How the brain learns and uses inhibitory predictions. Humans and other animals readily learn about cues and actions that predict the absence of important events. Yet, how and where such inhibitory predictions are processed in the mammalian brain remains unclear. This project aims to demonstrate that inhibitory predictions are generally encoded and retrieved in the medial prefrontal cortex, without any detailed information about the absent events. It combines a unique behavioural approach with th ....How the brain learns and uses inhibitory predictions. Humans and other animals readily learn about cues and actions that predict the absence of important events. Yet, how and where such inhibitory predictions are processed in the mammalian brain remains unclear. This project aims to demonstrate that inhibitory predictions are generally encoded and retrieved in the medial prefrontal cortex, without any detailed information about the absent events. It combines a unique behavioural approach with the latest tools for manipulation of brain activity in behaving rodents. The project expects to generate new insights into how the mammalian brain extracts inhibitory predictions from the environment to guide our behaviours and decisions in the most optimal way.Read moreRead less
Understanding Growth in Emotion Regulatory Flexibility in Emerging Adults. Emerging adults (ages 18-25) are now facing unparalleled social and technological change and the on-going effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Such demands can be overwhelming and undermine engagement with education and employment, with serious impacts for the individual and society. At the same time, our novel model proposes that the diverse daily adult-like stressors that characterise emerging adulthood can also drive grow ....Understanding Growth in Emotion Regulatory Flexibility in Emerging Adults. Emerging adults (ages 18-25) are now facing unparalleled social and technological change and the on-going effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Such demands can be overwhelming and undermine engagement with education and employment, with serious impacts for the individual and society. At the same time, our novel model proposes that the diverse daily adult-like stressors that characterise emerging adulthood can also drive growth in flexible emotion regulation when combined with reflection on, and insight into, their own coping processes. Our research expands scientific knowledge by taking the first steps to uncover why some emerging adults increase their ability to flexibly regulate their emotions over this period, whereas others fail to do so.Read moreRead less
From me to you and beyond: understanding socially-induced nocebo effects. Nocebo effects – when negative expectancies trigger adverse outcomes – cause enormous personal and societal harm. We have made great progress understanding how instruction and conditioning contribute to nocebo effects. Yet, the role of social learning – what we learn by observing others – has received surprisingly little attention despite its relevance to many prominent societal-level nocebo effects. The current project us ....From me to you and beyond: understanding socially-induced nocebo effects. Nocebo effects – when negative expectancies trigger adverse outcomes – cause enormous personal and societal harm. We have made great progress understanding how instruction and conditioning contribute to nocebo effects. Yet, the role of social learning – what we learn by observing others – has received surprisingly little attention despite its relevance to many prominent societal-level nocebo effects. The current project uses novel experimental methods to understand how social learning contributes to nocebo effects and which strategies inhibit these effects. The results will significantly advance scientific understanding of socially-induced nocebo effects and pave the way for translational research to reduce the substantial harm they cause.Read moreRead less
Identification and Examination of Visual Cues for Aircraft Glideslope Control. While aviation safety has improved dramatically over the last 50 years, accidents are still more common during landing than any other stage of flight. This project aims to improve our understanding of the way pilots use visual information to land an aircraft. Once our findings have been incorporated into existing training programs, this much-needed information should result in: (i) reduced pilot training time and cost ....Identification and Examination of Visual Cues for Aircraft Glideslope Control. While aviation safety has improved dramatically over the last 50 years, accidents are still more common during landing than any other stage of flight. This project aims to improve our understanding of the way pilots use visual information to land an aircraft. Once our findings have been incorporated into existing training programs, this much-needed information should result in: (i) reduced pilot training time and cost; (ii) increased trainee pilot safety and confidence; and (iii) reduced aircraft maintenance costs. A PhD student, who will be trained in visual perception and aviation, should contribute significantly to future aviation research in this country.Read moreRead less
Learning from our mistakes: How and when complex decisions fail. The project aims to develop a novel mathematical framework, augmented by simulations and a set of experiments, to study when and how people commit errors. The modern environment bombards us with signals, such as radio and television advertisements as we sit at home or warning lights and car honks as we cross the road. Despite years of psychological research, it is not entirely clear how efficiently people cope with increasing amoun ....Learning from our mistakes: How and when complex decisions fail. The project aims to develop a novel mathematical framework, augmented by simulations and a set of experiments, to study when and how people commit errors. The modern environment bombards us with signals, such as radio and television advertisements as we sit at home or warning lights and car honks as we cross the road. Despite years of psychological research, it is not entirely clear how efficiently people cope with increasing amounts of information nor is it clear whether they process multiple signals simultaneously (in parallel) or one after the other (serial). The project offers new measures, based on the rate and pattern of error responses, to supplement the commonly used response times. The combination of a theoretical framework, based on mathematical and computational work, with empirical data to test the models, may deliver a better understanding of human performance and its limitations.Read moreRead less
Choice models for learning and memory. Life is filled with familiar choices that often require quick decisions about objects in the environment and the contents of memory. This project examines how we learn to make rapid and accurate choices and how we quickly asses the level of confidence we have in recognition decisions based on our memories.
