Improving the diagnosticity of eyewitness memory choices. Eyewitness identification error is common and costly. This project aims to improve the quality of information provided by eyewitnesses, and the ability of police officers and triers of fact (e.g., juries, judges) to evaluate this information. Laboratory investigations will determine how best to test memory and confidence to achieve this aim. A new class of cognitive models will provide a unified account of response accuracy, response time ....Improving the diagnosticity of eyewitness memory choices. Eyewitness identification error is common and costly. This project aims to improve the quality of information provided by eyewitnesses, and the ability of police officers and triers of fact (e.g., juries, judges) to evaluate this information. Laboratory investigations will determine how best to test memory and confidence to achieve this aim. A new class of cognitive models will provide a unified account of response accuracy, response time, and confidence, suitable for application to computerized testing scenarios. The models and testing methods validated in the laboratory will be refined for application in eyewitness memory settings, facilitating better evaluation of identification evidence, and potentially reducing wrongful convictions.Read moreRead less
Combating Misinformation – Designing a Toolkit to Address a Global Problem. Misinformation impairs people’s cognition – their memory, reasoning and judgements – even if credible corrections are issued; it therefore poses a significant threat to evidence-based practice and policy. This project aims to develop novel psychological interventions to reduce the impact of misinformation, based on an experimental research program designed to systematically assess the effects of various types of misinfor ....Combating Misinformation – Designing a Toolkit to Address a Global Problem. Misinformation impairs people’s cognition – their memory, reasoning and judgements – even if credible corrections are issued; it therefore poses a significant threat to evidence-based practice and policy. This project aims to develop novel psychological interventions to reduce the impact of misinformation, based on an experimental research program designed to systematically assess the effects of various types of misinformation on cognition and behaviour. The expected outcome is the development of new knowledge regarding misinformation processing and communication and its translation into a toolkit for practical application. This promises to improve individual and public decision making and foster a culture of accurate information exchange.Read moreRead less
In search of relevant things: A novel approach for image analysis. This project aims to investigate how experts’ cognitive processes may be transferred to computers for the automatic recognition of visual features. By merging computer and brain sciences, the project will characterise the way the brains of experts understand what is seen, in order to translate such a process in a new computer vision tool. This should provide significant benefits, such as automatic detection of threats or diseases ....In search of relevant things: A novel approach for image analysis. This project aims to investigate how experts’ cognitive processes may be transferred to computers for the automatic recognition of visual features. By merging computer and brain sciences, the project will characterise the way the brains of experts understand what is seen, in order to translate such a process in a new computer vision tool. This should provide significant benefits, such as automatic detection of threats or diseases in satellite and diagnostic imaging, respectively, among other applications. For the first time, the combination of how a computer analyses an image and how an expert interprets it will be used as a common language to enable machines to process visual information in a manner that mimics the way human brains do.Read moreRead less
Accuracy and cost-effectiveness of technology-assisted dietary assessment. This project aims to compare leading methods for technology-assisted dietary assessment. Excessive cost and questionable accuracy limit the routine use of dietary assessment and undermine decision making in Australia. This project intends to compare three technology methods of assessing diet with the current standard recall method used in population surveys in order to confirm if the use of food images and automated metho ....Accuracy and cost-effectiveness of technology-assisted dietary assessment. This project aims to compare leading methods for technology-assisted dietary assessment. Excessive cost and questionable accuracy limit the routine use of dietary assessment and undermine decision making in Australia. This project intends to compare three technology methods of assessing diet with the current standard recall method used in population surveys in order to confirm if the use of food images and automated methods provide new approaches to improve accuracy and consumer acceptability. Expected outcomes of this project include more accurate and acceptable methods of assessing dietary intake. These findings will inform decision making for researchers, policy makers and practitioners in Australia, and potentially lead to more regular population surveillance.Read moreRead less
Tracking towards a complete model of skilled reading comprehension. This project aims to promote the development of the first complete computational model of reading comprehension. Many computational models of sub-components of reading have been developed, but none fully explain the complex co-ordination of perceptual, attentional and cognitive processes required for successful comprehension. The project intends to use eye tracking studies to test and refine Über-Reader, a new computational mode ....Tracking towards a complete model of skilled reading comprehension. This project aims to promote the development of the first complete computational model of reading comprehension. Many computational models of sub-components of reading have been developed, but none fully explain the complex co-ordination of perceptual, attentional and cognitive processes required for successful comprehension. The project intends to use eye tracking studies to test and refine Über-Reader, a new computational model that aims to provide a complete account of the memory systems and cognitive processes involved in reading comprehension and how they differ with reading skill. The outcomes will advance understanding of the causes of success and failure in reading and contribute to diagnosing and remediating reading difficulties.Read moreRead less
