Research assistant for the Stress in Action project

In this project, multidisciplinary scientists from six Dutch Universities collaborate around the theme ‘stress in daily life’. The Consortium explores this topic within three distinct Research Themes: (RT1) Towards a comprehensive theory of stress in daily life context, (RT2) Assessment of stress in daily life for monitoring and intervention, and (RT3) Impact of daily life stress response on integrated mental & somatic health. The project is funded through the Dutch Research Council under the Gravitation programme. More details can be found at https://stress-in-action.nl/.

We are looking for a research assistant to contribute to ongoing work on Research Theme 2 which aims to develop a toolkit for daily life stress monitoring and intervention. Focus of this research is placed on both the physiological and cognitive aspects of the stress response. Human physiology is strongly influenced by stress and increasing evidence suggests that chronic stress is linked to both mental and cardiovascular diseases. Similarly, cognitive functioning can be affected by stress contributing to cognitive mistakes in daily life. These stress-related cognitive failures disrupt daily functioning and can lead to long-term health consequences including cognitive decline and mental disorders. Considering the negative effects of daily life stress, and with most research relying on laboratory findings, we aim to move the stress assessment from lab to daily life. This is possible thanks to advances in wearable and mobile technology allowing for active and passive assessment of physiological, cognitive and behavioural patterns. However, the validity of those tools and best methods of implementation remain unclear. We therefore aim to (1) create a systematic overview of available tools, (2) validate wearable devices through VR stress simulation, as well as smartphone-based cognitive tasks, against in-lab gold standard methods, (3) validate passing sensing features in predicting cognitive performance and (4) investigate the relationship between stress and cognition in daily life through ecological momentary assessment (EMA).

Responsibility/tasks:
This position would be for a duration of one year, with 3 to 4 days working per week. Your tasks as a research assistant will include:

• Setting up physiological measurements (e.g. ECG) in BMS lab
• Preparing, assisting and running experiments about:

1. VR stress simulation for validation of wearable devices in BMS lab
2. Validating cognitive assessments in BMS lab and in daily life

• Working with wearable devices and creating protocols for their use
• Managing and preprocessing experimental data and labelling interview transcripts
• Managing and processing passive sensing data (e.g., GPS)
• Conducting literature search and updating existing databases (wearables, cognitive assessments and sleep trackers)

Requirements:

• Masterdegree
• Affinity with technology including wearable devices and VR
• Interest in cognitive assessments and stress research
• Preferably with a master degree
• Preferably experience with programming (e.g. R or Python) and/or signal processing
• Preferably experience with qualitative analysis

Salary Benefits:

We encourage high responsibility and independence, while collaborating with colleagues, researchers, other university staff and partners. We follow the terms of employment by the Dutch Collective Labour Agreement for Universities (CAO).

• A one-year contract with a gross monthly salary of € 2.901,- (based on a fulltime employment).
• Excellent benefits including a holiday allowance of 8% of the gross annual salary, an end-of-year bonus of 8.3%, and a solid pension scheme;
• 29 holidays per year in case of full-time employment;
• A green campus with free access to sports facilities and an international scientific community;
• A family-friendly institution that offers parental leave (both paid and unpaid).

24 - 32 hours per week

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