Special Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR0354503
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$10,000.00
Summary
The Self and its Disorders: Humanistic, Psychiatric, and Neural Perspectives. Mental disorder fragments the self, distorts its development in adolescence, and obliterates it in old age. Because no one discipline can adequately understand the self and its pathologies, this Initiative aims to bring together researchers from the humanities and the sciences of the mind to investigate what mental disorder can reveal about the nature of the self, and what humanistic approaches to the self can contribu ....The Self and its Disorders: Humanistic, Psychiatric, and Neural Perspectives. Mental disorder fragments the self, distorts its development in adolescence, and obliterates it in old age. Because no one discipline can adequately understand the self and its pathologies, this Initiative aims to bring together researchers from the humanities and the sciences of the mind to investigate what mental disorder can reveal about the nature of the self, and what humanistic approaches to the self can contribute to its scientific study. A better understanding of diminished selfhood in mental disorder will lead to improvements in social policy and thereby to social and financial benefits for the community at large.Read moreRead less
SPECTRAL TILT: DO INFANTS KNOW WHAT'S GOOD FOR THEM? This project falls within the National Research Priorities, giving children 'a healthy start to life'. The research is important economically because it will lay the groundwork for the informed design of hearing aid frequency responses based on empirical research, and give infants the opportunity to be fitted with hearing aids amplified for infants, not adults as is the current unsatisfactory practice. Moreover, the cross fertilisation of meth ....SPECTRAL TILT: DO INFANTS KNOW WHAT'S GOOD FOR THEM? This project falls within the National Research Priorities, giving children 'a healthy start to life'. The research is important economically because it will lay the groundwork for the informed design of hearing aid frequency responses based on empirical research, and give infants the opportunity to be fitted with hearing aids amplified for infants, not adults as is the current unsatisfactory practice. Moreover, the cross fertilisation of methods and knowledge that the collaborators bring to this grant should provide outcomes that will help maintain attention on Australia as a site of cutting edge research into hearing impairment, hearing aid development and use.Read moreRead less
Age-related changes in brain activation: Indicators of deficiency, maturity, or compensation? It is well established that cognitive and motor performance decline with advancing age. With an aging population, it is of significant socioeconomic importance to facilitate healthy ageing. To promote functional independence in everyday life for as long as possible, a better understanding of brain changes associated with aging is essential. The project will use state-of-the-art neurophysiological techni ....Age-related changes in brain activation: Indicators of deficiency, maturity, or compensation? It is well established that cognitive and motor performance decline with advancing age. With an aging population, it is of significant socioeconomic importance to facilitate healthy ageing. To promote functional independence in everyday life for as long as possible, a better understanding of brain changes associated with aging is essential. The project will use state-of-the-art neurophysiological techniques to examine individual differences in the brain's response to cognitive aging and their association with task performance. Determination of why some individuals show resilience to aging will inform the development of intervention techniques to improve cognitive and motor functions in the aged.Read moreRead less
Speed of Information Processing Across the Ages: the Structure of Cognitive Abilities in Children, Adults, and the Elderly. Does speed information processing determine intelligence? The study addresses this question by examining the structure of cognitive abilities and speed of processing in children, adults, and the elderly. The project will advance theory by testing whether speed of processing mediates developmental cognitive change during childhood and old age. Outcomes include contributing t ....Speed of Information Processing Across the Ages: the Structure of Cognitive Abilities in Children, Adults, and the Elderly. Does speed information processing determine intelligence? The study addresses this question by examining the structure of cognitive abilities and speed of processing in children, adults, and the elderly. The project will advance theory by testing whether speed of processing mediates developmental cognitive change during childhood and old age. Outcomes include contributing to a complete model of cognition, laying the foundations for a future major longitudinal study which will provide evidence on the direction of causality between speed of processing measures and cognitive abilities, and provide norms for a computerised, commercial test battery.Read moreRead less
Healthy eating and obesity prevention for preschoolers: A randomised controlled trial. The cost to society of obesity is high from both a financial and psychosocial perspective. Australian researchers can take a lead in the prevention of obesity during the formative preschool years when prevention intervention strategies have been evaluated systematically and rigorously. This will be the first study in Australia to evaluate the impact of a healthy eating and childhood obesity prevention program ....Healthy eating and obesity prevention for preschoolers: A randomised controlled trial. The cost to society of obesity is high from both a financial and psychosocial perspective. Australian researchers can take a lead in the prevention of obesity during the formative preschool years when prevention intervention strategies have been evaluated systematically and rigorously. This will be the first study in Australia to evaluate the impact of a healthy eating and childhood obesity prevention program for parents of preschool children, regardless of weight status. The findings will assist in further developing evidence-based prevention strategies that can be rolled out extensively in the Australian community for maintenance of healthy weight gain in preschool children.Read moreRead less
