Ageing, trust, and financial exploitation: social, emotional and cognitive mechanisms. This project aims to understand how age-related differences in the processing of social and emotional information contribute to the exploitation of older adults' trust. This research will examine deception detection during financial negotiations and provide new strategies for ensuring the financial independence and well-being of older Australians.
Taking advice: Limits and potentials of social decision-making in older age. Older adults are increasingly victims of financial fraud and abuse. While well-intentioned advice has the potential to improve financial decision-making, ill-intentioned advice can lead to exploitation. This project will use extensive behavioural testing to establish the factors governing how much weight older adults give to advice depending on the type of advisor, the type of advice, and feedback about advice quality. ....Taking advice: Limits and potentials of social decision-making in older age. Older adults are increasingly victims of financial fraud and abuse. While well-intentioned advice has the potential to improve financial decision-making, ill-intentioned advice can lead to exploitation. This project will use extensive behavioural testing to establish the factors governing how much weight older adults give to advice depending on the type of advisor, the type of advice, and feedback about advice quality. The outcome will be a model of the influence of advice on decision-making in ageing. This will provide an evidence base to create best practice guidelines, interventions, and decision aids that will reduce exploitation and increase the independence and wellbeing of Australia’s rapidly ageing population.Read moreRead less
Increasing advance personal planning by older adults. This project aims to increase the uptake of advance personal planning among people aged 65 years or over in the community by developing, implementing and evaluating a community action model. People have a legal right to engage in advance personal planning, a process that helps them discuss and document their financial, personal and health preferences, in case they later lose the ability to make or communicate decisions. Few people plan ahead, ....Increasing advance personal planning by older adults. This project aims to increase the uptake of advance personal planning among people aged 65 years or over in the community by developing, implementing and evaluating a community action model. People have a legal right to engage in advance personal planning, a process that helps them discuss and document their financial, personal and health preferences, in case they later lose the ability to make or communicate decisions. Few people plan ahead, even though it can reduce the likelihood of financial exploitation, family conflict and unwanted medical care. This project aims to provide a model of community action to build capacity and collaboration across social services and improve the wellbeing of older people.Read moreRead less
Ageing and self-regulation. Australia is faced with an ageing population, and thus an increasingly important national goal is ageing well and ageing productively. Our preliminary research suggests that self-regulation may be a significant problem for older Australians. The proposed research will provide a clearer picture of when and why older adults have difficulties regulating their behaviour, and which older adults are particularly susceptible to lapses in self-control. If older adults do hav ....Ageing and self-regulation. Australia is faced with an ageing population, and thus an increasingly important national goal is ageing well and ageing productively. Our preliminary research suggests that self-regulation may be a significant problem for older Australians. The proposed research will provide a clearer picture of when and why older adults have difficulties regulating their behaviour, and which older adults are particularly susceptible to lapses in self-control. If older adults do have difficulties self-regulating, and if these self-regulation failures incur health, financial and social costs, by gaining a clearer understanding of this problem, the proposed research will take an important step in improving the lives of older Australians. Read moreRead less
Everyday cognition in older adulthood: Mechanisms contributing to the age-prospective memory paradox. Australia is faced with an ageing population, and thus an increasingly important goal is ageing well and ageing productively. The proposed research will clarify why older adults perform extremely well on prospective memory (PM) tasks based in everyday environments, but very poorly on PM tasks that take place in the controlled situation of the laboratory. Advancing our understanding of why this ....Everyday cognition in older adulthood: Mechanisms contributing to the age-prospective memory paradox. Australia is faced with an ageing population, and thus an increasingly important goal is ageing well and ageing productively. The proposed research will clarify why older adults perform extremely well on prospective memory (PM) tasks based in everyday environments, but very poorly on PM tasks that take place in the controlled situation of the laboratory. Advancing our understanding of why this 'paradoxical' pattern of age effects occurs will help clarify how other aspects of everyday cognition in older adulthood may be optimised, and consequently take an important step in improving the lives of older adults. The results will also inform development of rehabilitation strategies for clinical groups who present with PM difficulties. Read moreRead less
Drivers of ageing and adaptive ageing in middle-aged and older adults. This project aims to answer crucial questions about how our early years influence our health and wellbeing in middle and later life. Drawing on one of Australia’s longest running studies of social and emotional development, we link decades of developmental data collected since 1983 to social, emotional, cognitive and physical wellbeing in participants turning 40 (midlife) and 70 (later life). It will provide insight into impo ....Drivers of ageing and adaptive ageing in middle-aged and older adults. This project aims to answer crucial questions about how our early years influence our health and wellbeing in middle and later life. Drawing on one of Australia’s longest running studies of social and emotional development, we link decades of developmental data collected since 1983 to social, emotional, cognitive and physical wellbeing in participants turning 40 (midlife) and 70 (later life). It will provide insight into important and largely unanswered questions about the way social factors in the first half of life shape our later selves. This study will inform government and health policy targeting ageing populations.
