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PhD Project: Adapting to Other Minds — Bilingual Experience and Social Communication in the Ageing Brain

Project 2237 · University of Birmingham · School of Psychology

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Save this opportunity and prepare around its actual requirements. Confirm deadlines and eligibility at the original source.

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Country or region
United Kingdom
Application deadline
2026-11-23 (confirm the exact time with the source)
Funding
Competitive BBSRC-funded MIBTP studentship. International intake is subject to a cohort-level cap of 30%; the exact denominator, whether the cohort is the entire MIBTP network, and this project’s actual allocation are unspecified. This does not indicate an individual award probability. Successful international awardees receive full tuition. £21,805 is a 2026/27 stipend benchmark; the 2027/28 rate and individual award terms are unconfirmed. Visa and IHS are student-paid.

The research opportunity

PhD Project: Adapting to Other Minds — Bilingual Experience and Social Communication in the Ageing Brain

Project

Based in the University of Birmingham’s School of Psychology, this PhD asks how lifelong bilingual experience relates to older adults’ use of a speaker’s knowledge and intentions when interpreting language. It focuses on age of second-language acquisition, language-use history and switching, without assuming a general bilingual advantage. Project and supervisor details

Doctoral work

The researcher will use fMRI to identify networks supporting Theory of Mind (ToM), speaker knowledge and socially guided interpretation, and EEG to examine when a speaker’s intentions or knowledge affect language processing and when listeners revise expectations. The project asks how bilingual experience relates to these neural adaptations and whether ToM abilities or networks mediate the relationship. The advert does not specify language pairs, an older-adult age range, sample size or fixed tasks; it does not establish that bilingualism causes cognitive protection.

School and training

The University of Birmingham awards the degree through the four-year, BBSRC-funded Midlands Integrative Biosciences Training Partnership (MIBTP). Its six partners are Birmingham, Warwick, Aston, Harper Adams, Coventry and Leicester. Training includes a first-year research or technical mini-project, an away-university element, masterclasses and a professional placement; partnership membership does not make this a joint degree. MIBTP programme

Applicant, dates and funding

Entry: October 2027. Listed deadline: 23 November 2026; the available materials give no cutoff time or time zone, and current application status is unconfirmed. A relevant first or high 2:1 is the usual academic threshold. A lower 2:1 with a master’s or substantial postgraduate experience may be considered; a 2:2 is exceptional. The advert does not require applicants to be bilingual or to have a particular language pair, programming language or master’s degree.

Apply through the exact project on the official list. Materials include a CV, academic and English-language transcripts, and answers about research-methods training; submit the EDI form after the application. MIBTP guidance allows the research-plan field to be blank and the optional personal statement to be marked N/A. Applicants may choose one project per programme and submit separate applications to up to five programmes; interviews are expected in late January or early February 2027. 2027 project list and application details · MIBTP eligibility and application guidance · Birmingham application portal

The studentship is part of the competitive BBSRC-funded MIBTP scheme. The 30% cap on international intake is a cohort-level cap; its exact denominator, whether the cohort is the entire MIBTP network, and this project’s actual allocation are unspecified. It does not indicate an individual applicant’s award probability. Successful international awardees receive full tuition coverage. £21,805 is a 2026/27 stipend benchmark, not a confirmed 2027/28 rate; visa and Immigration Health Surcharge costs are borne by the student. Professor Andrea Krott is the primary supervisor and Professor Tamara Swaab the second supervisor. Contact a.krott@bham.ac.uk about the research and uob-mibtp@contacts.bham.ac.uk about the Psychology MIBTP course, cutoff time and application requirements.

Research and application brief

Report generated: . This date does not confirm that recruitment remains open.

Information updated: . Recheck the original notice before applying.

Show report contents

PhD Project: Adapting to Other Minds — Bilingual Experience and Social Communication in the Ageing Brain

When older listeners interpret another person's words, how do their own language histories relate to the use of that speaker's knowledge? This project connects individual bilingual experiences, Theory of Mind (ToM), language prediction, fMRI and EEG. Its value is testing a specific social-comprehension mechanism, not assuming bilingual people age better. The saved MIBTP record names Professor Andrea Krott and Professor Tamara Swaab, with Birmingham registration. Official bilingual ageing MIBTP project

The project record lists October 2027 entry and a deadline of 23 November 2026. The available material gives no cutoff time or time zone, and current application status is unconfirmed. Successful awardees receive full international tuition coverage, subject to competitive MIBTP selection. Birmingham MIBTP 2027 exact projects and application

