Remembering to remember: Prospective memory function in everyday life. Prospective memory is a core cognitive skill that refers to memory for future intentions. The goal of this project is to establish when, why and how real-life prospective memory function breaks down at different stages of the adult lifespan and in different everyday contexts - and what strategies most effectively prevent this from occurring. In doing so, this project expects to deliver knowledge that is theoretically transfor ....Remembering to remember: Prospective memory function in everyday life. Prospective memory is a core cognitive skill that refers to memory for future intentions. The goal of this project is to establish when, why and how real-life prospective memory function breaks down at different stages of the adult lifespan and in different everyday contexts - and what strategies most effectively prevent this from occurring. In doing so, this project expects to deliver knowledge that is theoretically transformative, and that delivers the practical understanding of what can be done to reduce real-life vulnerability to prospective memory failures. Given that lapses of prospective memory account for more than half of all daily cognitive errors, this should provide important social and economic benefits for all Australians.
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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
Reducing social frailty in late adulthood. Social frailty is one of the most troubling and potentially devastating threats to healthy adult ageing, and refers broadly to low social engagement status. This project aims to test how age-related changes in the abilities that allow us to perceive, interpret and process social information drive resilience and risk for this important threat to successful ageing, and then leverage these data to create a training tool that directly targets those abilitie ....Reducing social frailty in late adulthood. Social frailty is one of the most troubling and potentially devastating threats to healthy adult ageing, and refers broadly to low social engagement status. This project aims to test how age-related changes in the abilities that allow us to perceive, interpret and process social information drive resilience and risk for this important threat to successful ageing, and then leverage these data to create a training tool that directly targets those abilities identified as being most strongly linked to social frailty. Enhancing older adults' resilience to social frailty should generate significant and far-reaching benefits, including greater independence of ageing Australians, and reduced burden on health and welfare support infrastructure. Read moreRead less
Attentional mechanisms in the relationship between sleep disruption and academic outcomes in Australian school children. This project will assess the impact of sleep problems on attention and academic performance in primary school children. The project will investigate typically developing children and children with developmental disorders over 18 months. The research will advance knowledge of the interplay between sleep, attention and learning across development.
Episodic foresight and ageing. Episodic foresight refers to the capacity to imagine future events, and consequently often involves the prediction of future needs based on hypothesised possible outcomes. It is therefore unsurprising that episodic foresight has been consistently linked to independent living and many functional behaviours. The aim of the project is to test the hypothesis that psychological changes brought about by ageing decrease the likelihood of acting prudently with the future i ....Episodic foresight and ageing. Episodic foresight refers to the capacity to imagine future events, and consequently often involves the prediction of future needs based on hypothesised possible outcomes. It is therefore unsurprising that episodic foresight has been consistently linked to independent living and many functional behaviours. The aim of the project is to test the hypothesis that psychological changes brought about by ageing decrease the likelihood of acting prudently with the future in mind. By advancing conceptual understanding of how, and under what circumstances, episodic foresight is affected in late adulthood, the proposed research has important implications for finding ways to help older adults maintain a productive and independent life. Read moreRead less
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.
The initiation, development, and maintenance of alcohol/tobacco use in adolescents: The role of associative memory. Alcohol abuse and tobacco misuse are common in Australian adolescents and its long-term health consequences are well established. Models of drug-related memory association predict drug use in adults. However, memory association models have not been applied to smoking behaviour, or to understanding adolescent alcohol/tobacco use over time. It is expected that memory associations ....The initiation, development, and maintenance of alcohol/tobacco use in adolescents: The role of associative memory. Alcohol abuse and tobacco misuse are common in Australian adolescents and its long-term health consequences are well established. Models of drug-related memory association predict drug use in adults. However, memory association models have not been applied to smoking behaviour, or to understanding adolescent alcohol/tobacco use over time. It is expected that memory associations will predict the development of alcohol/tobacco use and misuse, after accounting for viable alternative explanations of the association. Understanding the role that memory associations have in the development of alcohol/tobacco use should inform prevention programs for at-risk adolescents.Read moreRead less
To imitate or innovate: A new look at children's social learning strategies. Children learn many important things by copying others. But how do we best facilitate this where it’s culturally appropriate or encourage innovation to support more general learning? This developmental psychology project aims to provide answers, using novel experiments and comparisons of different cultural groups to show how children acquire skills while becoming valued community members. Expected outcomes include the r ....To imitate or innovate: A new look at children's social learning strategies. Children learn many important things by copying others. But how do we best facilitate this where it’s culturally appropriate or encourage innovation to support more general learning? This developmental psychology project aims to provide answers, using novel experiments and comparisons of different cultural groups to show how children acquire skills while becoming valued community members. Expected outcomes include the refinement of core developmental psychology theory, introduction of new experimental techniques, and strengthening of international collaborations. This should provide significant benefits to educators, policy makers, parents and those invested in understanding and improving the inter-generational transmission of knowledge.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE220100561
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$462,440.00
Summary
Applying ecologically valid approaches to social cognitive ageing. Social functioning is a critical predictor of wellbeing, particularly in older age. This project aims to investigate how important social cognitive capacities, that lay the foundation for effective social functioning, are impacted by normal adult ageing. This project will use cutting edge experimental techniques to investigate, for the first time, how ageing alters our capacity to visually attend and understand emotional informat ....Applying ecologically valid approaches to social cognitive ageing. Social functioning is a critical predictor of wellbeing, particularly in older age. This project aims to investigate how important social cognitive capacities, that lay the foundation for effective social functioning, are impacted by normal adult ageing. This project will use cutting edge experimental techniques to investigate, for the first time, how ageing alters our capacity to visually attend and understand emotional information in others during real time social interactions, both in and out of the laboratory. Expected outcomes include new knowledge of how older adults navigate social interactions, with potential to lay a foundation for improving social wellbeing in older Australians.Read moreRead less
Imitation learning in infancy. We copy others all the time, to learn new skills and to connect socially and emotionally with those around us. But where does this ability to imitate come from? This is a long-standing question in developmental psychology that the proposed project aims to answer. Using a unique combination of EMG and behavioural observations, this project will chart infants’ imitation skills from birth through the first year of life, and test whether infants learn to imitate from ....Imitation learning in infancy. We copy others all the time, to learn new skills and to connect socially and emotionally with those around us. But where does this ability to imitate come from? This is a long-standing question in developmental psychology that the proposed project aims to answer. Using a unique combination of EMG and behavioural observations, this project will chart infants’ imitation skills from birth through the first year of life, and test whether infants learn to imitate from watching themselves and being imitated by others. The new knowledge arising from this research will clarify the origins of our uniquely human sociality. The outcomes should also enable earlier identification of developmental problems and provide novel avenues for intervention.Read moreRead less