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Retirement transition: a longitudinal P-E fit approach within a 'life expectancy' time framework. Retirement is an important career milestone, heralding the onset of potentially significant changes in health, finance, and activity. Australia's largest birth cohort, the baby boomers, is ageing and beginning the transition into retirement and yet little is known about how the shifts in culture and attitude will affect their ability to adjust. This research will identify the dominant needs of this ....Retirement transition: a longitudinal P-E fit approach within a 'life expectancy' time framework. Retirement is an important career milestone, heralding the onset of potentially significant changes in health, finance, and activity. Australia's largest birth cohort, the baby boomers, is ageing and beginning the transition into retirement and yet little is known about how the shifts in culture and attitude will affect their ability to adjust. This research will identify the dominant needs of this group, the resources required to fulfil them, and the factors associated with successful adjustment behaviours. Greater understanding on how self-rated longevity, health, finance and values interact to affect decision-making will have important implications for public policy and individual planning.Read moreRead less
Social cognitive change in late adulthood. This project aims to develop and test a model of how normal adult ageing affects the ability to perceive and interpret social cues, a critical predictor of social competency and well-being, and identify the most important determinants of any age-related changes. This project predicts that older adults who have the greatest difficulties perceiving and interpreting social cues will also have the poorest social function and well-being, so better understand ....Social cognitive change in late adulthood. This project aims to develop and test a model of how normal adult ageing affects the ability to perceive and interpret social cues, a critical predictor of social competency and well-being, and identify the most important determinants of any age-related changes. This project predicts that older adults who have the greatest difficulties perceiving and interpreting social cues will also have the poorest social function and well-being, so better understanding the mechanistic factors that drive resilience and risk for these difficulties is expected to have direct and important implications for Australia’s growing older adult community.Read moreRead less
Ageing, Inhibition, and Social Control - steps towards improving the lives of older adults. Australia is faced with an ageing population, and thus an increasingly important national goal is ageing well and ageing productively. The proposed research will extend our preliminary findings on ageing and social inappropriateness to provide a clearer picture of when and why this occurs, and among whom. The proposed research will also examine the mental and physical health consequences of social inappro ....Ageing, Inhibition, and Social Control - steps towards improving the lives of older adults. Australia is faced with an ageing population, and thus an increasingly important national goal is ageing well and ageing productively. The proposed research will extend our preliminary findings on ageing and social inappropriateness to provide a clearer picture of when and why this occurs, and among whom. The proposed research will also examine the mental and physical health consequences of social inappropriateness longitudinally. If cognitive losses do lead to social losses, with attendant negative health consequences, by gaining a clearer understanding of this problem, the proposed research will take an important step in improving the lives of older adults.Read moreRead less
Language typology and cognitive effects of language learning. This project aims to map, in older adults and preschool-age children, the extent and nature of cognitive benefit from training in a foreign language. Learning a language is recognised to be beneficial in various ways, but this project investigates whether it matters which language one learns. The project will compare the resulting cognitive changes to language learners across different languages to test whether the benefit is uniquely ....Language typology and cognitive effects of language learning. This project aims to map, in older adults and preschool-age children, the extent and nature of cognitive benefit from training in a foreign language. Learning a language is recognised to be beneficial in various ways, but this project investigates whether it matters which language one learns. The project will compare the resulting cognitive changes to language learners across different languages to test whether the benefit is uniquely effective. It will also gauge whether these changes occur when learning is easier in childhood compared to when it is harder later in life. The project findings will inform the development of linguistic, social, and educational programs to optimise cognitive function both for childhood development and healthy ageing, especially in Australia where second language acquisition is lower compared to other countries.Read moreRead less