studentship provides funding for tuition fees along with an annual stipend of £21,805 per annum for the 2026/7 period. The position is offered as a full-time, fixed-term contract based on site in the United Kingdom.

Requirements

Candidates will undertake an innovative, interdisciplinary project that utilizes evolutionary modelling and artificial neural networks. The research involves identifying adaptive emotion-based systems for decision-making in specific scenarios, such as finding food in dangerous environments or securing mates in competitive settings. Students will compare the biological fitness performance of these emotional decision-making systems against unemotional, Bayesian systems that compute optimal decisions based on current information, ultimately revealing the conditions under which evolutionary pressures favour emotions.

Key dates

The closing date for applications is 2026-12-08.