The effective treatment of drug using offenders: the impact of treatment modality, coercion and treatment readiness on criminal recidivism. Drug use is associated with significant health, social, and economic costs. Given the established drug-crime connection and the high rate of relapse among drug-using offenders, the outcomes of this research will assist policymakers in identifying clinically and cost effective approaches to service delivery. Moreover, in view of the debate that surrounds the ....The effective treatment of drug using offenders: the impact of treatment modality, coercion and treatment readiness on criminal recidivism. Drug use is associated with significant health, social, and economic costs. Given the established drug-crime connection and the high rate of relapse among drug-using offenders, the outcomes of this research will assist policymakers in identifying clinically and cost effective approaches to service delivery. Moreover, in view of the debate that surrounds the efficacy of coerced treatment, and the extent to which Australia should follow the United States of America’s lead of mandating treatment for all substance using offenders, the project will test the proposition that compulsory treatment has positive outcomes in terms of reductions in recidivism.Read moreRead less
Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal sex-offenders in Australia: Assessing risk for practice and policy. A key priority of Australian governments is to improve community safety through reducing the risk of sex offenders re-offending after release from prison. This project will assess the validity of tools used to predict the risk of sexual offender recidivism and identify alternate risk assessment tools for Indigenous and non-Indigenous sex offenders.
The neuroscience of group membership and its effects on action perception and empathy. People belong to different groups and sometimes group membership can lead to discrimination of people outside the group. This project will use brain imaging techniques to understand better how our brains make group distinctions and how this can sometimes lead to discrimination of other people.
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
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE130100120
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$374,973.00
Summary
How do we become aware of stimuli in our spatial environment? The brain constantly creates an awareness of the stimuli in our spatial environment but at the moment it is unclear how different brain regions integrate spatial and stimulus information. The aim of this project is to better understand this integration by using a combination of brain imaging and brain stimulation techniques.
Examining the relationship between error processing, cognitive control and emotion: a cognitive neuroscience approach. The proposed research aims to contribute to current scientific thinking on how the processing of errors influences self-monitoring and cognitive performance. The ability to monitor one's cognitive performance deteriorates with normal ageing, and is particularly affected in a range of clinical conditions, where it is a reliable predictor of a poor prognostic outcome. This project ....Examining the relationship between error processing, cognitive control and emotion: a cognitive neuroscience approach. The proposed research aims to contribute to current scientific thinking on how the processing of errors influences self-monitoring and cognitive performance. The ability to monitor one's cognitive performance deteriorates with normal ageing, and is particularly affected in a range of clinical conditions, where it is a reliable predictor of a poor prognostic outcome. This project aims to clarify understanding of the cognitive and neural processes underlying self-monitoring, as an important first step to improving rehabilitation and management methods for age-related impairments such as Alzheimer's disease, and prominent mental health conditions such as schizophrenia.Read moreRead less
Examining the neural mechanisms underlying cognitive control and its application to clinical syndromes featuring dyscontrol. This project will examine the cognitive control and its underlying neural mechanisms. Understanding this relationship is of major scientific interest because cognitive control dysfunction is related to a number of Australia's major social and economic problems, including drug dependence.
Acting with the future in mind. This project seeks to establish whether it is possible to enhance the prospective memory function of healthy older adults. Prospective memory refers to memory for future intentions and is used in many daily activities that are critical for the maintenance of independence in late adulthood, such as remembering to take medication and turn off appliances. The project intends to conduct the first controlled study to use prospective memory activities to directly train ....Acting with the future in mind. This project seeks to establish whether it is possible to enhance the prospective memory function of healthy older adults. Prospective memory refers to memory for future intentions and is used in many daily activities that are critical for the maintenance of independence in late adulthood, such as remembering to take medication and turn off appliances. The project intends to conduct the first controlled study to use prospective memory activities to directly train prospective memory using both major cognitive training approaches: process training (restorative) and strategy training (compensatory). The results should have implications for clarifying how prospective memory function can be optimised in late adulthood, which will be important for healthy ageing.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE130100115
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$180,000.00
Summary
Confocal microscope for high-resolution microtopographic analysis of surfaces in historical, forensic and polymer sciences. High-resolution analyses of microscopic patterns on surfaces using confocal microscopy can provide vital clues into the nature of ancient diets and environments, adaptive evolution, weapons used in crimes, and properties of polymers. This instrument will heighten Australia’s capacity for world-leading research in areas of major national importance.
Collective Self-Regulation in Complex Social-Ecological Systems. This project plans to investigate the necessary supports and drivers for self-regulation for environmental purposes. Sustainable human uses of natural resources are central to meeting contemporary challenges to humanity such as deforestation and climate change. However, the complexity of the social and ecological interdependences tests the human capacity for collective self-regulation – ordinary citizens’ regulation of their own be ....Collective Self-Regulation in Complex Social-Ecological Systems. This project plans to investigate the necessary supports and drivers for self-regulation for environmental purposes. Sustainable human uses of natural resources are central to meeting contemporary challenges to humanity such as deforestation and climate change. However, the complexity of the social and ecological interdependences tests the human capacity for collective self-regulation – ordinary citizens’ regulation of their own behaviours for a greater good. The project aims to investigate the importance of establishing a common ground for collective self-regulation, the process of common ground formation in complex social-ecological systems, and how best to achieve this critical condition for sustainable ecological practices with a view to informing public discourse and policy-making for sustainable living.Read moreRead less