Towards a safer workplace: promoting healthy work environments through strategic research in memory and behaviour change. In collaboration with WorkCover NSW, psychologists plan to develop new strategies to promote healthy and safe work environments. The researchers will find how to: best motivate people to engage in healthy work practices and obtain comprehensive and accurate information about the causes of accidents.
Detecting identity fraud in passport applications: Improving human operator performance through better understanding of unfamiliar face processing. The passport is a vital link in the defence of Australia against terrorism and crime. In this project researchers will work with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to improve the ability of staff to detect identity fraud in passport applications, thus helping to protect the integrity of the Australian passport as a trusted identity document.
Effort and reward valuation. This project aims to examine the relationships between effort, value, and life satisfaction. Effort, which is closely akin to motivation, is influenced by several variables. The project will reveal the psychological variables that cause effort to have a positive as well as a negative influence on reward valuation. This will help to understand how, when, and why effort influences motivation, and how these processes may encourage healthier, more productive choices, and ....Effort and reward valuation. This project aims to examine the relationships between effort, value, and life satisfaction. Effort, which is closely akin to motivation, is influenced by several variables. The project will reveal the psychological variables that cause effort to have a positive as well as a negative influence on reward valuation. This will help to understand how, when, and why effort influences motivation, and how these processes may encourage healthier, more productive choices, and improved satisfaction with life.Read moreRead less
Placing prediction into the fear circuit. How do we predict danger in our world? This project will identify the psychological mechanisms and brain pathways that allow us to learn to fear and to also overcome fear when it becomes pathological.
Establishing safe driving practice: Improving young learner driver training. This project plans to develop a best-practice model to enable professional instructors to teach essential higher-order skills (e.g. hazard perception) to young learner drivers to establish safe driving behaviours. Australian young drivers aged 17–25 years comprise 13 per cent of the population but 22 per cent of road deaths. More effective teaching models are expected to reduce young drivers’ crash risk when they drive ....Establishing safe driving practice: Improving young learner driver training. This project plans to develop a best-practice model to enable professional instructors to teach essential higher-order skills (e.g. hazard perception) to young learner drivers to establish safe driving behaviours. Australian young drivers aged 17–25 years comprise 13 per cent of the population but 22 per cent of road deaths. More effective teaching models are expected to reduce young drivers’ crash risk when they drive unsupervised. The project aims to develop and assess the effectiveness of the model including the impact on instructor teaching practices, and changes in young driver skills, attitudes, and driving behaviours including crashes and offences. It also aims to assess instructor and young driver perceptions of the model.Read moreRead less
The role of reward expectancy and reward availability in appetitive motivation. This project will investigate the learning processes that help regulate our desire for rewards such as food and drugs and our decisions about when to pursue those rewards. The results will have implications for our understanding of normal reward motivation as well as interventions for maladaptive behaviours such as gambling and drug-taking.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE120100814
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
Hypnotic illusions and clinical delusions: how closely and usefully can hypnosis model delusional beliefs? Hypnosis has been used to recreate 'temporary delusions' in the laboratory but there has been controversy about the value of this approach. The purpose of this project is to examine how closely and usefully hypnosis models clinical delusions and its outcomes may guide the development of more effective treatments.
Giving instructional animations a helping hand. Computer-based instructional animations have not produced the positive learning outcomes that might be expected considering the advances in technology. The project will demonstrate that animations can be highly effective when learning about human movement and further enhanced by the inclusion of human gestures. It will directly investigate how learning is supported when humans observe manual actions, make gestures, or both. The project will identif ....Giving instructional animations a helping hand. Computer-based instructional animations have not produced the positive learning outcomes that might be expected considering the advances in technology. The project will demonstrate that animations can be highly effective when learning about human movement and further enhanced by the inclusion of human gestures. It will directly investigate how learning is supported when humans observe manual actions, make gestures, or both. The project will identify some key conditions under which animations may facilitate effective learning of both mechanical and human movement knowledge, and will develop principles for the design of best-practice instructional materials in e-learning environments.Read moreRead less
Australian Laureate Fellowships - Grant ID: FL180100094
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,749,550.00
Summary
Responding to the challenge of identity change. This project aims to advance our understanding of factors that promote successful adjustment to collective-level change, which is imperative for well-being and the fabric of society. The psychological and financial cost of not understanding these dynamics is significant, and is at the forefront of concerns in organisational, educational, community and national contexts. This project will help elucidate the complexities of collective-level change an ....Responding to the challenge of identity change. This project aims to advance our understanding of factors that promote successful adjustment to collective-level change, which is imperative for well-being and the fabric of society. The psychological and financial cost of not understanding these dynamics is significant, and is at the forefront of concerns in organisational, educational, community and national contexts. This project will help elucidate the complexities of collective-level change and adjustment to such change, providing benefits to communities, organisations and policy makers. The project builds on The Social Identity Model of Identity Change (SIMIC), a theoretical approach which helps to understand how people might effectively cope with change; it forms the basis of an ambitious and integrated theoretical program of research that will examine SIMIC predictions in novel contexts.Read moreRead less
Optimising the balance between task automation and human manual control. This project aims to discover how best to design automation to maximise performance, while ensuring that operators maintain the task awareness required to manually control previously automated tasks. In environments such as defence and aviation, automating tasks can improve performance, but many accidents have occurred because human operators have not adequately regained manual control when automation has failed. This proje ....Optimising the balance between task automation and human manual control. This project aims to discover how best to design automation to maximise performance, while ensuring that operators maintain the task awareness required to manually control previously automated tasks. In environments such as defence and aviation, automating tasks can improve performance, but many accidents have occurred because human operators have not adequately regained manual control when automation has failed. This project proposes a series of studies using simulations of submarine track management and air traffic control in laboratory and field settings that draw upon psychology and human factors. The project is designed to provide the strategic research that is required to discover how best to adapt the automation currently used in industrial settings.Read moreRead less