Human Scheduling of Perceptual Tasks. This project aims to develop a novel approach for synthesising how people prioritise information with theories of attention and decision making. Characterising inefficient scheduling in the tradeoff between the difficulty and the cost/benefit of different subtasks will allow the development of a formal computional model that generalises statistical models of rank order data to a theory of the timing of scheduling decisions and task completions. Outcomes incl ....Human Scheduling of Perceptual Tasks. This project aims to develop a novel approach for synthesising how people prioritise information with theories of attention and decision making. Characterising inefficient scheduling in the tradeoff between the difficulty and the cost/benefit of different subtasks will allow the development of a formal computional model that generalises statistical models of rank order data to a theory of the timing of scheduling decisions and task completions. Outcomes include benchmark data from a novel paradigm for studying perceptual decisions and behavior and a model which can explain and predict human scheduling. This project aims to benefit industry by allowing for the simulation of information prioritisation by human agents in complex environments.Read moreRead less
Towards a cognitive process model of how attention and choice interact. Before making any decision, we must gather information on what options are available. This process may influence the choices we make: if we do not notice an option, we will not choose it even if it would have been valuable. This project aims to examine how prior experience can produce attentional biases that influence decisions, and will develop a new computational model of this interaction of attention and choice as an outc ....Towards a cognitive process model of how attention and choice interact. Before making any decision, we must gather information on what options are available. This process may influence the choices we make: if we do not notice an option, we will not choose it even if it would have been valuable. This project aims to examine how prior experience can produce attentional biases that influence decisions, and will develop a new computational model of this interaction of attention and choice as an outcome. This new knowledge will enhance the world-class status of Australian cognitive psychology. Moreover, it should provide significant benefits through improving our ability to predict and shape behaviour, and shedding light on the role of biases in healthy cognition and in the context of compulsive behaviours.Read moreRead less
Determining principles for successful episode retrieval of repeated events. This project aims to develop the first-ever set of explanatory principles for how people successfully retain and retrieve individual episode memories from repeated experiences (e.g., one occurrence of a routine social encounter or job-related activity). By deepening our understanding of how memory works, this new knowledge is expected to lay the foundation for interview guidance and ongoing research aimed at enhancing th ....Determining principles for successful episode retrieval of repeated events. This project aims to develop the first-ever set of explanatory principles for how people successfully retain and retrieve individual episode memories from repeated experiences (e.g., one occurrence of a routine social encounter or job-related activity). By deepening our understanding of how memory works, this new knowledge is expected to lay the foundation for interview guidance and ongoing research aimed at enhancing the proficiency of investigations into matters that rely on detailed and accurate accounts of specific episodes. This includes workplace or traffic accident investigations, infectious disease contact tracing, as well as prosecution of repeated sexual offences.Read moreRead less
Emergent cues underlying the perception of shape, colour, and material . This goal of this project is to identify the information the visual system uses to extract the three-dimensional structure and material composition of objects. This project aims to generate an advanced understanding of the information that supports these perceptual abilities and to advance our understanding how this information is learned from exposure to natural scenes. The findings of this work are expected to benefit ou ....Emergent cues underlying the perception of shape, colour, and material . This goal of this project is to identify the information the visual system uses to extract the three-dimensional structure and material composition of objects. This project aims to generate an advanced understanding of the information that supports these perceptual abilities and to advance our understanding how this information is learned from exposure to natural scenes. The findings of this work are expected to benefit our understanding of the human visual system, and to provide insights into the information needed to advance the development of deep neural networks (machine learning) that exploit the same information used by humans to guide our behavior and recognize objects and materials.Read moreRead less
Perceiving and misperceiving the causes of optical structure. This project aims to understand the conditions that cause humans to misperceive the shape and surface properties of real-world materials. Most natural materials are translucent to varying degrees, but little is known about how light is transported through them or how such materials are perceived or misperceived. This project will determine the conditions and causes responsible for the misperception of material properties and shape, an ....Perceiving and misperceiving the causes of optical structure. This project aims to understand the conditions that cause humans to misperceive the shape and surface properties of real-world materials. Most natural materials are translucent to varying degrees, but little is known about how light is transported through them or how such materials are perceived or misperceived. This project will determine the conditions and causes responsible for the misperception of material properties and shape, and will offer practical information about what can be done to minimise such misperceptions. The outcomes of the project are expected to lead to new techniques for depicting and manipulating real-world translucent materials in computer graphics, virtual reality, and gaming industries.Read moreRead less