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
Threshold Decisions in Determining Whether to Prosecute Child Sexual Abuse. The objective of this project is new knowledge about the way police and prosecutors make decisions about the prosecution of child sexual assault that could be used to influence policy and practice. Few cases of child sexual abuse reported to the police ever go to court but recent research in New South Wales for the Royal Commission indicates that the proportion has declined sharply over the last decade or so. This projec ....Threshold Decisions in Determining Whether to Prosecute Child Sexual Abuse. The objective of this project is new knowledge about the way police and prosecutors make decisions about the prosecution of child sexual assault that could be used to influence policy and practice. Few cases of child sexual abuse reported to the police ever go to court but recent research in New South Wales for the Royal Commission indicates that the proportion has declined sharply over the last decade or so. This project aims to examine how police and prosecutors decide which cases proceed and why, and how they confer with each other as well as when and how they consult with complainants and their families. This project plans to also develop and test practice tools and principles for police and prosecutors with expected benefits for both them and the families involved.Read moreRead less
Judges' work, place and psychological health - a national view. This project aims to address the human, juridical and financial costs of judicial officers’ work-related psychological harm. This harm is implicated in early retirement, sick leave and suicide. It threatens appropriate courtroom conduct, procedural fairness and impartial adjudication. The project seeks to generate new knowledge of the stress judicial officers experience and the individual and institutional mechanisms for managing st ....Judges' work, place and psychological health - a national view. This project aims to address the human, juridical and financial costs of judicial officers’ work-related psychological harm. This harm is implicated in early retirement, sick leave and suicide. It threatens appropriate courtroom conduct, procedural fairness and impartial adjudication. The project seeks to generate new knowledge of the stress judicial officers experience and the individual and institutional mechanisms for managing stressors, combining socio-legal and psychological approaches. Expected outcomes include evidence-based understandings to inform recruitment and retention strategies specific to this highly specialized workforce. This should provide significant benefits for judges’ work capacities and courts' delivery of justice.Read moreRead less
Killing which averts suffering: the role of norms and empathy. Abattoir workers and butchers kill animals to prepare food, farmers to cull stock, and veterinarians to alleviate suffering. Soldiers kill other humans in war, police or security guards to protect the public, and doctors to enact legal euthanasia. Research shows that these tasks can be confronting, and even traumatic. This project aims to test the processes through which people learn socially supported palliative killing to avert suf ....Killing which averts suffering: the role of norms and empathy. Abattoir workers and butchers kill animals to prepare food, farmers to cull stock, and veterinarians to alleviate suffering. Soldiers kill other humans in war, police or security guards to protect the public, and doctors to enact legal euthanasia. Research shows that these tasks can be confronting, and even traumatic. This project aims to test the processes through which people learn socially supported palliative killing to avert suffering and their neural underpinnings, with a focus on norms and empathic distress. It will focus on two core samples: veterinarians, who must euthanize animals, and health practitioners in Victoria, where legal changes will introduce ‘voluntary assisted dying’ in mid-2019. It will investigate how practitioners learn palliative killing, and what the impact is on psychological variables such as empathy and identity. It will generate new understandings of social influence around life and death decisions, provide an evidence basis to inform policy makers, and help institutions and practitioners seeking to manage distress and respond to fast-moving, controversial policy changes.Read moreRead less
Furthering Positive Futures for Children with Intellectual Disabilities: A Longitudinal Investigation. This project will address the paucity of empirical research on drivers of psychosocial and physical well-being (PPW; for example self-concept, depression, behavioural problems, physical fitness, weight) of children with Intellectual Disabilities (ID). This proposal presents an extensive research program aimed at understanding the effects of school life and Physical Activity (PA) on PPW for Aust ....Furthering Positive Futures for Children with Intellectual Disabilities: A Longitudinal Investigation. This project will address the paucity of empirical research on drivers of psychosocial and physical well-being (PPW; for example self-concept, depression, behavioural problems, physical fitness, weight) of children with Intellectual Disabilities (ID). This proposal presents an extensive research program aimed at understanding the effects of school life and Physical Activity (PA) on PPW for Australian children with ID. This program examines: the relations between school life and PPW; the benefits, barriers and predictors of PA; moderators (personal characteristics, educational settings). The overarching objective is to advance theory and research in this area, and to inform intervention strategies furthering more positive futures for children with ID.Read moreRead less
Intergroup emotions and prejudice toward obese people. This project will analyse how intergroup emotions (such as disgust, anger, contempt) influence prejudice toward obese people. These insights will have theoretical implications for our understanding of what drives obesity stigma. It will also have practical implications for identifying ways to reduce the prevalence of prejudice toward obese people.