Research work and unresolved problem

Comprehension requires more than decoding words. Listeners use what a speaker knows, believes or intends to anticipate meaning. ToM supports those inferences, with age-related differences and substantial individual variation. Bilingual interaction offers a test case because people track interlocutors' language knowledge and adjust communication. The doctorate asks how second-language acquisition age, use history and switching relate to neural adaptations for comprehension and whether ToM abilities/networks mediate these relationships. Official bilingual ageing MIBTP project Li et al. 2024 bilingual onset ToM structural correlations

fMRI will identify networks supporting ToM, speaker knowledge and socially guided interpretation. EEG will investigate when speaker knowledge influences language processing and when expectations are revised. Specific languages, older-adult ages, sample size, longitudinal design and exact tasks are not fixed in the advert. Do not add a language-training intervention, dementia cohort or a guarantee of cognitive protection. Official bilingual ageing MIBTP project

A strong study must separate bilingual experience from education, culture, migration, executive control, language proficiency and sensory/health differences relevant to ageing. Task performance can reflect linguistic comprehension as well as social inference. A statistical mediation or neural association does not by itself establish that bilingualism causes protection. Ask about operational definitions, recruitment access, language-history measurement, competing explanations, fMRI/EEG integration and a first study feasible within the training schedule. The field's mixed findings create a real research question, not a reason to promise a positive advantage. DeLuca et al. 2024 bilingual experience brain structure Wang Apperly Krott 2025 executive functions and perspective taking Li et al. 2024 bilingual onset ToM structural correlations

School, subject and doctoral training

Birmingham awards the degree, in Psychology/CHBH, with a language/cognition community. MIBTP connects six institutions for quantitative interdisciplinary bioscience training; neither that network nor Swaab's former US affiliation creates a joint degree. QS World University Rankings 2027: 68th overall is institutional context, not a Psychology subject ranking. More specific evidence is the team's bilingual-brain work, language EEG expertise and lifespan research environment. Confirm allocated scanner time, EEG support and older bilingual recruitment rather than infer resources from institutional membership. MIBTP current programme Birmingham official university rankings Andrea Krott current official profile Swaab UC Davis hosted current profile CHBH lifespan and brain health environment

MIBTP is four years, with a training year of research/technical mini-projects, an away-university element, masterclasses and professional placement. The generic Psychology page's three-year/September heading does not replace October 2027 MIBTP terms. Psychology describes first-year probation, a nine-month report/mini-viva, annual review and a thesis up to 50,000 words plus viva; confirm how these milestones align with MIBTP. Training-year travel/accommodation and transition into the main project affect time available for participant-facing multimethod work. University doctoral support covers transferable skills, wellbeing and careers. MIBTP current programme MIBTP programme FAQ Birmingham Doctoral Programme Birmingham Psychology PhD programme

Supervisors and recent research evidence

Krott is Professor of Psychology of Language and Deputy Head of School, overriding the advert's older “Dr” label. Her Nijmegen doctorate and work on language, attention, bilingual experience, social communication and EEG fit the question. Her supervision statement describes guided early training, collaborative goals and later independence. It mentions weekly meetings at design/analysis stages and less often, potentially monthly, during testing/writing, while a separate summary says at least fortnightly: clarify the actual agreement and scheduled-task rota. These statements are self-reports, not student-outcome data. Official bilingual ageing MIBTP project Andrea Krott current official profile

Swaab joined Birmingham as Professor of Brain, Language and Cognition in 2026: a January university announcement planned February arrival and an April update confirms she had joined. The UC Davis-hosted profile also acknowledges Birmingham. Her language-comprehension, lifespan and EEG/ERP research is directly relevant; legacy affiliations do not justify calling this a US degree. Confirm the new Birmingham group's daily support and the supervisors' division of imaging, electrophysiology and ToM work. Swaab Birmingham appointment announcement Swaab April 2026 current Birmingham confirmation Swaab UC Davis hosted current profile

DeLuca et al., 2024: dimensions of bilingual experience

The Cerebral Cortex study examines structural MRI and bilingual experience in 140 young adults. Intensity/diversity, switching and duration show different brain-structure associations. Krott is joint senior author with Katrien Segaert and contributes conception, curation, funding, investigation, methods and supervision; other authors lead formal analysis. The earlier assessment covered results, discussion and contributions. Cross-sectional young-adult anatomy does not prove longitudinal efficiency changes or older-adult ToM protection. DeLuca et al. 2024 bilingual experience brain structure

Wang, Apperly and Krott, 2025: executive control as an alternative

The Bilingualism: Language and Cognition paper provides an essential counterpoint: executive switching, rather than bilingualism or cultural measures, predicts egocentric interference on visual perspective-taking tasks. Krott is corresponding/last author; no individual contribution statement was located. The earlier assessment covered results, discussion and limitations. The self-selected, predominantly female young psychology-student sample and task specificity limit transfer to older communication, but the findings rule out advertising a universal bilingual advantage. Wang Apperly Krott 2025 executive functions and perspective taking

