Ostracism and Aggression. Ostracism has been implicated in school shootings (e.g., Columbine) and other violent or anti-social episodes (e.g., Port Arthur shootings). Some argue that ostracism drives individuals toward joining violent extremist groups. Research, however, is mixed: sometimes targets of ostracism correct their behaviors to be more socially acceptable; whereas other times they react with aggression. This research program will investigate the conditions under which ostracism either ....Ostracism and Aggression. Ostracism has been implicated in school shootings (e.g., Columbine) and other violent or anti-social episodes (e.g., Port Arthur shootings). Some argue that ostracism drives individuals toward joining violent extremist groups. Research, however, is mixed: sometimes targets of ostracism correct their behaviors to be more socially acceptable; whereas other times they react with aggression. This research program will investigate the conditions under which ostracism either leads to paths of either pro-social or aggressive reactions. A new virtual reality paradigm will be developed to provide stronger manipulations of ostracism and to assist in discovering the crucial conditions responsible for these paths.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 efficacy of a physical activity intervention in the management of psychological and physical symptoms among breast and prostate cancer patients. The vastly improved survival rates for breast and prostate cancer in recent years has resulted in an ever-increasing number of people living with a history of cancer. Treatment for cancer is often associated with negative side effects like fatigue, depression and sleep disturbance, and an overall impaired quality of life.
This project will assess ....The efficacy of a physical activity intervention in the management of psychological and physical symptoms among breast and prostate cancer patients. The vastly improved survival rates for breast and prostate cancer in recent years has resulted in an ever-increasing number of people living with a history of cancer. Treatment for cancer is often associated with negative side effects like fatigue, depression and sleep disturbance, and an overall impaired quality of life.
This project will assess the effectiveness of a physical activity program in alleviating these symptoms of treatment. The program will include regular walking and gentle resistance strength training.
The outcomes from the project will advance research by shedding light on which symptoms are most helped by physical activity, and how much activity is needed to gain these benefits.
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
Motherese by ear and eye: infant perception of visual prosody. The project breaks new ground in auditory-visual speech processing by using naturally expressive continuous speech to probe how infants perceive visual prosody. A strength of the project lies in its use of breakthrough animation technologies to create a state-of-the-art virtual Talking Mother to enable control of visual speech cues.
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
Designing a Holistic Model of Advice to Improve Retirement Planning. We aim to improve retirement planning through the design and application of a new model integrating financial advice with career and health planning to optimise financial and psychological outcomes. We will test a multidisciplinary, holistic model of advice combining specialist knowledge in careers, health, and finances. Expected outcomes of the project include evaluating the use of a broader range of experts during retirement ....Designing a Holistic Model of Advice to Improve Retirement Planning. We aim to improve retirement planning through the design and application of a new model integrating financial advice with career and health planning to optimise financial and psychological outcomes. We will test a multidisciplinary, holistic model of advice combining specialist knowledge in careers, health, and finances. Expected outcomes of the project include evaluating the use of a broader range of experts during retirement planning and developing a model for the future training and development of financial advisers.By optimising the timing of workplace exit, we aim to decrease reliance on pensions and encourage earlier and on-going engagement in the retirement planning process. This will provide significant social and economic benefits.Read moreRead less
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
Make up your mind! - Dissociating the roles of orbitofrontal cortex and striatum in human decision making. How we make everyday decisions is a crucial behaviour of humans but the underlying processes in the brain are still poorly understood. This project will investigate what the roles of specific brain regions are in human decision making, which enable us to gain a better understanding of how these brain structures contribute to our decisions.
Is it just a matter of time? Why some people plan and others do not. Differences in planning behaviour can be explained in terms of individual preferences for the past, present or future, or Time Perspective (TP). This project aims to identify why some people fail to plan for retirement using TP as a conceptual framework. Planning for retirement is an economic imperative since sufficient finances reliably predicts retirement adjustment. Despite this, almost one million people currently in the la ....Is it just a matter of time? Why some people plan and others do not. Differences in planning behaviour can be explained in terms of individual preferences for the past, present or future, or Time Perspective (TP). This project aims to identify why some people fail to plan for retirement using TP as a conceptual framework. Planning for retirement is an economic imperative since sufficient finances reliably predicts retirement adjustment. Despite this, almost one million people currently in the labour force have no retirement plans. The project plans to incorporate recent research showing that TP is stable over time and predicts behaviour into a model explaining propensity to plan. Improvements are anticipated in retirement planning, accumulation of resources for retirement and better adjustment benefiting individuals and policy-makers.Read moreRead less