Do theory of mind delays explain children's social problems? Theory of mind—our capacity to understand what other people think and feel—grows significantly in the preschool and early school years. This is recognised as a crucial period for social development yet 30 years of research has not yet answered these basic questions: Do children with relatively advanced theories of mind also excel at navigating the everyday world of friendship and peer group dynamics at school? And conversely, do develo ....Do theory of mind delays explain children's social problems? Theory of mind—our capacity to understand what other people think and feel—grows significantly in the preschool and early school years. This is recognised as a crucial period for social development yet 30 years of research has not yet answered these basic questions: Do children with relatively advanced theories of mind also excel at navigating the everyday world of friendship and peer group dynamics at school? And conversely, do developmental delays in acquiring a theory of mind explain some of the peer problems that children with autism or deafness face? The proposed longitudinal project aims to be the first to supply a comprehensive and causally convincing answer to these core questions.Read moreRead less
Outcomes of collective action: After the blockade, what next? The project intends to study how collective actors react when conventional or radical collective action succeeds or fails. If a democratic protest rally is ignored by authorities, does support for violence increase? If a turbulent riot attracts favourable media attention and concessions, does this increase the likelihood of future riots or undercut them? This project aims to answer these questions. It plans to test a new, theoreticall ....Outcomes of collective action: After the blockade, what next? The project intends to study how collective actors react when conventional or radical collective action succeeds or fails. If a democratic protest rally is ignored by authorities, does support for violence increase? If a turbulent riot attracts favourable media attention and concessions, does this increase the likelihood of future riots or undercut them? This project aims to answer these questions. It plans to test a new, theoretically integrative model of collective action and the intergroup dynamic, using a mixed-methods approach including experiments, small group research and longitudinal field surveys. Project outcomes may provide an evidence basis for policy-makers' debates about trajectories of radicalisation and deradicalisation, and for recommendations about engagement and negotiation of tactics for activists, political parties, and nongovernment organisations.Read moreRead less
Determining the role of disease avoidance in stigmatisation. The aim of this project is to test a disease avoidance model of stigmatisation. Stigmatisation is characterised by chronic avoidance of a person(s) by other people. Infectious disease may produce an apparently similar form of isolation—disease avoidance. This project proposes that many forms of stigmatisation reflect the activation of this disease avoidance system, which is predisposed to respond to signs of disease, irrespective of th ....Determining the role of disease avoidance in stigmatisation. The aim of this project is to test a disease avoidance model of stigmatisation. Stigmatisation is characterised by chronic avoidance of a person(s) by other people. Infectious disease may produce an apparently similar form of isolation—disease avoidance. This project proposes that many forms of stigmatisation reflect the activation of this disease avoidance system, which is predisposed to respond to signs of disease, irrespective of their accuracy. This will represent a significant shift in thinking about this issue and aims to provide the first empirically based model of stigmatisation as an evolved disposition that causes the exclusion of people who look like they may carry an infectious disease - even if they do not.Read moreRead less
Robots as a Social Group: Implications for Human-Robot Interaction. This Project aims to identify psychological factors that can limit the acceptance of robots in the home and workplace. As robots become more pervasive in everyday life, they are also likely to elicit fear, rejection, and even damage. The significance of the Project lies in its social neuroscientific approach to promoting better human-robot interaction by considering robots as a social group. Expect outcomes include theory develo ....Robots as a Social Group: Implications for Human-Robot Interaction. This Project aims to identify psychological factors that can limit the acceptance of robots in the home and workplace. As robots become more pervasive in everyday life, they are also likely to elicit fear, rejection, and even damage. The significance of the Project lies in its social neuroscientific approach to promoting better human-robot interaction by considering robots as a social group. Expect outcomes include theory development about human and robot intergroup acceptance, enhanced institutional and international collaborations, and much needed psychological knowledge for robot designers. Benefits include a detailed understanding of how to increase the acceptance of robots in a wide variety of fields.Read moreRead less