Motor coordination in infancy and its relationship to motor and psychosocial development in childhood. Few studies have examined the impact of early motor development on later development, even though there is evidence to show that these early movements influence later motor ability. Motor development can also impact on cognitive, emotional and social development. The current study has data on early motor ability in over 90 infants which includes children at risk of developmental disorders. We ....Motor coordination in infancy and its relationship to motor and psychosocial development in childhood. Few studies have examined the impact of early motor development on later development, even though there is evidence to show that these early movements influence later motor ability. Motor development can also impact on cognitive, emotional and social development. The current study has data on early motor ability in over 90 infants which includes children at risk of developmental disorders. We will carry out a longitudinal investigation of the relationship between early motor development in infancy on motor and psychosocial development in childhood. The results will provide information on early markers for developmental disorders and appropriate intervention techniques than can be initiated in infancy. Read moreRead less
Missing the big picture: Global form perception from infancy to adolescence. There is hardly another system, either biological or artificial, that surpasses the visual system in its ability to process extremely complex and dynamic information. The questions concerning developmental aspects of this ability have been one of the most fascinating in both philosophical and scientific inquiry. This research will provide insights of theoretical significance to the perceptual bases of cognitive developm ....Missing the big picture: Global form perception from infancy to adolescence. There is hardly another system, either biological or artificial, that surpasses the visual system in its ability to process extremely complex and dynamic information. The questions concerning developmental aspects of this ability have been one of the most fascinating in both philosophical and scientific inquiry. This research will provide insights of theoretical significance to the perceptual bases of cognitive development. The research proposed will enhance international collaboration and strengthen Australia's strong reputation in vision research. It also contributes to national research training by offering honours and PhD students research training and international exposure.
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Unifying models of reasoning and memory. Inductive reasoning involves extending current knowledge to new contexts and is therefore essential for effective learning, decision-making and innovative problem solving. This project extends our understanding of this crucial cognitive skill by developing a new and more comprehensive model of human induction. It also examines patterns of inductive development during the pre-school and primary school years, laying the foundation for the development of bet ....Unifying models of reasoning and memory. Inductive reasoning involves extending current knowledge to new contexts and is therefore essential for effective learning, decision-making and innovative problem solving. This project extends our understanding of this crucial cognitive skill by developing a new and more comprehensive model of human induction. It also examines patterns of inductive development during the pre-school and primary school years, laying the foundation for the development of better methods for teaching children how to reason.Read moreRead less
Theory of mind and everyday social behaviour in children with autism, deafness and typical development. Via new insight into the social-cognitive underpinnings of children's peer relationships, we will assist national research priorities to promote child health and limit adverse costs of disability. Our findings will also advance Australia's world leadership in the science of developmental psychology: Building both on our international team's novel social cognition discoveries and proven success ....Theory of mind and everyday social behaviour in children with autism, deafness and typical development. Via new insight into the social-cognitive underpinnings of children's peer relationships, we will assist national research priorities to promote child health and limit adverse costs of disability. Our findings will also advance Australia's world leadership in the science of developmental psychology: Building both on our international team's novel social cognition discoveries and proven successes researching and publishing together, we are ideally poised for scientific discovery, world-class research leadership/ research training, and for fostering a collaborative research network of key international significance, while guiding policies and intervention to help Australia's typically-developing and disabled children.Read moreRead less
The recognition of human body shape in infancy. Newborn infants have expectations about human faces and it is hypothesised that this early knowledge allows them to identify and begin to engage with other humans. While faces are central to identification of and communication with others, human bodies are also highly informative and expressive, yet to date there is almost no research on infants? expectations about human bodies. This proposal details six studies that will systematically explore a ....The recognition of human body shape in infancy. Newborn infants have expectations about human faces and it is hypothesised that this early knowledge allows them to identify and begin to engage with other humans. While faces are central to identification of and communication with others, human bodies are also highly informative and expressive, yet to date there is almost no research on infants? expectations about human bodies. This proposal details six studies that will systematically explore and document the development of infants? expectations about human bodies, and will further test the theory that infants? earliest social interactions are dependent upon representations of the human face and body.Read moreRead less