Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE200100043
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$426,970.00
Summary
Autobiographical memory as a key to successful psychological functioning. This project aims to develop a theoretical framework that will explain how the retrieval of autobiographical memories may be essential for good mental health. Using cutting-edge statistical techniques, an international team of researchers will track young adults over a number of years to explore whether autobiographical memory retrieval underlies development of both adaptive and dysfunctional aspects of psychological funct ....Autobiographical memory as a key to successful psychological functioning. This project aims to develop a theoretical framework that will explain how the retrieval of autobiographical memories may be essential for good mental health. Using cutting-edge statistical techniques, an international team of researchers will track young adults over a number of years to explore whether autobiographical memory retrieval underlies development of both adaptive and dysfunctional aspects of psychological functioning. Expected project outcomes will indicate whether future researchers could enhance autobiographical memory to promote healthy development and potentially prevent mental illness from ever emerging. This will allow future researchers to use cognitive science to benefit the mental health of Australians.Read moreRead less
The desire for knowledge: Neural mechanisms of information-seeking. This project aims to determine the mechanisms that drive individuals to seek out information, and to characterise the neural processes that underlie how that information is valued. The project tests the idea that information is represented in the brain as a form of reward. The results are expected to contribute significant mechanistic insights at the level of brain and behaviour on the nature of information value. This is likely ....The desire for knowledge: Neural mechanisms of information-seeking. This project aims to determine the mechanisms that drive individuals to seek out information, and to characterise the neural processes that underlie how that information is valued. The project tests the idea that information is represented in the brain as a form of reward. The results are expected to contribute significant mechanistic insights at the level of brain and behaviour on the nature of information value. This is likely to have wide-ranging implications across multiple domains of human endeavour, including education, work-place efficiency, policy development, and consumer behaviour.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE220101508
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$447,000.00
Summary
A Brain-Behaviour Model of Decision-Making Under Distraction. People make thousands of decisions each day, such as judging whether it is safe to cross the street at a busy intersection. This project aims to investigate how decision-making is impacted when a person is temporarily distracted, for example when receiving a text message alert from one’s phone. By combining recordings of brain activity with cutting-edge mathematical modelling techniques, this project expects to develop a novel theoret ....A Brain-Behaviour Model of Decision-Making Under Distraction. People make thousands of decisions each day, such as judging whether it is safe to cross the street at a busy intersection. This project aims to investigate how decision-making is impacted when a person is temporarily distracted, for example when receiving a text message alert from one’s phone. By combining recordings of brain activity with cutting-edge mathematical modelling techniques, this project expects to develop a novel theoretical framework that captures the effects of distraction on brain networks that underpin human decision-making performance. This knowledge should be highly beneficial for developing informed policies that reduce effects of distraction and preserve decision-making capacity in safety critical situations.Read moreRead less
Expecting the unexpected: how people prioritise predictability. This project aims to investigate how people represent and use information about unpredictability in their environment. Seeing too much predictability is problematic, but seeing too little can also be a problem, for example inappropriate "learned helplessness" can occur, whereby people feel disempowered because the world is seen as random. Recent findings demonstrated a bias in fundamental learning that may maintain these inappropria ....Expecting the unexpected: how people prioritise predictability. This project aims to investigate how people represent and use information about unpredictability in their environment. Seeing too much predictability is problematic, but seeing too little can also be a problem, for example inappropriate "learned helplessness" can occur, whereby people feel disempowered because the world is seen as random. Recent findings demonstrated a bias in fundamental learning that may maintain these inappropriate beliefs about unpredictability. This bias is not anticipated by formal theories of learning. The project will investigate how this bias is brought about by first formalising a novel theory of fundamental learning and then systematically testing its assumptions.Read moreRead less
Developing better treatments for language disorders. This project will enable better treatment of people with disorders affecting language such as aphasia, dyslexia, and dementia. It will achieve this through development of more detailed theories of language processing, better assessment of language disorders and a better understanding of how treatments for language disorders have their effects.
Attention please! Selective attention and human associative learning. Selective attention allows us to pick useful pieces of information out of the mass of stimulation that we're faced with every moment. This project investigates how what we've previously learnt about the significance of events influences whether we'll pick them out as useful in future, and how this might be impaired by old age or mental disorder.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE210100292
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$380,868.00
Summary
From known to unknown: Individual differences in associative generalisation. This project aims to investigate how and why individuals differ in the way that they generalise from past experiences to novel situations. The goal of the project is to develop an innovative and formal model capable of predicting how a given individual will generalise based on their beliefs and personal traits, and to better understand how people behave when there are multiple conflicting ways to generalise. The expecte ....From known to unknown: Individual differences in associative generalisation. This project aims to investigate how and why individuals differ in the way that they generalise from past experiences to novel situations. The goal of the project is to develop an innovative and formal model capable of predicting how a given individual will generalise based on their beliefs and personal traits, and to better understand how people behave when there are multiple conflicting ways to generalise. The expected outcomes of the project are a better understanding and measurement of generalisation, a fundamental psychological process. The outcomes of this project can be used to benefit the development of clinical treatment for anxiety disorders, of which overgeneralisation of fear responses is a defining feature. Read moreRead less
The role of inductive reasoning in generalization of associative learning. This project seeks to develop a better understanding of how learning is generalised to novel stimuli. Learning about associations around us helps us to obtain resources and minimise threat. A critical task for the learner is how far to extrapolate this knowledge: too little generalisation reduces the benefits of learning and too much risks distraction and maladaptive responding. Recent evidence has shown an important role ....The role of inductive reasoning in generalization of associative learning. This project seeks to develop a better understanding of how learning is generalised to novel stimuli. Learning about associations around us helps us to obtain resources and minimise threat. A critical task for the learner is how far to extrapolate this knowledge: too little generalisation reduces the benefits of learning and too much risks distraction and maladaptive responding. Recent evidence has shown an important role for reasoning processes in human associative learning. This project aims to apply insights from the inductive reasoning literature to study the role of hypothesis and category induction in generalisation of associative learning. The results are expected to have important implications for our understanding of associative learning and generalisation which may inform techniques to promote adaptive generalisation in fields such as education, training and clinical practice.Read moreRead less
The perception/production link in child language. Children with hearing loss experience continuing language difficulties, with major knock-on effects on educational and social outcomes. This project aims to uncover the connected perception and production processes that underpin these language challenges for children with hearing loss, focussing on a speech patterns also found in younger normal-hearing toddlers, and using innovative technologies that can generalize to the clinical practice. The p ....The perception/production link in child language. Children with hearing loss experience continuing language difficulties, with major knock-on effects on educational and social outcomes. This project aims to uncover the connected perception and production processes that underpin these language challenges for children with hearing loss, focussing on a speech patterns also found in younger normal-hearing toddlers, and using innovative technologies that can generalize to the clinical practice. The project outcomes will significantly advance theories of child language development, and promise to inform more accurate and better-targeted intervention for children with hearing loss, providing social benefit by improving their listening and speaking skills.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE130101290
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
Age-related reorganisation of cortical networks subserving memory retrieval. This research project will use brain imaging to understand how the brain reorganises working memory when it ages. It will provide a framework for understanding age-related memory decline in the brain, which will in turn provide key information for understanding memory difficulties in clinical populations.