Trammel et al., 2023: EEG classifier comparison

The NeuroImage paper compares EEG classifiers on two word-priming datasets. SVM performed better than the tested alternatives in those data. Swaab is last co-author; the earlier reading covered only the official abstract/metadata and lab abstract, not the full text or individual contributions. This indicates relevant EEG-method experience, not a universally best classifier or a ToM mechanism. Trammel et al. 2023 EEG decoding comparison

External background: Li et al., 2024

The advert's Li study is external to both supervisors: 96 bilingual adults show structural/ToM associations, with cohort and acquisition-history confounding acknowledged. Li et al. 2024 bilingual onset ToM structural correlations

Funding and living costs

Birmingham MIBTP explicitly pays all international tuition for successful awardees, overriding generic UKRI home-fee-only contribution language. The reported 30% cap on international intake is a cohort-level rule; the available information does not specify its exact denominator, whether the cohort covers the entire MIBTP network, or this project’s actual allocation. It does not indicate an individual applicant’s award probability. £21,805/year is the 2026/27 stipend benchmark, not a confirmed 2027/28 award. Research/training expenses and laptop access are not personal income. Visa/IHS remain student costs. Obtain the individual award and clarify recruitment payments, imaging/EEG budgets and training-year travel/accommodation. Birmingham MIBTP 2027 exact projects and application MIBTP 2027 application and eligibility MIBTP current programme UKRI student funding support

The university's 2025/26 weekly examples are £241–253 for private housing and £268–280 for halls, including listed rent/bills, food, care, phone and study spending. For 52 weeks these become £12,532–13,156 and £13,936–14,560, before transport, social spending and clothing. They are not 2027 quotes, and rent must not be added again. Any nominal balance against the 2026 stipend precedes exclusions, inflation, immigration and rotation costs; savings are not guaranteed. Birmingham current living-budget guidance

Applicant fit and preparation

MIBTP normally seeks a first or high 2:1 in a relevant subject; lower 2:1 plus a master's or substantial postgraduate experience may be considered, with 2:2 exceptional. The generic Psychology rule is not the entire funding threshold. The advert does not require personal bilingualism, a particular language pair, programming language or a master's. Confirm current English/reference rules and eligibility of quantitative/non-Psychology degrees. Helpful preparation is reproducible analysis, human-experiment reasoning and explaining how a linguistic task can distinguish social inference from executive-control demands. MIBTP 2027 application and eligibility Birmingham Psychology PhD programme

A useful example can show how task difficulty, language proficiency or executive control changed a conclusion, and how a null result led you to revise an explanation. Distinguish using speaker knowledge from easier general language processing or stronger executive control. This is a way to demonstrate a personal research contribution, not an added requirement to solve the thesis before applying.

Career and transferable skills

The skills connect to psycholinguistics, ageing/cognitive neuroscience, behavioural data analysis and research methods. Individual Krott-lab alumni include an academic and a UK-government analyst; these are examples, not a placement rate or guaranteed role. MIBTP professional experience and university doctoral careers support offer exploration, not clinical-psychology qualification. MIBTP programme FAQ Doctoral researcher career support Krott language learning bilingualism lab people

Next actions and questions

Contact a.krott@bham.ac.uk about older bilingual recruitment, task readiness, language-history measures and daily supervision; confirm Swaab's local team's role. Use uob-mibtp@contacts.bham.ac.uk for the Psychology MIBTP course, cutoff time and document conditions. Follow the exact title's link on the official 2027 list: the same supervisor page also hosts an infant-attention project, which is distinct. Supply mandatory CV, academic evidence/English transcripts, methods-training answers and EDI after portal submission. Proposal fields may be blank and the optional statement marked N/A under MIBTP guidance. One project per programme, up to five programmes with separate applications; interviews are expected late January/early February 2027. Obtain 2027 funding, resources and checkpoint dates before accepting. Official bilingual ageing MIBTP project Birmingham MIBTP 2027 exact projects and application MIBTP 2027 application and eligibility

Evidence and Sources

The project description attributes the estimate that more than half of the world’s population is bilingual to UNESCO (2024); that figure has not been independently verified in the available material. Publication coverage is limited: DeLuca et al. (2024) was assessed through results, discussion and contribution statements; Wang, Apperly and Krott (2025) through results, discussion and limitations; Trammel et al. (2023) through the official abstract, metadata and lab abstract, not the full text or individual contributions; Li et al. (2024) is external background, not a supervisor paper. Missing author-contribution statements are not inferred. The Swaab appointment announcements are dated historical sources.

Sources

The listing may come from a university or recruitment platform. Check the notice and official sources in the report for current application requirements. View the recruitment source

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