Human time perception: A crossmodal investigation. This research program investigates time perception in humans in the subsecond range. Time perception is a crucial aspect of cognitive functioning but one that is poorly understood. The subsecond scale is particularly relevant because it is the time-frame for crucial tasks such as motor coordination, speech perception and crossmodal integration. This project examines time in an audiovisual context, exploring the cognitive limits of our ability to ....Human time perception: A crossmodal investigation. This research program investigates time perception in humans in the subsecond range. Time perception is a crucial aspect of cognitive functioning but one that is poorly understood. The subsecond scale is particularly relevant because it is the time-frame for crucial tasks such as motor coordination, speech perception and crossmodal integration. This project examines time in an audiovisual context, exploring the cognitive limits of our ability to keep track of time and testing whether time is encoded as a basic feature. These experiments will further our knowledge of time perception and lead to improved models of how the brain encodes time.Read moreRead less
Audio-visual interactions in human perception. How the brain integrates information from different sensory modalities to form coherent perceptions of the external environment is a challenging question in sensory and cognitive neuroscience. Neurophysiologically, sensory interactions have become well documented over the last decade or so. Complementary perceptual research, however, is lacking. This project seeks to redress the imbalance, using audio-visual interactions as a paradigm. Psychophysica ....Audio-visual interactions in human perception. How the brain integrates information from different sensory modalities to form coherent perceptions of the external environment is a challenging question in sensory and cognitive neuroscience. Neurophysiologically, sensory interactions have become well documented over the last decade or so. Complementary perceptual research, however, is lacking. This project seeks to redress the imbalance, using audio-visual interactions as a paradigm. Psychophysical experiments will explore: (i) audio-visual interactions in perception (sound enhancing vision, vision enhancing hearing); (ii) audio-visual interactions in spatial attention. Neurophysiological evidence, plus very recent psychophysical findings of audio-visual interactions, suggest this will be a rich vein of research.Read moreRead less
Visual Coding of Motion and Form. Understanding how brains solve the problems of vision may prove crucial in understanding how to build intelligent robots capable of seeing, as well as in developing more sophisticated virtual reality-type computer-based technologies. Moreover, given that a large proportion of our cortex is given over to visual processing, anything we can learn about the operation of the visual system might prove relevant to our understanding of cortical processing in general as ....Visual Coding of Motion and Form. Understanding how brains solve the problems of vision may prove crucial in understanding how to build intelligent robots capable of seeing, as well as in developing more sophisticated virtual reality-type computer-based technologies. Moreover, given that a large proportion of our cortex is given over to visual processing, anything we can learn about the operation of the visual system might prove relevant to our understanding of cortical processing in general as well as bringing us one step closer to an explanation of how activity in our brains gives rise to the experience of conscious perception. This project will directly expand Australia's knowledge-base regarding neural processing in general and visual perception in particular.Read moreRead less
An investigation of long-range stereopsis. Our project will be the first to examine long-range stereoscopic perceptions of depth, slant and curvature, as well as perceived changes in slant and curvature on the ground. The research is also theoretically significant and novel in exploring the scaling of stereopsis by monocular distance cues such as the ground plane, perspective and horizon. Determining the useful range of stereopsis also has many practical applications e.g. for understanding vehi ....An investigation of long-range stereopsis. Our project will be the first to examine long-range stereoscopic perceptions of depth, slant and curvature, as well as perceived changes in slant and curvature on the ground. The research is also theoretically significant and novel in exploring the scaling of stereopsis by monocular distance cues such as the ground plane, perspective and horizon. Determining the useful range of stereopsis also has many practical applications e.g. for understanding vehicle guidance (eg helicopter landing), as well as natural locomotion and route planning. The research is possible because of innovative equipment designed to allow for fast changes in remote targets.
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